BenBreeg

While no matter what the setup, you need enough sticks for people to try, which requires a lot of overhead cost, just an indoor shooting setup with some targets and a speed gun would get people closer to where they need to be than going in blind.

I remember they pretty much put Coffey on everything. You'd have different curves on the same rack of 5030s all marked Coffey. I remember they also used to have a "BC" and "SC" stamped on them and I thought that meant "Big Curve" or "Small Curve". I don't think things were as standardized back then.

Maybe, depending on how big the org is I imagine it would be different, but there are orgs that have reputations as fun places to play, jackasses, etc. Some of that can be taken with a grain of salt, some of it is probably valid.

Maybe it goes in your first category of development but to me it's culture. What does the org value overall? Yes, development but how are kids developed, what kind of atmosphere do they encourage/mandate? Really a very holistic view.

Yeah, I was running 3 kids in a given position but we change every 1:30 on the horn, so can't rotate faster through.

Mini update. Got on the ice for practice today (in-house, big group, many coaches) and one of the guys in charge calls me over. He had walked by during my parent discussion but didn’t have time to stop. He asked me what happened and I told him and he said he figured and had mentioned it to the other guy who runs things. At the end he just said he wanted me to know that they have all the coaches’ backs. Nice to know.

Yeah, I have been looking for a traditional red/white/blue glove and since I really don’t need them that would be a good price. Need a 15” though as well.

Maybe we should give out pool noodles to duel to resolve these existential disagreements....

Yeah, I am the only coach for this team. Sometimes the org that runs the program will have someone who jumps on the bench to help. At this point in the season i am not sure there would be time. We are required to have USA Hockey coaching cert, the age group module, State Police, Child Abuse, SafeSport, and I think one other background type thing and they definitely track it. But it might be a good suggestion heading into next year. Maybe I just put it in an e-mail. Many parents may not know there is an opportunity to get involved since they don't skate/play.

Bauer 100- back then I think they were the second Bauer skate, couldn’t afford the 1000s. Traditional looks. Some basic Graf skate from the 80s, not a 700 series but to me they were awesome. White boot with black ballistic nylon parts. Bauer 7000- first top of the line skate I ever got, skated on it almost 20 years...

I have been thinking about it, and despite the delivery, there is some validity to his point. I made changes to try to find a better solution throughout the season and I’m not going to be stubborn just because of the source. I’ll give it a try Sunday and see how it works.

I think I may combine what I have been doing with Chippa's suggestion. Instead of running 3 wings or centers the whole game, I can use 3 right wings in pd 1, move the extra kid and run 3 centers in pd 2, move him and run 3 left wings in pd 3. Should be a good compromise without too much confusion, provides the same consistency at least within the period for positions. It spreads out the shift skipping. Then maybe I can run 5 D one game and that should be the season. We'll see.

I'll give it a listen, but the last question is a good one. I love to keep up with training approaches etc. but at some point, and I don't know exactly where that point is and it is different for everyone, a line is crossed that doesn't interest me. For instance, baseball has crossed it with too many analytics, launch angle, etc.

Funny I’ve been playing all my life and never thought there was such a thing. I figured they were straight or just a simple left/right curve.

Last year my son showed my wife one of those funny “how to be a hockey parent” videos on YouTube. We went to a little Christmas tournament and immediately after she was like, “that video was supposed to be a joke but half the parents in the stands were acting exactly like that!” @Miller55 Yeah, coaching can be a pain, but I do it for two reasons. One, I love teaching kids and seeing them improve. At this level I get really excited when a player who used to just throw the puck settles a bit and makes one pass. Two, and unfortunately, I would rather coach my son than take a chance he gets a bad coach (plusses and minuses to coaching your own kid) Even today there are guys who don’t get it. I saw a U10 house little league coach reaming his team after they beat us because the score wasn’t worse (it was like 12-2). Sunday before our game I ran into a buddy whose son plays on some grade school team and he was telling my how the coach throws a trash can on the ice for the kids to throw up in and screams and berates them (SafeSport anyone?). These guys think this is just a step on their path to the big leagues.

Yep, works out that way, and did something similar before as I mentioned. Too much time spent dealing with that vs. focusing on the kids and the game. This simplified things.

Yeah, those are all good thoughts. I do send a beginning of the year email but given this is frigging in-house and I started the year with 10 skaters ice time wasn’t even on my mind. I just basically say the goal is to have fun and improve, i do mention keeping it in perspective but stupidly give them the benefit of the doubt they aren’t idiots so I don’t push too hard on that. My mistake.

So over the past 30 years or so I've coached HS and Legion baseball, Little League baseball and softball, gradeschool volleyball, youth soccer, and HS, ACHA, and youth hockey. I've really never had (luckily) any parent problems. In fact, one of the great things about coaching ACHA was that the parents were very distant. This year I am coaching my son's in-house team. Pretty mundane, big group practices, skill based, and a game each week. I spend most of the time on the bench trying to help them understand positioning, which we don't do in practice. I basically pick one or two things to focus on over the course of a few weeks and we emphasize that, I think it's too much for kids to try to transfer a million things form a whiteboard to the ice. I have 11 kids on the team, we do 1:30 shifts and change on the horn. I have played with different things like trying to roll kids through the lineup, playing multiple positions per game, different lineups per period, etc. I found that it is way too chaotic. Kids don't know the basics of one position, much less switching around throughout the game, the wrong kids are on the ice because things are changing each shift, etc. So the last two games I just ran two lines and 2 right wings who rotate through. I keep track of who is in the group of 3 and change those kids each game to be fair, it will all even out over the course of a bunch of games. Way easier on the bench, allows me to focus on the game and helping kids if needed (sometimes I have the bench alone). Yesterday some dad asks to talk to me and opens by saying he doesn't like how I managed ice time. His son got 4 fewer shifts than other kids, etc. I showed him the list I keep of kids who do the 3-man rotation so I can even it out. He keeps going to the, "I know you're a volunteer and I appreciate blah blah..." He then suggests that I could use a rover and put that kid in every position once and that would minimize each kid sitting, etc. He is right, mathematically it would be more even per game, but it is a huge PITA to manage. He went on and on but it isn't worth typing TBH. I was civil, but glad we had masks on, I may have betrayed my WTF is happening face. I am sure he will buy a stopwatch when his kid gets older...

Agreed

I think of it this way, if you are driving straight down through the footbed, transferring force directly through the blade with no torque, stiffness of the sidewalls does’t come into play.

Google Darryl Evans pics, that guy could mount blades on flip flops and still skate. It tells me that as Vet88 said, if you work on it the body will learn to align everything correctly, it’s not just the ankle.

Looks like Amazon has the water bottles. https://www.amazon.com/Sports-WBESTIP-W-Extended-Water-Bottle/dp/B075SGN7BP/ref=asc_df_B075SGN7BP/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312153146542&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11124076789399067951&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1024888&hvtargid=pla-448678102067&psc=1

Definitely a taste thing. I applaud them for trying new approaches but I wouldn’t be caught dead in them.

Ugg, that sucks, glad you didn’t get it too bad. Feel better!

I used to hold the hood or some other part of their winter coat in a way that they didn't know I had it (because they wanted no help!) but i could still pull the slack and stop them if they were going down hard. Fun times!