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Advanced Stats for Youth Hockey Parents

By Minnesota Hockey, 02/08/16, 12:45PM CST

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There’s little doubt modern sports are in a statistical revolution. Hockey players are being evaluated by how many shots they create even when they don’t have the puck. The list of stats kept during baseball games is seemingly longer than the MLB has active players. There are even stats for offensive linemen in football now.

And whether it’s for following their favorite team or to get a slight advantage in fantasy sports leagues, fans love it.

Not only do we want to know who scored the goals in our team’s most recent game(s), we want to know about scoring streaks, all-time team records, puck possession numbers and how fast players’ shots are. And if we can get those stats sent to our phones, that’s even better.

With how prevalent this obsession is, there should be little surprise that in some ways it filters down into youth athletics.

Ask a youth hockey player how many points or goals he/she has scored, and you might get an answer within seconds, even if they haven’t seen a single official score sheet all year. Some players even keep track of their teammates’ point totals.  

In most cases, keeping and knowing those stats aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can occasionally take attention away from parts of the game that are much more important.

Consider what most parents want their kids to learn from youth hockey. Common answers include teamwork, sportsmanship, confidence, discipline, leadership, an appreciation for exercise, mental toughness, social skills, making friends and having fun. You won’t find statistics relating to many (or any) of those topics in a box score.

But who’s to say we can’t come up with our own advanced statistics? Here are four stats for you to track the next time you watch your kid play hockey.

Stick Taps: Not counting celebrations after your son or daughter’s team scores, how often does your child show support to a teammate during a game? Whether it’s bumping fists after a good shift, tapping shin pads before a faceoff or giving your goalie a pad tap after a tough goal, there are a number of nonverbal ways players can show what type of teammate they are. 

Two, True Power Meters:  If you’ve ever been to a live sporting event, you’ve likely seen the “power” or “noise” meters shown in coordination with pump up music to get the crowd fired up. Translating that to youth hockey, what if your player rated games (and practices) using a 1-10 scale on how hard they worked and how much fun they had?  Even if you never saw what was entered for each event, that type of journal would likely provide them with very useful feedback.

A New Plus/Minus:  Many would agree that one of the best signs of players’ character is how they react to adversity. Based on that, why not create a plus/minus rating based on how each player reacts to the various negative situations that occur during games?  For every positive reaction, they get a plus and negative reactions result in a minus.

What happens after a turnover? Or after he/she makes a bad pass? How do they react to getting called for a penalty, especially one they didn’t think should get called? There are numerous situations like these that provide insight into players’ discipline and emotional control.

The KISS Method: Then again, maybe all of these advanced statistics are just over-thinking a kid’s game like can so often happen when adults become passionate about their kids’ activities. Just maybe, we can glean all we need to know by whether or not kids come out of the locker room with a smile on their face. 

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There’s little doubt modern sports are in a statistical revolution. Hockey players are being evaluated by how many shots they create even when they don’t have the puck. The list of stats kept during baseball games is seemingly longer than the MLB has active players. There are even stats for offensive linemen in football now.

And whether it’s for following their favorite team or to get a slight advantage in fantasy sports leagues, fans love it.

Not only do we want to know who scored the goals in our team’s most recent game(s), we want to know about scoring streaks, all-time team records, puck possession numbers and how fast players’ shots are. And if we can get those stats sent to our phones, that’s even better.

With how prevalent this obsession is, there should be little surprise that in some ways it filters down into youth athletics.

Ask a youth hockey player how many points or goals he/she has scored, and you might get an answer within seconds, even if they haven’t seen a single official score sheet all year. Some players even keep track of their teammates’ point totals.  

In most cases, keeping and knowing those stats aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can occasionally take attention away from parts of the game that are much more important.

Consider what most parents want their kids to learn from youth hockey. Common answers include teamwork, sportsmanship, confidence, discipline, leadership, an appreciation for exercise, mental toughness, social skills, making friends and having fun. You won’t find statistics relating to many (or any) of those topics in a box score.

But who’s to say we can’t come up with our own advanced statistics? Here are four stats for you to track the next time you watch your kid play hockey.

Stick Taps: Not counting celebrations after your son or daughter’s team scores, how often does your child show support to a teammate during a game? Whether it’s bumping fists after a good shift, tapping shin pads before a faceoff or giving your goalie a pad tap after a tough goal, there are a number of nonverbal ways players can show what type of teammate they are. 

Two, True Power Meters:  If you’ve ever been to a live sporting event, you’ve likely seen the “power” or “noise” meters shown in coordination with pump up music to get the crowd fired up. Translating that to youth hockey, what if your player rated games (and practices) using a 1-10 scale on how hard they worked and how much fun they had?  Even if you never saw what was entered for each event, that type of journal would likely provide them with very useful feedback.

A New Plus/Minus:  Many would agree that one of the best signs of players’ character is how they react to adversity. Based on that, why not create a plus/minus rating based on how each player reacts to the various negative situations that occur during games?  For every positive reaction, they get a plus and negative reactions result in a minus.

What happens after a turnover? Or after he/she makes a bad pass? How do they react to getting called for a penalty, especially one they didn’t think should get called? There are numerous situations like these that provide insight into players’ discipline and emotional control.

The KISS Method: Then again, maybe all of these advanced statistics are just over-thinking a kid’s game like can so often happen when adults become passionate about their kids’ activities. Just maybe, we can glean all we need to know by whether or not kids come out of the locker room with a smile on their face. 

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