Question about Bantams vs JV vs JG. So for those kids that are the youngest of their grade, the '11's in your example, they would in theory have the opportunity to play 3 years at Bantams, if I understand correctly. Say they only make the second team, A team in your example, both their first and second year. What is the most beneficial for them? play a 3rd year of bantams and hopefully make the top team (AA) or go play JV?

CG lost one of their best up and coming player to Hill as an 8th grader, and he started there. Private schools are a real conundrum because they reap all the rewards of the surrounding associations hard work as they just pick off the top players and don't have to invest anything in their development.

Great podcast! Love to hear that people that really know their stuff are confirming that MN hockey is doing it right!

How do I get your PDF of small area games? as youth coach, Mite/mini-mite I'd absolutely love this. Thanks

This is a great podcast, very interesting guest! What a great message he shared! Glad you guys are back for season two! Love this podcast. It is a great reminder to be self aware as a parent and to not try to live vicariously through them. To let them have their own journey and own personal experiences, good, bad or other. As you said it is hard to not try to keep up with the Jones and or get that feeling of FOMO. Looking forward to the next episode.

This was another great discussion. In theory I like the the 3 tier system that you proposed. My only concern is that is that going to give those 3A schools and their kids a advantage when it comes to placement after HS? Like are scouts only going to be going to look at these programs and intern lead to more kids/families trying to transfer into these programs and making them even bigger? I guess I can see it working both ways but it would be cool to have 3 state champions/tournaments, that would give more kids a shot at being on the big stage and maybe even keep some of these associations from co-oping. The more teams and players in the state the better. I personally am anti-open enrollment. If you want to literally pick up and move to a community so that your son/daughter can play for that program and you can justify that, fine. No one can stop you but I don't think you should be able to pick and choose what school your kid is going to play for or attend. I guess that is what private schools are for. Maybe I'm just a little jaded because this regularly happens to CGHA top talent with Hill, Cretin, St Thomas and now Gentry. At the end of the day I think what we do in MN is special and unique and I'm so glad we aren't like the rest of NA and using the AAA system and having to fly all over the country for showcases and or dishing out $20-40k a year for my kid to play AAAs or attend an acadamy. Also I think the 20 min periods are a good idea, along with the 35 game F/S weekly schedule, hopefully some of these things can be put in place by the time my sons are in HS.

This was a great discussion! So many timely things like the break out and number of kids per station. The part about coaching your own kid really hit home. I’m starting to struggle with the coaching my kid aspect. I really enjoy coaching and I have coached my son for the last 3 years but he’s moving to Mite and his younger brother is starting U4. I’m considering not coaching my oldest next year and just coaching my youngest. He said he wants me to coach him but I feel that he does better when I’m not on the ice with him. I want him to succeed and also to keep our relationship in the best place it can be.

I can't wait for next season to start so I can start implementing more SAGs in practice. Do you guys have any links for your favorite SAGs? or recommended SAGs? I'll be coaching U4 and U8

Thanks again for the great chat. Very interesting to hear all these different perspectives. This and the Judd podcast have really opened my eyes and changed my mind on the small ice game structure. I will definitely be pushing this more in U4 and U8 practice next year.

Perhaps instead of doing full ice games maybe more associations should be building those 3/4 sheets. I know that in Cottage Grove I love doing practice and scrimmage on our south rink. Its great for practice for the younger kids and perfect for scrimmages up to squirts and then works well for 4v4 and 3v3 in peewee/bantams

easily the best local hockey podcast I've listen to! Damn I listened twice and took a ton of notes! Thanks for this ! Definitely sharing

Great chat boys, love the real talk. Systems in youth hockey are kind of pointless. I love the concepts method and allow them to have more flow/freedom. Learn your positions and basic concepts and let your skills shine!

Good chat boys! Definitely an interesting topic. I would say shortening the bench doesn't really have a place other than disciplinary reason in squirts.

I agree with your 2 to 1 ratio. I think that is great. It is a hard thing at the younger levels is keeping the kids engaged. At CGHA they technically don't allow any out of association scrimmages for the U4-U6 level and as a coach we have had issues with player retention because they are used to playing games in all other youth sports from the jump. "games are fun, practice is boring" and its hard to convince the players and their parents that skill development is more important as the kids don't understand delayed gratification yet. With my team this year U6 we started having "shared practices" whenever we had solo ice and the kids developed so much better and wee far more engaged. If you are counting scrimmages as games, I don't personally at least not a legit scrimmage with coaches on the ice not just a none-sanctioned game, you would be hard pressed to hit that 2-1 ratio as most U4-U8 teams are only getting 2-3 hours of ice per week.

I personally think you are right on the track with starting at Mite with body contact. I personally don't think checking should ever "be introduced" it should just not be taken out of the sport. I think we should introduce and teach body contact in mite/U8, maybe U6 and teach proper technique and body awareness, heads up play, etc along the board and only call actual hitting penalties- boarding, cross checking, checking from behind to correct the bad actions.... maybe have intentional open ice hits be called "roughing" and just run with that from U6/U8 through bantams when you open it wide open. By doing this you just remove the novelty of "being allowed to check" its like being allowed to drink.... people go wild because they are now legal to do it. Hockey is a physical sport and the sooner you introduce it the better off the kids are in the long run. MN made starts teaching it at Squirts.

Excellent hr of detailed information. Hope to use this info to influence and improve our program. Many thanks!

P r o m o S M

Hey Kurt, I loved playing with you on the Teal tornadoes (Mike Zacharias\Scott) and we always knew you would be a pro (along with many more of our group) I play softball with Kyle still, and I am glad your doing well! Prost!

Parents are willing to speak up and parents want more games (from my experience). Tough to break that status quo without mutiny

Awesome episode. Can tell that guy loves the game! Also loved how he mentioned he’ll have parents ask kids “what did you work on today at practice” to see if the theme sank in. Not only reinforces it to the kid but gives the parents a healthy way to engage their kids on how practice went!

As a first year Squirt coach who also doesn’t have a “Wayne Gretzky” resume (varsity high school only)… I really appreciate what you guys are doing! I love the development over winning message as so many parents don’t understand that part of it… especially in Squirts!

Love these Podcasts Miles, keep them coming. 2 questions, and I know they are subjective but any insight from you or Barry would be appreciated. 1. Treadmills - Do they help or do they cause bad habits/form? 2. Radius of skate blade - any preferences or thoughts, I get that may depend on skater etc... Thanks Guys

What a great and important conversation. Couple things I loved: we need to train how to win our losses. And overall the conversation about how to make young players want to play goalie (and I agree.. the first experience being a chaotic kite practice where they are going bombarded probably isn’t optimal lol) Pete is a treasure and Wayzata youth and high school is lucky to have him!