Quote:
Originally Posted by macker
True but when I was a kid I used to walk to the rink myself after school and was lucky if my parents checked in on my practice near the end to give me a ride home. Same thing for games and often we would catch rides with the handful of parents/coaches who were able to make it to the games. The parental involvment was very minimal. Now you have parents way too involved and as a coach I see this first hand. You hear feedback from the kids and the pressure today is comming more and more from the parents who have become increasingly involved and increasinly critical of their kids on ice performance, the refs performance, the coaches performance etc. Everything is micro managed. The real fun is still happening outdoors where kids are playing unstructured hockey and there is no pressure. The pressure of organized hockey can become unhealthy.
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I don't know, my Dad was at every single game or practice I had as a kid, coached me in hockey and as a long time former player was pretty respected around the football field and I didn't get any of that. There were also parents who were exactly the types you describe. The point is that it's not about playing on outdoor rinks or the structure, it's about the individuals involved.
I also always had way more fun playing in real games than on outdoor rinks, at least until playing at the outdoor rink involved a couple of cases of Pil in the snowbank.