The Truth About Hockey Continued – The “Kabuki” Dance – Part 1 – (XXVIII)

Posted by Jim on December 4, 2018
Posted in: Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Minor Hockey Try-out, Truth about hockey, understanding hockey.

Minor Hockey Try-Outs

What Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg?

And

Who Is Responsible For This “Kabuki” Dance?

In the last blog I wanted to alert new parents of some the reality they may face at try-out time in efforts for their child to make a team. There was an important topic that dealt with a troubling aspect of minor hockey today. A lot of teams are already set by try-outs and the available of openings on a team may be limited or even nonexistent. Now no one from the organization will ever alert you to this and in fact, it will be hushed up in part because the reasons that lead to this are against GTHL rules.

Try-outs are theoretically held for one basic reason which is to fill open spots with  the most talented players a team can get. (One should keep in mind though that organizations can make money from try-outs. The more players that come to the try-outs; the more money an organization can make from the fees that are charged. It should be obvious then that if in fact the team is already set; this will never be made known.)

How Did It All Start?

This was more than likely started by coaches.

Even the dumbest coach on the face of the earth understands the importance of having a winning record. The coach that wins the championship is virtually immune from any kind of criticism. On the other hand, a coach with a bad losing record can be assured of all kinds of criticism. If a team is not performing well, it’s always the coach’s fault and it’s interesting how everyone who has ever watched a few games on Hockey Night In Canada seems to become an instant expert.

As a result, coaches understand the value of having the absolute best talent available and most will resort to all kinds of measures to stack their team. After all, if you have all of the best talent, all you have to do is turn them loose and they will win games with very little teaching and coaching effort.

Many coaches are in arenas all year scouting talent and then approaching the player and parent for next year ….. something which is against the rules in the GTHL however many coaches actively engage in recruiting. Coaches also frequently run illegal on-ice skates disguised as a “birthday” party. In fairness, enforcing rules against these sketchy practices is difficult for the league and as long as you can get away with it; there are a lot of coaches that will do everything they can to stack their team.

What Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg?

Years ago there were always jokes among parents that such and such a coach had reportedly committed to 50 players for next year. Under GTHL rules a team can have a maximum of 20 players registered, so obviously, the joke was that many coaches had over-committed.

Reality is that most of the information on this issue that parents hear, comes from other parents. Coaches almost never talk about it. As a result since all you hear comes from other parents, it’s the coaches that take the knock on these practices.

However, the truth is that parents are involved in these practices right up to their necks. A great number of parents will be calling “winning” coaches for a spot for next season, organizing the so-called “birthday skates”, alerting coaches to other potential good recruits and on an on.

I believe too many parents focus solely on getting their kids on a really strong team thinking it will help their kids to look as good as possible and will therefore enhance their future prospects. In fact, I’m certain that this type of maneuvering is detrimental to their future prospects. It has constantly amazed me that parents in their efforts to help their children’s fortunes in hockey, somehow instinctively do things that have the exact opposite effect.

Who Is Responsible?

I’m not certain how this all started but at this point it doesn’t matter who initiated this yearly “dance”. It has become the yearly ritual at try-out time and will likely never change. Both coaches and parents are maneuvering for their own benefit and both are almost certainly lying to each other. Many promises will be broken on both sides, but no worries; it will all be forgotten at try-out the next year.

For those who are new to the system, just be aware so that you can govern your action according and not get hurt.

This “Kabuki” Dance Will Live On

In the next blogs I will relate some examples of the “Kabuki” dance.

I have some amazing examples of  maneuvering involving both coaches and parents to build a so-called “dream team”. You may or you may not be amazed at these examples but one thing I will declare; I am certain of my facts regarding these instances. I am sure you will find them interesting. I think also, you will find them amusing. My hope is that you learn something that will help you.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

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The Truth About Hockey Continued – Minor Hockey Try-Outs – Part 2 – (XXVII)

Posted by Jim on November 15, 2018
Posted in: Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Minor Hockey Try-out, Russian hockey skills, Truth about hockey, understanding hockey.

Minor Hockey Try-Outs

The Way It Is

In part 1 I outlined the way try-outs are supposed to be …. or the way you are led to believe it will be … or maybe the way it once was. In this part I give you some reality on how it really is and a couple of situations you should be aware of.

First let me say that this is based on my experience with the GTHL  of the greater Toronto area  which happens to be the biggest minor hockey system in the world. I’m not sure exactly how things are done elsewhere, however I’m reasonably certain there are similar experiences in all centres where minor hockey is played.

Now I’m sure that there are legitimate try-outs that are honestly and well run, but you have to be aware of a couple of situations that are pretending to be honest try-outs. Unfortunately these instances are becoming more prevalent and you need to be aware of them. Eventually, if you’re around hockey long enough you’ll find out about this, however if you’re new to the game this can leave you with a big surprise.

The reason for this blog is that I ran into a father that had just moved to Toronto and was led to believe that there were more spots than actually existed for the local team. He had all of of his eggs in one basket and by the time he figured it out, it was too late and most teams were full. They eventually found a team, but now they have to travel quite a distance for home games and practices.

I’m going to describe two broad categories of less than honest try-outs; why they happen and what they’re all about.

Two Less Than Honest Try-out Situations

Same End Result

There are 2 less than fully honest try-out situations that you will encounter. You’ll find out about them eventually, however if you’re new to the game it’s good to be aware of this.

The first happens more often at the entry levels of the minor hockey world; house league, house league select and single A hockey. The team draws from the very local community and the coaches and assistant coaches invariably all have children playing on the team. Making the team is more about who your friends are and being one of the inner circle in that local community. The result is that there are not many spots available and if you are from outside the community, it can be tough to find a spot on the team.

The second happens are the higher levels of hockey and is more prevalent at the triple A and double A levels (although more recently, single A hockey has become more serious).

At the higher level of minor, you can expect the following to be taking place:

  1. Coaches are in arenas almost every night watching games and scouting for talent for the next year. (Remember, coaching becomes a lot easier if the team is loaded with all of the talent.) If you have a talented hockey player son or daughter, you can expect to be approached by coaches asking to join their team for the following season. In the GTHL this is known as tampering and is against the GTHL rules; nevertheless it happens all the time and the “no tampering” rule is rarely enforced.
  2. Coaches will hold what is known as  “birthday skates”. The holding of an on-ice try-out before the officially appointed date is not allowed by the GTHL. But coaches get around this rule by have so-called “birthday skates” which is a phony birthday party allowing a coach to get recruits on the ice and evaluate talent against a known standard; namely the players on his present team.
  3. Coaches will organize “summer teams” or “tournament teams”. There are all kinds of summer hockey tournaments in the Great Toronto area and putting together a tournament team affords a coach 2 very important things. First is the opportunity to evaluate potential recruits in actual hockey games against another team and second to make a bit of money (there will always be a fee to be paid to be on a summer team).

The end result is the same in that there are not many spots available as you made think or be led to believe.

I Wish I Could Give You An Easy Solution

The fact is that in many instances there will not be as many spots available on a team that you may have be led to believe. Coaches will never admit it and remember that try-outs are a money-maker for organizations and the more players that come to try-outs the better for them.

My suggestion is to talk to as many parents as possible and get as much information about the coach and reality about available spots.

The other suggestion is to not put all of your eggs in one basket. Be prepared to try out with a number of teams and keep your options open.

Just One More Thing

There is one reoccurring thing that I will always get back to. Spend your time and energy doing what you can to see that your son or daughter is the best hockey player they can be.

I’ll tell you right now that it’s my opinion there 2 main factors that contribute to over-all success . Be as skilled as possible and have the “right” attitude every time you are on the ice and in the play of the game. I’ve covered some of these elements in previous blogs, however I will surely devote a blog solely to these in the near future.

Minor Hockey Try-Outs

The Way It Is

In part 3 I’ll discuss what came first; the chicken or the egg?

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

The Truth About Hockey Continued – Minor Hockey Try-Outs – Part 1 – (XXVI)

Posted by Jim on October 16, 2018
Posted in: Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Minor Hockey Try-out, Russian hockey skills, Truth about hockey, understanding hockey.

Minor Hockey Try-Outs

In The End – Welcome To Reality

I recently had occasion to talk to a typical hockey parent who was new to the minor hockey experience.  He relayed a bad experience relating to hockey try-outs with his son for this upcoming season. He was completely new to the hockey experience in the GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League) which happens to be the biggest minor hockey system in the world. Now the scenarios that I will be describing are based on my experience with the GTHL  of the greater Toronto area. I’m not sure exactly how things are done elsewhere, however I’m reasonably certain there are similar experiences in all centres where minor hockey is played

I know try-outs for this season have now passed but this is a topic on which the uninitiated need some advise. Stay tuned for the real goods on minor league hockey try-outs.

The Way It’s Supposed To Be …. Or

The Way You’re Led To Believe It Will Be ….. Or

Maybe The Way It Once Was

At one time in the GTHL the try-outs could begin only after the GTHL held its annual meeting which was traditionally held the first Sunday in May.

Every parent would look for a publication titled “Sporting Scene” that would publish an edition known as the May try-out edition. This publication was given away in every hockey arena located within the GTHL. It was always the biggest publication of that paper in numbers of the year.

In the old days all try-outs were held at once with single A, double A and triple A all going on at the same time. Today it’s different as the GTHL finally got smart and got it right so that try-outs are tiered, with Triple A first followed by Double A and then Single A. This time of year was always “panic time” for everyone but especially for players wanting to make a team at a higher level that last year. Since all of the try-outs start on the same day, the panic was to find the teams you want you might want to make and check the schedule to prioritize your choices. There’s only so much time in the day and there’s only so many try-outs a player could realistically do in a day and maintain a reasonable level of performance. The other difficulty is that one is never quite sure how many spots are available on any given team and should you choose to miss a team’s first try-out; will there be any spots left by the second try-out?

The panic and angst at this time of year is through the roof, especially for the parents.

The Way It’s Supposed To Be

Teams would have a few open spots available and advertise for open try-outs for players to fill those spots (a team should almost always have open spots especially if thew coach has done his job well; he should have been able to advance a few players to a higher level).

An experienced coach will know how to hold an organized and well run try-out (in fact a good hockey organization should probably have a coaches meeting as an information session to educate coaches on how to run a proper try-out session).

Note: I was initially going to go into considerable detail about running a proper try-out, however there’s actually quite a bit of detail involved that would fill up this blog so I’m going to do a specific blog at the end going over my thoughts about running a good try-out.

Suffice it for now to say that a good try-out would have a proper registration process, start with warm-up type drills that would involve the display of as many hockey skills as possible, end with a scrimmage that mimics as much as possible the play of an actual game and have good qualified spotters in the stands evaluating the players.

In the end some players will be selected and offered a spot on the team and some will not; leaving some people happy and others disappointed.

Welcome to reality. This is just the way life is and this is part of the real life learning experience through involvement in the hockey scene. If you want to protect yourself and your child from every disappointment in life; then don’t get involved in hockey or for that matter any other organized sport.

Minor Hockey Try-Outs 

In The End – Welcome To Reality

In Part 2 of this topic I’ll outline some reality about how it really is.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

Druzhba 78 -The Surprise – Meeting “The Magician” (XXV)

Posted by Jim on September 24, 2018
Posted in: Anitoliy Buliga, Druzhba 78, Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, Truth about hockey, understanding hockey.

Druzhba 78 – Follow-Up  – The Surprise

Meeting Anatoliy “The Magician” Buliga

Although I never met him way back in 1992, I did watch him play with a Peewee hockey team named Druzhba 78 from Kharkov Ukraine.

It was one of the most astonishing things I have ever witnessed and this experience had a profound effect.

The Druzhba 78 team played a Bantam all-star team from the Richmond Hill – Vaughan Hockey Association. A team made up of the best players from that association all of who were 2 years older than the players on the Druzhba 78 team. This was an exhibition game played in the evening after the Druzhba team had already played a game that  day in another hockey tournament.

The Vaughan all-star team lost. They didn’t stand a chance.

It’s difficult to paint a picture in words of what I witnessed that day. I had watched a lot of  minor hockey league games, many of which were very competitive and exiting to see, but what I witnessed during this particular game left me awestruck. The skill level of the Druzhba team was beyond belief. But I had to believe it because I was there and I witnessed it first hand.

As good as all of the players Druzhba were, there was one player that just stood out and I never forgot his name. Anatoliy Buliga was the smallest player on the team. Time after time I watched him go into the corner in the all-star team’s zone to get the puck and time after time even though at least two and many times three of the opposition would try to check him; he would come out of the corner with the puck. His skill level was incredible and his name stuck in my mind.

This last weekend I had the thrill of meeting Anatoliy after 26 years.

How This All Started

Earlier this year I started a segment in this series titled “Can Hockey Skill Be Taught”. Of course I knew the answer and as evidence of my position, I recounted the experience of watching the Druzhba 78 team play back in the early spring of 1992.

In the process of fact checking my memory I did some Google searches on the Druzhba team and came across some links to Anatoliy. He was connected to some hockey school/hockey training in Europe, but also some connections in the Detroit area. Using these links I was eventually able to contact him.

I found out that he is still very much involved in hockey and part of the coaching staff of the under 14 girls team of the very well know Detroit Little Caesars Hockey Club. During our communications Anatoliy advised that his team would likely be in a preseason tournament in Ontario as prep for their upcoming season and he would let me know when it was set.

Finally I received and email with the schedule of games to be held this past weekend in Stoney Creek Ontario and we were able to meet.

Meeting “The Magician” 

I arrived in Stoney Creek in time to watch the team play and witnessed a very skilled team play a very good game of hockey.

After the game I met up with Anatoliy and in typical Canadian fashion I took him to a Timmy’s for a coffee and to talk.

Anatoliy now lives in the Detroit area, is married and has a young son. His son is a competitive swimmer and doesn’t play any hockey. He said he had no objection if his son wanted to play hockey and would support him if that were the case, but I got the strong impression that he was quite happy with just the way it is.

I asked Anatoliy about his experience back in the day with the Druzhba team and he said right away that it was not something he likes to think about let alone talk about. It was obvious that I just shouldn’t go there but I did ask him if he ever keeps in touch with any of the old team mates. Anatoliy said that he went back to Ukraine once and met with a couple of the old team mates but it was not pleasant; he used the word cold. Again it was apparent that this was a subject that needed to be dropped. He also mentioned that one of his best friends from the team had passed. I never did ask who or how and I just let it all go.

We did spend a ton of time talking about hockey in general; training and teaching hockey skills, coaching teams, problems inherent in hockey as it is in North America and much more. It was a wonderful conversation and what was most pleasing to me was  a validation of my views in that we were 100% in sync with our views. At times on various topics he was saying the same things that I have been writing about and many times using a lot of the same words and phrases that I’ve written in my blogs.

It became apparent to me during our talk that Anatoliy cares deeply about helping people because of his background and knowledge of the hockey world. He is dedicated to using his experience in hockey to help people achieve success. He repeatedly said, “if I can help just one person, that will be a good thing”. In my opinion, if anyone gets advise from Anatoliy, I strongly urge them to take it seriously.

I’m hoping we keep in touch. I’m certain his team will be back in Ontario for tournaments in the future maybe during the Christmas break or March break and I hope to meet with him again. One mistake I made when we met was that out of my excitement of meeting him, I just spoke to much. Next time I’ll talk less and listen and learn more.

Meeting Anatoliy was a great experience and I’m thrilled that I had this opportunity.

Finally Meeting “The Magician”

 

I recently had a “newbie” to minor hockey relay some bad experiences relating to hockey try-outs with his son. I know try-outs for this season have now passed but this is a topic on which the uninitiated need some advise. Stay tuned for the real goods on minor league hockey try-outs.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

Can Figure Skaters Teach Hockey Players? – Part 3 – (XXIV)

Posted by Jim on September 5, 2018
Posted in: Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

Can Figure Skaters Really Teach Hockey Players?

Continued

There are certainly elements that are common to both figure skating and skating for hockey. With those elements that are common; I would not at all suggest that a person trained in the discipline of figure skating cannot help a hockey player. The difficulty is that there are vast differences in the skating requirements for each.

Let Me Try To Explain Some Elements Of

Figure Skating

Figure skating has specific elements that differ from the skating requirements in hockey as a result of some very distinct and different objectives.

Figure skaters are putting on a show. They need to please the judges to achieve high marks in order to win a competition. Body lines are extremely important. The position of the head, the arms and extension of the leg to produce these lines create a different body position and attitude for skating.

In modern-day figure skating winning relies on spectacular jumps. Figure skaters are extraordinary athletes and if you ever watch a live performance you’ll be amazed at the impressive heights achieved in these jumps. Out of necessity, the figure skating boot comes high over the ankle with a lot of support to withstand the forces of landing a jump. Also, If you ever watch a figure skating exhibition you’ll also notice the big jumps are done usually from skating backwards.

In addition, the blades on figure skates have “picks” on the front to assist with digging into the ice primarily to assist with jumps.

On the Other Hand

Forget for a moment of the challenges of dealing with a stick and a puck, which I covered in a previous blog.

Hockey players are not putting on a show or display in any sense as described above when done by a figure skater in competition.

Hockey players do not do jumps. A hockey player not only wants, but needs to have his blades in contact with the ice to the maximum possible in order react to changes in action that occur in fractions of seconds. A hockey player doesn’t want to jump and leave contact with the ice unless it’s some kind of panic protective situation. Think about it; without contact with the ice you essentially have no control until you are back in contact with the ice. One very important point in teaching effective skating for hockey is maximizing contact with the blades on the ice; in other words, minimizing the time a skate blade is not in contact with the ice.

A hockey player is frequently making very quick and quite violent changes in direction in response to unscripted and ever-changing situations These reactions need to made  in very small fractions of seconds. The key to these quick reactions is the free movement of the ankle in a couple of different and very important ways. Without these movements, quick changes in direction that need to be made in a split second just won’t happen efficiently. In hockey this is what gives you the ability beat your opponent or avoid getting creamed.

To Get Technical For A Moment – But This Is Important

To be the best hockey player you can be, you need to under stand how the ankle needs to work and how to make these movements and how to apply them.

First there is flexion and extension of the ankle. Dorsilfexion is the movement that brings the top of the foot closer to the shin and planter flexion is the movement of that points the toe and takes the top of the foot farther away from the shin. This motion of the ankle is essential for a hockey player. By allowing dorsilflexion a player loads up the ankle with maximum energy for an explosive change in direction and it’s the final release of the ankle by plantar flexion that can make the difference between beating your opponent or not or getting creamed. You hear a lot of coaches yelling for players to bend their knees. Dorsilfextion can be accomplished by keeping your “rear-end”close to the ice which will create a maximum bend in the knee. (The problem is most coaches don’t quite know what they’re doing and how to explain things. I think I may have cover this in detail in the next blog … this is important.)

Second there is inversion and eversion or rolling of the ankle. Eversion is the rolling of the ankle that moves the bottom of the foot to point away from the center of the body and inversion is the rolling that creates the opposite. This is the movement of the ankle that allows a skater to “grab” the ice. Think of it this way; if you were on skates and pointed your feet straight ahead and then did a kind of walking motion where each foot moved straight from front to back, then you wouldn’t go anywhere. There would be no “grab” of the ice.  You need to grab the ice by rolling the ankle to apply  bite and grip into the ice to get the most out of your skating stride.

It’s the combination of these actions of the ankle that is critical to being a great skater and a successful hockey player.

So Here’s The Important Point

While both disciplines involve the wearing of skates and skating, the end goals and therefore the process to achieve those goals is different.

Once again, a big part of figure skating is a show with pleasing body lines and form as well as spectacular jumps. Therefor the boot is laced high for support and naturally restricts the movement of the ankle that is so important in hockey. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a trained figure skater to learn about how the ankle must move to be a great skater for hockey; I’m just don’t think they would get this from their training for figure skating. Also there is the fact that just knowing about something doesn’t mean you know how to teach it, but that’s a whole other topic to be cover later.

Time now to end this part for now (this became a little linger than expected).

I’d love to hear from some figure skaters that train hockey players and I’m always open to learn something new.

Can Figure Skaters Really Teach Hockey Players?

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

 

Can Figure Skaters Teach Hockey Players? – Part 2 – (XXIII)

Posted by Jim on August 22, 2018
Posted in: Druzhba 78, Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

Can Figure Skaters Really Teach Hockey Players?

Continued

In the first part of this series, I wondered about the ability of a person trained as a figure skater to teach a hockey player all of the elements necessary to be a great skater for hockey.

Now this has been going on for quite a while. There have been many (mostly female) figure skaters that run hockey schools and  been hired by NHL teams and individual NHL players for skating instruction.

For certain, there are cross-over elements for these skating techniques; however I believe there are significant differences as well and there are specific reasons for these differences. The reason for the differences quite simply are a result of the end objective. In figure skating, the objective for the skater is to put on a great show in order to win a medal and win the competition. The movements must be pleasing to the eye, graceful and look effortless. This means that the “body lines” created during the performance are of tremendous importance. There are other elements of differences in these techniques and I will deal with those in the future, but for now this is the point I want to illustrate.

A Personal Experience That I Always Remember

Back when I was actively working for a hockey school here in Toronto, there was a player that I worked with during weekly team skills sessions. His name is Jimmie Lodge and he was born in Pennsylvania, but his family aspired for Jimmy to have a career in hockey and hopefully in the NHL. Believing that the best experience and development for Jimmy was to play in the GTHL; the biggest and most competitive minor hockey league in the world. Now Jimmy had initially started as a figure skater in his very early youth and the habits developed during that training were still evident when I watched him during our weekly team sessions.

I found one habit quite amusing. One thing we did a lot of was drills requiring quite hard and fast transitions and change of direction; something that is not normally a requirement in figure skating. So lets see if I can describe the difference adequately.  In hockey if you are going to completely change direction quickly (in other words if you’re skating south to north and you want to stop as quickly as possible, change direction and go north to south) you would start with a typical 2 footed hockey stop. Say in doing this the stop is to the left side. In this 2 footed skating stop the skater would be using the outside edge on the left skate and the inside edge on the right skate. Just before coming to a complete stop the skater would lift the right foot and turn his body to the new direction. As the stop is completed the skater would push-off the outside edge of the left skate as the right foot hits the ice and be moving in the new direction as quickly and efficiently as possible. Now writing about this move and thinking about conveying it has been painful, but I hope I got it right.

Now good old Jimmy; because of his old figure skating habits would just use the outside edge of his left skate which is the way figure skaters frequently stop in the need for a showy presentation. I was certain Jimmy was always just a split second slower in these transitions because of this habit.

One More Example 

I had occasion to be at a Toronto Maple Leafs a few years ago and there was a new feature that I hadn’t seen before. During a time-out break for a TV commercial they had a team of girls come out to clean the scraped up snow from the ice. I was amused at the obvious difference in the skating style of the girls. Some had clearly played hockey and others came from a figure skating back ground and the difference in style was obvious.

Watch the following film clip and I’m sure you’ll see the differences. It’s most clear at the beginning. Watch the row of girls closest to the camera and watch the first girl in the line. She skates like a hockey player. Notice the bend of the knee, the tilt of the upper body, the push to the side in the stride and the pretty clear weight shift form side to side. Now watch the 3rd girl in that line. Notice that she is more upright with less knee bend, less tilt of the upper body, more of a push to the rear to start each stride, and the straight point of the of the leg after finishing a stride to create a pleasing body line for show. This one is obviously a figure skater.

In Part 3 I’ll outline some of the cross-over similarities between figure skating and skating for hockey as well as some of the differences.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects. Otherwise you won’t be able to get to previous blogs.

 

Can Figure Skaters Teach Hockey Players? – Part 1 – (XXII)

Posted by Jim on August 17, 2018
Posted in: Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

Can Figure Skaters Really Teach Hockey Players?

The obvious answer is that I they can, but I think, for the most part there are severe limitations and I have to question relying on a figure skater for all of your skating instruction. Can they help a hockey player with skating? ….. yes. Will they hurt a hockey player’s skating? ….. probably not. Are they limited as to what they can teach a hockey player about skating for hockey? ….. absolutely is my belief.

I’ve been thinking about writing on this topic for a while and considered my approach for some time, but this is a topic that has to covered. First, the difficulties are to clearly make the distinctions in the physical movements involved in skating in written form. (That’s why golf instruction books are mostly useless. Trying to describe body movements and how they feel and communicate that so that the reader totally gets it is extremely difficult.)

Why I’m Writing This Now

I recently read some newspaper articles about a lady named Dawn Braid, Braid was hired earlier this summer by  the Arizona Coyotes, making her the NHL’s first full-time female coach.

God bless her and I wish her and the Coyotes all of the best; and I mean that sincerely.

I would love to talk to her some time and have a serious discussion about the details of skating technique for hockey skaters and her background and overall experience. I would love to know if she thinks there were any significant differences between the skating techniques for figure skating and skating for hockey. Also, if she did in fact feel there were differences; how did she gain the expertise to instruct in this area. I’m always open to ideas and to expanding my knowledge.

In the article it mentions her having worked with John Tavares and there is some great words of endorsement quoted from John who she worked with from the age of seventeen. The article also quotes the following: “Dallas centre Jason Spezza and New Jersey left wing Mike Cammalleri are among her other disciples …..”.

Now I will tell you something; and that is that Tavares’ skating has improved a lot, but that has only come in the last couple of years. Therefor, if she’s been working with him since he was seventeen, then for some reason there was a big delayed reaction to his improvement.

If you’re sensing some skepticism, your right. Because while Jason Spezza is mentioned as a disciple of Braid, I happened to know who has worked with Spezza consistently on an ongoing basis since the age of ten and still works with him to this day. In fact I know that Spezza has flown this instructor in and rented private ice to get mid-season instruction. It’s hard to believe the claim that Spezza is a “disciple” of Braid. I think this is just some fluff that looks good for the article. Oh!, and by the way, I know that recently Tavares (just in the last couple of years) has had instruction from Spezza’s guy.

Lets Get Something Out Of The Way Right Away

I’ve never seen a figure skater do a routine of any kind with a stick and a puck; let alone a routine that involved stick handling, getting a pass, giving a pass or shooting a puck. Now if you could image a figure skating routine with all of these elements, would they have to do it with some other skaters on the ice trying to hit them and take their heads off? Good luck!

So if you ever go to a figure skater for instruction and they try to give a lot detailed instruction about working with a stick and a puck; you might want to seriously question their credentials. Where in heaven’s name would they have gotten any background into these skills to make them an expert?

 What Figure Skaters Can Teach You?

The Common Elements

Just to let you know that when I was younger, I went to some female figure skating friends for instruction to try to become a better skater and it was a help. This was at time way before there was any kind of skating instruction for hockey players.

In Part 2, I’ll deal with what they can they teach you because there are some common elements to both figure skating and skating for hockey. I’ll also deal with the differences between figure skating; which is really to put on a show, and why there are elements they probably can’t teach you and why.

Note:

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