Reply To: Building Confidence & Competitiveness of a timid child

[David Mitchell]

peter wrote:
I coach U-10 hockey, and for this upcoming season I'm planning on using the attack-defend-rest (Perry Pearn 3-3 half ice) in most of our practices. Practice format will be skating 10-15min, followed by one area for teaching the game 8-10 min.( D – side coverage, attack triangle, things they will use in the 3-3 half ice). And one or two skill areas for 8-10min.

So this should leave me with 12 to 15 min to run our attack -defend -rest game. I will divide the team into two teams at the start of the season and they will wear different colors at each practice. Score will be kept, along with goals and assists, I plan on posting the point totals for all the players on a weekly basis. The games will also be video tape for the kids to see themselves in action. I thing the kids will love it!!

I like the idea of tracking assists, especially with the U-10s,as in my experience, they are VERY goal oriented. I think I would lean towards really glorifying the team work and skill required to make a nice assist. I also hadn't thought much about separating the players into two teams that might span more then a single practice. I'll have to think on that some.

Thanks
Dave