Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Absolutly Ridiculious!

I was at my son's team practice the other day and what I saw made me feel so badly for the kids, all of them, but in particular the goalies.


Just to clarify things; this is an 'A' level competitive Bantam team and every player on this team, won a City Championship last year.


The coach (new guy this year) was on the ice by himself, now this guy has very little hockey knowledge and God bless him for trying, but he shouldn't be allowed on the ice because he doesn't know any drills or how to deal with the kids, but I'll leave that alone for now....



For the first 10 minutes, 3 or 4 kids came onto the ice and skated around, shooting pucks and generally screwing around, no coach - he was busy playing games in the dressing room with the kids, by blocking their way out the door....So 10 minutes wasted.



When the team finally got out onto the ice, the kids did some skating for a couple of minutes, the goalies were made or allowed to skate like they didn't care and didn't skate in stance or work on their form or technique, at all.....another 10 minutes wasted



Then the team did some really lame around the circle drill at a pace that was like watching paint dry, most of the kids were so bored, they couldn't have cared - one even skated over and asked his dad if he could leave. Meanwhile the goalies were flopping around and doing what they wanted, which involved shooting pucks into the air and spinning around on their knees making cool marks in the snow.....another 10 minutes wasted



So THIRTY FRICKEN MINUTES INTO THE PRACTICE the goalies had their first shots, which amounted to about 7 or 8 shots on goal. Then the coach decided that the kids aren't working hard enough and pulls them off the ice and he goes home.



40 minutes of ice and 7 or 8 shots on goal!!!!!!!!!!!



OK, I gotta be honest here, I'm pretty PO'd that I wasted my time coming over to the rink to watch my son practice and saw this. First off this guy can't coach, second, he won't let anyone help him - I offered and his response was "ya, we don't know much about goalies". But he has never asked or responded to my offer to help - so HIS EGO IS IN THE WAY of him doing what a coach is supposed to do - help the kids develop.



Now I'm not the typical whining parent here, I want to help and I know every player on the team because I have coached all but one kid on this team, so I know what they are capable of. They have won 4 regular season games this year and have DOUBLE the next closest team in the league for goals against, both goalies had averages around 2:00 last year and not both are around 5:00.

I is so hard to stand back and watch and egotistical b#*t*rd ruin the kids season, confidence and their love of the game.

Once again - COACHES, please let people help you, don't let your ego in the way of the kids development. Remember; THE KIDS ARE WHY YOU ARE THERE!!!!!

OK, whine over...for now.

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