Learn to Play Hockey and Learn to Skate 2005
Click here for this weekends rap up and award ceremony
from our 2005-2006 learn to skate program. A great time was had by
all. Thanks for your participation and we look forward to seeing you
next year.
2005-06 registration information:
Registration is September 13th and 14th at 6-8 pm and September
17th from 9-12 am. All registration signups will be held at the
Armstrong Arena in Plymouth, MA. Our learn to play hockey is open to
children 3-7 (depending on ability and room in the program we may
consider other ages on a case by case basis). Learn to play hockey is
$300.00 and Learn to skate is $200.00.
Our Learn to skate program will run on Saturday mornings at
9:00 am from October 8th through February. This program will teach the
children fundamental skating skills. We have run this program for over
20 years. Our goal is to get the kids ready to play in our cross ice
program.
Welcome to an exciting new hockey season. We are offering a new
program this year; Our learn to play hockey is going to be
played cross ice. We will continue to offer two days of instruction
per week; On Tuesday's at 5:30 pm, we will have our teams skills
sessions throughout the year. On weekend mornings (either
Saturday or Sunday) we will have our cross ice games.
This is a change from our full ice program offered in the past; but
we believe along with USA hockey that this is the way to teach the
game and get the kids ready for our other hockey programs. This will
be a 3 on 3 (with goalies) cross ice format. The kids will be on the
ice a lot more, touch the puck more often, and they will have a great
time while learning a great game.
USA Hockey has been recommending that all associations move to
cross-ice play at the Mite level for several years now.
In no other major sport do 20-year olds and 6-year olds play on the
same size playing surface. Football, basketball, baseball, soccer and
most other sports play on reduced surfaces appropriate to the size of
the players and their capabilities. There is a great deal of research
available showing that kids have the puck on their stick an incredibly
short amount of time in any given youth hockey game (on the order of
30 seconds or so). The purpose of playing cross-ice is to compress the
amount of space in which the game is played, in order to force the
players into closer contact with each other. There are a number of
important benefits to compressing the ice surface:
- Shorter distances mean harder, crisper, quicker passes.
- Reducing the distances allows the player to skate full-out for
the entire shift.
- Compressing the surface requires players to learn to stickhandle
or risk losing the puck.
- Reduced area forces more passes, and quicker passes, in order to
advance the puck.
- Compressed areas allow more players to touch the puck every
shift.
- A surface without blue lines encourages more creative play and
discourages "systems", "dump-ins", and similar restrictive
practices.
- Smaller surfaces result in more shots on goal, and increased
opportunities for goaltenders to play the puck.
- Compressed areas require the skater to work to find open ice,
and learn to "read the ice" better.
- Smaller surfaces require quicker decision-making, and encourage
creativity.
- Smaller teams mean more shifts per game.
- Better ice utilization reduces cost of playing.
- Shorter surfaces force players to work on their starts and stops
more often.
- Defensemen become more involved in the play, as opposed to
"right field syndrome".
We believe that compressed ice surfaces promote better skill
development, better skating skills, better puck-handling, increased
"team play", and promote creativity. Players learn how to carry the
puck through traffic, how to pass quicker and with more power, how to
get open for the pass, how to make quick decisions, and many other
skills which are sorely lacking in older divisions in US Hockey.
Hockey is not a sport like soccer, which anyone who owns a ball can
play with just a few minutes instruction. It requires long hours of
skill development to even begin to play hockey reasonably well.
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