Pez68
Registered User
Both of these posts are spot on.
I have zero issue with Cross-ice hockey for the pre-Atom age groups. I think it's a good thing.
But like you said, practices still need to be on a full-sized sheet.
Too many coaches at the lowest youth levels think this is the NHL. The focus for coaches up to the teenage years should be all about skills development..skating, passing, shooting, stick-handling.
Kids will figure out their role based on what their stronger skills are when they approach teenage years. Players generally like to do the things they do well more often than the things they don't do well.
Tons of time to learn systems and positioning. Some will of already figured it out on their own. I had the misfortune of some pretty awful coaches as a youth player, can't say any of them taught me much about systems and positioning. By the time I was 12-13, I had figured a lot of it out on my own, as will many kids.
Bingo... All positioning is, is hockey sense anyway. Teach kids anticipation and how to read the ice and read the play, and they can play in any system and any position. This is what I'm trying to do with the kids I coach. Work on skills, and make them think the game. Give them general guidelines on how to accomplish the goal, but for the most part, let them play and figure it out. I think this should be ESPECIALLY true at the higher levels of travel hockey. Most of the kids already have the skills. What they are lacking is that ability to read the game.