Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 18:31
By Diane Ness
Ah yes, the start of another hockey season. I thought I should write one more article on transitions, but now my attention has turned in another direction— mite hockey.
Does it get any better than this? Do you remember having coffee at 7 a.m., watching your son or daughter play with the neighborhood kids? What about watching the grandparents’ faces as your child scored his/her very first goal. In my case, I was on the ice with my son and his team/friends, desperately trying to get the attention of 18 extremely overactive kids.
No matter how many high level players I teach, I always enjoy coming back to the mites. Why? It’s simple. They’re having fun. They like hockey for the game it is.
Have you ever watched the number of small tag games they play while waiting in line? How about the “I’m first in line” competition? The sliding instead of stopping into line is my grandson Ryan’s favorite. It’s like watching a strike in bowling about to happen. Oh, to be five again.
So, how do we make these practices worthwhile, count for anything and teach them something? It’s really quite simple. After 37 years of teaching this age group, I’m convinced it’s all about one thing: games. Any kind of game. Be creative. Gliding games; blast off rocket ship games; counting backwards-5,4,3,2,1 glide-on-one foot games.
The football (or pumpkin) swizzle game is a game that introduces an edge. For that game, purchase a large magic marker and draw a football or pumpkin on the ice. Then simply slide both feet over the football, glide, then pull them back together and you have a swizzle. In the winter, we use mittens for the skater to swizzle around.
But my all-time favorite is the bubble gum game. You gather all of your players in a circle. Everyone declares how many pieces of gum they want. First, you get the quiet skater who says two pieces. Then it gets a little louder with someone saying 11 pieces or so. Finally, there is the outside voice screaming “infinity.” Now, beat that.
The skater then pretends to blow the biggest bubble he can as he skates backwards. Some kids will skate into the next county. They don’t realize that they are practicing their backwards skating. Then they pop their imaginary bubble and race back together in the circle. Then do it again, and again, and again.
My long-time instructor of 25 years, Mary – who has 6 children of her own – even developed a jingle to go along with this game: “Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?”
So how can I be talking about a bubble gum game when the NHL team I work with (New Jersey Devils) can’t seem to play in the D zone. When all else fails, ask yourself this: ”Why did we get into this game to start with?” The answer is still the same: for fun!
Diane Ness has been a full-time professional skating coach for over 35 years. She has coached both figure skaters and hockey players alike and is a former U.S. gold medalist in figure skating. She is the Director for the Pro Edge Power hockey camps and the Learn to Skate program at Highland Park Arena. Ness is the skating coach for the New Jersey Devild, the University of Minnesota men’s and women’s hockey teams and the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. She has trained players in the NHL, AHL, NCAA, USHL and NAHL.
