Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Parents in Hockey

Recently, Kevin Neeld posted an article on his blog regarding the state of hockey parents. Kevin is someone who I really respect in the hockey strength & conditioning world so I would really suggest checking it out. He highlighted a seminar for USA hockey that featured Brian Burke. I could not have said it better myself regarding the environment that we set up for our kids to play in. It does not facilitate enjoyment of the game and as a result, we are losing more and more kids to other sports. Also, I feel Brian Burke is bang on when it comes to putting kids in different sports throughout the year. This is something that I have always believed in: Young kids should NOT be playing hockey all year round. Not only will they get burned out by playing one sport, but by putting them in other sports it allows them to develop physically and as a person. Kevin's article can be found here: http://www.kevinneeld.com/2011/3-lessons-for-hockey-parents-from-the-nhl

I just recently came across a video of this little hockey player who explains what it is like from a kid's perspective. This is a story about the "magic helmet": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWjBvcfhRX0Add Video

Interestingly, when I was growing up and playing minor hockey in Thunder Bay, an article hit the local paper in 1996 describing one parent's disgust with the way that hockey parents handled themselves during their child's game. That parent was my father, and I thought I would share the article with you today. I am so thankful for my parent's take on the game and how, just like Brian Burke, felt that if I felt like talking about the game I could and if I didn't, then I didn't have to. As kids, we all knew when we did something wrong in a game, we didn't need our parents harping at us, turning us off from the game that we thought we loved.

So, I hope the message hits home to hockey parents, especially at this time of year when we get into playoffs. Here's the article my dad wrote to both the editor and then the paper:

Dear Editor,

I’ve written an editorial that I hope your paper will see fit to print because it addresses a very critical situation unfolding in the Minor Hockey loop in Thunder Bay.

I am one who also believes that hockey is the greatest sport ever invented when played properly and for the right reasons, however, the parents of the kids playing right now could very well be responsible for minor hockey dissolving.

I have heard from league officials that they are considering abolishing 11 year old playoffs because of parental abuse of coaches, referees, and players. There is consideration of bringing in off-duty police to keep unruly parents in line during regular season games. A sixteen year old referee was accosted the other night by the parent of a novice-aged player.

Some say it would be best to ban the parents from the arenas altogether but parents will not spend registration money if they are not allowed to watch nor would I turn my kid over to a coach whose credentials I knew nothing about. So, here in lies the dilemma.

Parents need to be reminded that minor hockey is not about them – it’s about the kids and 99.9% of those kids are going to be watching Hockey Night in Canada from their living rooms, not from their seat on the Maple Leafs player’s bench.

I am disgusted and frustrated that unruly mobs of parents are robbing my son of what should be the time of his life. On more than once occasion I have felt like punching a father in the mouth for what he has said, but then, I would become part of the problem instead of the solution.

If one of the guilty parents reads this and changes their conduct for the good you will have done your community a service and my son, for one, will thank you. I read every one of your columns because what you lack in style, at times, you more than make up for in honesty and conviction and you are to be commended.

Sincerely,

Rob Hemsworth

Hockey Madness - By Rob Hemsworth March 14/1996.

Last night I asked my 12 year old son if he could hear the parents yelling from the stands as he sat on the players’ bench across the ice at the Neebing Arena. He responded, “Oh, ya!” and then continued, “but that’s nothing. It’s really bad when we have to skate off the ice to the dressing room. That’s when they swear at us and call us names. Some guys even get threatened!”

When my son left the relative sanity of one of the recreational hockey leagues in the city last year to move to a more skill-oriented, competitive challenge, we were warned that our eyes would be opened to the savagery of “rep” hockey. I took this to mean that the kids would be bigger, faster and stronger than my son was used to, however, I felt confident that, while there would be an adjustment period, his athletic ability would allow him to adapt and compete.

I was correct in my assumption of his ability but the savagery is happening every night in the stands. Referees – some as young as 14 years old – have been verbally assaulted, sworn at, and physically accosted at nearly every game I have attended. I have witnessed countless screaming matches and verbal threats between the parents of opposing teams. Shoving matches have escalated into a few slug fests out in the parking lot and parents and coaches, as well as players have had court action taken against them.

A mother, whose child was on the receiving end of a well aimed elbow, flew into a rage and screamed at the ref to “Open your F_____G eyes. J____S Ch___st are you F_____G blind?” while several children ranging in age of 5-8 years old were sitting or playing only a few feet away. Not that it would have mattered if they were playing at the other end of the rink.

I watched a father chew out his son in the lobby for getting thrown out for hitting from behind. At first, I thought, “Good for you, Dad” as that is a very serious infraction, until the father said, “Next time don’t be so stupid to drill him with the ref watching. Wait til the play goes back up the ice!”

In a conversation with a league official the other night, he told me that this has been the worst year he has ever seen for complaints to the league about abusive coaches, players, inadequate referees and uncontrollable parents. Let’s face it, coaches have fifteen different player personalities to mold together while dealing with fifteen or more sets of parents. The players are only 12 years old trying to play like the professionals their parents are so desperately demanding them to be. The referees are always going to miss calls because of the speed of the game and their youth and inexperience (the players aren’t the only ones trying to hone their skills).

This brings us to the parents. If you are trying to create foul-mouthed, axe-wielding, maliciaous delinquents who abuse every authority, then keep coming to the rink and behaving the way many of you have been all year long. But when you find your kid crying and quaking in his bedroom saying he no longer wants to play hockey, it may be that he was threatened in the parking lot by a parent who was bigger, meaner and more malicious than you.

Please, check your attitudes and especially your egos at the door. That way we’ll develop better athletes and responsible citizens for the future.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Goalie Specific Off-Ice Conditioning, Updates, and Shaw Cable!

Hi Everyone,

Hemsworth Strength & Wellness is extremely excited to announce its partnership with Zulie's Goalie Academy. I have known Colin Zulianello for a few years now and he has always been someone who I felt could excel at anything he did. Lucky for goaltenders, he has stuck with what he knows best: Teaching & Goaltending. His goaltending academy is very on par with my philosophies of training as he hires VERY qualified and current goaltending instructors and has a very impressive 1 instructor to every 2.5 participant ratio.

Specific off-ice conditioning is something that they feel is missing at the team level and Hemsworth Strength & Wellness will be providing this. I will be releasing a series of articles relating to the importance and application of goalie-specific off-ice training in the near future. Again, we are very excited to be teaming up with Colin and Zulie's Goalie Academy and look forward to providing goaltenders around the Northwestern Ontario area with an extremely well-rounded integrative training approach.

I also wanted to give you a review of the past week and the public presentations that I was lucky enough to give. The Thunder Bay 55+ Center asked me to give a presentation on kettlebell training and their application to older adults. It was a great turnout and a nice intro to the class that I will be running in April. It will be an intro to kettlebell training and will run twice a week for 4 weeks starting April 4th. For more information, you can contact the Thunder Bay 55+ Center and they will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

After the presentation I was interviewed by Shaw Cable and the interview will be airing sometime this week on Channel 10 (Thunder Bay region) as part of "The Daily" loop that airs over and over. So, eventually, you might get sick of me!

Later on Tuesday, myself and physiotherapist Leah Boeckermann-Belanger presented to the Metre Eaters running group on Injury Prevention and Strength Training for Running Performance. Leah did a fantastic job talking about many factors that contribute to overuse injuries as well as informing the group on the Functional Movement Screen that she uses to screen for future injury. I talked on many of the myths associated with strength training and runners, as well as touched on the latest research linking proper strength training with running performance. All in all it was a great evening with many intelligent questions asked.

Lastly, I just wanted to let everyone know that the spring sections of both Building a Strong Foundation and Lift Strong classes are now up on the website and open for registration. The response has been great for both classes with 2 sections sold out very quickly for the last set. Check out www.hemsworthstrength.com for info and registration!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Paul Hemsworth