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karl(east) wrote:Let's get back on topic, shall we?

Edina 17
Eden Prairie 1

Made lifer- I hope your kids enjoy the rest of the season. Nobody in the free world with kids older then squirts cartes what "summer" color you wear. Good luck can't wait to see your posts in a few years.

There a quotes from Wayne Gretzy that is a little less famous. He said

"2 or 20, you play the same way if you are up by 2 or up by 20, down by 2 or down by 20."

As painful as it was for the EP parents to watch. Edina winning like that will elevated the game. I am quite sure that the EP coach will have his team working much harder in the future. He will most likely get more ice and with a renewed focus they will end up being better hockey players.

There will be some families from the EP team that will take some steps to find out what the Edina team is doing that they are not, again raising the bar. Some families will find that they may have to spend more effort in the off season to keep up. All good for hockey.

These are the same things that many former great EP players had done in the past. EP has lost nothing but they have gain a chance to go on and become great!

As much as people will not like hearing this

14 of the 17 Edina Squirt A players are from the Choice league at the Made. One of the players that did not play in the league was a move in this fall.

hockeydad11 wrote:As much as people will not like hearing this

14 of the 17 Edina Squirt A players are from the Choice league at the Made. One of the players that did not play in the league was a move in this fall.

So they were not happy with the choice league?

MrBoDangles wrote:

hockeydad11 wrote:As much as people will not like hearing this

14 of the 17 Edina Squirt A players are from the Choice league at the Made. One of the players that did not play in the league was a move in this fall.

So they were not happy with the choice league?

yes Danglegate, they were SOOOO unhappy with Choice that they all decided to skate together this season! Poor miserable kids!!!

Scrap,

Great points eveyone always comes back and redoubles their efforts after a loss like that. EP squirt leaders will do the same thing. They are not going to lay down and quit. They will take it to another level!

I also think that the Edina should have the ablity to make the most out of every game they are in. They also paid for that ice. There is no value in laying back. They can work on different plays and forchecks under pressure.

The Choice league is a strong factor in the level of that team. Most of the players where in the Choice league for at least two years.

MnMade-4-Life wrote:

MrBoDangles wrote:

hockeydad11 wrote:As much as people will not like hearing this

14 of the 17 Edina Squirt A players are from the Choice league at the Made. One of the players that did not play in the league was a move in this fall.

So they were not happy with the choice league?

yes Danglegate, they were SOOOO unhappy with Choice that they all decided to skate together this season! Poor miserable kids!!!

The point is they are not skating at the choice league anymore. Choice league must be good, but not as good as chance to skate against other top squirt teams in the state.

MnMade-4-Life wrote:

MrBoDangles wrote:

hockeydad11 wrote:As much as people will not like hearing this

14 of the 17 Edina Squirt A players are from the Choice league at the Made. One of the players that did not play in the league was a move in this fall.

So they were not happy with the choice league?

yes Danglegate, they were SOOOO unhappy with Choice that they all decided to skate together this season! Poor miserable kids!!!

Bernie's Bendover, The question is if the experience and coaching is so much better... why did they leave? Is their skill level going to go down now?

The one or two years at the Made didn't make these players. They are good from the amount of Hockey they play. The top MN NHL draft choices from last year all came from the North Metro and beyond. No where near the MADE!!!!!!

The Made will only turn little John into a cookie cutter Hockey player.

The one or two years at the Made didn't make these players. They are good from the amount of Hockey they play. The top MN NHL draft choices from last year all came from the North Metro and beyond. No where near the MADE!!!!!!

The Made will only turn little John into a cookie cutter Hockey player. [/quote]

Just a foot note here. The Choice league has only been around for 4 yrs. No Choice league player is anywhere near draft age.

hockeyover40 wrote:The one or two years at the Made didn't make these players. They are good from the amount of Hockey they play. The top MN NHL draft choices from last year all came from the North Metro and beyond. No where near the MADE!!!!!!

The Made will only turn little John into a cookie cutter Hockey player.

Just a foot note here. The Choice league has only been around for 4 yrs. No Choice league player is anywhere near draft age.[/quote]
I'm well aware of that.

Who was the one that used to call this place a cult? I' m hearing twighlight zone music....

I need to add that the choice league is a good option for those that need an alternative. Thinking that it's a golden ticket is where folks are way off.

Having had a kid in the choice league for a couple years, it really, really depends on who your coach (es) is (are). I do like the idea behind it, limited number of drills to prevent subpar free-lance coaching, the longer ice time, etc. One thing I didn't like was, at least at the mite and squirt level, there was really not much team concept stuff going on. It was all skating and stickhandling. If you had a good coach, everything went great. If you didn't have a good coach, not so good. The kids would play in games at different positions with limited coaching while on the ice, i.e. playing your position, etc.

As to the hysteria surrounding parents, coaches, directors, associations, what have you, I've never been around a bunch of semi-normal people that go so nuts. I thought there could be a reality show entitled, "When good parents go bad." I have an average kid. I'm saving money for college, yet he still plays "summer" hockey. I don't think he's getting scouted by anyone. But the whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth -- my behaviors and opinions included. I don't want my kid on the shrink's couch at age 40 discussing the problems he had with his father when he was a child. Yet when you shell out that kind of money and spend that kind of time, you almost feel entitled to express an opinion. I tell myself that I'm just going to let him play and let that be that. Then on the way home from a game I'll hear that little voice from the back seat, "How'd I do, dad?" Now, if I was any kind of a good parent, I'd back him up 100 percent and tell him he didn great. Yet when I hear that question, the little devil appears on my shoulder saying, "Well, now that you asked . . ."

I'm trying my best to back off. It's not about me -- although I never use the word "he" when referring to hockey, it's always "I" or "we". Having played sports, we've all played for bad coaches and we've all played for good coaches and 20 or 30 or 40 years after being a kid, I can really only remember three coaches I ever had and I played two sports, one of them through high school.

That being said, hockey is a crazy sport. Me even posting on this site is a great example of that. I don't post anything on a baseball forum or a golf forum. Just hockey. Maybe I should worry about him being a good student and a good kid instead of being a "decent" hockey player.

With that, I have to run, I think the UND is on the phone inquiring about my 11-year-old son. Maybe just one more clinic . . .

MrBoDangles wrote:

hockeyover40 wrote:The one or two years at the Made didn't make these players. They are good from the amount of Hockey they play. The top MN NHL draft choices from last year all came from the North Metro and beyond. No where near the MADE!!!!!!

The Made will only turn little John into a cookie cutter Hockey player.

Just a foot note here. The Choice league has only been around for 4 yrs. No Choice league player is anywhere near draft age.

I'm well aware of that.

Who was the one that used to call this place a cult?

I' m hearing twighlight zone music....[/quote]

c'mon kids, back on topic ...

Edina 17
Eden Prairie 1


... anybody hear how Andover is doing this year??? Hotsauce have any info on that?

irish skater wrote:Having had a kid in the choice league for a couple years, it really, really depends on who your coach (es) is (are). I do like the idea behind it, limited number of drills to prevent subpar free-lance coaching, the longer ice time, etc. One thing I didn't like was, at least at the mite and squirt level, there was really not much team concept stuff going on. It was all skating and stickhandling. If you had a good coach, everything went great. If you didn't have a good coach, not so good. The kids would play in games at different positions with limited coaching while on the ice, i.e. playing your position, etc.

As to the hysteria surrounding parents, coaches, directors, associations, what have you, I've never been around a bunch of semi-normal people that go so nuts. I thought there could be a reality show entitled, "When good parents go bad." I have an average kid. I'm saving money for college, yet he still plays "summer" hockey. I don't think he's getting scouted by anyone. But the whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth -- my behaviors and opinions included. I don't want my kid on the shrink's couch at age 40 discussing the problems he had with his father when he was a child. Yet when you shell out that kind of money and spend that kind of time, you almost feel entitled to express an opinion. I tell myself that I'm just going to let him play and let that be that. Then on the way home from a game I'll hear that little voice from the back seat, "How'd I do, dad?" Now, if I was any kind of a good parent, I'd back him up 100 percent and tell him he didn great. Yet when I hear that question, the little devil appears on my shoulder saying, "Well, now that you asked . . ."

I'm trying my best to back off. It's not about me -- although I never use the word "he" when referring to hockey, it's always "I" or "we". Having played sports, we've all played for bad coaches and we've all played for good coaches and 20 or 30 or 40 years after being a kid, I can really only remember three coaches I ever had and I played two sports, one of them through high school.

That being said, hockey is a crazy sport. Me even posting on this site is a great example of that. I don't post anything on a baseball forum or a golf forum. Just hockey. Maybe I should worry about him being a good student and a good kid instead of being a "decent" hockey player.

With that, I have to run, I think the UND is on the phone inquiring about my 11-year-old son. Maybe just one more clinic . . .

Best post I've read on here

MnMade-4-Life wrote:c'mon kids, back on topic ...

Edina 17
Eden Prairie 1


... anybody hear how Andover is doing this year??? Hotsauce have any info on that?

Real glad to see you enjoy getting off on that same post over and over...too bad your kid doesn't have as good as hand(s) as you.

karl(east) wrote:Let's get back on topic, shall we?

just don't want the thread closed towelie (great character by the way).
how about this score then ...

STMA 4
Wayzata 2

any one else have updated scores??? Or, should we just continue to rehash the old boring topics of MnMade sucks, no it doesn't, yes it does, no it doesn't, etc, etc, etc ...

Speaking of rehashing, what was the score of the Edina vs EP game?

17-1 Edina over EP I think... not sure though. I'm sure it's posted somewhere.

MnMade-4-Life wrote:c'mon kids, back on topic ...

Edina 17
Eden Prairie 1


... anybody hear how Andover is doing this year??? Hotsauce have any info on that?

How would I know about Andover? Let me guess....

irish skater wrote:Having had a kid in the choice league for a couple years, it really, really depends on who your coach (es) is (are). I do like the idea behind it, limited number of drills to prevent subpar free-lance coaching, the longer ice time, etc. One thing I didn't like was, at least at the mite and squirt level, there was really not much team concept stuff going on. It was all skating and stickhandling. If you had a good coach, everything went great. If you didn't have a good coach, not so good. The kids would play in games at different positions with limited coaching while on the ice, i.e. playing your position, etc.

As to the hysteria surrounding parents, coaches, directors, associations, what have you, I've never been around a bunch of semi-normal people that go so nuts. I thought there could be a reality show entitled, "When good parents go bad." I have an average kid. I'm saving money for college, yet he still plays "summer" hockey. I don't think he's getting scouted by anyone. But the whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth -- my behaviors and opinions included. I don't want my kid on the shrink's couch at age 40 discussing the problems he had with his father when he was a child. Yet when you shell out that kind of money and spend that kind of time, you almost feel entitled to express an opinion. I tell myself that I'm just going to let him play and let that be that. Then on the way home from a game I'll hear that little voice from the back seat, "How'd I do, dad?" Now, if I was any kind of a good parent, I'd back him up 100 percent and tell him he didn great. Yet when I hear that question, the little devil appears on my shoulder saying, "Well, now that you asked . . ."

I'm trying my best to back off. It's not about me -- although I never use the word "he" when referring to hockey, it's always "I" or "we". Having played sports, we've all played for bad coaches and we've all played for good coaches and 20 or 30 or 40 years after being a kid, I can really only remember three coaches I ever had and I played two sports, one of them through high school.

That being said, hockey is a crazy sport. Me even posting on this site is a great example of that. I don't post anything on a baseball forum or a golf forum. Just hockey. Maybe I should worry about him being a good student and a good kid instead of being a "decent" hockey player.

With that, I have to run, I think the UND is on the phone inquiring about my 11-year-old son. Maybe just one more clinic . . .

Bump

Don't fall for Made-4-Bernie's attempts

irish skater wrote:Having had a kid in the choice league for a couple years, it really, really depends on who your coach (es) is (are). I do like the idea behind it, limited number of drills to prevent subpar free-lance coaching, the longer ice time, etc. One thing I didn't like was, at least at the mite and squirt level, there was really not much team concept stuff going on. It was all skating and stickhandling. If you had a good coach, everything went great. If you didn't have a good coach, not so good. The kids would play in games at different positions with limited coaching while on the ice, i.e. playing your position, etc.

As to the hysteria surrounding parents, coaches, directors, associations, what have you, I've never been around a bunch of semi-normal people that go so nuts. I thought there could be a reality show entitled, "When good parents go bad." I have an average kid. I'm saving money for college, yet he still plays "summer" hockey. I don't think he's getting scouted by anyone. But the whole thing has really left a bad taste in my mouth -- my behaviors and opinions included. I don't want my kid on the shrink's couch at age 40 discussing the problems he had with his father when he was a child. Yet when you shell out that kind of money and spend that kind of time, you almost feel entitled to express an opinion. I tell myself that I'm just going to let him play and let that be that. Then on the way home from a game I'll hear that little voice from the back seat, "How'd I do, dad?" Now, if I was any kind of a good parent, I'd back him up 100 percent and tell him he didn great. Yet when I hear that question, the little devil appears on my shoulder saying, "Well, now that you asked . . ."

I'm trying my best to back off. It's not about me -- although I never use the word "he" when referring to hockey, it's always "I" or "we". Having played sports, we've all played for bad coaches and we've all played for good coaches and 20 or 30 or 40 years after being a kid, I can really only remember three coaches I ever had and I played two sports, one of them through high school.

That being said, hockey is a crazy sport. Me even posting on this site is a great example of that. I don't post anything on a baseball forum or a golf forum. Just hockey. Maybe I should worry about him being a good student and a good kid instead of being a "decent" hockey player.

With that, I have to run, I think the UND is on the phone inquiring about my 11-year-old son. Maybe just one more clinic . . .

Post of the year!!!

Look at all those cookie cutter hockey players on the Edina Squirt A team.

Just today Minnesota Hockey sent out it news letter and talk about how players are getting so little practice time. Please read below. How do they become cookie cutter hockey player when 90% of the time they work on skating skill and stickhandling.

ADM: The Healthy Meal vs. the Dessert
In today’s version of youth sports we have a very unhealthy ratio of practice to games. In many youth hockey associations the practice-to-game ratio is 1-to-1 or 2-to-1. To me practice is the healthy meal and the games are the dessert. What would serve our young athletes much better would be a healthier ratio of 3-to-1.


Unfortunately, many of today’s players look at practice much in the same way they look at broccoli—with a great deal of disdain. In my mind, the goal of every coach is to make the healthy meal more appealing to our athletes in order for them to attain and build the necessary skills to guide them throughout their journey upwards in the youth hockey ranks.

The ultimate goal is to make practices as much fun as the games, because in the end it is practice that allows our players to develop the skills that will allow them to have the success they desire in the games.

As a coach this can be difficult to achieve. How do I make practice appealing enough and the games special enough to drive the desired outcome? In my mind, you feed them the healthy meal so that when the dessert comes they can really enjoy it and it becomes a special event that they have earned.

So how do we do this? First of all, you have to change the culture and get both the players and the parents to understand how important practice is to their development. The pace, intensity and focus needed in every practice session is critical in order to have positive, productive movement forward.

How do you get your child to eat a healthy meal? Trick them, hide the fact that they are working hard and getting the necessary touches and repetitions through FUN, CHALLENGING and CREATIVE drills and games that takes the mundane aspects of developing a player and masks them.

Kids love to be challenged; they love to compete and they want to have fun. If I can get my players to enjoy coming to the rink, working hard and leaving with a smile on their faces, then I have won the most important challenge I face as a youth hockey coach.

We get so consumed with the games and wins and losses that we lose sight of the real fight. I feel strongly that if I can get my players to give as much as they can and be passionate about how hard they train then I have already won.

As a coach practice is my opportunity and responsibility to make my players better, and games are the player’s opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned from their dedication in practice. As a coach, the practice sessions are mine. That is my world and I take great pride in what I put forth. To the players, the games are theirs and we need to respect that; however, we need to make sure we have given them the tools and skills to have the success they desire.

At the end of the day it comes down to the willingness to fight, to change the way we look at practice. It is about the skills we are developing not about the systems or the positioning or where a kid stands for a faceoff. Consider this: If I am a conductor of a marching band, do I focus as much of my student’s time on marching and where they stand as I do on how well they play their instrument?

It is our responsibility as coaches, administrators and parents to make sure our kids are eating properly so that at the end of the journey we can look back at a healthy young adult who has a strong base of skills and knowledge of the sport, and take pride in the fact that they got to a great place because of the environment we created.

Let’s collectively change the way our kids look at practice and together we will have given the great sport of hockey a much healthier, larger and passionate pool of young players.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Roger Grillo, USA Hockey Director-Northeast, for this story.