BenBreeg

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!

I have seen passing taught in everything we have been involved with to this point with my 8 year old, from learn to play through ADM to any skills things we do, so my experience has been different than yours. As to point #3, its fine to disagree, but your experience does not conclusively mean I am wrong. Coaching HS and ACHA, the kids with skill were the ones who performed, you can teach systems at any level. That is my experience. It forms my opinion, it doesn’t make you wrong.

1- Yes, smaller orgs have an issue and you have a valid point there, but none of us "city slickers" in the thread were intentionally slighting you, you don't need to go there 2- Passing and receiving is a skill, along with stickhandling, skating and shooting 3- If a peewee fails it's not because he doesn't have a foundation in systems....you can teach puck support, how to get open, basic reading of the play, etc. at the younger levels, those are the basics of systems, it's hockey, not football, not that complex

Might not help much, but even thin cotton is a little thicker than a synthetic. Try some Pearsox Ultralites. They are about the thinnest I have found. You can get them from Epic Sports for like $2-3 a pair. Just watch the sizing, I am 6'3" with an 11.5 shoe and I can wear either youth or intermediates. Very cheap experiment. My foot looks similar to yours, sticking out right at those 3-6 eyelets, maybe a little less extreme though.

Alexi Laiho, singer/guitarist for Children of Bodom, 41 years old. Ugg.

Just go to an orthopod and let them figure it out. Lots of possibilities can get thrown about on the internet but nobody here is going to be able to diagnose from a description of tight, hurting thighs.

If its painted I second the 2020!

Totally missed this when it went up! Best wishes to you too, JR, I appreciate the site and all the contributions from members. It’s one of only a few daily must-reads for me.

Maybe clear this with the parents first, sounds a little extreme. I agree with Chippa, this might not be the best situation. It isn’t the end of the world if he doesn’t play up, no matter what everyone thinks is best. Lots of time to grow at 13.

As much as I like traditional skates the flag skates look cool IMO.