Helping Your Marriage Survive Youth Sports
Marital bliss doesn’t just happen automatically — it comes from actively working at it. How do youth sports fit in with family life? They can be an important element in family growth and solidarity. Any time parents share significant experiences with their children, it can help build stronger family ties. Stronger bonds can be forged not only between parents and children but also between the parents themselves. However, youth sports can be a double-edged sword, affecting husband-wife relationships in a positive or a negative way. Couples need to be aware of this fact and to be prepared to counteract the potential pitfalls. When you become a youth sport parent, be aware of what is likely to be required and how much time and effort you are willing to devote.
Part 2: Tips for Facilitating High Performance in Hockey
I recently asked several high-caliber collegiate players to offer their tips on how parent and coach support helped them reach their current level of play. The result is this multi-part column of practical tips straight from the stars themselves. Current University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog, 2008 WCHA Co-Rookie of the Year, 2007-2008 USA Hockey Junior Player of the Year, and USHL Rookie of the Year Jack Connolly offers some of the things his parents did to facilitate his reaching the collegiate level of hockey. Read more
Top 10 Gifts to Give a Coach: Beyond the Gift Card
What do you think happened to that thoughtful gift card to the hockey store you gave the coach last year? Well, the coach already has his own hockey gear and is not likely to outgrow it anytime soon. So the coach probably spent it on stuff for her own kid. Or he spent it on stuff for the team. You might as well have given the coach the little pile of cash you collected for all she gets out of it.
How to Treat Blisters from New Hockey Skates
As hockey parents encounter issues and ask questions, we provide answers to common concerns. What hockey player hasn’t had a blister? Here is a reader question we recently received.
What’s That Call: About Tripping
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask. Tripping: Watch — or play in — enough U8 games and you start to yearn for the days when the refs will call penalties. Because at some point, those little cuties go from accidentally falling and losing control of their sticks to purposefully diving and swinging their sticks in any direction that stops the player with the puck. But will this eventually generate a tripping call? Let’s see.
5 Skate-Sharpening Secrets from a Seasoned Pro
Skate sharpening — an art perfected by pros over the years or a craft any teen at the rink can do? I’d never even heard of skate sharpening when my son started playing hockey. And several years into his hockey career, all I knew was that skates needed to be sharpened after skating on a pond (aka, outside). But I picked up a few things here and there—like it costs or and they need sharpened about once a month. I would just pop into the hockey store nearby, where we had a prepaid sharpening card, and wait for the teenager at the counter to run them through a machine.
Parents and Coaches: What’s That Call? About Icing
Everything you need to know about hockey calls but are embarrassed to ask. Icing – “Ice it!” Spectators yell this all the time when the team just needs to get the puck out of there. Last year, this led my son’s PeeWee coach to give all the parents and players on the team a 12-page test on hockey rules and ref signals. Why? Because most of the time when you yell “Ice it!” what you really mean is “Clear it!”
Wild Announce 2010 Wild About Reading Winners
The Minnesota Wild announces the winning classrooms from the 2010 Wild About Reading Cheer Contest. The Minnesota Wild has developed the Wild About Reading program in an effort to promote the importance of reading to students in grades K-6.
Tips for Facilitating High Performance in Hockey
The following is an article from Jim Winges and Sarah Erickson that includes tips for facilitating high performance and advancement in hockey.
How Should You Deal with Sport Officials?
Officials are fallible human beings, just like all the athletes, coaches, and spectators. Don’t demand that they be “perfect.” It is as American as apple pie to boo and criticize judgments made by officials. But such behavior has no place in youth sports. The officials are honestly trying to do their best. But they are human, and they do make mistakes. Booing their decisions will not change the outcome or improve the situation in any way. Moreover, parents who “get on” officials provide very poor models for their children, and such behavior can prove highly embarrassing to the young athlete.
