Practice May not Make Perfect but it does Make Sense!!

In any sport, practice is the key to not only the development of the individual player but it is also a necessity for a team to become just that, a “team”.  It doesn’t matter what age you are, what division you are in, or what your experience level is; practice just makes sense.

            I can remember when I first started helping out to manage our roller hockey leagues here at the Fieldhouse.  Since I was coming from ice hockey myself and having played it and coached it for 25 years , I was amazed that back then (about 7-10 years ago)  our youth house divisions would have three practices and ten to twelve games in a season.  I thought to myself, “This is not enough time to spend on even the fundamentals let alone team concepts.”   You would think parents and kids would love the opportunity to work on their skills and have fun with their own teammates without the pressures of a game, especially since we were talking about beginners for the most part.  Season after season we would have our practice weeks and have teams show up with 2-3 kids in most cases.  Knowing the importance of practices, we finally tried to not post which weeks were practice weeks so that more kids would be in attendance. You would not believe how many parents got to the rink but found out it was practice week and stormed out the door without even skating in disgust. They would actually say right in front of their child “We could still be sleeping” or “I could have stayed at work”  I couldn’t believe it.

            Now in our youth house leagues, for the most part we have two practices and 12 games with playoffs. (Fall and Winter). We actually gave up on scheduling more practices and cut them back to two. We offer the teams a chance to schedule as many additional practices as they want throughout a season on their own but rarely do any teams take us up on that.   Our newer coaches have come in with enthusiasm and excitement and we always get a few that inquire prior to the season about booking extra floor time. These feelings soon diminish when they see half their team show up for the first practice and even see many players skipping some games without notifying them.

            I remember back when we had an abundance of youth open teams. Only a small percentage of them even scheduled a couple of practices in a season and these were teams playing competitive league play and wanting to be competitive in tournaments. One organization back then practiced weekly and of course we would receive weekly complaints because these teams were too strong for certain divisions. I would explain that it wasn’t that way to begin with and that those kids just plain spend more time on the floor working on their skills and going over team play. It’s truly amazing what a roller hockey team can do when the entire team is on the same page and thinking the same way.

            Nowadays we offer Skills and Drills sessions almost weekly. While sometimes we do have pretty good numbers at those during the Fall and Winter seasons; compared to the overall number of youth players that are playing, these should be sold out each and every week.  We want to add more skills sessions but it just doesn’t make sense based on the numbers.  Over the past five years of running these skills and drills sessions I can count on one hand the number of customers that have been unhappy with a session.  We put some of our best people on these and take care of them very well because we value this program.  I can think of numerous cases where players were just beginners and were behind the rest of their team in a youth house division.  These same players that made a commitment to go to the skills and drills sessions regularly, skated youth drop-ins when they could, and attended camps in the Summer would soon become, within a year or so it seemed, the top players in the whole division let alone their own team.  We (LCRH) offer Summer Camps both in June and in August and these camps are very affordable yet it is only a handful of players that seem to enroll.

               It is truly amazing that a parent would allow their child to go into a sport they clearly love but then not afford them the opportunities to improve their game by taking them to these extra programs.  I know that a child does not head out to the ball field without ever taking batting practice, fielding grounders, or shagging flyballs. I don’t believe you just send out your daughter on to the soccer field without them even knowing how to handle the ball or having a general idea of positioning.  How about a 4^th grader hitting the court for his first basketball league game with out ever practicing a lay up, shooting a free throw, or working on a play with his teammates.

            Practice may not make the player perfect but it will make them more confident in their game over time which will no doubt lead them to having a far better experience at the rink.  They will be able to do the simple things on the rink without having to think about them which will allow them to grow as a player and to become an invalueable teammate.

            What is it with Roller Hockey???

             While we are on the subject – I should add that many times when I am speaking with kids I will ask what other activities or things are they into or playing. I will usually get the regular answers of ice hockey, football, soccer, lacrosse, or baseball. I always ask what they enjoy most and I would bet nine out of ten say roller hockey.  And, yes, I even ask a lot of our ice kids what they prefer and almost all, without hesitation say roller hockey is way more fun. Some do say that they love both and they are just different.  Usually the next thing out of their mouth is something to the affect that “well my parents say they pay a lot of money for ice or baseball so that has to come first” or “ my parents say….it’s just roller you don’t have to practice and its’ ok to miss your game”.   Why is that I wonder?  How is it right that in a  team sport where you usually have just 8 players, which means two lines basically, that it is ok for one or more of the players to simply miss their practice or game. How is that fair to their teammates or the coach? I know other commitments need to be filled and that sometimes missing is unavoidable but should a player just skip roller without even notifying his coach or letting a league manager know?  I don’t know that there is another sport where missing one of the teams’ stronger offensive players or smarter defensive players, or hardest working player will affect the outcome of a game as much as it does in roller hockey.

            Your child loves to play roller hockey!!!! Why not look for ways to support these kids and allow them to do something they enjoy doing without making them feel like you don’t enjoy it as well.  You may not understand the sport of hockey or get why they love the roller game but does it really matter? Shouldn’t it be enough that they are having fun and are making new friends and learning what it means to be part of a team.  A team that needs YOU at practice.