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bagofpucks · 06-04-2014, 09:22 PM

I'll put my 2 cents in as well...
I played six years of spring/summer hockey back in the days when there were only a few teams in Calgary. I even played as an underage my first year for a team in Lethbridge even though we lived outside of Calgary (mom and dad said it was my decision to play if I wanted to and they would support me, which is hilarious considering I was only 8 or 9...haha). Out of all the years, there was only one where I didn't extremely enjoy it and looking back it was my fault because I didn't communicate to my parents that I didn't want to play that spring and they just assumed I did. I have a ton of great memories from spring hockey and I feel I received some of the best coaching and developed the most during the spring. I was very fortunate to play the highest level at all age groups of minor hockey and was able to have a pretty good junior career too and I don't think I would have been able to do it without the coaching I received in spring hockey.

More recently, I have coached spring hockey over the last 10 years. I definitely feel it has changed; before it was about getting the best players together for some fun and going to tournaments and now it is definitely more about making money for some of the "club" teams. One thing I do like is that if a kid is passionate and wants to play there are far more opportunities even if they aren't "elite." I know a couple of kids that I have worked with that were able to really develop their skills over a couple of years and become really good hockey players because of the opportunity to work hard over the spring.

In response to burn out and mono...I played a ton of hockey and never had mono...haha. I do believe the burn out concerns are valid, but I think it is important to make it the kids choice. I played as much hockey as I could and I never felt burnt out. I think what most kids struggle with is the politics and other crap that unfortunately comes with the game these days. I read a great quote the other day: "stress is doing something for long hours that you don't really care for; passion is doing something for long hours that you love." I think this really applies to our young hockey players as it seems many of them like hockey, but to put in those kind of hours you need to really love it. I do think it is really important that the kids are also able to participate in activities outside of hockey too, so that there is some balance. The most burn out I have seen recently is from kids that play high level hockey in the winter and high level lacrosse in the spring. For whatever reason, this seems to be causing more burn out than spring hockey players (from my purely anecdotal experience anyways).

And lastly, I think the real issue I see is performance schools like Edge and Tanbridge. I have seen so many kids riding the bus at insane times of the day and spending a crazy amount of time on the ice each day. I've coached some AA and AAA teams and you can tell which players are part of these programs as they really seem to hit a wall in January and February, which makes total sense considering the amount of hockey they have played in the year.

06-04-2014, 09:22 PM	#139
bagofpucks Scoring Winger Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Calgary, AB Exp:	I'll put my 2 cents in as well... I played six years of spring/summer hockey back in the days when there were only a few teams in Calgary. I even played as an underage my first year for a team in Lethbridge even though we lived outside of Calgary (mom and dad said it was my decision to play if I wanted to and they would support me, which is hilarious considering I was only 8 or 9...haha). Out of all the years, there was only one where I didn't extremely enjoy it and looking back it was my fault because I didn't communicate to my parents that I didn't want to play that spring and they just assumed I did. I have a ton of great memories from spring hockey and I feel I received some of the best coaching and developed the most during the spring. I was very fortunate to play the highest level at all age groups of minor hockey and was able to have a pretty good junior career too and I don't think I would have been able to do it without the coaching I received in spring hockey. More recently, I have coached spring hockey over the last 10 years. I definitely feel it has changed; before it was about getting the best players together for some fun and going to tournaments and now it is definitely more about making money for some of the "club" teams. One thing I do like is that if a kid is passionate and wants to play there are far more opportunities even if they aren't "elite." I know a couple of kids that I have worked with that were able to really develop their skills over a couple of years and become really good hockey players because of the opportunity to work hard over the spring. In response to burn out and mono...I played a ton of hockey and never had mono...haha. I do believe the burn out concerns are valid, but I think it is important to make it the kids choice. I played as much hockey as I could and I never felt burnt out. I think what most kids struggle with is the politics and other crap that unfortunately comes with the game these days. I read a great quote the other day: "stress is doing something for long hours that you don't really care for; passion is doing something for long hours that you love." I think this really applies to our young hockey players as it seems many of them like hockey, but to put in those kind of hours you need to really love it. I do think it is really important that the kids are also able to participate in activities outside of hockey too, so that there is some balance. The most burn out I have seen recently is from kids that play high level hockey in the winter and high level lacrosse in the spring. For whatever reason, this seems to be causing more burn out than spring hockey players (from my purely anecdotal experience anyways). And lastly, I think the real issue I see is performance schools like Edge and Tanbridge. I have seen so many kids riding the bus at insane times of the day and spending a crazy amount of time on the ice each day. I've coached some AA and AAA teams and you can tell which players are part of these programs as they really seem to hit a wall in January and February, which makes total sense considering the amount of hockey they have played in the year.