What is the deal with the stick length debate?
I have heard so many conflicting point of views
and my own child is often told his stick is too short. So I will
just do my best to explain the conflicting point of views. The
"traditional "advice is that a stick should be cut so that it is
somewhere between your kid's nose and chin when standing in skates.
Now that gives quite a bit of scope as there is a over an inch
between most noses and chins. However there are some who say your
stick should be even shorter if you expect to be a good shooter.
Bobby Hull Junior in his shooting camps states that he believes the
"traditional advice " is inappropriate and results in a stick that
is too long. He says you should cut your stick between your nose
and chin when STANDING IN YOUR SHOES, so it falls between your CHIN
AND TOP OF CHEST WHEN STANDING IN YOUR SKATES. Big difference. My
son prefers a shorter stick, it helps him stickhandle and as most
of his shots are wrist shots, it is much easier to control the
stick and get a shot off. If your kid is a forward it might makes
sense to try the shorter stick. Clearly a defensemen might prefer
something longer. It will enable him to poke check more effectively
as he will have better reach. There is a lot of range in this
advice. The best answer is to start somewhere in the middle and
soon you child will be telling you what he or she likes best. I
tend to think at the developmental level you have to go with what
the child wants - unless its outrageous! FYI I have a very short
stick myself, it goes to the top of my chest in my skates. I find
that anything longer is just too awkward for me when I play pick up
roller hockey...but then as a former field hockey player I was used
to something MUCH shorter!
What is the deal with the lefty/righty curve?
It does not take long to work out that a stick
with a curve gives you and advantage. A curve enables you to lift
your shot when necessary. It puts real zip on your wrist shot! If
your kid is right handed it is intuitive and traditionally the case
that he would prefer a curve designed for a right sided shot on the
forehand . Not necessarily so, some say, though there is no
universal agreement, a right handed person should shoot left and
vice-versa. The logic here is that the top hand on the shaft
controls most of your stick handling - the more precise hand
movements would thus benefit from being controlled by the hand the
person has more fine motor skills with being placed on the top. The
lower hand on the shaft is the "power hand" and thus what is
required there is mostly physical strength . If this really was an
absolute truth you would find it universally applicable to every
player in the NHL and it clearly is not. There probably is much
more requirement for fine motor skills on the power hand than this
argument would suggest. That power hand also guides to the target.
I have tried using a left curve, and know it could never work for
me. My kids are rightys and shoot right too. Let your kid
experiment.
It's summer isn't hockey over?
I have received this question quite a bit. There
is no doubt that some parents feel a bit overwhelmed by the
smorgasbord of post season activities for hockey. There are some
who say you should take a break in the Spring and Summer. An answer
here really depends what your child's interest in hockey is and
other non-hockey activities they also want the opportunity to
pursue. Even the most enthusiastic hockey crazed kid needs a change
of pace and not every child has ambitions to play AAA youth hockey.
Even if they cannot recognize the need for a hockey rest, you as
the parent need to help them by making sure they take an
appropriate break. A Spring League can be fun so do not rule it
out. It would be great if Spring leagues offered cross ice 3 vs 3
for everyone at least fro some of the games. I long to see "summer
pond hockey" take off as a concept in the area. If your child
expects to be truly good at hockey you need to practice more than 4
or 5 months of the year. The spring and summer time is a chance to
build skills, individual skills, so come the fall each player
increases what he brings to his team's table. During the Season
there is limited time to focus on an individual player, the
emphasis is on taking what you have and moulding it into an
effective strategy for the team. Spring and summer programs need to
be focussed on that individual skill building. Lets go back to the
Smorgasboard, it truly is that. Think of the spring and summer
hockey programs as a menu of potential opportunities and you need
to pick what you want and not more than you want . Spring clinics
tend to be very general and inlcude a lot of everything. They get
your kid out on the rink once a week and keep skills sharp and
bring new skills out. Summer camps can be more focussed. Power
skating, stickhandling, offensive skills, defensive skills,
shooting, net minding and many more. Use our listing to help find
the right camp for your child. Space things out. Don't make the
summer all about hockey. Get out to the pool more than the rink.
Play another sport too. The best hockey players tend to be the
athletic in general and other sports help improve overall
conditioning and athletic ability. Baseball is so boring compared
to hockey of course but the beauty is that it has the least clash
with regular season activities and it is a change of pace for sure.
Involve your child in picking camps if they are old enough. They
have a good idea as to what things they want to improve on for the
season.
Also consider another factor, ice rinks would not
be around for very long if they could only rely on the patronage of
the hockey community 5 months of the year. Without successfully
running clinics, hockey lessons and summer camps, hockey would be
in jeoprody for all participants not just the kids who want to play
more competitively.
If, come September and the first team practice of
the season, your child is confident and pumped up and looking
forward to the first games of the season, you picked well and
managed to get it right.
Should my Mite play "travel" hockey?
This seems to be one of the most burning
questions in North American hockey programs and one that hockey
parents cross sooner rather than later. It is difficult because
every child and every family are different. A travel program might
be great for some kids and their families but not others. Travel is
not what
USA Hockey thinks is good for your Mite and it is important to understand
why it really may not be good for his/her hockey
development.
Kids believe the travel teams often contain the
best players and they want to be one of the "best players". They do
not really understand that "travel" is getting on the road at early
hours of the morning or even the night before to play 3, 12 minute
periods where they may only touch the puck for a few seconds. What
is generally accurate from their understanding is that travelling
with a team is getting together with a "band of brothers" and
taking on opponents, attempting to increase the team's standing in
a league table. They have watched enough NHL to strongly identify
with that. The wasted time travelling will certainly not improve
your childs hockey skills or improve his performance and he may
become tired of hockey because he hates having to go away all the
time. Just think of the skill improvement he would obtain if he
spent the near 7 hours to travel to and from a distant rink doing
cross-ice small area games. Your child clearly does not always
think improving his skills is important and will tell you that he
"just wants to play hockey with a real team". The problem is he
really does not consider playing with the house cross-ice program a
real "team " experience.
The irony here is that travel at this age may not
be the best idea for the potentially very talented. Your future
Gretzky might bet better off at home at his local rink honing his
skills. Neither would it be the best answer for a family who just
wants to have fun and they and their child are not entertaining
thoughts of competing at higher levels. You really need to think
what might be best for your child and your family. Most kids are
better off playing cross-ice. There are lots of reasons why
cross-ice and small area games are considered the best choice for
hockey development. See links to articles on left hand side of this
web page. Much also depends on the quality of the programs being
offered. The older your child is and the more competitive and
serious about hockey they are the more you may be tempted by travel
programs. Many travel programs offer excellent coaching and extra
practice opportunities. This should be the attraction rather than
the games the kids will play! ALL COACHES SHOULD BE USING SMALL
AREA GAMES AND DRILLS IN THEIR PRACTICES, SO THE BENEFITS OF
"CROSS-ICE" SHOULD NOT BE LOST ONCE YOR CHILD STARTS PLAYING TRAVEL
HOCKEY.
- Make sure you understand the time commitment and
demands a travel program will place on you and your family
including other siblings who may get constantly dragged to games
they have no interest or involvement in.
- Make sure it is your child who is nuts about
hockey and not you - the parent. Many people view Mite travel as
"travel hockey for parents" ..make sure that cannot be said about
your involvement!
- Travel programs are expensive $1500 to over
$4000 per year.
- If travel hockey is not in your budget or will
not suit your family's schedule and you are worried about your
child facing insufficient competition at his age level - talk to
your child's house team coach...it may be possible for him to play
up a level in your clubs "House" program. Most coaches are
agreeable to this. After all precocious players often will out
skate the other kids so much that it limits the other kids
opportunities for development. However, remember it is much harder
for a talented player to stand out at cross-ice than full
ice!
Cross-ice can be a great team experience. If
there is other locally based teams arrange cross- ice jamborees
with other clubs!
I have to declare an interest here my son, played
Squirt travel as a Mite. There was no Mite travel available to him
at our club. The Squirt team seemed to make sense. It was a great
year and he had a blast. Everything depends. We still played small
areas games though for travel team practices!!!!!
Is roller hockey bad for ice hockey?
I met a Mom at the rink once who gave away her
son's roller blades because she felt it would ruin his hockey
skating. A skating instructor had told her it would "ruin" his ice
skating stride.
Hockey Mom believes roller blading is great! If
you are really concerned that the flat base of most inline skates
will ruin your child's muscle memory for hockey skating then
buy hockey in-line blades with a rocker
chassis. Check out www.smarthockey.com.
Smarthockey is the developer of the "Tuuk Rocker" chassis
that you will find on some Bauer and Nike in-line hockey skates. A
rocker duplicates the radius of a hockey ice skate. Therefore you
will be able to duplicate the same stride and muscle memory for ice
hockey skating.
Most serious professional ice hockey skaters will
not use a regular in-line chassis becuase they are
legitimately concerned about the impact on muscle memory.
Many professionals and college teams DO use a rocker chassis for
their off ice development.
Anyway, saying your kid should not roller blade
in case it ruins their ice hockey stride is just insane. Odds are
that Jimmy and Jane will not be playing in the NHL or College
hockey or anything like that so why kill Jimmy and Jane's
fun!
Roller hockey players often have fantastic stick
handling skills. I think this is because they often play on smaller
rinks and in differing formats such as 3 on 3. I have seen many
roller bladers get on ice and while their skating may be a little
shaky they are usually very strong on the puck! I think roller
hockey is great for stick handling and is a good change from the
ice for summer and spring time. Check out our in-line
links.
Is there a coaching book that you recommend and other books for
parents to learn about hockey?
Yes, The Baffled Guide to Coaching Youth
Hockey see below. Whether you are coaching or not this will
help you. For the non-coaches it will give you a good idea of what
is going on on the ice and what your child's coaches are trying to
accomplish and really standards of how they should behave..and it
also is good to read as it gives a clue for how you as a parent
should behave and some of the frustrations coaches have with
parents. Also I love the premise of the book. Most coaches are
parents! Parents are everything to youth hockey. Without them there
would be zero youth hockey!!
We also love Hockey for Dummies. This
book though part of a chain of books on every subject under the sun
but it is well written and has information from the basic to the
really quite sophisticated. On the sophitsicated front you will
even learn what a "left wing trap" is.
We love the books by NHLer Dan Bylsma. So You
Want to Play in the NHL, whilst aimed at your 10 -15 year old
to read you should read it first. It is perfect for both
encouraging them and making them realistic in their expectations
and perhaps helping you understand what it takes to climb the
ladder of hockey achievment too. He also has a book aimed at you
So Your Son Wants To Play in the NHL.
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Is hockey safe?
Mostly, sometimes, not always but we can help
make it safer! Youth hockey at the younger age categories of Atom,
Mite and Squirt before checking is introduced is very safe.
Statistically it is in fact safer than soccer. It is important that
the children wear all protective equipment that USA Hockey
recommends.
Once children advance to the age categories where
checking is permitted - for boys this a at Pee Wee level ( 11 and
12 year olds) the risk of injury increases. Girls do not check in
most leagues. Though the many girls who play on boys teams are
exposed to checking play. There are many questions and arguments as
to whether checking has any place in youth hockey, but at this
point in time it is present. The reality is that the risk of injury
increases significantly when intentional hitting is introduced.
However you have to keep things in perspective, the risk of a
catastrophic injury like a paralizing spinal cord injury is still
extremely remote. Remote, but maybe not acceptable especially as
there is a clear correlation in available data between checking,
increasing size of the player and catastrohic injury. In the United
States, a recent study demonstrated a direct fatality and injury
rate of 3.11 per 100,000 high school hockey players and 11.55 per
100,000 at the college level. In Canada and the United States ther
are aproximately 15 neck fractures/ breaks per year associated with
ice hockey and the majority of those are caused by illegal hits
from behind. Most of the injuries occur when the athlete is struck
from behind or falls and hits the boards. Data for USA Hockey
participants are not published.
With regard to all injuries independent studies
suggest game injury rates for a Squirt A, Peewee A, and Bantam A
boys' teams were 6.7, 12.3, and 10.8 injuries per 1,000
player-hours. The injury definition was restricted to injuries
lasting more than 1 day or involving concussion, skin laceration,
or dental injury . In another study 152 boys were tracked in nine
youth teams (ages 9 to 15), at three age levels (Squirt, Peewee,
and Bantam) and three ability levels (A, most skilled; B,
intermediate skilled; and C, least skilled) in a Minnesota
community to assess the rate, severity, and distribution of
injuries. The injury defintion was lowered to any interruption in
play. The injury rate was 15 per 100 players per season (52 total
injuries, including 8 fractures). Thirty-eight players were injured
during games as a result of body contact; 9 injuries involved legal
checking, and the remainder resulted from illegal checks or other
violations. Eighty-eight percent of injuries involved collisions.
Clearly getting to grips with illegal checking is a major element
in reducing injuries. USA Hockey has some excellent educational
programs, including making sure kids keep their heads up when being
check and not fall to the temptaion of ducking.
Parents and coaches and officials can make hockey
safer by education and enforcing the rules. Not letting children
compromise on their equipment - wear their mouth guards to help
prevent concussions. In this hockey Mom's opinion we should be
considering eliminating checking from amateur hockey. The result
may be more skilled players making their way to the NHL of the
future. If checking is necessary for the professional sport
checking can be learned in minor leagues. Just my view. 15 kids per
year with a broken neck may not sound like many given the numbers
who play the game (over 1 million in North America), but if it was
your kid you would feel differently. There are a lot of concussions
and broken collar bones in hockey - injuries that while not life
threatening are severe.
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