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.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
