presented by the Stop It Goaltending U app

Transcript

David Hutchison 0:00
A common question comes up, especially when and believe it or not, I’ve actually seen some parents kicking around the what do we do this spring question already. And one of the questions that seems to come up a lot of the time for two different reasons. One is people legitimately wondering where their kids maybe should play next time, and another one is sometimes those of us who probably want to soothe ourselves when things aren’t going so well in terms of our kids team, and that’s the question, would you rather have your young goalie playing on a really good team or a really bad team where they see a lot more action? What do you guys think?

Daren Millard 0:36
I look at it as two different answers, like the spring team. I would rather be on a poor team and get lots of action like a spring summer, non key team during the year. I don’t want my kid being shelled every every game

David Hutchison 0:58
I’ve never thought about splitting it up up by season like that Darren, that’s an interesting idea.

Kevin Woodley 1:01
I wondered about that too, because I wondered if the sort of you know, we know the risks of being on a bad team, as much as there are positives to the exposure and the extra experience, and I’d rather get 30 shots than five and actually learn how to play the game, as much as those are seen as positives, we also know that if you give a bunch of goals and lose a bunch of games, you often don’t get to move up the ranks the next season. And I do wonder if I might just hate it and give up. Well, there’s that, but I do wonder if that from year to year carry over of where a kid gets ranked and seated within the pecking order of his minor Hockey Association. I’ve been a part of those evaluations and been frustrated when they won’t go outside of the pecking order, even though the skill from one year to the next has clearly changed. But I do wonder if, as Darren said, you might be better to take the risk and play on a bad team in the spring where maybe there’s less carryover. Maybe it’s not the same group, maybe it’s outside of your minor hockey, maybe it’s a private team, and maybe results don’t matter as much.

David Hutchison 2:03
Yeah, it could. Yeah, that’s interesting. Mine was sort of, I’d say a little of both. And this is obviously an ideal situation, and you can never really design that ideal situation, but you definitely don’t want just a strong team that runs the table. Though, one advantage if you’re in a situation where you practice more than you play, and I hope that’s the case for most teams, is that you then get to face the best players every day in practice, if you’re on a weak team and you’re a really good goalie, and I’ve seen this happen before, the practices become too easy, and you end up in practices where you’re counting goals, hoping that you can keep it under a certain number, because you’re playing with a bunch of weaker players.

Daren Millard 2:45
So you gotta have a pretty solid, uh, disciplined approach to your practice habits then,

David Hutchison 2:51
No, exactly, exactly. So, so that’s one thing, and then I would just add into what you just said there, Darren, one of the ways you can do that is whether it’s a good team or a bad team. The question that hasn’t come up here yet is, what’s the coaching situation? What’s the environment going to be like on that team? If you got a really positive, good learning environment with a high end coach on a high end team, then you might learn a lot in that experience. Is there goaltending coach, support? I think that probably matters more than anything in these situations. Do you have a and not just, is there a goalie coach, but who is that person? What they’re like? Would they be able to help your kid through a difficult situation if they’re playing on one of those weaker teams? Or have you got a less experienced coach, maybe who doesn’t understand how tough it is to be a goaltender in that situation? So I would definitely be evaluating the coaching situation. And then the other thing I was just going to add, if you did play for a good team, and there really is a lot of value in learning to win and enjoying the experience of winning some games, but are you want a good team that’s able to also put themselves into enough situations where there is a challenge so and it gets more expensive, but is that good team able to go to some tournaments where they’re facing other good teams, and so your kids still get that pressure opportunity. It’s another one of those sort of best of both world situations. But I think we do need to say, though, guys, at the end of the day, you just need to ask yourself, What’s the best development opportunity, weighing all those different factors, but we also need to just accept that few of us get that opportunity to make choices like this, although there’s there’s more choices in the game today. So make the most of whatever situation you’re faced with. Find a way to develop and have fun and and I think maybe next week, what we’ll do is we’ll circle back to that and talk about maybe ways you can help your child develop and have a little more fun if they are in one of those situations where it’s not so ideal,

Speaker 1 4:45
I feel like I shouldn’t have weighed in on this at all, because nobody’s ever asked me to play in a good team.

David Hutchison 4:53
They migh t have thought it was gonna be a good team, Woody,

Kevin Woodley 4:55
and then they saw me,

Daren Millard 4:56
are we? Are we speaking to the 1% right now?

David Hutchison 5:00
Well, that’s what I mean. Like quite often you don’t get a choice. You play for your local minor Hockey Association and and you’re going to be with whatever. But now parents do have a little bit more choice, because you’ve got these certainly here in Canada, you have these outlaw leagues where people might want to go. Sometimes they go because they think they’re going to get more development there, and sometimes they’re disappointed. I’ve heard. So there’s those opportunities. As you said, with spring, you end up with a few more opportunities to make decisions as well. But it is one of those questions, as I said in the beginning, that we as parents, as we’re watching poor little Johnny face 60 shots every day, we say, well, but gosh, he’s getting so much more experience. I really like that. He’s getting that experience.

Kevin Woodley 5:37
The other thing too is, like, sometimes parents do face the decision, like they don’t make the top rep team. But, like, I mean, let’s, I don’t know, here in locally, like, I think at some age groups, it’s such a big association that there’s like, a fourth rep team, right? And it’s like, do I put my kid on the fourth rep team as a potential backup, he’s not even going to play every game? Or do I just let him go to house, which is basically the next group of kids down, and play all the time, maybe even play out when he’s not in goal, like have a full on experience.

David Hutchison 6:05
That might be a fun question to tackle one week as well.

Kevin Woodley 6:08
Maybe we make that a different one. But I’ve actually had parents ask me that question in years past, and I advise going to play house for one of these young guys, and he and this, this young man, is now playing, uh, Junior in in Massachusetts, in the state, love it so, you know. And at that point, he kept having results, and he wasn’t getting opportunity at the higher rep leagues, and it was either the Fourth Level rep or house. And he went to house, so we get to play. And, you know, all those years later, I think four years later, he’s playing junior hockey. So sometimes the best decision is not to be on the quote, unquote best team you possibly can.

Daren Millard 6:45
I appreciate the angle of coaching. I think that should play a significant factor in the coaching style. But fun has to also influence which direction you go.

David Hutchison 6:57
Huge, huge. And that’s also, I mean, the coaching situation factors into that as well, because some coaches are win at all costs, and some are just have fun, and some fun to you know, did you see, by the way, did you see that great social piece? I think it was Minnesota Wild. Put out where it was, what if NHL players were on a minor hockey travel team, and they show the coach come in. And I actually was watching it on silent with other people around me, but I think as I read his lips, it was and you boys don’t go play in the in the pool tonight, and then a bunch of the wild players are playing mini sticks in the hotel lobby. They’ve got their names up on the doors of every hotel room. As you know, moms and dads like to order these cool things to make their kids feel like pros and and, yeah, fabulous piece. You should go check it out. Really well done.

Daren Millard 7:45
Sounds awesome. I love the creativity of Team social media accounts.