What about the officials?

LTAD will have a significant impact on “the way we do things” in our sport. This is a great endeavor for Ringette as it will raise issues that have needed attention for quite some time. This will give our sport a platform on which we can all work together (locally, provincially and nationally) to achieve our vision that “Ringette is played by people of all ages and all abilities on all rinks in Canada”

One question that has come a lot throughout the Road Show has been “what about the officials?”

Well my friends… we didn’t already have enough acronyms already going around… but LTOD is on the rise. The first steps towards Long Term Official Development (LTOD) have started.

Ringette Canada’s Board of Director has directed its Officiating Committee to review and ensure that their programs are in line with LTAD. As this is quite a large undertaking, and in light of the development structure used for Athletes Development, the Officiating leaders of Ringette Canada are looking to put a separate Steering Committee together. (similar to the LTAD process)

Ringette will be leaders on this topic within amateur sport in our country. We will be the first National Sport Organization to fully take on the task of the LTOD process.

We seem to be fully embracing change…

First the athletes… now the officials…

What next… coaches, volunteers… the list goes on.

It’s our sport. It’s our passion… let’s make sure it’s a great product!

play... love… live…

-FL

Presentation now available

Hi all!

Note the the Road Show PowerPoint is now availble online.

Cilck here to link to the Ringette Canada site. The presentation can be downloaded - on the right hand side of the page!

Define tiering. Do it. I dare you!

Consider this conversation… it may sound familiar.

“Do you tier in Novice?”
“No we don’t”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I am. We don’t have Novice A, B and C”
“So all of the Novice teams in your provinces can attend the same tournaments?”
“Well, all but one tournament.”
“Really, which one is that?”
“We have an Super Elite Novice tournament at the end of the season where the best from each association come together to compete in this tournament.”
“Super Elite hey? Sounds like something you’d hear during the pre-boarding announcement of an Air Canada flight.”

The question that comes out of all of this is… What defines a tier?

MON SPORT. MA PASSION.
-FL

S & H in Nova Scotia

SEEN
- The airport and the meeting room. Doing the day trip thing doesn’t allow for much of anything else.
- Crosby. He’s everywhere! I think he’s from around there...
- Some of the AGM participants had seen the blog already! Exciting to see that you all are reading this blog!! :)

HEARD
- “Where is hockey in this process?”
- “Has soccer done this yet?”

LTAD Takes on Nova Scotia!!

On May 24th, I did the day trip thing to Halifax. As this is the 7th installment of the Traveling Road Show I felt pretty comfortable in doing the quick turnaround. Let me tell you, quick doesn’t even cut it.

I landed in Halifax, got into the car, drove to the Hotel where the AGM was, said hi, had lunch, set up for the presentation, delivered the presentation and headed back to the airport…

Aside from the craziness of the travelling, the presentation went very well.

The group in attendance was not only treated to the LTAD presentation, but also got some additional information with regards to Ringette Canada’s strategic plan. Leading off the presentation portion of the day was Beth Vallis’s presentation of our sports direction.

The LTAD portion of the presentation went well. Again, no major push back. I got many of the same questions I’ve seen in every province…

Something to note before I go… when the “please stand up” portion of the presentation takes place, I always enjoy seeing the look on people’s faces. They all have the “what is she going to make us do now” look… I get a laugh at that eveytime…
I guess this gives Ontario and Quebec some time to prepare… be ready to stand up and do something crazy when the Travelling Road Show comes to your province. :)

Thank you Nova Scotia for the warm welcome!
Although my stay was brief, it is always a pleasure to get the Maritime Welcome!


Play… Love… Live…
-FL

S&H... MRA AGM

HEARD
- “They only play Tournaments at Bunnies”
- “It’s boring to watch kids play the game and it NOT be the way it was intended to be played.”

SEEN
- MB regulates the number of goals per player at the Bunny and Novice…

What if…

What if we left it to the kids? What if we let them run things they way they wanted? What if we left them to solve their own problem?

The question is “what if?”… the quick response one would tend to give is… OMG this would never work!!

Well, here’s a fun example for you all…

Bunnies Are Resourceful

An interesting development that took place during the Whitby Ringette Tournament in 2008.

“There were three Bunny (7 years old and younger) teams participating in the tournament. I realize with LTAD that they are not supposed to be playing competitively, but they have been included in the past and people love to see the little players. During one of the games, a Whitby team ended up having four players in the zone where only three players are allowed. The coach and the officials tried to get one of the players to leave the zone. The players could not remember who was supposed to be in or out. The four players dropped their gloves and did Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who would be the player to leave the zone – the “loser” had to go out.

Something we can think about in the implementation stage – Bunnies do not need coaches or referees – they can make decisions on their own. It was a funny and remarkable story that spread around the arena during the weekend.”
- submitted by Carolyn Moutjoy, LTAD Committee Member.

Just something to think about…

PLAY IT. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.

-FL

4 for 4!... MB AGM

I have finally arrived to the fourth and final stop of this leg of the Travelling Road Show. Manitoba Ringette’s AGM took place Saturday May 10th.

I arrived at the Sport Manitoba Building about an hour before the start of my presentation… I was then treated to the wrap up of the voting of the Motions. Very interesting discussion and I got to see first hand the passion that lies within the leaders in our sport.

I feel this is a great introduction to the following point…

Adult programs superimposed on children; one of the challenges we face in amateur sport in Canada today.

Understanding that we need adults to lead the logistics of Ringette associations… not to mention the athletes need to get to the rink somehow (visual of Novice players driving themselves to the rink…lol) however we sometimes forget the reasons why kids play.

We run leagues, associations, tournaments the way we (as adults) would for ourselves.

In our sport we spend hours talking about monitoring the number of goals per game per player at the Novice level, moving players from one team to another because teams are not equal, athlete carding when the bottom line is… KIDS JUST WANT TO PLAY.

Maybe we should let them play, love and live the sport.

End of discussion.


PLAY IT. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.
-FL

S&H… PEI Style

Seen
- Did you know that pop cans were illegal in PEI Prior to Saturday May 3rd, 2008? Cause I’m pretty sure I didn’t know that!! I must admit that I didn’t believe it at first… considering the source I’m sure many of you would have done the same. It wasn’t until I saw the front page of the newspaper that I actually believed it.

- Stop signs are optional apparently. ;)

- PEI hospitality… got the full welcome to the Island. Everyone I have met during my stay here have been nothing but friendly and helpful. I look forward to my next trip out this way!

- I can now say I have been to PEI. One more checkmark on my list of things to do…


Heard
- “Thank you for this new approach. Opening up to boys will be great. My son loves the sport and I hope this new vision will open up the doors for many more to join”

- “Will the name of the sport change?”

- “Having now set the direction for the development of our Athletes, do we anticipate looking at Long Term Officiating Development?”

Random thoughts from PEI…

After having adjusted to the time change and recovered from the early morning rise for the trip to NB, I was ready to roll with LTAD in PEI.

Monday night, I switched from the LTAD hat to the CRC hat and met with the host committee for the 2009 Canadian Ringette Championships which will take place in Charlottetown in early April. The group is on track and I look forward to a great event!

Tuesday evening I attended the Ringette PEI Awards Reception. I fun little evening which honored the Top players, coaches, officials and volunteers. Following the awards I got right into my LTAD Travelling Road Show presentation.

While going through the presentation I realized that a lot of the major push back I got from a lot of the bigger provinces I would not be getting from the PEI Ringette Community.

Due to numbers, geography and the way they currently run their associations tiering is not part of their Ringette programs. This will make the implementation of some of the proposed changes much easier down the road.

Many questions came up at the conclusion of the presentation. Most were centered on the implementation side of this movement.

- “Will the age divisions at Atlantics Change?”
- “When is When? When can we anticipate seeing changes?”
- “What is the difference between a game and a competition?”
- “Will this be mandatory?”
- “How do we know this will work?”

Looking for answer to these questions? Stay Tuned… or better yet catch the LTAD Travelling Road Show; coming to an AGM near you. J

PLAY IT. LOVE IT. LIVE IT.
-FL

500 km de route vers le DLTA…

Et bien oui, dimanche matin John Francis (membre du comité du DLTA) et moi avons prit la route vers Rogersville, NB pour assister à la réunion annuel de l’association de Ringuette du Nouveau Brunswick.

Nous avons été très bien accueillit par le groupe et la présentation c’est très bien déroulée. Le groupe fut très réceptif; les questions et commentaires furent excellents.

« Est- ce que la mis en œuvre des concept du DLTA vont débuter en une province 9genre test) pour ensuite être réparti dans les autres provinces? »

R- Non, essentiellement les changements seront exigés parmi toutes les provinces en même temps. Cependant, il est important de prendre en note que les changements seront fais de façons graduelles; pas toutes les changements en même temps.

« Est- qu’il va ya avoir des ressources permettant d’identifier le stade de développement physiologique des athlètes? »

R- Le document « Notre Sport. Notre Passion. – Le développement à long terme de l’athlète » parlera de façon générale de ce sujet. Cependant, dans les années à suivre les ressources seront mise en place afin de facilité cette identification pour les parents et les entraineurs.

« Est-ce que les exigences pour chacun des stades du DLTA seront disponibles? »

R- À long terme, le développement des ressources indiquant les habitudes et compétences que les athlètes doivent acquérir à chacun de stade seront disponible. De plus nous allons développer des ressources pour aider aux entraineurs, par exemple un plan de sessions d’entrainements pour une saison complète.

« Comment allons-nous transmettre cette information au parents? »

R- Un Guide pour les parents sera produit. De plus la présentation du ‘Travelling Road Show’ sera disponible sur DVD et sur le Site Web de RC.

« Exemples de modifications des règlements au niveau débutant? »

R – Quelques exemples :

- L’entraineur sur la surface de jeux lors du match.
- Les arbitres jouent un rôle d’enseignement.
- Jouer sur une demi-glace.
- Nombre minimum de passes avant de lancer.
- Façon juste et équitable pour le temps de glace par joueur par partie.


mon sport. ma passion.

-FL

Coast to Coast… via MTL.

Saturday morning came way too soon… who ever came up with the concept of time change, let’s just say that him and I are fighting! LOL

Just as I was adjusting to the BC time zone, I hopped on an early flight from Kelowna to Vancouver… to then head to Montreal and connect to Charlottetown.

Apologies again for not posting as regularly as hoped… thanks for understanding!

-FL

S&H at the BCRA AGM…

Seen:

• The water trick!... you MUST show me how that works. I was paying attention and still don’t get it!
• Saturday night at the BCRA AGM is the place to be… too bad I missed it. Will plan better next time around!
• Change is never easy. In general people get into a comfort zone a way of doing things. Changing these habits will be a challenge.

Heard:

• “The players on Team Canada are currently great! Imagine how great our athletes will be 10 years from now when they have all gone through this system! I can’t wait for this to take shape”
• “It’s always great to see ‘Ringette Canada’ at our events. In the past we thought that all they did was put out a rule book every 3 years. But over the past few years there has been great progress (ie Team Canada Camp in September, presentations at AGM)… Thanks RC! “
• Someone’s new goal in life has changed… they now wish to be more like…(you know who you are)
• A lot of times in Ringette, individuals are asked to do some many things that they must ‘wear so many hats’ at times that they the lines sometimes get crossed… we need to figure out a way to get them to ‘take off’ some of those hats.
  

Third time’s a charm…BCRA AGM.

Hey!

So it’s been a while since my last post… :s Not to make excuses but the U19 prep has been my main focus for the past week seeing as the Travelling Road Show will have me out of the office until the 12th (BC, NB, PEI and MB are all on the agenda this coming week). I am now back in LTAD mode and ready to blog away for the next week and a bit.

Alright… so lets talk BC now.

On Thursday I ventured my way from the National Capital over the mountains to the BCRA AGM. I took most of the day Friday to adjust to the time change (up at 4am local time!) to then be ready to go for my evening presentation.

Over all the presentation went well and the feedback was great! As expected the push back came from the “old guard” unfamiliar and uneasy with the concept of change.

“Why make changes? Is the current system flawed?”

Ummm… well actually it is. When we take a look at the current sport system in Canada we will quickly realize that the majority of the sports are faced with the following:

• Over-competition and under-training
• Adult training and competition programs superimposed on children
• Peaking by Friday
• Chronological age versus developmental age is used
• Missing the ‘windows’ of accelerated adaptation
• Only single sporting activities are taught - Physical literacy not taught
• Knowledgeable coaches work with elite athletes
• Parents are not educated about LTAD
• Needs of athletes with a disability not well understood
• No talent identification system (selection by competition – is not Talent ID)
• No system integration (schools, community and competitive)

At a quick glance, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that in Ringette most of these statements are true.

When I elaborated into the finer details of what is currently going on in our sport, where we are heading with the new framework, the new initiatives and the new resources the BCRA contingent was very receptive and eager to move forward with these concepts…. for the most part.

Worries about implementing certain aspect of this raised many questions. The resistance to change will be inevitable. The education of parents, coaches and administrators will be the key.

What we must not forget in this whole process is the reason why kids play sport. Adults must put their own wants (for their child to be the next great one) and needs (to win at all cost) aside and remember… it’s for the kids.

Ask a six year old how many games they won at the end of the season. Chances are, they won’t remember.

Ask a six year old how many friends they made, how many times they got to play in the pool at the hotel, how many times they had fun.

“12. 2. all season!”


play it. love it. live it.
-FL