hiptzech wrote:frederick61 wrote:To me, this topic has nothing to do with adults and kids. What D10 has done, in effect, throttled each associations individual teams. It is like starting the Indy 500 and telling each driver that they can not go faster then 100 mph for the first 50 laps so all the cars have had a chance to warm-up. The trouble will come later when teams like Elk River, Blaine, Centennial all try to catch up with other district's teams that are not throttled like Edina, Wayzata, Eden Prairie, Lakevilles, and Woodbury.
Of course, one can argue that practice, practice, practice is good for a team; but kids learn as a team under all conditions and scrimmages are part of that learning process because they provide the team a "low stress" opportunity to fail.
Fredrick,
Stick to writing game summaries, the game has changed since the advent of the fountain pin. You write great summaries, and do an excellent job of reviewing/previewing, but your philosophies are behind the times. There has been no throttling by D10 but rather with the old style of coaching. Your analogy of the Indy 500 is comical. It is not the car that needs to get warmed up but the driver. It’s not the stick that needs to get warmed up but the hands. Furthmore, thinking that a scrimmage is less stressful is off the mark. Today, scrimmages are games, the coach, players, and refs treat them as games. The only people that don’t consider the final outcome are the adults that loose the scrimmage. Teams may be given the opportunity to participate in a low stress environment, however the players aren’t. Youth hockey is not so much about team success, but rather team unity, player development, and retention. If it were about the win/loss record, players and coaches would be getting paid.
In short, stay away from coaching and stick with writing about “Teams”.
I kind of agree with Fredrick.
Scrimmages that we had, did not have or provide for power play opportunities, penalty kills, 5 vs less players, clock management, changes on the fly and a whole host of other things that a game would or should have. All things that I am sure a coach would like to work on in a game, before the season starts but we can't.
USA hockey recommends 3-1 practice to play. We are at 10.5 to 1. Is it an issue practicing? No the practice hockey rink is less then 200 yards away in our case. Other rink is maybe a couple of miles. Not an issue. Compared to the almost 80 mile round trip of the last scrimmage. I might add the 35 hours of practice we have before we play a game is the equivilent of almost 4 months of practice in other parts of the country as most teams only get two hours a week, but they usually play two games that same week also.
Games introduce the unknown. Players, size, speed, referees, goalies penalties, lighting, ice conditions and a whole host of other issues too numerous to mention that you just can't really duplicate in a practice. We can talk about penalties and formations and plays but until you you actually do it, or execute it your completely out of your league.
Ideally I would like to see the standard. You practice 3 or 4 times you have a game or scrimmage or whatever the two teams agree upon.
Our final declarations were due October 5th. Our roster signoffs are November 14th. All of the paperwork was turned in around the middle of August or early September. If you have Final declarations doesn't that mean the teams and levels have been decided before that date? So in essence we are having our hands tied by the district. We can't share practies, scrimmage or play a game until final rosters have been signed.
Item K from District 10 handbook. "District 10 teams will be allowed 3 scrimmage games for the purpose of setting their rosters before the roster sign off." Which in this case is almost 40 days later.
Remember when you think about the lines "Again...and Again...Again" from the Miracle Movie. The USA hockey team were college kids who barely came back to tie the Norway National team in an exhibition game. Norway a country with a population less than that of Minnesota today compared to our whole country. That is why we like to play games. We're dealing with 10-14 year old boys and girls who need the same opportunity to play a game before the season. By not allowing games you are handcuffing the teams. I don't care how you cut the cake.
Speaking of practice anyone watch the Gophers against UND last night.
In my opinion once you require final declarations you should be prepared to have final roster signings within a week at most of that date. Get the teams out on the ice having fun and working and learning.
