| Evening Out the Teams |
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From time to time we are visited by anxious parents who are concerned their children are not getting all they might out of their hockey playing experience because of the evenness of the teams (specifically, when some teams seem to be significantly weaker than the others). Understandably, watching your child's team be defeated soundly and repeatedly can lead one to worry about the morale of the team. We do strive when creating the teams to form teams of similar ability and usually succeed. However, a number of factors make this more difficult than it may seem, and strategies to support weak teams are not always completely effective. But perhaps the most important point we are trying to make, is that so-called weaker teams are not necessarily having a less enriching experience, and parents need not feel quite so worried if they find their child on the team that celebrates few victories.
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| No Matter How Bad It Looks, It Almost Always Turns Out to Be a Rewarding Experience |
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A case in point: We had a team whose players had significantly weaker skating skills than players on other teams. They were being badly beaten at each game and by Christmas they had not celebrated a single victory. In an attempt to support this team, Dave, the Program Co-ordinator brought in a goalie and a strong player to try to even the team's odds. This strategy failed because the new players did not show up consistently and could not compensate for the weaker skills of their teammates.
Deciding to try a different approach, the coaches ran a practice in which they emphasized clearing the puck from out of their own end and getting the puck to the net at the other end. The team, humbled by their earlier losses, took the advice deeply to heart, and the change in the team was miraculous.
But the players did more, they started protecting their goalkeeper by diving in front of the pucks. This did not come from the coaches. Somehow the players figured this out all by themselves, that by all costs they had to put a wall up in front of their goalie.
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They left the ice with their eyes shining and cheeks glowing with pride due not to victory (which still escaped them) but because of their efforts. Now the games were much closer and they were always within reach. Even though they lost every single game, the effort they put in made each and every game a great deal of fun.
The story does not end here. The following year some of these kids ended up again on the same team. This team managed to win a significant portion of their games. Losses one year evened out with wins in the next. What was most interesting is that the lessons learned the previous year stuck. These players still dived in front of the puck, cleared it from the zone and went to the net. Their combination of skill and pure heart were major contributing factors in their new team's victories and their passion and style of play was contagious.
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There was another team (in another year) who were going into December without a single win. After an 11-2 slaughter, the coach was able to convince the team that the only way they could win was to play a disciplined positional game and pass, pass, pass. The following week the team responded and beat the only undefeated team 4-1. Sometimes a defeat or series of defeats can serve as inspiration to a team. That year the team in question turned their whole season around and actually won the consolation final!
We see these sorts of scenarios play out over and over again over the years. If we can all agree that the kids are here to learn something, get some exercise and have fun, we must realize that victory and defeat are not the be-all and end all. The teams sometimes will not be perfectly balanced and that is not always a bad thing.
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| How We Even Out the Teams |
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We strive to make the teams even. The simplest way to strive for equality among the teams is to look at the scores of the exhibition games and have the top teams trade players to the bottom teams. Unfortunately, while this approach is simplest, it is not necessarily accurate or effective. Any result is severely affected by the consistency of the player's attendance. This is especially problematic in the exhibition season where players (often very strong players) sign up late, thus disguising the true strength of a team. If the goal keeper does not show up and the net is attended by a more experienced goalie, a loss of 2-0 may seem like an even match when in fact the goalie is hiding the true weakness of the rest of the team.
Additionally, if a coach is able to instill in his players strategic playing early in the exhibition season, a team may appear to be stronger than the other teams. This difference is often wiped out as the coaches of the other teams instill team play during the year. It is unfair to handicap a coach who happened to succeed earlier then other coaches.
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What we do to compensate for these problems is that we try to have someone observe the exhibition games. For some time now this job has fallen on Dave's shoulders. Unfortunately, this means that Dave must attend every game for three weeks. This would include every evening, Saturdays and Sundays. Dave does the best he can, but it is an awful lot to expect.
After Dave has observed everybody, he then calls individual coaches and asks them to trade certain players. Coaches are usually quite willing to do this (after all, it's more fun for everyone when games are challenging to both teams), but this can become an issue to the players, who have their own ideas about trading.
Some approaches we have tried in the past have failed. We have found that trading can be quite tricky, especially if there is reluctance on the part of the player. Often players have friends among their teammates and are reluctant to switch allegiances. Forcing players to switch against their will often results in poor attendance on the part of the player or the player dropping out, which defeats the original purpose of the trade. We also tried a ranking approach, in which coaches would rank players according to different skills, but this too proved ineffective. The coaches were understandably hesitant to rank kids.
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| Getting the Coaches Involved |
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Currently, some coaches have volunteered to watch all the games for certain age groups. The coaches then get together to negotiate trades. This has worked extremely well in the past, especially in slightly older age groups where the coaches have known the players and each other for a few years.
In the future we are going to ask the coaches to observe at least some of the games and make notes. We are also going to ask referees to record puck possession percentages for each exhibition game. Puck possession is probably a better gauge of a team's strength or weakness than simply noting goals scored.
We then plan to get the coaches together after the last exhibition game to make the adjustments to even out the teams. Getting the coaches together will also strengthen communication between the coaches and increase camaraderie and cooperation between them, better equipping them to be able to provide an enriching experience for the kids.
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| Round Robin |
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We created round robin playoffs at the end of the season. The results of the round robin dictate who plays in which final. The results of the regular season are wiped out and each team has a fresh start.
This approach takes into account improvement over the season. Players have improved, coaches have instilled some strategies and teams have come together. As in the NHL, the regular season standings often do not predict who ends up in the final, which is as it should be.
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We should always remember that in the final analysis, the question is "Are the kids having fun?"
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