Hockey runs through the Reinharts’ blood
DAVID EBNER, The Globe and Mail, Jun. 19 2012
There was a racket upstairs. And the baby was missing.
When Theresa Reinhart heard the shouts of “Shoot! Shoot!” she had an inkling of what was going on. Her two boys, four-year-old Max and two-year-old Griffin, had found a good use for their baby brother, Sam, hauling the infant in his small car seat upstairs to employ the kid as goaltender in the playroom.
The field of play at the Reinharts’ home in West Vancouver was expansive, varied, and constant. The boys played every sport and invented contests along the way, the more physical the better, one memorable game dubbed slamball, involving basketball and a trampoline.
“There was a lot of testosterone,” former NHL star Paul Reinhart remembered on Sunday, Father’s Day, his wife and boys gathered on their home’s patio in the late morning. “They found games to play constantly.”
But the Reinhart boys, while they loved soccer and tennis, were born with hockey in the blood, sons of Paul, the flying and scoring Calgary Flames defenceman in the 1980s who finished his career in Vancouver with the Canucks, retiring early because of a back injury. And Theresa’s family was sporty, too. She competed in badminton and volleyball, her mom was a ski racer, and her dad played U.S. college football at the University of Oklahoma.
The stew, from genes to the competitive arena of the Reinhart home, produced a Sutter – or Staal-like brood of brothers.
On Friday night in Pittsburgh at the NHL entry draft, Griffin (now 18 and 6 foot 4) could be a top-10 pick, analysts say. If that is where the young defenceman is drafted, he will top his dad, who was picked No. 12 overall by the Atlanta Flames in 1979.
“We didn’t push them into hockey,” Paul said. “They arrived in hockey just because I think they’re naturally Canadian kids.
Griffin is the second Reinhart son to skate toward the NHL. Two years ago, the eldest, Max, was picked by Calgary in the third-round and aims to make the team next season.
The baby, Sam, now 16, could be another first-rounder in two years, after lighting up the Western Hockey League last winter, notching nearly a point a game, on average.
While it’s often a long way from the draft to NHL ice, the Reinharts have already booked solid success. All three have played in the Memorial Cup, Max and Sam with the Kootenay Ice in 2011 and Griffin with the Edmonton Oil Kings this year.
There is a long history of fathers and sons – and brothers – in the NHL. Among the greats: Bobby Hull, brother Dennis and Bobby’s son Brett, Gordie Howe and sons Mark and Marty. There are the Sutters, all half-dozen of them, whose current equivalent is the quartet of Staals. Twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks fit the category. Off the ice, but in the arena, Scotty Bowman’s son Stan is general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks.
When Paul went No. 12 in 1979, the draft was in August, held late as the NHL absorbed the World Hockey Association. There was no prime-time show on TSN, as there is now. Paul was trying out for the Canadian Olympic team in Calgary and was called off the ice. Cliff Fletcher, the Flames GM, was on the phone with news. Paul hardly knew where Atlanta was.
Griffin, a defenceman like his dad, has managed through a far-greater crush of attention, from detailed scouting to media, but has been helped by such peers as Oil Kings teammate Keegan Lowe, who was drafted last year and is the son of Kevin Lowe, the former Edmonton Oilers defenceman and the club’s current president of hockey operations.
The Reinharts set off as a family for Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
“I’m just excited,” Griffin said. “I’m not really going in with expectations. I’m just going to have fun with it.”
Fletcher, a special adviser to the Toronto Maple Leafs, has seen Max and Sam play live – and was immediately struck by their talent.
“I do believe in blood lines,” Fletcher said. “If it wasn’t for Paul’s back, he would have had a Hall of Fame career.”
While bloodlines have always flowed, it seems ever-more common. Max’s draft by the Flames in 2010 is one example, when Calgary also chose John Ramage, son of Rob Ramage, with the Flames not only choosing two sons but sons of two fathers who both played as Flames.
This year, including Griffin, numerous sons could be chosen in the draft, with yet another Sutter among the bunch, Lukas, son of Rich, and the fifth second-generation Sutter to be drafted.
“The last four, five drafts, it’s amazing how many young guys have been drafted, whose fathers I either played against, or played with, or knew of,” said Archie Henderson, a long-time NHL scout who played for about a decade, mostly in the minors.
At the start of each season, scouts always scan for recognizable names. NHL pedigree hardly guarantees passage to the pros but it does mean teenagers on the ice have a father who knows what it takes.
“Scouts don’t think, ‘He’ll be his father,’” Henderson said. “You scout the player. But you do inevitably think about the bloodlines.”
-----
Bloodlines usually equal opportunity / exposure to sport (or music or art, etc.) I think that since the parents were athletes, they showed and encouraged their kids to be active - thus providing role modelling and opportunity - and these kids picked up on it. I see it with my own kids. Playing many sports and being active, they developed their physical literacy and fundamental movement skills; so they could have probably specialized (and been successful) in any sport. The more I work with young kids, the better perspective it gives me. The LTAD is SO IMPORTANT!
http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/learn-about-canadian-sport-life/ltad-stages
My advice: Get your kids to do a variety of things when they are young and malleable!
-----
Reinhart name expected to go high in draft again, young Griffin learns from Dad
The Canadian Press, 2012-06-22
PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Hockey runs deep in the Reinhart household.
Paul Reinhart played 648 games as a defenceman with the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. And his sons are following in his footsteps.
Max was drafted in the third round—64th overall—in 2010 by the Flames. Griffin is expected to go in the first round in Friday's draft. And Sam, the WHL rookie of the year last season, is draft-eligible in 2014.
Griffin, 18, plays for the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings. Sam and Max are teammates on the Kootenay Ice.
At six foot four and 202 pounds, Griffin has an NHL body—Paul calls him "a menacing presence." Add composure and you have a very promising package.
In his second year with the Oil Kings, Griffin had 12 goals, 24 assists and 38 penalty minutes in 58 games.
Paul remembers coaching Griffin on his midget team and catching a glimpse of what he calls "the whoosh factor."
"You're standing on the ice and all of a sudden this big body goes by you," he said. "It's almost like a barometric change.
"I remember thinking 'Wow, that was just Griffin.' Some guys have heavy shots, some guys have just got heavy presences out there and I think Griffin's a body that has that. And when you look at the way the NHL is played these days in the NHL, big bodies are really important."
Griffin knew how to use his size early on, according to his father.
"Just because you're big doesn't necessarily mean you know how to use it," he said. "But when you're that big and you have a presence out there, to understand how important body position is and what you can do with it, I knew he was going to do very, very well."
Griffin is ranked 10th among North American skaters in the final Central Scouting rankings. Defencemen Ryan Murray (Everett), childhood friend Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw), Cody Ceci (Ottawa), Olli Maatta (London) and Jacob Trouba (U.S. under-18) are ahead of him in this defence-heavy draft crop.
Paul was a first-round pick of the Atlanta Flames, who chose him 12th overall in the 1979 draft and moved to Calgary a year later. Just five foot 11, Reinhart was a smooth-skating offensive defenceman who moved on to further success in the world of finance after hockey.
Griffin never saw his father play—he retired at 29 due to back problems—but he has seen him in action on NHL Classics TV replays. His immediate thought was how similar their styles were.
He says he doesn't feel pressure from the family name and says his father never pushed him towards hockey. The kids just fell in love with the sport on their own.
They talk to him after every game, a tradition that Griffin says has been "huge" for his development.
His advice to Griffin before the draft was just have fun with it. But Paul has more to offer on the subject.
"I think the big thing for these guys to recognize is that what happens in the next 24 hours, 48 hours has really nothing to do with your career," said the former NHLer. "Everything that you've done to date has put you in this position. And even that doesn't matter much. It's all about what you do afterwards."
"You're now graduating to a point where development will always be important but make no mistake, when you're being paid, winning is what is important. This (the draft) is a wonderful statement as to what you've done in the past, but going forward, to be successful in this game, you have to become a winner, you have to make sure that not just you continue to develop but you somehow develop those around you.
"And I think he's got the potential to do that. ... Almost every team he's played on has won."
If you're picked in the third round, go on and play as a first-rounder, says Paul.
"It's what he does after this," he said of Griffin. "It's what he does next year that matters."
Despite his glowing praise about his middle son, Paul acknowledges he thought Griffin's attitude was "indifferent" at 10 or 11 years old. Then he realized his son was just confident in his abilities.
"It couldn't be further from the truth," he said of his initial assessment. "And this year's playoffs certainly were a testament to that."
Paul had to watch his sons go head-to-head in the WHL playoffs as Edmonton played Kootenay.
"As a parent, it was very difficult to watch that," Paul said of Edmonton's 4-0 sweep.
The Oil Kings went on to beat Brandon (4-0), Moose Jaw (4-1) and Portland (4-3)—Griffin was plus-14—before losing to the eventual champion Shawinigan Cataractes in a tiebreaker at the Memorial Cup.
While Paul speaks of Griffin's poise and composure, he has also seen his son angry.
"Just get out of the way," he said. "But I'd say his angry is more get even than it is to be running around and yelling and screaming. He's not just that kind of guy."
On Thursday, Griffin had meetings set with Carolina, Minnesota, Winnipeg and Columbus.
He grew up watching Canucks as his hometown team, but "right now I'm pretty neutral."
Other players eligible for the draft with NHL connections include forward Henrik Samuelsson (son of Ulf Samuelsson), centre Alex Glachenyuk (son of Alexander Galchenyuk) and centre Stefan Matteau (son of Stephane Matteau).
Practice, instruction and skill acquisition in soccer: Challenging tradition
A. MARK WILLIAMS* & NICOLA J. HODGES
Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
(Accepted 24 July 2004)
Keywords: coaching, expertise, motor learning, performance
Full article: http://www.thefa.com/GetIntoFootball/FALearning/FALearningPages/~/media/Files/PDF/Get%20into%20Football/FA_Learning_YouthModule2/Practice%20instruction%20and%20skill%20acquistion.ashx/Practice%20instruction%20and%20skill%20acquistion.pdf
(Substitute your team sport where 'soccer' appears; if soccer isn't your sport!)
Abstract
The acquisition of soccer skills is fundamental to our enjoyment of the game and is essential to the attainment of expertise. Players spend most of their time in practice with the intention of improving technical skills. However, there is a lack of scientific research relating to the effective acquisition of soccer skills, especially when compared with the extensive research base on physiological aspects of performance. Current coaching practice is therefore based on tradition, intuition and emulation rather than empirical evidence. The aim of this review is to question some of the popular beliefs that guide current practice and instruction in soccer. Empirical evidence is presented to dispel many of these beliefs as myths, thereby challenging coaches to self-reflect and critically evaluate contemporary doctrine. The review should inform sports scientists and practitioners as to the important role that those interested in skill acquisition can play in enhancing performance at all levels of the game.
Summary and conclusions:
" ...The traditional belief that demonstrations are essential for effective instruction was questioned. We identified the conditions under which demonstrations may be detrimental to skill acquisition and highlighted the need to direct attention to the action effects, rather than the actual bodily consequences.
Next, we highlighted the importance of variable and random practice conditions and argued that coaches may be too conservative when structuring practice, preferring the stability and security of grid and drill practices over more dynamic small-sided games. The importance of encouraging players to take responsibility for their learning by developing effective problem solving skills was highlighted . A variety of techniques were identified that may help coaches ‘‘fade out’’ the importance of augmented feedback early in learning.
The merits of the traditional, prescriptive approach to coaching were then considered and evidence was presented to illustrate how a more ‘‘hands-off’’, less prescriptive approach based on learning through guided discovery may offer several advantages in developing ‘‘smarter’’ players. Various examples of how to manipulate the constraints evident within the learning environment so that the desired behaviour emerges through guided discovery were illustrated.
Finally, we presented evidence to demonstrate that ‘‘game intelligence’’, skills such as anticipation and decision-making, are amenable to practice and instruction and suggested that such interventions should be routinely used in the talent development process...."
Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."