Lets not forget we're talking about squirts. The coaches just need to make sure the kids don't get stuck playing defense too much unless the player and parents request this and it best suites the team. Playing wing or center isn't to much different in this age group although switching positions is a good idea. It looks like majority agree that coaches should rotate kids. Coaches just need to remember that there's no state tourney in this age group and the parents need to realize if the coaches rotate players then the team might not win every game.
Let me ask you. I have a friend who just addressed his coach about this very subject. It got a little heated. My friend was shocked what he heard the coach say. The coach said: "If he spends his time volunteering on the ice teaching the kids hockey he should have the right to play his son at any position for as long as he wants" What a sad statement. I hope this really didn't happen. If it did this is what's wrong with youth sports. A volunteer is someone who gives his time and skills to benefit the community because he chose to not to receive perks for his kid.
Volunteer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A volunteer is someone who works for a community or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so.
regarding the quote, that is pretty bad if that is the case
regarding wing and center being the same at this age...other than in the offensive zone the wing and center are not close to the same. but i should qualify my earlier post as i was writting as it relates to squirt A teams/players.
Gilmour........Interesting Point. Up until a few years ago I was in your camp. That the kids need to learn "The Game" and learn systems to show what a well oiled machine they are.
About a year ago I changed my coaching philosophy...now this was the 10A level at EP so some will take this with a grain of salt. But I had a pretty talented group and I took pride in never actually practicing a breakout. We had one system, the other players always get available for the puck carrier.This could be the far winger coming across the ice as an outlet. I think the coach that tells a player to stay wide and thinks a 9 year old is going to fire a 70 ft pass cross ice is kidding himself. That group lost one game that year and we also rotated positions after every tournament.
The bottom line is that systems are useless if the players can't make a pass or handle the puck with their heads up. At the younger levels of youth hockey...lets not stiffel the creativity or demand the game be played one way.
This system was told to me years ago and I've passed it on to my team...."Work the puck around until you guys get tired and then dump it in their net and we'll rest at center ice."
I think for some kids you can tell pretty quick where they are successful (maybe 3-5 games at each position), others take longer, I get that. But if your telling me that as a coach I MUST rotate ALL 15 skaters for the ENTIRE 35 game season, then I say that is bad idea and really hamstrings a coaches ability to coach.
Nofinish, seeing that your assocaition requires it, I'm interested in how your association enforces it. Do they give coaches specific instructions / guidelines on how to administer that? How about consequences if the policy is violated?
Jolt,
my association gave guidelines to rotate on or about every 10 games in squirts. This basically broke the squirt season into 3 rotations. We put kids that were good or liked a certian position into those positions for two of the rotations. To the associations credit, we have not have any rotation nazis sent down from the board to enforce the rule, as far as I know most coaches have not abused it.
I'm at the peewee level now (not A level) and I think the kids like the rotation. Defense gets to move up and get a few points. The fowards move back to D and get to dish out some hits (legal checks) instead of always taking them.
Have we won as many games this way? Probably not. But like I said previous, no parents or kids have complained.
Pens4 wrote:Gilmour........Interesting Point. Up until a few years ago I was in your camp. That the kids need to learn "The Game" and learn systems to show what a well oiled machine they are.
About a year ago I changed my coaching philosophy...now this was the 10A level at EP so some will take this with a grain of salt. But I had a pretty talented group and I took pride in never actually practicing a breakout. We had one system, the other players always get available for the puck carrier.This could be the far winger coming across the ice as an outlet. I think the coach that tells a player to stay wide and thinks a 9 year old is going to fire a 70 ft pass cross ice is kidding himself. That group lost one game that year and we also rotated positions after every tournament.
The bottom line is that systems are useless if the players can't make a pass or handle the puck with their heads up. At the younger levels of youth hockey...lets not stiffel the creativity or demand the game be played one way.
This system was told to me years ago and I've passed it on to my team...."Work the puck around until you guys get tired and then dump it in their net and we'll rest at center ice."
I don't consider a simple breakout a "system"... To me, it's nothing more than a skating and passing drill. I think kids should learn how to do a simple breakout as soon as possible (4th year Mites or Squirts). To break the puck out, you don't need to fire 70' passes, as you say, but a short pass from D to wing to center....then you can have the far wing skate across towards the puck carrier and find open ice in the nuetral zone and have the center hit him/her in stride. Again, not 70', but more like 30-40'.
One of the problems I see with kids in the inability to pass and receive a pass when skating full speed. Breakout drills are great for teaching kids how to pass and skate with their heads up...and it doesn't stifle creativity, either, as there are many, many different variations of the breakout...
Muck, thanks. I've been wondering if I should start a thread on "skills vs. systems". Even if everyone agrees that skills take precedence over systems, people can disagree on what is which.
I suggested a breakout drill to another father, and he said kids need to learn how to carry the puck. We agree on that, but he may have been thinking something complicated. I was just thinking of dumping a puck in the corner and sending two after it. The first one picks it up and the second needs to go somewhere else. In Mites, kids call for passes because they want to touch the puck. Is that too early to teach the fundamental skill to get open?
Getting Open
Looking Up When Carrying The Puck
Understanding When To Change On The Fly
Spreading Out On A 2-on-1
Learning How To Pick Up The Puck In A Corner
Receiving A Pass
To me these are all skills. A basic breakout drill gives you a chance to address at least four of them. Our kids do a lot of skating through cones and don't ever play on outdoor ice. There's only so much of that they can take before it becomes boring.
I'm in your camp Muck. People freak out when they hear the word breakout. All it means to me is letting two kids figure out how they'd get the puck out of the zone.
O-townClown wrote:Muck, thanks. I've been wondering if I should start a thread on "skills vs. systems". Even if everyone agrees that skills take precedence over systems, people can disagree on what is which.
I suggested a breakout drill to another father, and he said kids need to learn how to carry the puck. We agree on that, but he may have been thinking something complicated. I was just thinking of dumping a puck in the corner and sending two after it. The first one picks it up and the second needs to go somewhere else. In Mites, kids call for passes because they want to touch the puck. Is that too early to teach the fundamental skill to get open?
Getting Open
Looking Up When Carrying The Puck
Understanding When To Change On The Fly
Spreading Out On A 2-on-1
Learning How To Pick Up The Puck In A Corner
Receiving A Pass
To me these are all skills. A basic breakout drill gives you a chance to address at least four of them. Our kids do a lot of skating through cones and don't ever play on outdoor ice. There's only so much of that they can take before it becomes boring.
I'm in your camp Muck. People freak out when they hear the word breakout. All it means to me is letting two kids figure out how they'd get the puck out of the zone.
Agreed. When the kids are advanced Mites or Squirts, you start with a basic breakout and as they get older you start introducing more complexities such as throwing a forechecker at them while they are trying to break out, in addition to different types of breakouts (which there are many).
Another thing to consider is that most kids think breakout drills are more enjoyable than skating around cones because it has more of a game "feel" than simply having them skate around dots or cones, which (as you say) can get boring awfully fast.
hockey_is_a_choice wrote:Coaches: I am curious whether you believe, at the Squirt A level, teams should rotate players between defense and forward during the season. Intuitively, I think this is a no-brainer from a developmental standpoint, which is supposed to be the cornerstone of Squirt hockey, but I'm open to hearing opposing views. More than half-way through the season, my son's coaches have not rotated positions.
My son was Rotated from center to defense midway thru this season. And was leading scorer on his A Squirt team. It is good for them to learn all positions. Not all players have the ability or talent to play both. It also gives them better understading of the game and should help them understand how important backchecking is as well.It also encourages them to play more heads ups to set up plays and rush the puck. So feel free to rotate players remember let the coach coach. [/list]
Let the coaching staff make the decisions, that is why they are there and keep the association and family members out of it. If the association doesn'y have faith in the coach and his decision than they shouldn't have selected him/her.
Why do you think the summer hockey teams are successful, they don't have someone else telling the coaches what to do. Teams like the Machine and Blades and others are winning because coaches put kids in positions that fit the player and the team.
If it did this is what's wrong with youth sports. A volunteer is someone who gives his time and skills to benefit the community because he chose to not to receive perks for his kid.