[Isbrant]

Originally Posted by habernac

I like this. My son is 5 and this describes him to a T. Still working on the best way to change this. Encouragement is definitely a part of it.

I have coached Initation hockey (4-6 year old) for the past 2 years. There is no score kept but the kids still know which team is scoring more goals. In order to keep all the kids motivated and wanting to keep playing, I have had to give certain kids specific tasks.

I told the weakest player last year that his goal was to try to get the puck no matter who had it, even if it was his own teammate. He had been getting really frustrated and had stopped trying before this because he wasn't able to score or usually get the puck before a teammate got it. This way he would get the puck some (taking it from a teammate) and was "winning" because he was able to complete the assigned task.

In my son’s first year, he was getting discouraged because he couldn’t keep up with the better players. I got him to keep going by telling him I wanted him to be the hardest player to play against. I was trying to get him to keep skating, keep working and play “gritty”. This worked for him. On the ride home he would ask if he was the grittiest player on the team. I would be honest when I answered but there were only 2 others on that team that ever worked as hard.

I never changed the goal of the game (score more goals than the other team), just gave the kids tasks that they could accomplish with effort. That way even if the team was losing, as long as they were trying and doing their part they could be happy with their game and want to continue playing.