I was involved in a tournament over the weekend, thus giving me the opportunity to see and live ringette at the early stages of development for the first time this year.
Given my inability to turn off the LTAD switch a lot of things jumped out at me. There were a lot of great things, and then a few situations that got me thinking.
Allow me to share the one that stood out the most:
Running time.
In most tournaments there is a rule which states a game will go into running time once a 7 goal differential is reached. Prior to my LTAD transformation, I had never thought twice about this concept.
It allows for a tournament to catch up on lost time during the day and avoids a long and “embarrassing” game for the young players. The 7 goal rule is also there as a sportsmanship thing.
I now ask myself, does this make sense?Should we be shortening these young athletes’ opportunity to take part in the game? Are these not key learning moments in their development? What is more important catching up on lost time in a tournament or an athlete’s fair participation in the sport?
Before I wrap this up, allow me to share this story. In the Novice group at this tournament, I officiated one game where the goal differential was extremely high... above and beyond the 7 goals. The same team that won the game by a landslide played in the final game. I didn’t notice much of a difference in these athletes from one game to the other. They still played the same way, had a smile on their faces and enjoyed being out there. The coaching staff on the other hand was very vocal, stressed and nervous during the final game.
Who is impacted the most by these lopsided games?Kids are there to have fun. Let them play.... better yet figure out a way to avoid these one way games. Clearly running time is beneficial to no one.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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4 comments:
You can bet that the rink supervisor is more concerned with catching up on lost time in a tournament than fair participation. It's not like every hour is alloted to ringette. When the time is up, the time is up, and the next ice user is coming on, even if your little ringette girls haven't gotten fair time to play.
How come you encourage these little players to play on and have fun, and yet LTAD seems to be alot about less games and more practises? I thought you (and LTAD) said they don't learn anything in games? Now you are saying they are having key learning moments in games like this? What's the deal?
You can say what you want, but I had two children quit hockey when they tried no games. Who ever these people are that come up with this (LTAD) obviously do not play the GAME. Because if you give the kids a choice they would only play the GAME. They practice because the parents and coaches tell them to. It is the balance between practice and GAMES and coaching and encouragement that we must work toward. I do not support sport Canada or Ringette Canada.
You lack my support.
Since when do you have kids having a passion to practice? Do you see pick-up ringette practice?
I don't know about you, but hockey seems to be doing just fine without re-naming their levels, and letting their kids just 'play'.
Who thinks up this stuff?
So if I understand this correctly, you are advocating normal stop time and the teams play their normal game. I am afraid I have to disagree.
Having been on both ends of the issue, it's just as hard to be up as it is being down. The start of this past season, we were seeded improperly resulting in a lot of lopsided games. Our best players were reduced to playing defence and dumping the ring back into the other teams zone. we couldn't risk taking shots on net for fear it would go in on the goalie. At one point, my players were asking if the whole year was going to be like this because it was boring and not fun. And they were on the up side of the score...
No one is learning anything when they are being overpowered, other than how to lose with class. And regardless what you say, no kid is going to be having fun when they are getting waxed by more than 7 goals and the teams are playing full speed still.
As for this thing of less games more practices, that is ridiculous. The best way for a player to learn is watching their teammates and then doing for themselves, in other words, playing the game.
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