West's Future

[UNDhockey22]

I never said 8 years of development hurt high school hockey. The point is that the majority of development comes over those 8 years vs. the 3 years in high school. So if you want to look as to why a high school hockey team is succeeding you might want to look at the youth program before you start pointing fingers at high school coachs (not that it has been done on this message board, but it is a scenario). I was unsure of how many years were played before squirts, but I was sure there were at least two years played by the majority of players. Read what I am saying. I am being as clear as I can be.

You have at least 8 years of development in youth hockey (at least). You have 3 years in high school. The majority of your development obviously comes in those 8 years of youth hockey. So to say that by strengthing the high school schedule of teams in the West will significantly improve their development, is hardly a logical case to make.

[skateshattrick]

I never said 8 years of development hurt high school hockey. The point is that the majority of development comes over those 8 years vs. the 3 years in high school. So if you want to look as to why a high school hockey team is succeeding you might want to look at the youth program before you start pointing fingers at high school coachs (not that it has been done on this message board, but it is a scenario). I was unsure of how many years were played before squirts, but I was sure there were at least two years played by the majority of players. Read what I am saying. I am being as clear as I can be.

You have at least 8 years of development in youth hockey (at least). You have 3 years in high school. The majority of your development obviously comes in those 8 years of youth hockey. So to say that by strengthing the high school schedule of teams in the West will significantly improve their development, is hardly a logical case to make.

I agree. However, I do believe that strengthening the schedule at the youth level (Squirt, PeeWee and Bantams) will strenghten the programs. The eastern teams not only play each other and "local" teams such as Moorhead, Alexandria, Roseau, Warroad, etc., but will play many Minneapolis teams in tournaments in Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks and in the Twin Cities. There is no better way to measure the success of your program than playing the best competition so that you know how to measure your development. However, the critical development of players is at the mite, squirt and pee wee levels through ice time, practice and good coaching.

[UNDhockey22]

I agree. However, I do believe that strengthening the schedule at the youth level (Squirt, PeeWee and Bantams) will strenghten the programs. The eastern teams not only play each other and "local" teams such as Moorhead, Alexandria, Roseau, Warroad, etc., but will play many Minneapolis teams in tournaments in Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks and in the Twin Cities. There is no better way to measure the success of your program than playing the best competition so that you know how to measure your development. However, the critical development of players is at the mite, squirt and pee wee levels through ice time, practice and good coaching.

I agree. Improvements may been seen if the schedule is stronger from squirts throughout bantam. I do not believe strengthening the schedule of only one level of play will make any significant improvement, but if the quality of competition is greater throughout a prolonged period of time, improvements may be made in on ice play. Improvements obviously will not be made in stride length, stickhandling, strength, power, maybe some improvements would be seen in a minor way on speed and footspeed, simply because players will be faster and you have to go 100% the entire time to keep up. Still, the best way to improve those is through specified training. The improvements that will be seen will be in ability to make decisions quickly, and overall knowledge of the game.