New mentorship program

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Members of Strathmore Minor Hockey development committee board did a lot of research, reading and numerous discussions with other associations, to settle on incorporating an Introductory to Hockey and Coaching mentorship program.
Committee member Mike Langen thought this was a necessary step forward in the evaluation process of the players at the Timbit level.
“We treated the Timbits like the older age groups,” said Langen. “This year we tried to introduce the new program called ‘Introduction to Hockey’ which is for players three, four and five-year-old kids who have never been in a organized hockey program before, that will able them to get the skating foundation down.”
He felt that this program will take some of the pressure off the kids and pair them with other like players.
“It’ll enable them to teach different things as a group,” said Langen. “Everybody in the group should be similar and just about grouping like kids with like kids. When you’re running a drill, it’s effective for the first player going as the last player.”
Another group will be the Junior Timbits, which will be five-year-olds and will have a focus on the same basics as the Introduction to Hockey but will be more advanced.
According to Langen, the new program will focus on more of the basic core skills, such as skating, balance and agility, which he thinks at the Timbit age their bodies will be more adapted to learning them.
There will also be a Senior Timbits program that will be a higher skill level than the previous two groups.
He added that technique will be emphasized in the development process and that it is not about wins and losses, but about playing the game properly.
“It’s more about development than competition,” he said. “In the end, if you develop your players, the wins will take care of themselves, versus training for the wins and hoping they develop along the way. It’s trying to flip that thought process a bit.”
Meanwhile Strathmore Minor Hockey Association has hired on Coaches Edge to help mentor the coaches this upcoming season, which will be run by local coaches Dan MacDonald and Doug Raycroft. Their duties will be to assist minor hockey coaches with practice plans throughout the season.
“It’s their job to support them,” said Langen. “They’re going to go in with the coaches right from Timbits all the way up to midget. They’re going to hold some seminars, information sessions for the coaches, help the coaches with any materials that they might need.”
The committee is hoping that this will result in the players getting more value out of the game and that Strathmore Minor Hockey is more successful because of it.