Hockey passion is fueled by fun, not force

“My son is a first year mite and he is crying and does not want to participate when I take him to the rink.”

“My daughter is a first year player and cannot skate as well as the other kids and does not pay attention to the coach.”

“My child keeps coming over to the edge of the rink door to talk to me during practice. What should I do?”

These are questions that parents ask and wonder how to handle. Not surprisingly, some kids take to hockey like a duck to water, but many kids will need to take time to develop a love and passion for the game. And some will not regardless of what the parents want.

As parents it is important to recognize that early year mite skaters are very young children and many are likely not ready to meet the expectations of parents or coaches. Since we start kids in some program as early as 4 years old, it would be foolish to have any expectations on their performance, interest levels, and skills.

The primary goal at these younger ages is to simply have fun and develop skating skills while they are engaged in activities that are suited to their views of the world. In other words simple play with pucks, balls, or other play objects that are familiar to them.

It is amazing to watch first year skaters improve each and every time they come to the rink just by being out there. Each week they improve, their confidence builds and before you know it they are actually skating around the rink having a great time.

But what if my child really is unhappy at the rink? Take the child home.

Forcing a youngster to go to the rink is not a good beginning. Many parents feel that if their child does not start at the same age as other kids it will be too late to catch up. That notion is fostered by other well‐meaning parents but the evidence shows that it is false and there are many examples that illustrate it.

I know of one particular college player who refused his father’s best intentions to have him play mite hockey. He wanted nothing to do with it. He cried and thrashed around on his first day of mites. He refused to participate.

He did not return to the rink to play, by his own decision, until four years later as a squirt. This youngster missed the first four years of hockey but he went on to play high school hockey, juniors and college hockey. He needed to decide that he wanted to play and once he did he caught up with his peers within a couple years.

There are many such examples of kids starting a few years later and catching up with the other kids very quickly. As a high school coach I have also witnessed several low skilled players dedicate themselves to improvement and ultimately achieved far more than one would think possible. Player development is a twenty year process.

As a parent it is important to understand that at any age, a child can developmentally be as many as four years older or four years younger than the average child for that age. A 12-year-old could have the physical and mental maturity of a 16 year old, and of course the opposite is true. Coaches will attest that at any age group some players are far more advanced than others.

Most kids will likely fall into the middle range and a few are outside the averages. The A levels in youth hockey are populated by players who developmentally are ahead of the rest of the kids in their group at that time period. As kids get older the differences narrow and very often the perennial “A” player gets passed up by players who took a couple more years to develop physically and mentally.

The first couple years of mite hockey should be all about having fun and developing a passion for games on ice. Parents need not worry about paying attention to coaches nor be concerned about children who do not want to be there.

Put yourself in their tiny skates or shoes and do the right thing. If they are miserable take them home. They will tell you when they want to return. If they love the experience take them more often.

Illustration by Rachel Beenken – Minneapolis College of Art and Design

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Illustration by Chelsea Novotny – Minneapolis College of Art and Design

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Great coaches can have a transformational effect on players

Illustration by Jennifer Marlin

The post Tearse: Youth Sports and Life Lessons appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

August has now come and gone, marking the official, and only, month that constitutes the offseason in a sport that officially is a winter season activity.

The summer skills camps have concluded by the end of July and hopefully in August you were all at your cabins, lake homes or somewhere on vacation.

The question that we have before us is, does all of this training and rushing from one skills camp, to showcase tournaments, to another AAA team practice, to other activities really make for better athletes and hockey players?

There is mounting and compelling evidence from many professional areas that say the answer is no.

Several studies from Canada argue that the overscheduled, over‐supervised activities of children are having a very detrimental effect on their growth. Evolutionary psychologist Don Fulgosi notes that, “kids not allowed to play freely may not be socialized properly and are at risk for a wide variety of problems such as aggression, anxiety and depression.”

Also consider comments by youth sports consultant Elaine Raakman that “children involved in highly organized activities show a lack of initiative and are unable to function without being told what to do.”

Is this what we want for our kids?

As I watch youth practices and even ‘development’ camps, I see lots of kids standing in line and coaches supervising every moment. Even with many cross‐ice games that we utilize in practices and should use in mite hockey, kids want to be told what to do and coaches promptly tell them.

While running summer programs a few years ago I discovered that the players did not understand how to play cross ice. They wanted me to explain it to them. I merely replied, “How do you think it should be played?”

It took them about 30 minutes to figure it out and a few sessions to really start having fun and, through play, improving their skills. Coaches need to trust players.

Organizationally we separate players by age for fear that some might get hurt. We identify our players by their birth year, which is convenient and easy. However, this structure misses the reality that developmentally players fall in a range of 4 years plus or minus their chronological age. We should allow mixed ages based on each players level of development physically and mentally.

USA Hockey’s ADM model stresses age‐appropriate development activities and correctly recommends weekly participation limits to avoid burnout on the part of the players, parents, and coaches.

I urge that youth programs, coaches and players can and should go one step further to ensure that their kids have a great experience playing hockey and develop to their fullest potential.

To do what is right for kids, youth programs and parents should follow these guidelines:

• Restrict organized team functions to a maximum of four times a week including games at the bantam/U14 and pee wee/U12 levels. Three times a week of structured sessions for squirts and mites.
• Offer two unstructured, non-mandatory, sessions per week that would consist of pee wee and bantams sharing ice and the only supervision is an adult to insure safety only. Let the kids decide what to do. Place four or more nets on the ice. Maybe some balls of various sizes. Limit the attendance per session to 35 skaters. Offer the same opportunities to the mite and squirt age levels.
• On Sundays local associations could schedule “Home Ice” events that involve cross‐ice tournaments, no coaching and pure fun for peewees/U12 and lower. Boys and girls should skate together. Let the players make the rules.
• Finally, offer open‐ice opportunities indoors and outdoors for kids to just play hockey on their own terms.

Youth programs need to also insure that players are home early (before 9:30 pm) at least two school nights a week so they can study and sleep. After all, our kids need to get a great education because the reality is that fewer and fewer Minnesota kids are going to make it to Division 1 hockey, much less the pros, due to the expansion of hockey across the country.

To get a great education kids need to be rested at school so they can pay attention and learn. Hockey is a great game with an emphasis on “game.” School is for the game of life.

To create the right framework for growth and development, strict game limits should be imposed at each level, as well as quality practice sessions that emphasize skills and creativity, and unstructured sessions where the kids make the rules.

Do these ideas seem radical or preposterous?

Maybe they do. However, nearly all great players tell of all the time they spent alone or with just a few friends playing hockey, shooting pucks in the driveway, and making up their own rules. As development experts have proven over the past forty years, what really matters is time spent on the ice ‐ not in the car, not in the locker room, not in the gym, not in the weight room, and not in hotel rooms waiting for more games.

As each winter season approaches, parents and youth program directors should take a hard look at what we are doing and start to move in a player-friendly direction that will actually result in happier and more creative players who develop a deep passion for playing the game of hockey.

Illustration by Kiki Kita (Minneapolis College of Art and Design)

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The conventional wisdom is that year-round hockey is bad for kids and they should hang up the skates in early March and play other sports. The wisdom continues with permission to attend a summer camp or two that provides ice time and fun activities and that serious training should be left until high school age. This is what we have preached for decades.

For most kids this great advice but many players and their parents have other ideas. For many youngsters the off-season is often just a continuation, all be it less organized, of the winter season.

The reality is that during the off season youth players are busy playing games rather than training to become better athletes and hockey players. Spring and fall leagues with no practice components are thought to be great development programs even though there is little or no constructive coaching.

With the advent of a couple small rinks, 3 on 3 leagues and tournaments have replaced skills sessions. The theory is that with 3 on 3 leagues players get lots of flow and puck handling in small spaces and this is good. As the old saying goes, “Any Ice Time is Good Ice Time.” Maybe that is not exactly true.

What really happens in Minnesota is that the “cream rises to the top” and almost everybody else drops away usually by age 16. In essence, what we are running is recreational hockey programs where the best and most talented players siphon off to other programs where they can develop their skills for higher levels of competition. It does not have to be this way, but in order to change the outcome the off-season needs to be part of a player’s year around development program.

Perhaps at this point you are saying to yourself or even out loud “balderdash, how dare you?” or “Oh yeah, right.”

In reply, I would contend that most of what we believe in is based on anecdotal information that has been passed down for many years. We can also rightfully point with pride that more US-born Division 1 hockey players come from Minnesota than any other state in the country by a large margin. We are also top in Division 3 players.

So, end of story? Maybe and maybe not.

There are an increasing number of high-quality players coming from such unlikely places as Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas. For many reasons, players in non-traditional hockey areas are quite committed and resourceful in their attempt to compete with players from more traditional hockey states.

As a result they are far more focused on development and spend far more time on development activities than most players in the traditional areas. The effort is beginning to pay off with quite a number having been selected in the past few years to play at Division 1 schools.

There is plenty of hard data and proof that a 12-15 year development program aimed at mastering skills and developing elite players is possible. In order to see the proof, turn on any NHL game and see where the players on the first two lines come from.

The answer is Europe. The reason is that they have learned how to consistently develop players based on science and research.

The idea that top-level players are genetically superior to the rest of us is frankly nonsense. Being athletic is certainly a requirement but purposeful and persistent training would help many more players become elite players. Jack Blatherwick has detailed some of the concepts and processes on his website, http://overspeed.info/. Check it out for more specific details.

If the current system is not working well for the top end players how can a motivated and determined player develop into an elite-level player? The answer is simple, but the execution not quite so simple.

The answer is that players who desire to excel at hockey need the proper age-appropriate levels of training on and off ice to maximize the “development windows” in order to reach their full potential. If they miss one of these “windows” it is unlikely a player will reach his or her full potential.

In order to achieve full potential players need a coordinated program operated by professionals. Finding the right professionals is not easy and designing the right mix of on and off ice training is also challenging. The CODP program has a program for girls but to date nothing has emerged for boys.

There are a bewildering number of off-season programs designed to get your son or daughter to the “next level.” Most of them are pretty good but none of them are coordinated with the other activities, training and on ice programs. They are all pretty much stand-alone programs and are all run for profit rather than development outcomes.

Unfortunately, a player determined to succeed must do so in spite of the limitations imposed by our existing structures. Our youth programs do not provide a development model because they are rightly concerned with organizing leagues and playing games. Quality coaching is elusive, especially skills-development coaching. Parents are more interested in games than long-term development programs.

The off-season programs are again centered on league play, tournaments and team tactics at the limited practices. For most players this is adequate. For the motivated players, this is inadequate and they must find alternative channels in order to develop. The most important factor for all of this is the individual motivation and commitment of each player.

Frankly, most players do not possess the inner drive and motivation to excel. They play for recreation and fun. The more naturally talented get by without much effort. At some point, most youth players quit the game because their skills are inadequate to keep up and they no longer have fun

As youth coaches you all have the ability to change this culture a little bit each year. You can play fewer games and spend more time in skill development activities that are designed to be fun and improve player skills. Quit worrying about tournaments and start focusing on what kids need to be successful as they get older. Take to heart the guidelines as outlined in an article by Istvan Balyi, Ph.D, National Coaching Institute British Columbia, Canada: “Long Term Athlete Development: Trainability in Childhood and Adolescence.”

In order to structure your program for the long-term benefit of your players you will need to educate the parents and players in your organization/team. Practice sessions need to be designed to be purposeful and provide players with the necessary repetitions they need to become unconsciously competent at all skills.

This starts with skating and the need to improve skating skills never ends. Youth coaches should spend at least 15 minutes at every practice working on skating skills. The off-ice sessions can focus on improving quickness, agility and core-body strength. The off-ice exercises are easy to implement and your teams can do them in 30 minutes.

The rewards will be evident as the season progresses. Whatever you decide to do with your team, be sure you do each drill/exercise with a purpose in mind. You need to be sure that your practices and training sessions are consistent with the “windows of optimum receptivity” for your players and appropriate for their age.

As a coach you should challenge the conventional wisdom and explore the many exciting alternative methods of coaching, practicing and developing your players. In doing so remember there are no shortcuts to success. Great shooters shoot so many pucks they get blisters on their hands. Great skaters train and work hard to be great. The fruits of their labors are success.

And great coaches? They continually learn and focus on preparing their players to reach their potential. It makes sense that the team with the best skills usually wins the game. Make it your mission to insure your players’ individual skills are maximized and the games will take care of themselves.

Illustration by Violeta Rotstein

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If playing games made us better, we would be the best

Even throughout the winter months, many have a habit of turning their thoughts to hockey after the regular season. The calls are already being made to fill out the rosters of AAA teams and other leagues that operate in the spring, summer and fall months. Parents of younger players are concerned their kids will fall behind their group and feel pressured to participate.

The father of an 8-year-old player once emailed me about power skating and wondered how to fit it in with his AAA team, Mash team, and Showcase team. The lad also plays baseball. Without discussing the relative merits of the programs (not including the baseball part) it seems that this is an example of what we are facing today. These offseason leagues will often take precedence over the in-season sports, especially if it is a practice to be missed.

My advice to the father was for his son to play baseball, period.

Let us review the relative merits and value of playing games versus a good skill development program or just an old-fashioned practice session.

First of all, we need to outline the actual amount of time spent on the ice during a one hour game. For most youth levels the average player spends only 12 minutes actually playing. We also know through various studies done at the Olympics and Tier 1 National Youth Tournaments over the years that the best players average about 1 minute of actually touching the puck during a game. For the average youth player it is closer to 30 seconds.

Let us assume that you can manage to play another 30 games in the off- season. That equals a total of 6 hours of ice time and 9 minutes of handling a puck. Let’s not even discuss the cost per minute played or the time spent traveling, sometimes out of the country, to these games.

Many families are spending several thousand dollars a year in the off-season leagues, which consist of mostly games. Games are the least effective development tool and most expensive per minute for time on the ice.

Now let’s compare the average STP summer program or similar camp. For an average cost of $375-$500 the players get 30 hours of ice time, 60 hours of off-ice training and 3- 5 games at the end of the program.

Add to that lots of time for spring, fall and summer sports, and you have a happy and well-rounded youngster.

The best skilled players in the world today are coming mostly from Europe where they focus on fun and skill development at early ages. The league play, as we know it, does not even begin until the mid-teens.

We continue to ignore the facts that playing more games and practicing occasionally is self-defeating and a contradiction to what we say we want for our children.

So what should a youth player do in the off-season if he/she wants to improve?

1) Enjoy the rest of the season

2) Participate in other sports and activities in the off season

3) Participate in hockey skill development activities. STP, power skating programs, Acceleration Minnesota, and hockey camps are good options.

4) Play roller hockey with your friends.

5) Shoot 100 pucks a day at your home goal. Stickhandle on your own.

The off-season leagues are fun and are not necessarily detrimental to players unless they rely on them for skill development and replace the skill acquisition programs. It is then that you may be exchanging fun today for lack of success in the future.

Have a great off-season!

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As March madness approaches the interest in watching hockey increases to a fever pitch. There are many discussions in the stands about the various teams and the players. Many definitive statements are uttered a loud, many of them wrong or unfair to the players.

Hockey is very different than other team sports. It takes a tremendous amount of physical and mental skills to play the game at all, much less play well. Unlike the other team sports with set plays and rigid routes and patterns, hockey is a flowing game with constant substitutions and endless possibilities for play making. We use a phrase “read and react” to communicate to players that they must constantly observe the action around them and react accordingly. No time to check with the offensive or defensive coordinator or have a timeout huddle to diagram the last shot. Hockey is about constant movement up and down the ice.

Parents and spectators who sit in the elevated stands often cannot understand why “little Johnny” didn’t just lift the puck over the fallen goalie to win the game? Or why the puck carrier didn’t pass off to a teammate who was obviously in a better position to score. Or why that “stupid coach put the wrong guys on the ice to kill off the penalty”.

The game is actually very much different the closer you are to it. Up in the stands it looks pretty clear. From the player’s bench the view is much different than from above, and on the ice the view is even different again. The players do not see what you see. They have a much narrower view in most cases and they are normally under the pressure of the competition. As the game progresses, the players tire from the physical exertion and stress. This all changes how they see the game. What you see is not always what they see.

Another element to consider while you are sitting or standing in the stands is the speed of the game on the ice. A top bantam and high school player can skate at top speed from blue line to blue line in 1.9 to 2.2 seconds. That is 50 feet in about 2 seconds. If the skater is carrying the puck through the neutral zone numerous split second decisions need to be made and skills executed. Skating, stick handling, and passing skills are all required here in those 2 seconds. Many of the decisions the players make are right and many of them wrong. Sometimes the idea is correct but the skill to accomplish the task is not quite there. In the context of the skills required to play hockey, the fans and parents should recognize that what is happening on ice is a remarkable combination of physical and mental skills coordinated into a team effort. Celebrate their achievements, and ignore their failures.

As the tournaments commence over the next few weeks it will be fun to see the terrific play at all levels as the teams advance towards their respective playoffs. Whether or not your favorite team advances to the tournaments, you must respect them all for the great talent, heart, and dedication that they exhibit. Win or lose it is a great to compete.

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Experts are made, not born

Hockey sense is commonly used to describe a player who appears to anticipate what is about to happen on the ice and then reacts a bit sooner than the other players. Terms like “sees the ice well” and “great anticipation” are also used to describe these players. It is assumed that these players have a gift and that “hockey sense” could not be learned.

In a July 2007 report in the Harvard Business Review, research done by K Anders Ericsson has demonstrated that “experts are always made, not born” in all aspects of life. Specifically for hockey he demonstrates the qualities that would make up “hockey sense” and the fact that they can actually be learned.

The problem with teaching “hockey sense” comes from having an understanding of what it is that needs to be learned and how best to teach it. By examining the aspects of “hockey sense” and then breaking it down into teachable components, youth coaches can do a better job for their teams and help the players learn “hockey sense.”

Players who demonstrate “hockey sense” are those who typically possess superior individual skills than their teammates or opponents. They dazzle the fans with their quick sticks, maneuvers and overall abilities. They always seem to be in the right place.

The questions that should be asked are: why are these players able to play at a level that seems to be above the rest of the players, and do they really have more “hockey sense” than other players? With close inspection it becomes apparent that these players usually have spent more time on the ice in unstructured situations where they are free to learn by doing and watching older players.

If coaches want to help all of their players develop their hockey sense, there are a couple steps to start down that road.

The first step to teaching hockey sense is teaching skills. The skills are skating, puck handling, passing and shooting. For young players through the bantam levels considerable attention should be paid to skill development. This means plenty of practice time and small-area games to help develop transitions and to use skills in confined areas under pressure.

Skill development through lots of repetition at practice is essential for all players if they want to be successful. Teaching skating at every practice, all winter long is essential. Coaches need to be active during practice helping their players improve in all skill areas. Be sure to be active and teach while running drills, be sure they do things right and make sure you and the players understand the primary objective of every drill so the proper focus exists.

In order for skills to develop, practice-to-game ratios for squirts, peewees and bantams should be 3 to 1. Ratios lower than this will severely limit the growth of players. To play the game at a high level requires a high level of skill. Learning requires lots of repetition in order for players to achieve unconscious competency of the skills required to be successful.

Games are fun but with most youth players only skating 15 minutes per game, practice and small area games are far more important to developing players.

The game of hockey is a continuous series of “common reoccurring situations.” The more players are exposed to the situations the better they become at reacting to them. More specifically, 1 on 1, 2 on 1, and 3 on 2 would be considered situations that occur over and over again.

With experience and good coaching players will learn to react instinctively as they are involved with these scenarios. The options available to players in these situations can be taught in practice and then experienced in games.

It is essential to demonstrate and teach multiple options to players so they have the ability to react to quickly changing situations. Running these situations from many different spots on the rink surface will help your players learn to adapt to a variety of situations and potential ways to deal with them.

For youth coaches who are not equipped to teach many skills, scrimmages, full ice, cross-ice and varying the numbers of players is also quite valuable. In all instances it is better than having the kids spend most of the time standing in line at practice.

The second step to teaching hockey sense is how we provide feedback to the players during and after games. This part is challenging because our teams are made up of players who have fairly wide ranges of skill and developmental levels. In many instances some of the players simply cannot keep up with some of their teammates.

This is why practice and small area games are so critical. We can provide plenty of feedback and instruction during practices. During games we can provide observations and feedback while the game is in progress. Asking questions like “what did you see out there” will help to encourage meaningful dialogue between a coach and a player.

Offering alternate solutions to situations will help a player learn about other options that might be considered for that particular scenario. Allowing them to make mistakes is also an essential part of the process.

Helping your players to understand the different options available to them in a variety of situations and giving them lots of opportunity to experience them is a good start to helping develop hockey sense. This is a long-term process and requires patience on the part of the coaches.

Unlike other countries, where they are developing top-level players on purpose, we rely a bit on luck, large numbers of players and natural abilities. For a few this works but for most players it does not.

Youth coaches that spend more time practicing than playing games and use the practice time to develop skills and teach players about common reoccurring situations will take a big step towards teaching “Hockey Sense” to their players. The likely outcome is that your teams will play much better at the end of the season than at the beginning and your players will have much more fun.

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Youth hockey coaches have an incredible opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of the young players on their teams. The coaches spend a considerable amount of time with their players and the players will learn not only hockey but many life skills and lessons from the coaches. The challenge for youth coaches is to deliver the right messages and model the right behaviors that will help the players grow as individuals and as players.

A goggle search of the word “coach” comes up with; “a person who directs players activities in a game.” Used as a verb, “to coach” means “to train.” Both functions of coaching require technical skills in the game, as well as skills as a trainer or teacher.

The first definition is really an illusion in hockey because when the puck drops at game time the coaches are not directing play on the ice ‐ although many coaches try to shout instructions throughout the game from the bench.

There is another way to perceive the role of a coach and that is to think of coaching young people as mentoring.

In the past when I’ve spoken at CEP clinics in Minnesota, and around the country, we discussed the difference between a coach and a mentor. When I brought up the idea of a mentor and asked the coaches to think of mentors that they have had in their lives a lot of smiles appeared and heads nodding up and down.

Bingo, the light went on. A mentor is someone who cares, helps, guides and teaches. Gosh that sounds like what coaches should be doing.

Checking again with Google and then to a Mentor website the following definition appears:

Matter of Trust. Mentoring is a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support and encouragement aimed at developing the competence and character of the mentee. A mentor is an adult who, along with parents, provides a young person with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people bring out strengths that are already there.

It is hard to imagine any coach not agreeing that being a mentor is a good thing to be to youngsters but why when we hit the ice is it so hard to do? Is it because of personal ego or maybe the mistaken idea that the coaches job is just to win?

At the mite and squirt levels the atmosphere is pretty tame, but each year after it really heats up until bantams where the pressure to “win baby win” and the volatile nature of maturing young people collide. As the players move on to high school, the pressure to win moves to the top of the list with the parents leading the charge looking for scapegoats if the teams do not win, or worse yet, their child does not make the team.

It takes special people to balance the competitive pressures of bantam and high school players along with the mentoring the players need.

Mentoring activities include taking the time to get to know the players and what they like to do away from the rink. Taking an interest in them as individuals, their school work, and families helps to build the relationships it takes to successfully mentor/ coach a player. I believe that it takes entire seasons with a player to develop a good working understanding and trust in order to be effective as a coach.

Unfortunately, in our youth hockey system many of the players only spend one year with a coach before moving on. That means extra effort needs to be made to quickly build the trust and effective communication. Without these, a coach is just another loud adult to tune out.

Look for ways to engage every player on your team about something beside hockey. The effort will reward you and the players.

As you head to the rink each day, think first of being a mentor to all of your players and a coach second. By taking this approach you will leave a positive life‐long impression on your players, have more fun yourself and, although I cannot prove it, probably win more games.

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Except in youth hockey.

Not only are the children above average in the eyes of hockey parents they are A, AA, AAA, Premier, Elite, Select, Tier 1, Tier 2  and so forth. They proudly wear the jackets and jerseys announcing it to the world and so do their parents.  A youth dedicated to attaining the unattainable.

And what about those players who are average (most players) and just want to play hockey for fun? The fun is gone by age twelve for many kids across the county and ten thousand do not return the next year. One thousand peewees each year quit on average just in Minnesota.

Having coached many levels of youth hockey over the past 40 years I noticed that the B level kids and parents had far more fun than the A level players and families. Ironically, many of those B level players ended up playing high school and college hockey.

Perhaps the adult insistence on having their kids play on one of the Elite, AA, AAA teams is actually setting their kids up for disappointment and perhaps more serious outcomes.

The numbers do not lie. There are only a few spots for scholarship college hockey each year and far fewer for professional opportunities. And there are tens of thousands of kids who play. What are they and their families giving up in exchange for 24/7, 365 day hockey?

They will never find until it is too late.

The very few players who will get to the top of the pyramid will get there no matter what the name of their teams are or how much or little they “train”.

They will get there.

The rest will not.

The post Your Kids are not Elite, Premier or Special. They are Kids appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.