District 10 Doing Away with D-Mites

[Hockey!LoveIt!]

Wondering what other people think about District 10 doing away with the D-Mites program. I understand how crucial skills development is at this age and kids should get more practice time than game time. But...if most associations do not let skaters play-up, what goal is there to shoot for with these kids? At the Squirt, Pee-Wee and Bantam levels making the
A-team is clearly the goal. (Along with, of course, learning, improving and having fun)

[HockeyRocks1]

D10 is crazy to have mites traveling from PC to Cambridge or ER. My siblings kids play in D10 and some of the things they do are nuts! Pack my 6 or 7 yearold in the car to play a tourney in MORA. How about a little 3 on 3 cross ice against kid you know for a pop and hot dog.

Under 9 should stay home and play within their association no matter how small. If Jr. is too good for that drive him all over the state in the summer.

[jancze5]

love your response pops...."for a pop and a hotdog!"...

good perspective, you should shout out more...

[Hockey!LoveIt!]

Playing 3on3 against a buddy across the pond is not the point. They can still do that. Kids need to skate with other kids at their skill level or higher to develop better skills. And besides...ask any D10 D-Mite and they will tell you how much they love it. Isn't that important, too. It's no different than being in an accerlated math/reading, etc. course in school. Wish there were more of this, too.

[hockeychick]

Good point hockeyloveit, and for the people who don't like the travel.....from pc to cambridge to mora, think twice about signing up, especially when you live in the boon docks everything is a drive. A point for people who may have mights and do not understand how it works after mites, if you have a first year player sign up at 8 years old and you are only allowed C-Mites, what a jump from c-mites to squirt and keep in mind the smaller associations whether right or wrong, don't offer all levels due to numbers and most time kids play up. How much skills does playing 3 on 3 as a mite offer, if your not taught the right practices. Thank god there is options in the summer, but kids have no choice where they play winter hockey especially at mites- except for Bernies choice league.

[northwoods oldtimer]

Traveling 1.5 hours to play a 1 hour games does not make a mite better. Ice time, ice time, ice time is what mites need and a whole lot of other levels as well. Check out what the Europeans do at the young levels and you will soon realize why those guys lead in scoring pretty consistanly in the NHL. Playing 3 on 3 for 2-3 hours a day is the point!

[breakout]

Traveling 1.5 hours to play a 1 hour games does not make a mite better. Ice time, ice time, ice time is what mites need and a whole lot of other levels as well. Check out what the Europeans do at the young levels and you will soon realize why those guys lead in scoring pretty consistanly in the NHL. Playing 3 on 3 for 2-3 hours a day is the point!

Right on!

The Europeans are present more than ever before in the NHL. That is because of their skill and creativity. If more followed your suggestions creativity and skill would ensue.

[Hockey!LoveIt!]

So is there any coaching going on in this 2-3 hours of pond hockey or are the kids making the same mistakes over and over. Most associations do not have alot of ice time for the Mites. They do, however, have quite a bit of "pond hockey" time. Very rarely did you see any coaches or parents out there helping the kids. They are either inside or standing around a fire trying to stay warm. Practice does not make perfect....perfect practice make perfect. The Mite-level program has turned into "everyone gets a "Participation Trophy" and a pizza party at the end of the season. Let's challenge these kids and give them something to work towards. And if someone wants to settle for the hot dog, fine...I prefer the filet.

[Hockey!LoveIt!]

Traveling 1.5 hours to play a 1 hour games does not make a mite better. Ice time, ice time, ice time is what mites need and a whole lot of other levels as well. Check out what the Europeans do at the young levels and you will soon realize why those guys lead in scoring pretty consistanly in the NHL. Playing 3 on 3 for 2-3 hours a day is the point!

Just what are the Europeans doing at the young levels? I do not ask this with any sarcasm. I truly do not know. But, I would venture to say that there is alot of instruction going on. There has to be more to it than a bunch of buddies playing 3 on 3 for 2-3 hours a day if the Europeans are cranking out such outstanding players.

[Reality Check]

NHL Scoring Leaders PP PK
RNK NAME POS GP G A PTS +/- PIM ATOI SOG SPCT G A G A
1 Sidney Crosby, PIT C 79 36 84 120 10 60 20:45 250 14.4 13 48 0 0
2 Joe Thornton, SJ C 82 22 92 114 24 44 20:18 213 10.3 10 44 0 0
3 V. Lecavalier, TB C 82 52 56 108 2 44 22:36 339 15.3 16 20 5 4
4 Dany Heatley, OTT RW 82 50 55 105 31 74 21:01 310 16.1 17 22 3 1
5 Martin St. Louis, TB RW 82 43 59 102 7 28 24:09 273 15.8 14 16 5 6
6 Marian Hossa, ATL RW 82 43 57 100 18 49 21:40 340 12.6 17 27 3 1
Joe Sakic, COL C 82 36 64 100 2 46 20:11 258 14.0 16 27 0 0
8 Jaromir Jagr, NYR RW 82 30 66 96 26 78 21:45 324 9.3 7 34 0 0
Marc Savard, BOS C 82 22 74 96 -19 96 20:12 221 10.0 10 39 1 0
10 Daniel Briere, BUF C 81 32 63

Wow two Euros. None in top five.

North Americans must not be doing everything wrong.

[6ampractice]

Good thing for your argument we can ride the coat tails of all those Canadians by calling ourselves North Americans

[breakout]

Good thing for your argument we can ride the coat tails of all those Canadians by calling ourselves North Americans

You are correct, plus there are more Europeans in the league than ever before. Why, because of skill and creativity. Unfortunately, we are over drilled and over organized in the U.S. In my opinion, the over drilling has led us to develop far too many north south kids.

Northwoods Oldtimer is dead on. 3 on 3s, small rink games offer more touches and will foster creativity, skill and will lead to greater confidence in the player. Folks, it flat out works..........articles have been written on it.

A full sheet of ice can be used to have 2 to 3 3 on 3 games going at one time. Consider organizing a Sunday night player night. Have two adults on the ice and watch a game on each end and just let the kids play. They will love it.

[Can't Never Tried]

I think the reason it works so well is that it forces young players to work their skills, and try new creative things in a more confined space with more player pressure on them in that space..which inturn will ready them for the increasing speed of the game as they advance up thru the levels where time and space decreases even on full ice.. thus they will be more comfortable with that pressure when the time comes...plus it's flat out fun for them.

[northwoods oldtimer]

HockeyLoveIt, Here is a great link where Canadian, Europoen and US coaches post ideas, thoughts and opinions. These guys as a collective group are committed to changing the mode of practice here in North America. You boys got me on the scoring leaders for the past season. i should have checked the figures. But looking at a few of those Canadian names and i notice that some of those Canadian kids were developed by the coaches that post to the BB on hockeycoach. We here in North America represent a herd mentality. Go ahead guys think outside the box for just a bit and the possibility become endless!

here is the link enjoy the many thought provoking threads and good insightful coaching tips.

http://www.hockeycoach.com link to Bulliten Boards for candid discussion.

[PanthersIn2011]

Hockey!LoveIt!

I echo the sentiments of the others here who are saying stay home with your mites and play small area games. D10 is doing the right thing.

Here is another good link to the Minnesota Hockey website containing a multitude of articles aimed predominantly at coaches (but you may find them interesting) : http://www.minnesotahockey.org/coaches/ ... center.asp

- The article Coaches Guide to Small Area Games is the one you want to take a look at

- To answer your question about what goals the mites should have, read the article Mite Hockey - FUN ONLY!. Or the Don Lucia 8 and Under Interview

[Hockey!LoveIt!]

Northwoods Oldertimer and PanthersIn2011....

Thanks for the information, I will definitely check it out. I'm new to this phenomenom called Hockey. It definitely has a life of it's own.

[Hockeyguy_27]

Good thing for your argument we can ride the coat tails of all those Canadians by calling ourselves North Americans

You are correct, plus there are more Europeans in the league than ever before. Why, because of skill and creativity. Unfortunately, we are over drilled and over organized in the U.S. In my opinion, the over drilling has led us to develop far too many north south kids.

Northwoods Oldtimer is dead on. 3 on 3s, small rink games offer more touches and will foster creativity, skill and will lead to greater confidence in the player. Folks, it flat out works..........articles have been written on it.

A full sheet of ice can be used to have 2 to 3 3 on 3 games going at one time. Consider organizing a Sunday night player night. Have two adults on the ice and watch a game on each end and just let the kids play. They will love it.

First off, I never knew Mites actually traveled. This seems a little too much. Breakout, you're right on with your post. We have far too many drills in youth hockey training not enough creative 3 on 3 type of training.

[0904]

I think the thing that everyone is forgetting is that from a developement level most of these kids could compete at the squirt level. We are not talking about 5 and 6 year old mites. Some are only days or weeks from squirt age could make squirt B teams.

I think most everyone will agree that it is best to skate at your own level and skating below is not ideal.

This is what is difficult for those famlies with players at the D-Mite level.

[PanthersIn2011]

I think most everyone will agree that it is best to skate at your own level and skating below is not ideal.

This is what is difficult for those famlies with players at the D-Mite level.

Understood. Which is why you take the 10-12 kids who are a little more advanced -- those that would be your D-Mite team -- and have make sure that they are playing a lot of 3-on-3 against each other.

[greybeard58]

I believe that there are only at the youth level according to registration Mini-Mites and Mites. I also believe that the IP, A,B,C, level came from the Initiation Program (IP) from USA Hockey. Over the years the last level of mites have been described by different names such as pony's, super mites, mighty mites and so on and now "D". We are talking about a group that covers a 4 year span and is there really a need for 5 levels when you are really tyring to teach basic skills and have fun. The whole idea of the IP was to advance players as they mastered the skills of a level. What the levels are called is not important, what is important is learning and having fun, and I agree with those above the 2 articles on the Mn Hockey web site should be mandatory reading for all mite parents especially the Don Lucia interview.

[Hobey Faker]

I think at this age you work mostly on skills, stick handling, skating exc.
For games they should play small area games within the team, a scrimmage every couple weeks to mix things up isn’t a bad idea but the focus on small area games and skills should be primary.
I think the kids get comfortable with there teammates and are more apt to
try new things without fear of failing VS playing structured games.

There are plenty of ways to make practice fun while teaching at the same time.
I know parents like to see the games but watching your player develop the skills necessary for when he gets older will give you more satisfaction later on in your Childs career.

If you look at the independent AAA programs run in summer, they (the good ones) work on skills primarily and play in a few tournaments.
This is growing by leaps and bounds across the state because people see the results of there child’s development. I think if association hockey could adapt to this; it would benefit every young player.
As they get older give them more games.
I get a sense that allot of people are more worried about how many kids they can recruit to play hockey vs. the quality of teaching. If we loose a few players from not playing enough games so be it; the ones that stay
Will at least have a quality experience.

look at the program MM is offering this winter and how many people are signed up; this should be looked at as a possible modle for associations
to help develop there mite and squirt aged players. I know allot of people
are against MM but look at what works and take the positives home.

Just my opinion

[PlayerCoach]

First let me start by saying that I just heard about this and since I couldn't find anything on D10 website I did a google search and found this.

Having coached mites for 3 years now I think it is a great decision to get rid of D Mites. My first year of coaching was truely a learning experience. I am of the opinion that it is the hardest level to teach. As a coach you need to learn to break down the skills so that the kids can learn them. In other words, I think you are more of a teacher than a coach.

It's NOT about winning or losing at this age. It's about developing players. One naturally gifted player can dominate a game at this age. In Bantams and later it will take a TEAM of gifted players and not any one individual to win a game.

While it is nice to give kids something to shoot for, the problem in youth hockey is the parents. Too many parents look at the levels and think that it is all important to push their child up to make them "better". I had one player who's parent thought he should have been at a higher level since he was a third grader. Every one of my first graders could skate circles around this kid.

I think you need to have games to make it fun for the kids, most mites have short attention spans and get bored with practices. This can be compensated by doing more 3 on 3 cross-ice games. I did my first 3 on 3 tourney this summer and IMO it is one of the best skill development tools I've ever seen.

I know personally that pushing kids at the Mite level doesn't necessarily create the best player in the future. I never started playing until my last year of squirts and I was far and away the worst player on my team at the time. However, I started for 3 years on my varsity team which one the conference title my sophmore and senior years. I was the only sophmore to letter.

If you don't believe me then go out to youtube and do a search on a guy named Don Lucia, maybe you've heard of him. I think most people will agree that he knows a bit about the game. The talk he gave to USA hockey which is on youtube is probably one of the best talks about youth hockey that I've ever seen.

Sorry for the rambling.

[inthestands]

With three kids through the youth program and two done with high school, what I think I've learned is we "coach" the young kids too much with games and practices.

Very few players can read and react to what's happening on the ice. They don't go out and PLAY with their friends on outdoor rinks, backyards, or open hockey times. That's where the young kids learn the game.

We can only teach so much. If the kids aren't doing it for the fun factor, they may as well stay home, especially from the Pee Wee level on down.

No matter how much we want our kids to be Gretzky like, if they aren't having fun they may as well be playing their gameboy on the coach.