Santos L Halper

At the 8U level, I tend to agree with the USA Hockey ADM philosophy of enforcing equal minutes via a forced line change at a whistle or scoreboard buzzer every 90 - 120 seconds. That way, we, as coaches, don't have to think so much about who's had more (or less...) ice time - we just split our kids into roughly equal groups and change at every buzzer. The way I see it, there will be plenty of opportunities in the older age groups to shorten our benches while chasing victories - but 8U is NOT the time to start that. As far as 'meaningful minutes' go, as trite as it sounds, we can't let ourselves forget that these are kids, NOT mini adults. Especially at 8U, kids' motivations are different than ours - thus minutes we might consider especially 'meaningful' as adults may not have any special significance to the average 8U player. Put differently, individual kids (generally) don't care if they're the ones relied on to be on the ice with 1:30 to go in a one goal game...they just want to be on the ice, have fun, score goals, and celebrate afterwards with their teammates, greasy pizza, and overpriced video games. Don't worry about choppy teaching. Kids are generally episodic learners - meaning any overall theme you might be trying to establish will likely be lost on them anyway. Get the teaching you can done within the framework you have to operate and, above all, keep them smiling. If the kids you coach at 8U are excited to sign up for 10U, then you've done a great job!

Greetings and welcome, Ray! First off, a sincere "thank you" to your for your service to our country. Your and your family's bravery and sacrifices are appreciated. Ahhhh....coaching your own kids. Speaking from my experience, it can be at once the most rewarding and terrible experience a coach can have. That "dad/coach - coach/dad" dichotomy is occasionally difficult for everyone to manage and requires healthy doses of love, patience, humor, and understanding to successfully navigate. If I were to give any advice, it would be to enjoy every minute of it. Our kids grow up so quick and those hours we get to spend on the ice teaching them to love the game that we love should be the happiest of our - AND their - lives! Yikes! Get yourself some new skates! (Of course, you probably weren't a teenager as long ago as I was - so maybe they're not all that old after all....)

Yeah. Probably should have mentioned that.... I've tried both on in the store and the Warrior QRL Pros seem to fit "closer" than the True XC9s. Again. In the store. However, I cannot speak to how either glove breaks in or how it feels over the long term.

I'd probably disagree. Anecdotal to be sure, but I've personally seen two pairs of True gloves fail prematurely (...at least, what I would consider "prematurely") at the zipper attachment *to the glove*, not to the replaceable palm. I have not seen similar failures in Warrior gloves...but then again, Warrior gloves don't have the zipper. Definitely not a large enough sample size to conclude that said failure is representative of the overall quality of the gloves - but absolutely enough to give me pause regarding True, were I considering a new pair of gloves. Personally, I wear STX Surgeon 500 gloves and love them. I've always felt like hockey gloves could/should be more like lacrosse gloves when it comes to anatomical fit, overall finger dexterity, and wrist mobility; and the Surgeon 500s are the closest thing I've ever found to being sort of a 'hybrid' between a hockey glove and a lacrosse glove. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

People like the horse's ass that is in charge of OP's town's organization see a group of guys and girls that don't have kids involved - and yet, simply because they love hockey (and maybe want to teach a kid or two to love it as well), are STILL willing to coach...thereby sacrificing any semblance of a normal social/family life... ....and then discourage their participation. That attitude is so idiotic I have a hard time fathoming how it ever gets perpetuated. The people that don't "have a dog in the fight" are the coaches that we should be ENCOURAGING - not driving out of the game.

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! My 16s play for the state championship on Saturday - can't wait!!!

That. And they're typically more concerned with getting sticks/skates/bodies in passing lanes. At least, they should be. There are always exceptions, but I coach most teams to give the strong side point the boards as far down as the hash-marks and concentrate on taking away his passing lanes. If you're defending the passing lanes correctly, you can almost always get to the shooting lane as well; AND unless said defenseman is an exceptionally skilled shooter, he's not going to do any damage from out there, anyway. Presuming the angle is played correctly, they're almost always forced to dump the puck in the corner and get back to their positions. Gotta be careful not to let them get too low, though, because a savvy winger/center can trigger a low-to-high cycle which can be tricky to defend. Ahhhhh...the classic "Here, let me tell you how to do your job, while I neglect mine." It never gets old...

Speaking as the LD, I love it when guys stand on top of me at the point. For the reasons you stated, the puck is on my side a lot, so I know that I'm going to be making that "pinch/no pinch" decision pretty regularly during a game. If a wing spends his whole shift on top of me, I never have to worry about getting caught in that 'no man's land', where either decision seems wrong. If goofy flypapers himself all over me, I almost always pinch and, even if I lose the race to the puck, I know it'll be close enough that (a) he won't be able to just chip it by me, and (b) I can always tie up the play along the wall and create a battle that my team stands a better than even chance of winning. Sure, I may not have as many opportunities to unleash a clapper from the point...but, I don't have as many opportunities to shatter a stick that *I* have to pay for, either...

*nods* Yep. The intelligent, good skating, puck moving defenseman has rapidly become arguably the most important human commodity in high-level hockey.

+ about a million. We get too caught up with "systems"....and calling things like basic defensive zone coverage "systems"....and putting forth useless euphemisms such as "system hockey is winning hockey". It's all a bunch of festering male bovine excrement - particularly in a beer league environment. Honestly, if you don't have the time or resources to create AND EXECUTE a series of structured, progressive, scenario-based practice plans to teach a "system", then you're better off stressing general concepts. Hopefully OP has some more experienced guys around that can first get on the same page with each other and THEN show the team things like, "hey, wings, when your side defenseman drops into the play, drop with him, but don't stray too far into the middle or we'll never be able to break the puck out."

If you just want to work on your general hockey IQ, I definitely recommend USA Hockey's Intelligym online trainer. It's a bit pricey, but USA Hockey members get a discount. https://www.usahockeyintelligym.com/ You could try it for a month or two and see what you think - if nothing else, it's kinda cool to spend some time training your mind like the kids in the NTDP do. If, however, you're more interested in integrating 'system play' into your beer league games, that becomes a bit of a different animal. In order for it to truly work, you need to have a group where everyone is on the same page as far a commitment to the system goes....AND you need to actually PRACTICE. You can diagram specific system-reactive scenarios such as, "what does D2 do if F1 gets trapped in the corner in an odd-man down situation" on a whiteboard until you pass out from the dry erase fumes, but chances are, the only people who will be able to apply it in a game are those who have actually LEARNED the 'system' via structured, progressive, scenario-based practices. Just my $0.02...

Love this video - have been referring to it for years....to the point that I can hear the music in my sleep. The importance of skating simply can't be overstated - particularly given the way the game has changed in recent years. High level hockey has become a speed and finesse game. Though the physicality of the game remains, gone are the days of the plodding grinders and pure "stay at home" defensemen. If a player can't skate at a high level, s/he can't PLAY at a high level...it's that simple. It's gotten to a point that, if a young player shows ANY interest in getting involved in the club/travel hockey world, I immediately advise the parents to invest in skating lessons - regardless of how "good" their kid seems to be out there. (Hell, I believe in skating lessons so much that I advise the in-house kids/parents to do it, too...but, as far as I'm concerned, it's virtually a necessity for club/travel level players.) Bad skating habits are SO much easier to correct when a player is younger than 10-11....once they reach 12U (pee wees) and they start hitting the beginning stages of puberty, the little things have a tendency to morph into "big" things and become damn near impossible to fix.

Yep. My favorite thing to say in practice is, "LOOK! READ! REACT!". That said, particularly in the younger age groups, I also try to teach them not to be afraid of making a mistake. So many young kids are simply paralyzed by their fear of making the 'wrong' play that they either hold the puck until they're completely out of options (bad), or panic and throw it away (way worse). I try really hard to instill a 'no judgement' philosophy in my assistants in the younger levels - the only mistake we consider 'unacceptable' is the mistake of not working hard. Otherwise, they're teaching opportunities. In my experience, once kids figure out that they're not going to get barked at because they make the 'wrong' play, they become way more receptive to seeing the 'right' play and, more importantly, WHY it's the right play. Agree, to a point. Though I don't use them anywhere NEAR as much as my coaches did when I was young, drills still have their place in my practices - particularly drills that force kids to use their creativity and step outside their comfort zone when it comes to handling pucks and playing with pace. I will intentionally design drills that have multiple decision points for a player and insist they are done at warp speed. The only time the kids get barked at is if they slow down. It all goes back to "LOOK! READ! REACT!" The faster the kids can recognize a situation (even a contrived one) and make A decision...the easier it is to teach them to make the RIGHT decision.

This goes for everyone, regardless of gender.... Particularly recently, a disturbing trend in youth hockey in the States has been to jump way too quickly from coaching the technical fundamentals to ATTEMPTING to coach "system play". I've seen/heard way too many 8U - 10U coaches brag about how they've taught their teams to 'trap' or 'weak-side-lock' or whatever. Honestly, what a load of solid waste from a male bovine. At those levels, we should be focused on teaching our teams to skate, pass, handle pucks, shoot, and compete. Sure, they also need to learn simple team concepts such as defensive zone coverage and breakouts; but wasting precious ice time teaching a complex, overarching 'system' to younger players only stunts their skill development and creativity. I had a long, drawn out argument with a 10UBB parent at the start of this season - he was adamant that I should be teaching 'system play' to the team. I demurred and tried to deflect the conversation to a different tack. Of course, he was groin-grabbingly persistent - even in the face of my obvious reluctance to 'go there', so I finally flat out refused and said the following: "Shawn, I would waste the entire season trying to teach this group of 9 year olds how to trap and then transition to an aggressive 2-2-1 forecheck...and most of them STILL wouldn't 'get it'. Instead, we're going to work on skating, passing, shooting, and competing. And we're going to work on those 4 things again and again. And again. And we'll work on them next year. And all through pee-wees, too. Then, when they're 13 and 14, they'll (a) be mentally ready for 'system play', and (b) be able to execute the fundamentals well enough that we can teach a 'system' in about 45 minutes...instead of wasting an entire season." He was unconvinced. Until last week, when he came up to me, shook my hand, and told me that his daughter had improved more this year than she had in any year before now. He didn't tell me that I was right about the systems thing...but he didn't have to.

Just wanted to say that I love this idea and am weirdly excited to be the first one posting here.... Hopefully other coaches will join in and create a cool forum where we can exchange ideas, give feedback, and generally help us become better coaches and ambassadors of the game. Also...I hope that, in time, this can become a place where players, parents, and friends can come and get answers to general questions that they may not otherwise be able (or willing...) to ask their coach. (Please note that I emphasize 'general' in the above, because there's no way anyone here can give answers to specific questions pertaining to individual teams or situations that we're not part of. Put differently, it's unreasonable to ask how to approach your kid's coach about putting Jimmy, Mikey, and Bobby on the same line. Without actually coaching Jimmy, Mikey, and Bobby's team, no one on an internet forum can hope to give an answer to something that, ultimately, should be left to the coach's prerogative...) Anyway. Personally, I'm a full-time youth/minor hockey coach, currently coaching club 8UA, 10UBB and A, and assistant coaching 14UA and 16UA. Previously, I've coached 14U Tier 1 AAA, 12U Tier 2 AA, and local high school hockey; but have taken time away from the more travel-intensive teams to concentrate on building our club's younger levels. (Plus, I have an 8 year old, and having to miss more games of his than I attended wasn't working for me anymore...) Other coaches, jump in! Sound off! Let's go! It's state tournament time...how are your teams looking???

Absolutely! Glad you're seeing results!

I sharpen skates for a bunch of my kid's teammates, a few of my fellow coaches, and a fair number of other guys around and I've definitely noticed that some steel burrs more than others. I've always been able to deburr adequately, but being a nerd at heart, I got interested in this phenomenon and started poking around on the internet and found the weird world of hobbyist knife makers. Those guys are fanatical about steel and go into agonizing detail about it; which, closet nerd or not, turns out to not be all that interesting unless you have a burning passion for chemistry and metallurgy. Anyway, I learned that, all other things being equal, some compositions of steel are simply more prone to developing edge burr than others. Since we can't exactly change the formulation of our skate steel, there's nothing we can really DO about it as skate sharpeners/Sparx operators - we just have to deal with it. In general, I've found that if you sharpen with fewer passes more frequently, you'll deal with WAY fewer burrs than if you're running a bunch of passes, less frequently. Put differently, since you've found the Step burrs more easily than the LS2, consider sharpening twice as often with 1/2 the passes. That way, any burr that forms will be smaller and easier to deal with. Sparx has a good writeup on its website about burrs - worth a read if you haven't already... http://blogs.sparxhockey.com/how-burrs-occur-on-skate-steel-and-how-to-mitigate-them

I do both. For touchups/quick sharpens (3 or fewer passes), I put toe right. If I'm doing 4 or more passes or ESPECIALLY if I'm sharpening new steel, I will do two with toe-right, then switch to toe-left, and continue alternating every two passes until I'm happy with the edge. YMMV, of course, but it's worked for me so far.

+1. In fact, the Sparx manual for the edge checker specifically says that some coatings may make it impossible to get an accurate edge checker reading. This is why I neither use nor recommend coated steel.

Additionally, if there WERE some way that you could get "your guy" anytime you wanted, there's still no way you can guarantee that he isn't tired, or injured, or super-busy, or pissed that he scratched the new Volvo while on his way back from lunch, or too focused on the exploits of the North Korean Olympic Short Track Team, or just 'not mentally there' that day.... I've said it before and I'll say it again: The whole point of the Sparx is that it takes the unpredictable human element out of the skate sharpening equation. For people like you (and me - I'm in Southern California), who happen to live where "good" sharpenings are harder to come by, that's a HUGE benefit. For others that have ready access to quality sharpening, maybe it's not such of a big deal. But, simply not having to worry about it is what makes a Sparx worth it for the hundreds (thousands?) of people who've purchased one.

1. Okay. If you say so. 2. No. They don't.

Yeah, 15-20 sharpenings if manual sharpening is done correctly! If done INCORRECTLY, traditional manual sharpening will alter the profile FAR quicker. It is physically impossible for a human being to ALWAYS put consistent, even pressure on a skate blade when using a manual machine. On every skate sharpened, there will be spots where the operator will move a bit slower, or push a bit harder...it's just how the human body works. Add inexperience, worn down grinding wheels, poor equipment maintenance protocols, and you can see how manual sharpenings can be so wildly unpredictable. The Sparx takes the human variable out of the equation and you get consistent, predictable results. It ain't cheap...but good things rarely are. So, yeah. If you get a Prosharp Quad profile, Sparx will maintain it through the life of the blade.

Sounds like you're in my neck of the woods (Orange County, CA). You're right. Monkey and Pure don't profile - they recommend Ultimate Skate & Hockey at Anaheim Ice for that service. However, USH is really more of a figure skating shop and does NOT have a Prosharp or a Blademaster. It's just James on the stand-up Wyssota. He can adjust pitch and radius (to an extent), but good luck getting him to give you hard data on what he did. I'm seriously considering investing in a ProSharp AS2001 and starting a mobile sharpening/profiling business....seems the market may be ripe for it...

I too use a marker when making hollow changes, however I'm not sure that it's entirely accurate - or, as you said, perhaps it doesn't tell the whole story. Thinking about it from a 10,000 foot level, I could see where you could scrape enough steel to get the marker off, but still not enough to get an accurate hollow. My personal experience is that I've had guys tell me that hollow changes kinda felt like an "in between" sharpening. Since I'll (usually) adjust until they're happy, I've found that I wind up making 10 (+/-) passes when I do a hollow change. Keep in mind, it could all be in the heads of the guys I'm sharpening for. The guys that give me the most grief are former pros that are used to having an equipment manager that obsesses over this stuff, so I'm not sure they entirely trust me or the new-fangled technological wonder I have sitting in my garage.

I know. See my earlier post where I mentioned that their commercial sharpener is now the only way to get cross-grinding capability. Also (and maybe this is just me...), but that seems an awfully steep jump in price for the additions of automatic grinding wheel hight adjustment, cross-grinding capability, and a $90.00 mini-canister vacuum (the vacuum is included with the PS-100). All of the above being said, make no mistake, despite my frustration with this, I love my Sparx sharpener. What's more, the people I sharpen skates for love it as well. My complaint here is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor. I live in Southern California where we don't always have access to a "good" manual sharpening. Even from the large box stores (Hockey Monkey and Pure Hockey) with the supposed "experts" running the Wysotta, the sharpenings are woefully inconsistent and groin-grabbingly expensive. The Sparx solves all that and I'm kicking myself that I didn't make the investment earlier. I just wish I could attach my shop-vac to the thing.