My kid plays in this program down in Prior Lake and we love it. www.mnwavehockey.com
This program actually encourages kids to be playing in other sports which I personally think is the right answer. Are programs like this becoming more common or is it just me?
Off-Season Hockey
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)
Re: Off-Season Hockey
It's just you.HockeyNut2 wrote:My kid plays in this program down in Prior Lake and we love it. www.mnwavehockey.com
This program actually encourages kids to be playing in other sports which I personally think is the right answer. Are programs like this becoming more common or is it just me?
No sport spends more time telling its followers to play other sports than hockey. Every flipping email I get sent from US or Minnesota Hockey tells me to put my daughter's skates away for 6 months a year or else she's going to hate me and the sport by the time she's in 8th grade.
-
imlisteningtothefnsong
- Posts: 321
- Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:16 am
Re: Off-Season Hockey
jg2112 wrote:Every flipping email I get sent from US or Minnesota Hockey tells me to put my daughter's skates away for 6 months a year or else she's going to hate me and the sport by the time she's in 8th grade.
IMHO,
The above post nailed it when the writer said," or my daughter will hate me and the sport." The reason the kids need an off season is to get a break from ma and pa who treat every practice like it is so vital to the kids "career". Every game is a game 7, as if the Caribou and it's plastic Star of the Game trophy will somehow puff dad's chest out at the water cooler at work. USA and MN hockey know this and instead of telling mom and dad to get out of the locker room and stay away from the practice rink and treat the game as just another way to sneak a peek at your buddies hot wife, they just keep saying play other sports. What they mean is we hope your kid can find a sport that you don't know anything about so you can just shut your friggin mouth and clap!! (In my case it was lacrosse). Let your kid play the game they love as long and often as they like. Keep your excitement level on par with theirs and they will love you and the game for a long time.
-
legalbeagle05
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 2:31 pm
Re: Off-Season Hockey
This is, hands-down, the greatest thing I have ever read on this forum.USA and MN hockey know this and instead of telling mom and dad to get out of the locker room and stay away from the practice rink and treat the game as just another way to sneak a peek at your buddies hot wife, they just keep saying play other sports. What they mean is we hope your kid can find a sport that you don't know anything about so you can just shut your friggin mouth and clap!!
And exactly right.
-
InigoMontoya
- Posts: 1716
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:36 pm
-
greybeard58
- Posts: 2517
- Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm
hp://strengthcoachblog.com/2014/04/11/a‐misinformed‐road‐to‐success/
A Misinformed Road To Success
From David Conte – Executive Vice President, Hockey Operations/ Director,
Scouting. Entering 30th season with NJ Devils, 21st as team’s Director of
Scouting NJ Devils, Stanley Cup 1995, 2000 & 2002.
Dave Conti – To Parents and Players
Parents and players are more interested in playing for rewards and for recognition rather than for pure joy.
When you do this, this limits chances of advancements, the very thing that parents and players seem to want,
they are precluded by a misinformed road map.
It is self-indulgent, all of this pursuit to go to Quebec to be in the supposed top tournament. What about
citizenship? What about responsibility? The emphasis on winning results in players who are over-zealous and
(unnaturally) aggressive. This emphasis deters skill development and enjoyment.
It starts at a young age; the play is too physical. Kids want to play with their friends and enjoy it for what it is.
Look at kids in a skate board park.. There are no adults telling them what to do or evaluating them. They are
uninhibited, inventive, just like when I was a kid playing pond hockey or street hockey.
We need more people with a love of the game.
Genetics play a big part in skill, but you see it evaporate in kids. Kids you see, who have ability when they are
young, 8,10, 12 years of age, then it’s not there at 14 or 15. Why are kids leaving the sport at 14 or 15? There is
too much emphasis on trophies.
These summer exposure tournaments are a big waste of time.
If you play in the summer it should be for fun. You have these people who run these things telling parents and
players that if you do not participate that you will not gain recognition.
I will find you!
I do not go to these things. They are a waste.
People are too worried about status and jackets.
You need to do challenging drills,… that is how you get better.
Young players are lacking because too many people are telling them what to do and how to play, because of this
they don’t think.
“You don’t need exposure, you need to get better”.
A Misinformed Road To Success
From David Conte – Executive Vice President, Hockey Operations/ Director,
Scouting. Entering 30th season with NJ Devils, 21st as team’s Director of
Scouting NJ Devils, Stanley Cup 1995, 2000 & 2002.
Dave Conti – To Parents and Players
Parents and players are more interested in playing for rewards and for recognition rather than for pure joy.
When you do this, this limits chances of advancements, the very thing that parents and players seem to want,
they are precluded by a misinformed road map.
It is self-indulgent, all of this pursuit to go to Quebec to be in the supposed top tournament. What about
citizenship? What about responsibility? The emphasis on winning results in players who are over-zealous and
(unnaturally) aggressive. This emphasis deters skill development and enjoyment.
It starts at a young age; the play is too physical. Kids want to play with their friends and enjoy it for what it is.
Look at kids in a skate board park.. There are no adults telling them what to do or evaluating them. They are
uninhibited, inventive, just like when I was a kid playing pond hockey or street hockey.
We need more people with a love of the game.
Genetics play a big part in skill, but you see it evaporate in kids. Kids you see, who have ability when they are
young, 8,10, 12 years of age, then it’s not there at 14 or 15. Why are kids leaving the sport at 14 or 15? There is
too much emphasis on trophies.
These summer exposure tournaments are a big waste of time.
If you play in the summer it should be for fun. You have these people who run these things telling parents and
players that if you do not participate that you will not gain recognition.
I will find you!
I do not go to these things. They are a waste.
People are too worried about status and jackets.
You need to do challenging drills,… that is how you get better.
Young players are lacking because too many people are telling them what to do and how to play, because of this
they don’t think.
“You don’t need exposure, you need to get better”.
-
greybeard58
- Posts: 2517
- Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:40 pm
Another article from out east
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/201 ... story.html
How parents are ruining youth sports
Adults should remember what athletics are really about.
By Jay Atkinson | MAY 04, 2014
Not long ago, I was invited to speak at the annual banquet for an “elite” youth hockey organization. Before dinner, the organization’s president mentioned how he and his neighbor, another hockey dad, had seen the need for a top-tier program in their area, and how much planning and money it had required to create one. He rhapsodized about the championships his teams had won in their first two years of operation. He also said his 6-year-old son and his neighbor’s boy were hockey-crazed best friends — or at least they used to be. His neighbor’s son was not selected for the mite team that first year, and the two men and their boys had not spoken to each other since.
In brief, that’s exactly what’s wrong with youth sports. Too much money, too much parent involvement, and too many brokenhearted 6-year-olds. (Not to mention too many well-meaning adults who have no clue about all of the above.)
Perhaps the professionalism that has invaded youth sports is related to the Bruins, Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics all ringing up championships over the past decade. Hey, I want some of that, says Overzealous Sports Dad, jumping up from his couch. But single-sport specialization, the privatization of youth leagues, and the ranking and cutting of young children have become widespread. These are not positive trends, and coaches, educators, community leaders, and parents should take heed.
Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — a total of about 45 million kids. By age 15, as many as 80 percent of these youngsters have quit, according to the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine. One reason is the gap between the child’s desire to have fun and the misguided notion among some adults that their kids’ games are a miniature version of grown-up competitions, where the goal is to win. In 20 years of coaching youth and high school sports, I can say unequivocally that adult expectations are the number one problem. As we approach summer, when the living is supposed to be easy, too many families are searching the Internet for a private batting instructor, a summer hockey program, an expensive strength camp, and that elusive AAU coach who can get their 11-year-old to improve her jump shot. This is a misguided attempt to accelerate a process that may not even be occurring, since most young athletes will never reach the elite level.
When I was growing up in Methuen, we organized our own football, hockey, and baseball teams. Any kid who had a football helmet, a pair of Bobby Orr Rally skates, or a first baseman’s mitt could play. We contacted teams from other neighborhoods and played entire seasons without our parents having anything to do with it. My friends and I even staged our own tennis tournaments at the public courts. (The baseball players swore it helped with their timing at the plate.)
Except for renting the ice at the local rink, and a set of hockey jerseys we pitched in to buy, it was free. We played for the love of it. Indeed, many of us went on to play high school and college varsity sports.
Maybe you’re thinking: So this guy went to grammar school with Huck Finn, good for him. But how’s little Eliza going to get a scholarship if she’s not throwing heat? But the fact is, approximately 1 percent of high school athletes will receive a Division 1 scholarship. And those scholarships, on average, are worth much less than the family’s investment in private lessons, sports camps, and other training.
The writer Edna St. Vincent Millay once noted that life is not one damn thing after another, it’s one damn thing over and over. That applies to specialization in youth sports, too. Hockey season, which once ran from Halloween to St. Patrick’s Day, now starts in late August and wheezes to a halt in April. Then there’s 10 weeks of “spring hockey,” summer hockey camps, and so on. Basketball, soccer, baseball, and gymnastics — same deal. I’ve seen many promising teen athletes “retire” at a time when their interest in sports should be peaking.
Some kids are sick of playing, and some are sick of playing in pain. A 2013 study of 1,200 young athletes showed those who concentrated on a single sport were 70 percent to 93 percent more likely to be injured than those who played multiple sports.
At that hockey banquet, I said adults must set their egos aside and remember to let the kids have fun. And to do that, we need to return youth sports to the neighborhood, where they belong.
This summer, encourage your children to go fishing, play mini golf, and invite their pals to shoot hoops in the driveway. Have them visit the library, and loaf around in the backyard chewing on blades of grass. And keep in mind that the interior experience of playing a sport, the beauty and the joy of it, is sovereign territory and belongs to the kids themselves.
BY THE NUMBERS
1 in 6,000
Estimated number of high-school football players who will make it to the NFL
2.5 in 10,000
High-school basketball players who will make it to the NBA.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/201 ... story.html
How parents are ruining youth sports
Adults should remember what athletics are really about.
By Jay Atkinson | MAY 04, 2014
Not long ago, I was invited to speak at the annual banquet for an “elite” youth hockey organization. Before dinner, the organization’s president mentioned how he and his neighbor, another hockey dad, had seen the need for a top-tier program in their area, and how much planning and money it had required to create one. He rhapsodized about the championships his teams had won in their first two years of operation. He also said his 6-year-old son and his neighbor’s boy were hockey-crazed best friends — or at least they used to be. His neighbor’s son was not selected for the mite team that first year, and the two men and their boys had not spoken to each other since.
In brief, that’s exactly what’s wrong with youth sports. Too much money, too much parent involvement, and too many brokenhearted 6-year-olds. (Not to mention too many well-meaning adults who have no clue about all of the above.)
Perhaps the professionalism that has invaded youth sports is related to the Bruins, Patriots, Red Sox, and Celtics all ringing up championships over the past decade. Hey, I want some of that, says Overzealous Sports Dad, jumping up from his couch. But single-sport specialization, the privatization of youth leagues, and the ranking and cutting of young children have become widespread. These are not positive trends, and coaches, educators, community leaders, and parents should take heed.
Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — a total of about 45 million kids. By age 15, as many as 80 percent of these youngsters have quit, according to the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine. One reason is the gap between the child’s desire to have fun and the misguided notion among some adults that their kids’ games are a miniature version of grown-up competitions, where the goal is to win. In 20 years of coaching youth and high school sports, I can say unequivocally that adult expectations are the number one problem. As we approach summer, when the living is supposed to be easy, too many families are searching the Internet for a private batting instructor, a summer hockey program, an expensive strength camp, and that elusive AAU coach who can get their 11-year-old to improve her jump shot. This is a misguided attempt to accelerate a process that may not even be occurring, since most young athletes will never reach the elite level.
When I was growing up in Methuen, we organized our own football, hockey, and baseball teams. Any kid who had a football helmet, a pair of Bobby Orr Rally skates, or a first baseman’s mitt could play. We contacted teams from other neighborhoods and played entire seasons without our parents having anything to do with it. My friends and I even staged our own tennis tournaments at the public courts. (The baseball players swore it helped with their timing at the plate.)
Except for renting the ice at the local rink, and a set of hockey jerseys we pitched in to buy, it was free. We played for the love of it. Indeed, many of us went on to play high school and college varsity sports.
Maybe you’re thinking: So this guy went to grammar school with Huck Finn, good for him. But how’s little Eliza going to get a scholarship if she’s not throwing heat? But the fact is, approximately 1 percent of high school athletes will receive a Division 1 scholarship. And those scholarships, on average, are worth much less than the family’s investment in private lessons, sports camps, and other training.
The writer Edna St. Vincent Millay once noted that life is not one damn thing after another, it’s one damn thing over and over. That applies to specialization in youth sports, too. Hockey season, which once ran from Halloween to St. Patrick’s Day, now starts in late August and wheezes to a halt in April. Then there’s 10 weeks of “spring hockey,” summer hockey camps, and so on. Basketball, soccer, baseball, and gymnastics — same deal. I’ve seen many promising teen athletes “retire” at a time when their interest in sports should be peaking.
Some kids are sick of playing, and some are sick of playing in pain. A 2013 study of 1,200 young athletes showed those who concentrated on a single sport were 70 percent to 93 percent more likely to be injured than those who played multiple sports.
At that hockey banquet, I said adults must set their egos aside and remember to let the kids have fun. And to do that, we need to return youth sports to the neighborhood, where they belong.
This summer, encourage your children to go fishing, play mini golf, and invite their pals to shoot hoops in the driveway. Have them visit the library, and loaf around in the backyard chewing on blades of grass. And keep in mind that the interior experience of playing a sport, the beauty and the joy of it, is sovereign territory and belongs to the kids themselves.
BY THE NUMBERS
1 in 6,000
Estimated number of high-school football players who will make it to the NFL
2.5 in 10,000
High-school basketball players who will make it to the NBA.
-
InigoMontoya
- Posts: 1716
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:36 pm
-
SCBlueLiner
- Posts: 661
- Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:11 pm
-
bestpopcorn
- Posts: 127
- Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:47 am
I am a parent who loves to attend every practice. I also love to watch tryouts. I just watch. I have my nightly bottle of pop and catch up on local events. I will admit to fishing for the the funny stories of hockey parent angst.
I love to watch tryouts. My favorite part is watching parents slowly unravel.
To me these are social events.
I love to watch tryouts. My favorite part is watching parents slowly unravel.
To me these are social events.
Not for your kid. We got this locked up.SCBlueLiner wrote:So you're telling me there's a chance...DrGaf wrote:at least now know my kid isn't one in a million ... it's only 1 in 6000.InigoMontoya wrote:Just when you thought you'd already seen every article telling you your kid won't play in the NHL...
I'm face-timing my kid doing stick handling drills during my lunch.
Sorry, fresh out, Don't Really Give Any.
-
InigoMontoya
- Posts: 1716
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:36 pm
-
imlisteningtothefnsong
- Posts: 321
- Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:16 am
Re: Off-Season Hockey
Thanks Law Dog!!! The rest of the folks are just piggy backing here!!!!!!legalbeagle05 wrote:This is, hands-down, the greatest thing I have ever read on this forum.USA and MN hockey know this and instead of telling mom and dad to get out of the locker room and stay away from the practice rink and treat the game as just another way to sneak a peek at your buddies hot wife, they just keep saying play other sports. What they mean is we hope your kid can find a sport that you don't know anything about so you can just shut your friggin mouth and clap!!
And exactly right.
