The Minor Hockey Thread

[Lubicon]

Atom was 8 years ago for me but we definately had set positions for the skaters - forwards and defence. My personal opinion is that while it's time to begin teaching the kids positional hockey they are also way too young to be locked into one position for the entire year (or the rest of their years). They will develop better skills overall if they get to play different positions so at some point during the season try to find a way to move them around. Tournaments, if you have uneven numbers on a team (for line combinations) etc. are both great ways to do this.

Regardless of if they are locked in or not when your HC makes his/her call, try to run drills each practice where they get to play both positions, or at least experience components of both positions. For instance a drill that involves the defence carrying the puck and attacking while forwards backcheck etc. It's important for the players to develop both offensive and defensive skills.

Best success I had was at the Bantam level and we had 7 D and 8 F (by their evaluated positions) so the math didn't work out for lines. We asked for volunteers for a D to play F which was going to happen regardless to make the lines work out. A couple of them did and we tried them at F. One of them really clicked, turns out they loved forward, and the line ended up being our best line on the team.

[Deegee]

My son has played defense since he played spring before his first year of Novice. He just really settled back there and his style of play is pretty defensively responsible to begin with so coaches let him stay back there. With the other players, they moved them around during our tiering round to see where they were comfortable, but after about a month all first year Novice kids kind of settled into their positions.

Honestly, not many kids can play all positions effectively, and many kids once they find their role they feel comfortable with don't really want to play other positions.

We've played pretty competitive hockey all the way through (Tier 2/1 depending on the year, we only have 10 kids on a team out where I live, and 2 teams), but I believe the Tier 5/6 teams were in the same boat as us with regards to players settling into their positions relatively quickly.

[habernac]

We find out today where my son is in Pee wee, the suspense is killing me!

[burn_baby_burn]

In Red Deer they evaluate kids according to position starting in Atom. My son is playing defense in his first year of Pee Wee and has played defense exclusively since his first year of Novice.

[brocoli]

Along with minor hockey going here it means that a new reffing season is upon us. I beg everyone to help us try and keep some younger officials by standing up for parents going after young refs. We are trying to do all that we can to insulate them with some older officials with them, but it is not always the case and we need parents to step up and help us out. If a any official struggles tell your manager. Your manager can get the information to the assignors as needed and if there is a pattern with certain officials we need to know. Big changes within the official communities as Hockey Alberta centralized it all so hopefully this makes things a lot easier going forward!

Happy season to all

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by brocoli

Along with minor hockey going here it means that a new reffing season is upon us. I beg everyone to help us try and keep some younger officials by standing up for parents going after young refs. We are trying to do all that we can to insulate them with some older officials with them, but it is not always the case and we need parents to step up and help us out. If a any official struggles tell your manager. Your manager can get the information to the assignors as needed and if there is a pattern with certain officials we need to know. Big changes within the official communities as Hockey Alberta centralized it all so hopefully this makes things a lot easier going forward!

Happy season to all

That part is huge. I agree 100% with everything you have said. Are you saying there is now a way to provide feedback on referees? If so this is a huge step forward. I coached up until this year (kids have graduated out of minor hockey) and one of my biggest issues was there was seemingly no way to provide feedback (positive and negative) about an official. They were unapproachable and beyond any sort of critique it seemed. I would have loved to share my thoughts with Central Zone, Hockey Calgary, anyone really and I think there is a place for it and it can be beneficial without turning into a giant complaint session.

There were many game I would have like to let the officiating groups know what a great job their official did in my game, and there were times I would like to let them know their official struggled at the level they were assigned to officiate.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

That part is huge. I agree 100% with everything you have said. Are you saying there is now a way to provide feedback on referees? If so this is a huge step forward. I coached up until this year (kids have graduated out of minor hockey) and one of my biggest issues was there was seemingly no way to provide feedback (positive and negative) about an official. They were unapproachable and beyond any sort of critique it seemed. I would have loved to share my thoughts with Central Zone, Hockey Calgary, anyone really and I think there is a place for it and it can be beneficial without turning into a giant complaint session.

There were many game I would have like to let the officiating groups know what a great job their official did in my game, and there were times I would like to let them know their official struggled at the level they were assigned to officiate.

In hockey calgary the head coach is sent a survey after every game to rate the referees and it includes an open section to provide feedback.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

In hockey calgary the head coach is sent a survey after every game to rate the referees and it includes an open section to provide feedback.

I only received those during ESMH games and they were a four or five question survey. No place for comments that I noticed.

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I only received those during ESMH games and they were a four or five question survey. No place for comments that I noticed.

I got them all year unless it was an out of town tournament. And definitely a spot for comments because I found it useful for providing both types of feedback you mention. Are you with hockey calgary?

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

I got them all year unless it was an out of town tournament. And definitely a spot for comments because I found it useful for providing both types of feedback you mention. Are you with hockey calgary?

Yes, but our league consisted of teams from both inside and outside Calgary. I understand not receiving the survey for out of town games but the only home games (or 'road' games if we played another Calgary team) I ever received a survey for were during ESMH.

I must have missed the place for comments. Unfortunately.

[Northendzone]

This afternoon my son was informed that he had secured a spot on the midget aa team he was drafted to. It was a surprise because of some other factors.

After almost a month of being in tryout mode and never being sure about the future it is nice to have this sorted out with a happy ending for him.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

This afternoon my son was informed that he had secured a spot on the midget aa team he was drafted to. It was a surprise because of some other factors.

After almost a month of being in tryout mode and never being sure about the future it is nice to have this sorted out with a happy ending for him.

Congratulations! Is he 2nd or 3rd year midget? Midget AA is actually tougher to make than Minor Midget in my observations as there are fewer teams for the number of kids that try out. End result if many local MHA's have Midget 1 teams that are loaded with kids that played Minor Midget AAA their first year but did't make the cut in their second.

[Boblobla]

My older son is div 2 major novice. Any other parents in the same division on CP? I want to see about setting up some exhibition games/tournaments. I think I have a spot available in our March tournament if there is something available in one of your.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Congratulations! Is he 2nd or 3rd year midget? Midget AA is actually tougher to make than Minor Midget in my observations as there are fewer teams for the number of kids that try out. End result if many local MHA's have Midget 1 teams that are loaded with kids that played Minor Midget AAA their first year but did't make the cut in their second.

for sure I would agree.



essentially at least in the city there are 2 teams of one birth year for MM AAA, versus 3 teams for 2 birth years for Major midget aa/aaa...I guess the caveat being that the best of the older kids are off in Jr but there definitely is a bottleneck between minor midget AAA and midget AA

[Northendzone]

^ thanks guys. It was a long month of living day to day know you could be cut at anytime.

In some ways making minor midget is hard, because each association in Calgary runs one bantam aaa team and three Bantam a teams. In minor midget there are only two teams in each association. But the really good 15 yr olds leave to play major midget aaa.

At the major midget level there is one aaa team and two aa teams. It can be hard, depending on what the kids who are cut from midget aaa do, as some of them quit because they are 17 and dreamed of playing aaa. Meanwhile some of the kids who are cut from aa also quit because they do not want to go back to community hockey.

I have heard many guys comment on how many midget 1 teams in community hockey could beat some of the aa teams.

My son was disappointed that he did not get a sniff for aaa this year, but I am not sure how successful he would have been there.

Last year he did not have a good year and playing minor midget aaa was a learning curve for him, so hopefully he will stay healthy the whole season have a lot of fun and post some decent numbers.

In midget they don’t travel as much as minor midget, but they will still have about 4 or 5 bus trips. Now I get the fun of writing the cheque......

Also laying a decent amount of hockey should allow him some free time, but hopefully not enough to get in any trouble.

[pepper24]

My son is first year novice and they had 5 tryout skates over 3 weekends which I thought was too much for 6/7 year olds. First skate was timed drills (really?) then the rest were 3 on 3 games which was better. He ended up making division 1 team.

This is the first year of half ice novice which is good for the kids.

[TimSJ]

We are in the midst of our Atom Tryouts right now. players do not try out by position in our Association except obviously goalies. I think our process is pretty transparent which is nice but people still complain about it.

Traditionally have had 2 AA and 2 A teams, 90 skaters and 11 goalies trying out. this is down significantly from last year. 120 skaters + goalies

1 technical skate and 3 games. Then split top 45 and play 2 games among 3 teams. top 30 form the AA teams and we do a balancing skate. the 15 that didn't make AA are guaranteed A but go though the same process with next 30 that didn't make AA split. Rest go back to Atom C

Coaches aren't selected until the top 30 are picked. Pros and cons as i think the last few spots could be coaches choices but it does take the politics out of it.

one thing we have done this year is paid evaluators. Same 5 guys are at all the ice times and get $15 per. I think the consistency is good.

08/09 group here is pretty weak so I would like to see 1AA and 2 A this year but I'm not hopeful that will happen will likely be 2 AA and 1 A and the AA teams are going to be weak.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by pepper24

My son is first year novice and they had 5 tryout skates over 3 weekends which I thought was too much for 6/7 year olds. First skate was timed drills (really?) then the rest were 3 on 3 games which was better. He ended up making division 1 team.

This is the first year of half ice novice which is good for the kids.

5 ice times is pretty typical for evaluations (within Calgary). At the younger ages a timed skill session for the first ice time is pretty beneficial as it really helps the MHA set the initial groups. IIRC our association did not use the skill session for anything other than helping them make the first set of groupings for the games. In other words the scores from that session did not factor in the final rankings. 3 on 3 is actually great for games. 4 on 4 is also good, 5 on 5 should be avoided if possible.

[Northendzone]

I know that starting kids off with timed drills seems a little silly, but the initial task with these kids is to somehow sort out 200 of them into some order to start the games with. I know that just because you are fast with the puck does not always mean much. That initial sort is the hardest.

so my son needs new skates, so last night we went to Pro-Hockey Life as they used to give association discounts. Before we started teh fitting process I asked if they still gave the discounts and was told no. I asked to speak with a manager and was told the same thing.

I told him that Tuxedo gives the discount and I was likely looking at spending up to $700. He said there was nothing he could do and if he gave em a discount, he would have to do it for everyone. So we walked out of the store. And at the time the store was not busy and there may have been 3 other shoppers there.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

I know that starting kids off with timed drills seems a little silly, but the initial task with these kids is to somehow sort out 200 of them into some order to start the games with. I know that just because you are fast with the puck does not always mean much. That initial sort is the hardest.

so my son needs new skates, so last night we went to Pro-Hockey Life as they used to give association discounts. Before we started teh fitting process I asked if they still gave the discounts and was told no. I asked to speak with a manager and was told the same thing.

I told him that Tuxedo gives the discount and I was likely looking at spending up to $700. He said there was nothing he could do and if he gave em a discount, he would have to do it for everyone. So we walked out of the store. And at the time the store was not busy and there may have been 3 other shoppers there.

That would mean a discount to literally every kid who walked into the store. Outside of adults buying for themselves literally every kid who buys skates would be playing for an MHA (I suppose sports schools would be an exception too).

I was not aware they every gave discounts, we bought several pairs of skates for my kids there over the years and never received one.