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I have been helping coach at the mite level for two years with one and now two of my kids playing. After the last practice last year, a parent asked me if there was any evaluation or recommendations on what Johnny should work on in the off season.

Having come across the Minnesota Hockey Skills Challenge / Mite and 8U Player Evaluation form online and having been to a few summer camps/clinics where they do some skills testing/timing and issue reports with results and checklists to work on, I could envision what the parent might be looking for.

However, my association doesn’t have anything in place for this and I am wondering if (in addition to emphasizing FUN!) we should consider skills testing, at the beginning and end of the season, in an effort to increase skills improvement and player and coach accountability (what gets measured, gets done). In addition, it would give parents more “proof” or comfort that their association is really improving Johnny’s skills.

In searching this board and the Minnesota Hockey website, I haven’t found too much related information, except a little back in 2006. I did find the IIHF Skills Challenge (http://skillschallenge.iihf.com/) and that Hockey Canada seems to be doing some testing, but both appear to be geared to older age levels.

* Are other associations doing skills testing and if so, please provide some details?
* Do coaches see a benefit to doing so at the mite level?
* Do parents appreciate or find the reported information useful?
* Do players “get it” and try harder to improve their times/scores?

Vertical wrote:I have been helping coach at the mite level for two years with one and now two of my kids playing. After the last practice last year, a parent asked me if there was any evaluation or recommendations on what Johnny should work on in the off season.

Having come across the Minnesota Hockey Skills Challenge / Mite and 8U Player Evaluation form online and having been to a few summer camps/clinics where they do some skills testing/timing and issue reports with results and checklists to work on, I could envision what the parent might be looking for.

However, my association doesn’t have anything in place for this and I am wondering if (in addition to emphasizing FUN!) we should consider skills testing, at the beginning and end of the season, in an effort to increase skills improvement and player and coach accountability (what gets measured, gets done). In addition, it would give parents more “proof” or comfort that their association is really improving Johnny’s skills.

In searching this board and the Minnesota Hockey website, I haven’t found too much related information, except a little back in 2006. I did find the IIHF Skills Challenge (http://skillschallenge.iihf.com/) and that Hockey Canada seems to be doing some testing, but both appear to be geared to older age levels.

* Are other associations doing skills testing and if so, please provide some details?
* Do coaches see a benefit to doing so at the mite level?
* Do parents appreciate or find the reported information useful?
* Do players “get it” and try harder to improve their times/scores?

Our Association doesn't have any formal testing either. Unfortunately they keep sending 3 yr. mites up to squirts that lack the basic skills. If you have a child that played 3 yrs of mites (not counting mini mites) they should have good control of their edges and be able to perform forward and backwards crossovers, among other skills. If not we, as an association are failing them. Testing is one way to make sure this doesn't happen. Charting their progress from the beginning of the year and again at the end, and from year to year is a great way to make sure they move up to the next level prepared. At the very least an evaluation at the end of the year can be done. Sixty hours of ice a year doesn't equate to huge improvements every year, but 180 hrs over 3 years should. Plus most kids skate some during the off season.

But just because your assoc. doesn't have any testing, that don't mean that you as a coach can't do it. When I coached at the mite level, we did our own testing at the beginning and again at the end. We time our kids forward and backward goal line to goal line w/ and w/o the puck. Rated them on inside and outside edges, crossovers, backwards, stopping, and stick handling. And did an overall evaluations at the end of the year. We also took attendance. And it was very clear that the kids that rarely missed or never missed a practice, were always at the top of the evaluation list.

As far as sharing the results with the kids and parents, or keeping them in house. That's a personal preference. It can cause problems sharing them. However, if the team is fairly close skill wise, the races can provide motivation, and competitiveness, as the times should be within a second or two.

This is just my experience. And I'm sure some will find flaws in my response, but I hope this was of help.

Hep testing at the beginning and end of each season is a great way to give lil Johnny and his parents a report card on improvement for the season. I know there was a big push a couple of years back to get a database for all of MN hockey with what the times at each mite level should be. It went by the wayside but I know a few associations that still use the 5 HEP drills to evaluate how mite players advance.

Thanks for the input; the skill level ranges on the teams I have been involved with has been pretty wide, so I don't think I'd want to publish the entire team's results, but perhaps a team average time/score could be listed for each skill on each players report as a comparative.

I would want to structure it so that maybe we only used half of the ice (lengthwise) so that we could test a small group while the rest of the team practiced on the other half, so they're not standing around.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Vertical wrote:Thanks for the input; the skill level ranges on the teams I have been involved with has been pretty wide, so I don't think I'd want to publish the entire team's results, but perhaps a team average time/score could be listed for each skill on each players report as a comparative.

I would want to structure it so that maybe we only used half of the ice (lengthwise) so that we could test a small group while the rest of the team practiced on the other half, so they're not standing around.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Take an hour and you can run 3-4 mite teams through the 5 drills.. it works pretty slick and there is a report card that HEP has that you can fill out and print out for the kids.. It works pretty slick. PM me and I might be able to e-mail you the file that imput #'s into and the form prints out in a great format. (If I can find it in my computer) You can have your average for the association and compare each kid to the top kid and the average and then show improvement over the year. From my experience and I ran mites for years it was cool to show the parents when Johnny improves by 12 seconds over 5 drill in one short season. (and it happens a lot.)

DED1, thanks for the reply and I sent you a PM.

I have seen several HEP resources online...one from Burnsville and not sure where the other is from, that may be of use to others:

http://www.blazehockey.com/pdf/HEP-Skil ... TES&U8.pdf

http://mites.wdfiles.com/local--files/a ... katers.pdf