Feature Story
We need more use of them
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Almost 20 years ago I wrote a column
called “We don’t use them much anymore.” I recently revisited that column and
found with little adjustment, it is still valid today.
Some cities and towns still have several
but some don’t have any anymore. Most of
them aren’t used nearly as much as they were in the past. Even during Christmas
vacation, most of them don’t have a lot of kids out there. You have probably
guessed by now that the mystery subject is the outdoor rink.
The question is,
does it make a difference that the outdoor rinks are not being used as much
anymore? I think so and so do quite a number of others that are now analyzing
the youth game.
The next question, of course, is why is
it important that outdoor rinks be utilized by hockey youngsters? There are
actually several answers to that question, some very practical and
understandable, and some a little more vague but nonetheless important. The
following are a sample of answers.
• Outdoor ice
is very inexpensive or even free. With ice costs increasing and already
representing a major portion of any team’s budget, the use of outdoor rinks can
actually save money.
• Most
youngsters are not getting enough practice ice. Most youth teams are operating
at a 1:1 to 1.5:1 ratio of practice hours to games. While a decrease in numbers
of games for most levels is also recommended, actually an increase in the
amount of practice ice times is also in order.
It has been
recommended from the national level that ratios of 3:1 to 2.5:1 for Mite,
Squirt and PeeWee levels, and 2:1 to 2.5:1 for
Bantams and Midgets be maintained for proper development of players.
Other than at
the high school level, there simply isn’t enough ice and money available to
maintain these ratios on indoor rinks.
• Many young
players are not getting enough free ice time to play shinny and develop
creative and natural skills. It is impossible to provide those hundreds of hours of shinny
and experimental development on indoor ice in a formal practice atmosphere. The
very formality of the game and practice schedules narrow the time available for
young players to go outdoors for fun games or even boot hockey.
Christmas
vacation time, for example, is now filled with indoor practices in between big
tournaments. It might best be a time of no games with informal shinny
practices outdoors everyday.
With the
right motivation to get kids to the rinks, they will stay all day, have a ball
and gain more ground during the two-week Christmas vacation than a coach can
provide in two months.
It’s time for
coaches to take an honest look at why they don’t use outdoor ice. To realize
that a two-hour practice can include 50 minutes of regular practice and over an
hour of shinny fun. Maybe their players will even learn how to use an ice rink
scraper!
• Now here
comes the more vague answer. Youngsters are not gaining the love and respect or
the game that they did with a larger amount of outdoor, fun ice time. This is a
hard answer to explain. It is more of
a gut feeling and an observation.
Today’s young
players are primarily involved with hockey at the formal practice and game
level. Those skills and understandings that once were mostly acquired by long
sessions of fun hockey on outdoor rinks, and even by boot hockey on the road,
are now acquired by drills in practices.
It creates a different feeling in young players.
Well, the
answers are pretty easy to see. Coaches have to utilize the outdoor rinks at
their disposal or help their associations build rinks if they don’t now exist.
Outdoor practices should at least add those missing 25 to 30 hours of practice
that are being missed by most teams — and practices should be of the much less
formal variety on the outdoor ice.
Christmas break should be cleared of tournaments and formal practices
and filled with outdoor ice use.
So what about those freezing toes and cold fingers and
wind-nipped ears. Most kids can live
with all of those “hardships” and still have great fun and excellent
development. Kids did it for years before most of the indoor arenas were built.
Outdoor rinks shouldn’t be just for the
occasional use of the teams. They should be for all of the kids. I guarantee
that every one of those outdoor hours that coaches
schedule will give their teams more than one hour of real development and will
provide many of the good memories that kids will carry with them long after
their hockey careers are over.
John Russo, Ph.D., is founder and
director of the