End of the Season

Well at last spring has come and it's the end of the winter hockey season.  I say winter season because many opt to play Spring Hockey.  We tried it once with our kids because there was nothing for them to do between winter and summer sports.  Wrong decision on our part in my opinion.  I never enrolled any of our kids after that one.  The gist is that you play nearly a hockey season condensed into a spring 2.5 month season.  

There are a number of issues with the Spring league stuff, including not being a sanctioned league by Hockey Canada.  The biggest for me though is the subscription to Wayne Gretzky's idea that kids should enjoy multiport's.  I am a big advocate of Multisport for cross training.  It allows for less burnout, more enjoyment when hockey comes around again, and cross training in other sports has a big impact on some of the shared skills like weight transfer, hand eye coordination, balance, agility, etc...

Add to this the fact that isolation on a single sport should really only be done by the high performance athlete after they are well on their way.  Most kids, even the really talented ones, will not play any particular sport professionally.  Those kids should be able to play a game of pick up basketball, baseball, badminton, tennis, whatever they want.  I know kids who are extremely talented in the sport of hockey who cannot throw a ball.  That sounds a little insane, but it's true.  They just haven't practiced throwing mechanics because they are so single sport focused that they just never learn.  

Let kids try other sports.  Let them make their junior high and high school volleyball teams, running teams, baseball, track and field.  Let them experience some of those other skills. Some may actually be insanely good at some of those other events.  There is one kid that I know of who made a transition from AA hockey into rowing.  Within a season, he was at the Nationals for rowing.  He has a gift for it.  How would he have known if his parents elected to only put him in summer camps, spring hockey, fall camps etc.  

I do believe that in order to play a decent level in any sport these days, it does take sacrifice.  Gone are the days that you completely abandon the sport for an off season, but the off season can be way lighter.  Going out once or twice a week to practice a few skills, versus full on practice and competition is something that can happen in conjunction with other sports.  It should happen in order to give everyone the best chance at playing at their true capability.  Imagine going into "training camp" these days the way that the players in my generation did as a way to get in shape, instead of being in shape and ready.  After a month of teams making cuts etc, a really good player could just be hitting the stride only to find themselves two levels lower than they should be.  In the end it is about fun, but nothing is fun about being in a league that is well below or well above your level.  

And so, I guess I will sign this off and go looking for the bag of baseballs downstairs...its only a month and a half to ball season.

 

 

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