My daughter plays travel volleyball. It is about as expensive as travel hockey. They have 2 2-hour practices a week and the coaches are paid. It is a long season like hockey. The coaches may have college experience, olympic experience, both or more. They don't play local weekly games. They only play travel tournaments. Included in the cost are 8 tournaments. The focus is development. It got me to think about alternative or additional youth ice hockey events during the off-season.
One of the differences I noticed was the intensity and detail of the evaluations to place the players throughout three or four levels of play. The focus is on volleyball skill developement with expectations. There is a high expectation that the player is there, out of a desire to improve and compete at tournament levels.
Would this work for youth ice hockey? More practices and squad scrimmages and less weekly games? Paid coaches and high expectations for the players to excel through practice? Less travel and more intense focus on regimented skills development? Now the tournaments wouldn't have to be all over the US. Sure standard travel tournaments but also local league tournaments. Any variation really. What if a new Spring/Summer league looked at intense training and held monthly round robin tournaments for the teams in the league? Maybe monthly, every 6 weeks or a variation? Maybe it is only a 6 week league that culminates with a tournament. Intense practices and scrimmages are used to prepare the players. One goal, one mission to win the Leauge Cup. Something like that. Not just a weekly clinic but a team with purpose.
Would this work during the March - August lack of hockey in our area? Not only would this addition to the regular Fall/Winter league be about skill, it could be about safety. It would include total preparation for game play. How to check, how to protect yourself, how to make decisions, how to execute, and so on. Intense, intense training for players that value practice and hard coaching. It would be a match between player attitude and desire to learn and higher levels of coaching. Between season alternatives or options might be the answer for both teaching safety skills and helping players develop before the start of the next season.
Change is not always about removing old ways. It can include new additions that help tackle old problems.
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