howeaboutthat
Registered User
Well it would be pretty stupid to say anything bad about on ice officials when your team is still playing
Is Keefe not playing at the weekend then?
Well it would be pretty stupid to say anything bad about on ice officials when your team is still playing
It'll come as no surprise but, based on my experience of struggling for decent ice time due to competing demands, I completely disagree with your belief that facilities have poor utilisation. Here is the ice schedule for my local ice,Yes but the capacity utilisation of the current infrastructure is well below what it could be. Put competent people in charge of the governing body, proper development and guidance for coaches and officials and so forth. Infrastructure is not an excuse anymore, nations with less rinks and less players than us can produce NHL players but we cannot, so obviously we are doing something wrong.
Yes I'm an official based in Reading. I can get to Bracknell, Slough and Basingstoke in less than 30 minutes. I can get to Oxford, Swindon and Guildford in less than an hour. Brixton and Gosport would be pushing it, depending on traffic.
Hockey takes priority in Swindon. The GM Steve Nell buys the ice time for hockey from the council, he set up the Okanagan Hockey Academy there and basically said **** you to the figure skaters and bought all their ice time. Oh the irony when they were in the local paper complaining the hockey players took their ice... Just shows all it takes is someone with a vision to take the initiative and progress will be made. I am sure OHA will produce many good players over the next few years.
It'll come as no surprise but, based on my experience of struggling for decent ice time due to competing demands, I completely disagree with your belief that facilities have poor utilisation. Here is the ice schedule for my local ice,Yes but the capacity utilisation of the current infrastructure is well below what it could be. Put competent people in charge of the governing body, proper development and guidance for coaches and officials and so forth. Infrastructure is not an excuse anymore, nations with less rinks and less players than us can produce NHL players but we cannot, so obviously we are doing something wrong.
Yes I'm an official based in Reading. I can get to Bracknell, Slough and Basingstoke in less than 30 minutes. I can get to Oxford, Swindon and Guildford in less than an hour. Brixton and Gosport would be pushing it, depending on traffic.
Hockey takes priority in Swindon. The GM Steve Nell buys the ice time for hockey from the council, he set up the Okanagan Hockey Academy there and basically said **** you to the figure skaters and bought all their ice time. Oh the irony when they were in the local paper complaining the hockey players took their ice... Just shows all it takes is someone with a vision to take the initiative and progress will be made. I am sure OHA will produce many good players over the next few years.
By "capacity utilisation" I mean making the best possible use of the ice time you do get. With good coaching, suitable drills to improve the players, competitive games against other teams.
That simply doesn't happen.
I'm sorry but based on my experience up here, once again, I disagree.
It may be that in the Thames Valley coaches struggle to utilise their ice time effectively but here in Nottingham we have some excellent coaches who, when they can get onto the ice, make full use of the time available.
As for playing competitive games against other teams, its that ice time thing again. As I'm sure you are aware, the generally accepted policy regarding rec hockey teams is that if you arrange a game you're supposed to be able to both host and travel, not an easy task for teams who play in well-utilised rinks. So it becomes all training with perhaps a bit of a scrimmage thrown in at the end. Hardly inspiring stuff long-term, nor the stuff to develop a legacy of home-grown talent from.
..don't mean to offend, but rec hockey is irrelevant to this discussion...
What? So you're saying an on ice officials view of rec hockey having no bearing on junior development whatsoever (because it doesn't) is the reason why our grass roots development is bad?
Laugh all you want, your attempt to belittle my point rather than debate it only compounds the point.
Junior hockey and rec hockey aren't mutually exclusive. If parents get involved in hockey it can help develop a culture of hockey. It ceases to be an expensive hobby that parents sign their kids up for, which unless said child is very good, ends at 16/18 and becomes a familar, inclusive, part of family life.
Coming from a state where hockey is everywhere this is how high participation (and therefore quality at the top end, the goal of this discussions believe) is maintained. If you want this little old hockey backwater to develop into something more then it is an attitude that needs to be encouraged, not scoffed at.
You're completely missing the point, I accept we don't have the infrastructure or hockey culture, we will never have it, it is laughable to believe we will ever have it. The most important goal should be producing GOOD players by making the best of what we are given, which is not happening right now, quality not quantity. Changes to system at junior club level achieve this, not making rec hockey cheaper for the wobblers who start playing when they are adults.
Again I stress all my views are exactly that. My own. They do not represent those of the governing body.
I'm not missing the point at all, I have a differing opinion.
You somehow believe we can produce better from a small pool, which generally goes against the principles every sport I know of, who use increased participation as the impetus for better quality at the top. Whereas I believe increasing grassroots participation is needed to produce better 'product', the triangle with a large base thing I mentioned a while back.
You scoff at adult wobbles who play rec hockey as if they have little impact on junior development but this just compounds what I see as your glaring nievity with regards wider partcipation at all levels being a driver for increased quality overall.
You are right, the UK will never have the infrastructure of somewhere like my home state of Michigan, but the principles behind the promotion of the sport should be the same, encourage particpation at all levels. Parents ultimately pay thr bills. If they enjoy a sport its more likely they won't mind paying (the not inconsiderable) costs of their children doing it. The more children that are encouraged to participate, the larger the potential talent pool will enter that junior system you keep mentioning, more chance of better players coming out the other end.
Its a tried and tested process.
I watched the third 3rd period and OT period in the final between Nottingham and Belfast yesterday. Was a good game with a decent atmosphere.
Does Solway have NIHL sewn up yet? In the NorthIs the football season over yet? Chelmsford play Invicta on Sunday in the NIHL playoff semi finals
Does Solway have NIHL sewn up yet? In the North
How are the promotion. demotion battles going in NIHL?