Amery Youth Hockey Association

To have a great program the philosophy of coaching is important. Coaches must also be teachers. Sports are no longer an "extra-curricular" activity. A strong athletic program is good for the entire organization, good for community relations. When players are participating in a game it is like an "exam on the ice"; takes a lot of courage, support and strength. There has to be cooperation between teammates, share wins and losses. Athletics also requires player accountability. Players are held accountable regarding the use of behavior. Accountability also in how teammates treat each other, coaches and how they act in public. We carry our successes with pride.

While providing athletes with the proper mental practice skills is important, this alone may not be enough. The time needed to develop and optimize an individualized mental-skills program is consequently extensive, and, although many coaches realize the importance of mental-practice skills, the challenge of finding time to do it is too much. The development of mental practice skills training on a regular, systematic basis is therefore important so that the program becomes a natural part of the athlete's overall training regimen. This is particularly true in contemporary sport like hockey where athletes are subjected to higher standards, tougher competition, and greater stakes. These factors make the psychological components of performance more important than they have been in the past.

The following reference and resource materials are available for coaches to check out. The materials are a combination of materials owned by AYHA and by members of the association. When you do check out materials please take care of them so future coaches can benefit from them and return them within a reasonable time frame.

The Following Materials are Available through AYHA and will be Located in the Coaches/Referees Room at the Arena.
For check out contact Scott Ward (ssward@amerytel.net or phone 268.4091) Or Tim Henningsgard (timh@noahinsurancegroup.com)

Systems

The Center Weak Side Lock Fore-check DVD
Regroups VHS
Face Offs Breakouts & O Zone VHS
17 Ultimate Face Offs DVD
3 Ultimate Power Plays DVD
Penalty Kill DVD
Offensive Blue Line Attack Options DVD

Creative Drills

Read & React Drills DVD
Life after the Rush: Attacking the Net DVD
Drills for Offensive Creativity DVD
15 Competitive Partner Games & Drills DVD
15 Competitive Team Games & Drills DVD
15 Competitive Shooting Games & Drills DVD
15 Ultimate Hockey Drills for Offense DVD

Rules

Standards of Play & Rule Enforcement DVD

Passing

USA Passing & Receiving VHS

Conditioning

Double Grip Medicine Ball DVD
Off Ice Strengthening & Conditioning DVD
USA Strength Training VHS
USA Principles of Conditioning VHS
USA Conditioning for Youth Hockey VHS

Stick handling

Stick handling Theory & Presentation DVD
Stick handling Agility Techniques DVD
Stick handling Moves, Fakes & Dekes DVD
Stick handling Drills for Coaches DVD
Dry land Training for Better Stick handling DVD

Goaltenders

On Ice Drills for Goaltenders DVD
Fundamentals of Goaltending DVD
The Advanced Goaltender DVD

Skating

Forward, Backward, Stops & Turns VHS
USA Advanced Power Skating VHS
USA Quickness & Leg Power VHS

Checking

USA Checking VHS
Body Checking & Offensive Attack Options VHS

Defense

15 Ultimate Hockey Drills for Defense DVD
How to Improve Your Defensemen DVD

Skate Sharpening

E-Z Sharp Demonstration VHS

Parents

Hockey Parents Make a Difference VHS
The Coaches Guide to Dealing Effectively With Parents DVD
Promoting a Positive Athletic Experience-The Parents Guide DVD
Dreams Do Come True VHS
I'd Rather Play Hockey VHS

Dan Bauer

2006-11-09 21:35:29

It is time for USA Hockey to make a move. A move that is likely to be as unpopular as the new helmet rule for coaches, but one with similar safety ramifications. One that is long overdue. It is time to take serious measures to reel in youth hockey’s addiction to games.

Tryout tribulations are still simmering, football cleats are lying in the hallway and most of us have leaves to rake, but the games are on. Hockey games, and lots of them—two in a day, sometimes three, five in a weekend, do I hear six? New skates are still stiff, mouth guards are recognizable and new sticks to blame for missed goals. And practice, we don’t need no stinkin’ practice.

As I headed to the rink on a recent Sunday to get our locker room ready for the high school season, I expected to find a low-key agenda on tap inside. Understand that tryouts had just finished one week ago. What I found to my surprise and dismay was a full slate of youth games. Teams with as few as two practices were now playing their second and or third games of the young season.

I try to convince myself that this is just a bad dream. This can’t be happening. First year Pee Wees head into their first taste of checking with just two practices under their belts. No safety issue there, they should be ready for contact. And what about the new rules standards that will be enforced? Apparently there is no need to get familiar with new rules either. How about learning everyone’s name on the team? Can we even achieve that in one week? Every shred of logic is tossed out the window in the rush to get the games on.

USA Hockey, whose job it is to govern and regulate youth hockey, has stepped in to protect our coaches by making an unpopular, but wise decision, to put helmets on them. They are also working to bring consistency to their coaching education program. In the meantime the safety and well being of the players is left up to local control. It is now time for them to step up and protect the players and the integrity of basic logic from over-zealous coaches. There is a reason why most governing bodies legislate a defined pre-season. It is for the safety of the players. It is to give everyone ample opportunity to properly prepare for the season. It is time to prepare your team physically, mentally and collectively. That simply cannot be accomplished in one week, at any level.

We preach that youth hockey is about skill development—yet we set no rules or regulations when it comes to games to help ensure that it will happen. We recommend a 3:1 practice to game ratio; we suggest maximum game limits and fanatical youth boards ignore them like a child transfixed on a video game. The NHL, NCAA, Junior Leagues and WIAA also have set game limits. You are not allowed to exceed them—they are hard and fast rules. They are based on a defined season length appropriate for that particular age level. Making that decision is another step that could easily be implemented by the powers that be in Colorado Springs. It is time for USA Hockey to stop making recommendations that are easily pushed aside and replace them with rules and consequences for not obeying them.

Youth hockey seasons and the number of games played continue to grow and grow with no end in sight. All evidence tells us that this is counterproductive to developing skill in players. Every study done extols the value of practice in skill development. We have the proof, but continue to disregard it as if it were science fiction. Once again our progressive society chooses to treat common sense like an 18th century medical cure. Unlike using leeches to eradicate disease from the body, common sense never goes out of style and doesn’t change from one generation to the next.

The Fox Valley Blades Youth Hockey Association under the direction of Ace Coordinator Mike Elkin, uses the correct formula to regulate their program. They total up practice ice time first and then from those numbers determine how many games their teams should play based on a 2.5 to 3:1 ratio. This is a common sense idea that should be adopted by every youth program. Elkin, the former head coach at Neenah High School, was recently Wisconsin’s recipient of the USA Hockey Young Leaders award for his innovative ideas and efforts with the Blades cross-ice program. He is strong advocate for cross-ice hockey and practice to game ratios that develop, not destroy players. The folks in Neenah are fortunate to have his leadership.

There was a time when games were seemingly the reward for hours of practice. Now in our games gone wild mentality the more we play the better. Each year I am appalled as I watch youth player’s skills decline. I cringe when I see 13 squirts on a full sheet of ice knowing that each team is practicing only once or twice a week. We have accepted mediocre hockey as the norm. It is like listening to a 9-year-old piano player that only practice once a week, but puts on three or four recitals each weekend. It wouldn’t be entertaining and neither is bad hockey. But as long as the scoreboard is on and somebody gets to go home a “winner” parents are both happy and pacified.

A friend of my daughter just recently signed on to a professional figure skating ice show in Georgia & Florida. When she arrives there in a few weeks she will practice for forty-two hours in fours days to prepare for her first performance. I doubt many of our youth hockey players will get that much ice in an entire season. Practice is a priority to success that we have trivialized to make room for more games.

In spite of all this overwhelming evidence we continue to support the games over practice philosophy. Sixty games by a youth team will translate to approximately twelve to fifteen hours of ice time per player. That isn’t a misprint, it is a fact substantiated by USA Hockey research. Sixty games that will take four or five months to play, a hundred hours of time on the road and a part-time job to finance, for twelve plus hours of ice time. A kid twenty years ago would get that much ice time during a weekend on the local outdoor rink or pond. And it wouldn’t cost him more than a few dollars to pack a lunch or buy a couple of hot dogs at the concessions stand.

Think about that. One weekend of “rat hockey,” skating, passing, shooting and having fun could equal those baker’s dozen hours you get in sixty games. This is not a myth or a fairy tale, it actually used to happen. The difference, and the reason why it doesn’t exist today is that there is no glory for parents at the outdoor rink and the fact that many kids now have more passion for their Play Station than the playground.

Try proposing to your coach or your youth board to take a weekend off and open up the ice time at the rink for “rat hockey.” Just let kids come and go and just play. All ages, no coaches, just an opportunity for old-fashioned fun at the rink. Those board members will look at you as if you have three heads. It will be a look of shock and disappointment that you would dare think about practicing on a weekend instead of playing games. To paraphrase a quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, “Games are won and lost in practice.”

It has become common practice to play games and games and more games. It is time for practice or even just open “rat hockey” to become more common than games. It is time for USA Hockey to realize that when it comes to practice to game ratios, there is little common sense exercised. It is time to replace “Game On” with “Game Off” and truly give our youth players the opportunity to be the best they can be.

Dan Bauer is the head hockey coach at Wausau East High School. You can contact him at dbauer@wausau.k12.wi.us and read more of his work at www.hockeybybauer.com

Cale Politoski

2006-11-18 21:04:40

Cale Politoski is the former Milwaukee Pius coach and now coaches Bantam hockey at Shattuck St. Marys.

I write this article in response to both Coach Bauer’s and Coach Schmidt’s article on games and youth hockey. The thing is, I think both of the guys are right. Little kids love to play games. There are not a whole lot of youngsters who really can’t wait to go to practice. There are some of those kids out there. They are the ones who just want to be on the ice – no matter if it is a practice or game. Kids do enjoy the games better. It is that thrill of competition and the fact you can say, “I won.” So in those respects, games are great for the kids. We do want to keep the kids interested in the sport, sometimes the games are the way we keep them. Let’s face it, kids, like adults, get bored with doing the same thing all the time. Practicing all the time is boring. Games are more fun.

Even though the games are more fun, we should do a better job of structuring our games. For example, let’s do more cross-ice games, especially with the squirts and mites. This way they can touch the puck a whole lot more.

Why in any creation are mites playing full ice games? Their little legs get tired and that is a whole lot of ice for them to cover. Cross-ice games still give the players a chance to play the greatest game on earth and allow for them to learn the important things, like passing, shooting, and getting open. Cross-ice games, in my opinion do not take anything away from the game. I think they actually improve the game because our players get a chance to touch the puck a whole lot more.

I also think we need to take away Mite travel teams. There is no reason what so ever that a mite needs to travel out of town to play hockey. It is in the mites that the numbers tend to be the highest. Let the kids play against each other in their own town or organization. They do not need to sit for two, five or seven hour rides in cars for games or tournaments. These kids can have the same amount of fun in their own home rinks. In fact, a good friend of mine has two little guys who are playing hockey. Last season, as mites, they were having a blast playing cross-ice games and scoring and just having fun. Many parents were all over my friend to move his kids to travel teams. His response was why should I have them travel when they are having so much fun here. In my opinion he is right. However, as long as we have Mite State Champions, we are going to have this problem. And you know, we all remember Mite State champions.

Now, it is one thing to be playing games, but Coach Bauer is exactly right – we both are sick of seeing lousy hockey. You have youngsters being taught “systems” instead of skills. There is a great problem with that. If these kids are going to be playing the game, they should be playing the right way. They should be learning how to skate. They should be learning how to use their edges. They should be learning how to catch a pass and give a pass. They should be learning how to shoot. Too many kids are not getting these skills. That is terrible.

I have made the switch from coaching high school hockey to coaching Bantam “A” hockey. Kids at both levels are way behind. There are just many skills these kids should have and they do not have them. What is funny is these kids ask you what kind of fore-check are we running. What are we going to do in the neutral zone and so on? The problem is you can’t do anything with these kids if they can’t skate. You can’t get anything going offensively because these kids can’t pass or receive the puck. Then, when they go to shoot, they keep shooting off the wrong foot. This trend has to stop.

The place it can be fixed is with our youth. The Bantam team I coach is very skill based. The vast majority of my players want to play on at the next level whatever that may be. Let’s face it, there is no chance of them playing on if they do not have the necessary skills to play this game. My job is to develop those skills with these players.

My players will play anywhere from two to five games on the weekend. However, we have a nice luxury of being able to practice everyday, too. So I guess you could say we are a bit different from the norm. I truly feel playing 50-65 games is okay for us to do. We also take extended breaks during the long season.

For example, my players will be going on a ten day break and then over Christmas, we will go on a break for about three weeks. We also encourage the kids to get away from the game and play another sport in the Spring.

It is good to get away from the game. We need to keep doing whatever possible to keep our athletes from burning out. Playing only one sport year round is doing no good for our players. Kids are starting to hate the game by the time they are 16-17 years old. The more sports a kid can play, the better the athlete they will be.

Different sports bring different types of competition. That is better in developing well-rounded athletes. We need more well-rounded athletes than specialized athletes, especially in our younger programs. Young kids don’t need to be playing one sport year round. Play hockey, play baseball, play football, etc. There is too much organization in sports.

If you think I am wrong on this one, ask your young kids how to play Strike Out or Base-Runner. I guarantee very few can tell you how to play. I bet most will say – what is that. That is unfortunate. I loved playing on the playground or sandlot. Kids are missing this great time.

We need to do a better job teaching our kids. We need qualified coaches teaching our kids. Qualified doesn’t mean sitting through USA hockey coaching clinics. It means evaluating coaches before they step on the ice. It is asking what is these coaches' playing experience. It is asking what are they doing in the off-season to better themselves. It is asking what are they doing in the in-season to better themselves. If the answer is watching ESPN or Versus or I have the NHL Package, that is the wrong answer. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact people want to get involved with hockey. However, we do need quality on the ice with our kids, not just people who have coaching certification cards who now think they are qualified to be running teams.

I love the game of hockey and I am glad to be able to offer up my thoughts to you. I wish the best to all of your teams.