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Another great poster from MCAD students- Aubree Eisenwinter

I Love the Games

By Hal Tearse- Associate Coach in Chief USA Hockey/Minnesota, 04/11/13, 10:45PM CDT

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As a lifelong competitor and learner I really like games.

I have always liked the games. As a coach, adult and youth player, I love to play. I love to compete.

Hockey, soccer, squash, tennis, cutting and calf roping competions, skiing races, lacrosse and what ever I decide I want to play. And I am not through looking for things to compete at.  And everyday at work is a competion becuase life is a competition. It is not practice. 

I have coached hockey since 1971, soccer in the70's and  80's, lacrosse in the 2000's. Elite league, Juniors, midgets, high school, college, bantams, pee wees and  squirts. Maybe more.Over 2000 games just in hockey. Maybe 3,000 all sports. Plus my own games which might reach 500 or more. Games rock. 

Kids who love to compete are so much fun to coach, and they tend to be terrific players. As I think about the most athletically successful players I have had the honor to coach over the past 20 years, there is one common theme, and it is that they love to play- anything. And they did. Hockey, tennis, baseball, foootball, soccer and more recently lacrosse. Our high school team this year had terrific athletes. Our best hockey player with 73 points this season is a better baseball player and will play baseball in college next year; not hockey.

Our 2002 state championsip Bantam hockey team from Wayzata was a loaded and undefeated team until we got to the National Tournament. We currently have three players from that team who play professionally in Europe and one in the NHL. We also have two NFL players (one retired and one active) and onother who playerd D1 football (not hockey). The player who is a current NHL regular played football all the way through high school.The European players also played other sports through high school. 

Former Twins player Corey Kosie played hockey growing up. Former Gopher Zach Budish played football. Pittsburgh Penguin star defenseman Paul Martin was an all-state football receiver in high school. Get the idea? It is good to play several sports as a youth and high school age player. 

As a hockey coach or parent, if you want your kids to grow and develop as athletes, insist that they play several sports. I will not bore you with the science behind this but it is available. Kids need to play a wide range of sports even if they are eventually going to focus on one sport after high school. 

In my family I encouraged my kids to play three sports a year. My son played soccer and then lacrosse and added hockey at age nine. He is going to college this fall to play hockey and lacrosse. He also skis, snowboards, scuba dives and knows the joys of fishing and hunting. He loves to scrimmage on small rinks and Dangle, Snipe and Celly!

Playing several sports through high school is a big benefit in the longer term.  Specializing is quite hazardous to your child's physical development and mental health in many ways so insist that they get away from the ice in the offseason and enjoy playing other sports. 

I was visiting with a friend yesterday who is going to have his hockey playing daughter play squash this summer to improve her foot speed for hockey. He said it was "good cross training for hockey". Really? I told him that was parent nonsense. Wrong reason for doing the right thing. 

Four decades of coaching several sports, running skills camps, and raising two terrific children have taught me that kids will excel at what they love to do regardless of what their parents or coaches want. We need to encourage them to play many sports knowing that any participation is good for them and then let them decide which sport they want to focus on. Specializing on hockey or any other single sport before high school will actually hinder development in the chosen sport. 

 

Thanks to MCAD students for their cool hockey poster designs. They are available from Minnesota Hockey. Order one today.

Follow me on Twiiter  #coachtearse

Send me an email: halt@minnesotahockey.org

Frozen Four this weekend- Awesome

 

See you around the rink, field, court, diamond, lake!

Thoughts From the Bench