THE
SPORT PARENT Issue Six
the ultimate resource for parenting in youth sport
A look at Half-Ice Novice Hockey feat. NHL Alum Jason Strudwick
From Rink to Rower: Para-rower Jeremy Hall is one to watch!
Coaching Your Own Children: Get the most out of being a parent-coach!
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From Rink to Rower:
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Tilting the Ice:
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Active for Life
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Coaching Your Own Children:
Para-Rower Jeremy Hall is one to watch!
A look at novice half-ice hockey with Jason Strudwick
Check out Active for Life’s Parents in Sport toolkit
Get the most out of being a parent-coach!
CONTACT US
EDITORIAL
thesportparent@gmail.com
Shannon Pynn (Editor) Kevin Corus (Art Director)
CONTRIBUTORS
@sportparentmag
Kassi Boyd, MA Isabel Ormond Shannon Pynn, MA Jason Strudwick Jeremy Hall Active for Life
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From Rink to Rower: Para-Rower Jeremy Hill is one to watch!
By Kassi Boyd
Sport has always been an integral part of knee-ankle-foot orthotics worn on both legs. Canadian National Team para-rower, Jeremy The fusion in his knees remained, meaning Hall’s, life. Born to active parents who partic- that opportunities to participate in physical ipated in a variety of sports throughout their activity and sport were limited; growing up in lives, sport was always a major part of the a small, rural community in Alberta, Jeremy Halls’ family dynamic. Jeremy was born with did not have access to any para or adaptive a bleeding disorder called hemophilia. As is sports. the case for many parents of children with hemophilia, Jeremy’s parents were strongly From an early age, Jeremy loved sport and encouraged to limit his activity level. Despite expressed a strong desire to play organized the advice, Jeremy’s parents were determined hockey. He learned to skate, and played with to support their son to be as active as possible. his younger brother, Darren, and their friends for hours on the rink that his Dad had made When Jeremy was 6 years old, he experienced in their backyard. Joining the minor hockey significant bleeding in his knees, leading league in town was out of the question due to the fusion of his knee joints. However, to the high levels of contact that occur during by the time he was 10, Jeremy had gained the games. Therefore, Jeremy’s Dad created enough strength to walk with the help of a Pond Hockey league in town. “For one ice 4
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time per week, we completed drills, developed our skills and finished with a quick game of shinny”, Jeremy explained. With support from his Mom, Jeremy also competed as part of the volleyball, basketball and badminton teams, and participated in any and all intramural sports offered at his junior high school. In his early 20’s, while living in Edmonton, Jeremy found the sport of sledge hockey and joined a team with the Paralympic Sports Association (PSA). At the end of his first season, he was awarded the Paralympic Sport Association’s Maurice Van Vliet Award for Rookie of the Year across all of PSA’s programs. The following year, looking to experience even higher levels of competition, Jeremy made the jump to the Edmonton Impact Senior Team. In 2016, Jeremy made Team Alberta. They went undefeated at the tournament and came away as National Champions, making it the second of three straight national titles for Team Alberta. They have the opportunity to defend again in May of this year.
Jeremy’s parents were determined to support their son to be as active as possible When asked what his sledge hockey experience means to him, Jeremy explained, “Winning a national hockey championship in what is, really, the greatest hockey country in the world will always be incredibly important to me. Growing up with hemophilia, I was told competitive sport, particularly hockey, was not an option and that I should dismiss the thought of playing altogether. Being able to win a national championship while properly managing my hemophilia is important not only to me, personally, but to the bleeding disorder community as a whole. I’m excited to be a part of breaking the mold and demonstrating that sport and activity are possible while living with a bleeding disorder”. Now at age 27, Jeremy has achieved immense success in a completely different sport, para-rowing. A few people involved with his sledge hockey team, who were familiar with para-sport, suggested he give rowing a try. Given the classification system in para-rowing and that Jeremy is a relatively tall, powerful guy, they thought that Jeremy would be wellsuited to the sport.
Photo credit: Rowing Canada Aviron/Merijn Soeters
After the 2016-2017 hockey season, Jeremy reached out to the Edmonton Rowing Club (ERC) about the possibility of trying para-rowing. Though they had little experience with para-rowing, they were willing to meet with Jeremy and explore different options. After meeting Martin George, BC’s para-rowing coach and technical classifier for para-rowing, it was determined that Jeremy was PR2 classifiable and that, because he was in good shape after recently finishing the hockey
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Photo credit: Rowing Canada Aviron/Merijn Soeters
season, he would be a strong candidate for the national team. From there, things began to snowball. Jeremy spent the majority of the summer on the indoor rowing ergometer because the ERC did not have the proper equipment to get him out on the water. In the summer of 2017, Jeremy travelled to Martin’s home town of Vernon, and spent 4 days with him on the water. After that weekend, Martin provided Jeremy the equipment needed to continue training on the water in Edmonton. With his new equipment, Jeremy trained hard and excelled quickly. In November, Jeremy drove to Burnaby, BC, to compete at National Rowing Championships and came away with a gold medal. Given his new commitments to rowing, and taking into account that he was still working towards completing his Master of Science degree, Jeremy chose to step away from competitive hockey. Jeremy explained, “Hockey was incredibly important to me, so that was a difficult decision, but one I felt confident would be most appropriate in the long run.” In his short time as a rower, Jeremy already has several impressive accomplishments to his name, including two gold medals in PR2 Men’s Single Sculls at Canadian National Rowing Championships (2017 & 2018), a bronze medal in PR2 M1x at Gavirate Para-Rowing International Regatta, and a silver medal in 6
PR2 M1x at World Rowing Championships. Jeremy was also named Rowing Canada’s 2018 Para-Athlete of the Year and holds world records for the 2000m indoor rower (6:58.3), becoming the first person ever to go under 7 minutes without using their legs, and 6000m (23:12.7). When asked about the impact that his parents (and family) have had on his sporting experience so far, Jeremy responded, “I find it difficult to put in to words the impact that not only my parents, but my grandparents and my brother, have had on my athletic career and experience in sport. My family is the most important part of my life. The care and support that they provided through my youth, and continue to provide every day, is a huge motivator and inspiration in training and competition. The monotony and pain that comes with training and competing in an endurance sport can make it tough to challenge yourself
“I’m excited to be a part of breaking the mold and demonstrating that sport and activity are possible while living with a bleeding disorder”
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Jeremy’s advice for sport parents of children experiencing disability: 1. Don’t be a helicopter parent! “Even though your child may experience disability, let them face challenges, struggle, learn from failure and develop their independence. They will be better athletes and, more importantly, better people for it. If they have any aspirations of being an athlete, they need to be able to hold themselves accountable.”
2. Give your child the freedom to choose their sport interests. “Don’t force them into playing a sport you’ve chosen for them. Allow them to find something that interests them and that will fuel the drive that is so necessary to compete as an athlete.”
3. There is no timeline to becoming a successful athlete. “Due to my disability, I didn’t start participating in sport until I was over 10 years old, and I didn’t join a competitive team until I was 23. Now, here I am, competing at the international level at age 27. Granted, I grew watching sport and idolizing athletes, but the message is: Don’t place unreasonable expectations on your child. If they aren’t the best athlete on their team at 12 years old, so be it.”
and push to reach the next level. Whether it be in a training session or the most gruelling portion of a race, I think to all the support my family has provided and my desire to continue to make them proud.” Jeremy is aiming to compete at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan. For Jeremy, one of the most exciting things about para-rowing is getting the opportunity to represent Canada on the international stage. However, at the Paralympic level, the only race available to him is the PR2 mixed double sculls. This means that Jeremy needs to find a female counterpart that is classifiable as a PR2 athlete, to compete at the Paralympics. The search is on, and he is hopeful of finding a partner.
Kassi Boyd is a 2nd year PhD student in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Kassi’s research interests center on the intersections of inclusion, disability, and child-driven culture.
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Tilting the Ice: A look at half-ice novice hockey with Jason Strudwick By Shannon Pynn, MA
During the 2019-2020 youth hockey season, Hockey Canada will implement its new mandate for half-ice novice hockey. That is, children who are under the age of 8 years old will play on a smaller, modified ice surface. According to the new policy, novice teams will play on the modified ice surface from October to December and can begin to transition to full ice from January to April. The motivation behind Hockey Canada’s switch to the half-ice format is to place children in more developmentally appropriate “competitive situations that suit their skill level and abilities”. Although the new mandate won’t take effect until the upcoming 2019-2020 season, some teams in Edmonton, Alberta have already taken up the half-ice approach. Among them was Jason Strudwick’s team. Strudwick is a former NHL defenceman who played 15 seasons in the NHL, notably playing three seasons with his hometown team, the Edmonton Oilers. Not only is he a former professional hockey player, but he is a father of three children and, as of this year, a parent-coach of novice youth hockey.
Jason Strudwick Played 15 seasons in the NHL including three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers
In his first season as a novice head coach, Jason’s team played with the new half-ice format. In this format, games were played 4 vs. 4. Teams of approximately 18 players would send half of their players to each end of the ice, resulting in two half-ice games occurring at once. These games included 90 second shifts with no faceoffs. Scoring statistics weren’t tracked and there 8
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were no league standings. In addition, each player took turns in the goalie position. For Strudwick, this was certainly different from what he was used to. I first learned about Jason Strudwick’s experience with half-ice novice when he wrote an article for Oilersnation.com (link below). Strudwick goes into detail about his experience of coaching the new format and provides helpful insight and tips based on his experience. For coaches and parents that will be experiencing half-ice novice for the first time, I recommend checking out the article. After reading about Jason’s experience, I scrolled down to the ‘comments’ section to see what others thought of the idea. I was surprised to find that not everyone was on board with the new approach.
The cons for half ice is they don’t learn the rules as much. They don’t learn offside, they don’t learn icing, they don’t learn positions. – TBK2677 This year, I’ve heard from parents critical of half ice, they’re the minority, but they’re loud: “Kids never get really skating”, “My kid used to get breakaways all the time, now s/ he can’t break free”, “They won’t learn the rules” etc. – JohnnyO Not keeping the score of the game and having a team win and lose is just wrong. I’m fine with not keeping individual stats. But sport is about winning and losing, and how to handle both is an important life skill... – godot10
I realized that for sport parents (especially in Canada where hockey is somewhat of a cultural practice), this transition to a new way of playing hockey might be difficult to grasp. Perhaps you are thinking “I learned to play ‘real’ hockey at a young age and I turned out fine” or “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” For those parents who are still on the fence about the new rule changes, I thought it would be a good idea to dig into the research and also chat with Jason Strudwick about his firsthand experience. His dynamic role as a father, coach, and former professional hockey player will hopefully provide our readers with unique insight as they prepare for the 2019-2020 youth hockey season. Competitive engineering: A structural-based approach to changing the competitive environment of youth sports to provide more nurturing competitive experiences. (Burton & Colleagues, 2011)
Modifying sports for children is not an entirely new concept. Many youth sport programs already modify or “competitively engineer” aspects of their games in order to enhance children’s sport experiences. For example, basketball programs often modify the size of the court and the position of the three-point line for younger athletes and some soccer programs use shorter fields and larger goals. These types of modifications have shown to improve children’s’ satisfaction, enjoyment, perceived competence, skill development, and performance in sport. “When I heard [the novice program] was changing, I wasn’t really passionate one way or the other. I wasn’t upset about it. Some people really pushed back and that’s fine... I understood the benefits of it, but once I went through the year it really dawned on me, I really understood why they did it.”
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After a season of half-ice, Strudwick found the major benefits of half-ice to be increased ice time and greater opportunities for skill development.
ICE TIME “You’re out every other shift. Sometimes more than that because there’s not enough kids. Every 90 seconds you’re out on the ice. I never had one complaint from kids this year about ‘Hey, I need more ice time’. I’ve got three levels: I’m a parent, I’m a coach, and I’m an ex-player and [the ice-time] really ticks a box for all three. The kids are out there playing and they’re tired. That’s what you want. You want them to be involved. One of my biggest pet peeves is watching any sport, any practice, where two kids are playing and 15 kids are watching. It really bothers me. I hated that as a player, I didn’t want to do that! I’m thinking ‘this sucks’, so you want to make sure you keep them busy.” According to Hockey Canada, half-ice games maximize playing time and therefore maximize children’s opportunity to “learn the core elements of hockey”. The increased ice time results in “more puck touches, more passing, more goals and more fun!
Research has shown that young athletes enjoy competition more when they are personally involved in the action. That means that kids are having more fun when they have opportunities to play and are playing in positions that allow them to be involved in the scoring process. The way half-ice novice format splits the teams up to have more kids on the ice allows players to be more involved in the action and spend less time sitting on the bench. Providing players with more significant playing time will enhance their competitive experience and provide more opportunities to develop skills. Furthermore, not placing kids into permanent positions and the absence of a full-time goalie at this age will enhance involvement for all players. They will become well-rounded and develop skills in all areas, rather than being pigeonholed into being a “goalie”, “forward”, or “defence” at a young age.
SKILL DEVELOPMENT “A quiet undertone is the skill development that happens in practice that transfers into games. Because it’s such a small area, you really have to make a lot of decisions, moreso than on the big ice. Because the little kids aren’t as fast and they don’t cover as much ground, when we put more players into a smaller area, they’re forced to make decisions. I believe sport is all about the decisions you make and learning at a young age how to make decisions. Processing plays, making a decision, and reacting. I think that will really help them moving forward.” In many sports, such as soccer, basketball, tennis, and now hockey, modifying the facilities or scaling down the size of the playing area has a developmental influence on children. As Strudwick mentions in the quote above, children are spending less time skating back and forth across a long sheet of ice and spending more time learning to make decisions, such
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as how, where, and when to move the puck. As a result they are refining skills such as stickhandling, sending and receiving passes, shooting, and generate scoring opportunities. Ultimately, modifying the size of the ice surface will help improve action and increase scoring in a game.
OK, BUT ISN’T SPORT ABOUT WINNING AND LOSING? “If we would’ve had this conversation in September [before the season], I would’ve had some of those same comments [about winning or losing]. On the record- I don’t believe in participation medals. You don’t need to have a medal for showing up. But what happens is, whether we like it or not, the kids keep score. As do the parents. But the words I use are, ‘have you tilted the ice?’ Because for my team what I looked at was whether or not we controlled the play, because that to me is a win. Because if you do that more often than not, when you get to Atom, you’re going to win games because you’re controlling the play. As a coach, I’m would like to think that other coaches are thinking about controlling the play more than winning the game.” Sometimes the final score, the W, or the L, don’t really paint a picture of what your child learned or how well they played. While scoring statistics and league stats are not kept in half-ice novice, there are ways to gauge whether or not your child’s team is successful. As Strudwick says, “Are you tilting the ice?” By judging the outcome on whether or not your child’s team is “tilting the ice” you are placing an emphasis on whether or not they’ve developed skills that allow them to control the puck in the offensive zone. At the end of the day, the score doesn’t matter if you and your child felt that they played well.
“I had a great coach mentor who coached in the NHL for years and he said, at any level, your job is to make sure the kids are better at the end of the year than when they started. If you can do that, you did a good job. As a parent, you can say [the coach] did a good job. The problem with that is that sometimes you have to park the winning, because sometimes you need to improve before you can win.”
BUT THIS ISN’T REAL HOCKEY- IS MY GOING KID GOING TO FALL BEHIND? “One thing I hear all the time is ‘but the kids don’t learn offsides or icings’. Think of it this way- I could teach a kid in grade 1 how to do multiplication. It might take me the whole year as a teacher but we would do it. But is it really worth sacrificing all the other foundational pieces that a grade 1 student should learn before that? Probably not. And that’s how I see the offside and icing and all those others rule… Why not build them up in the other areas, the skating, the passing, the awareness, all that stuff. And then they’ll get to the age where they’ve watched two more years of hockey, in the NHL or wherever, and they’ve learned the offside from that.”
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According to Hockey Canada, half-ice gives children the opportunity to play the game in a healthy and balanced way that will encourage long-term involvement in hockey. Remember, the half-ice format is made for children who are in the years where sport should be about having fun, learning basic skills, and developing physical literacy so they can be active and healthy for life. The move to half-ice still resembles “adult” hockey but allows for play, enjoyment, and skill development to be the main priority. “Kids don’t make the NHL at 7. I’ve never seen a 7 year old in the NHL. To me as a coach, and as a parent, right now it’s all about ‘how good can I make these kids?’ For parents that are worried that their kid is going to fall behind, you have to look at the benefits of [half-ice].”
Other Sources: Burton, D., Gillham, A. D., & Hemmermeister, J. (2011). Competitive engineering: Structural climate modifications to enhance youth athletes’ competitive experience. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 6, 201-215. Chase, M.A., Ewing, M.E., Lirgg, C.D. and George, T.R., The Effects of Equipment Modification on Children’s Self-Efficacy and Basketball Shooting Performance, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 1994, 65, 159-171.
Click Here
for more information about Hockey Canada’s new half-ice novice mandate
So, parents: “Just trust the process. You want your son or daughter to be able to touch the puck. It’s not fun to not touch the puck. They want to be involved, that’s what fun is… And be positive, positive, positive. So they can leave their hockey season and they can say ‘Man, that was a really fun year, I became a better player, I grew as person (although they may not be that self-aware yet), and I had a great experience.’”
Click Here
to read Jason Strudwick’s article for Oilersnation
Shannon Pynn is a PhD Student in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. She is interested in studying the various psychosocial aspects of youth sport. Specifically, she studies sport parenting and positive youth development through sport. Shannon created The Sport Parent magazine in 2015 and now serves as the editor.
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Parents in Sport 08 toolkit
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Active for Life is a national initiative created to help parents raise physically literate children. Whether it’s driving kids to practices and games, preparing team snacks, organizing events, or providing a listening and supportive ear, parents play an essential role in supporting their children in sport and activity. Active for Life is proud to support parents in sport. In their Parents in Sport toolkit, you will find a variety of articles and resources to help parents, coaches, and sport organizations to understand and promote positive sport parenting.
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>> Tips for Parents >> 5 Ways to Support Your Child in Sport >> What Your Child's Coach Wants You to Know
Click here to access the full Parents in Sport toolkit At activeforlife.com, parents, educators, and coaches will find fun activities, engaging articles, and free resources to get kids active, healthy and happy. Sign up for Active for Life’s monthly newsletters. Connect with Active for Life on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Coaching Your Own Children: Get the most out of being a parent-coach! By Isabel Ormond
While athletic coaches are tasked with typical “coaching” responsibilities (e.g., coordinating practices, preparing for games, and managing organizational demands), parent-coaches (often volunteers) have the added dynamic of coaching their own children. Although at times it can be complex, being a parent-coach can also be very rewarding!
So, how can you, as a parent-coach, have the best experience coaching your own child? Previous sport parenting research has identified parental involvement as a critical component of youth sport, but very little research has been done specifically on parents who coach their own children. For this reason, I conducted interviews with parent-coaches and their daughters to understand their perspectives when it comes to this unique situation. This study identified core elements of the sporting experiences for parent-coaches and their children. Based on the results, here are some tips for parent-coaches who want to get the most out of coaching their own child:
1. Keep Things Separate As a parent-coach, you should be conscious of the multiple roles your play in your child’s life. It is important to be aware of the different roles and try to segregate your role as a coach from your role as a parent, and vice versa. The emotional investment is higher for parents and children, so being able to separate one role from another makes it easier for the parent and child to have positive communication and better understanding. At the end of the day, make sure your child knows you love them, regardless of what happens in the game. 14
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2. Foster Open Communication One of the hardest things about being a parent-coach is managing perceptions of favouritism from other parents, teammates, and community members. To curtail these thoughts, the parent-coaches in this study admitted to being harder on their child and even purposely overlooking some of their child’s achievements. Instead, try to have open communication with your child, his/her teammates, other parents, and all involved. Building trust and relationships outside of sport will help manage these perceptions and allow you and your child to get the most out of your experience.
Lastly
3. Get the Right Training Make coach training and education a priority. You would not send your child to a school with an uneducated teacher and this standard should be the same for coaching. Understand the sport you are coaching and look to improve your knowledge the same way athletes should. This can be done with formal training, online resources, talking to others, or shadowing other programs. Put time and effort into your development as a coach to improve the sport experience for your child and their teammates.
5. Enjoy Quality Time Together The additional time, experience, and memories parents and children have through sport are irreplaceable. Show gratitude for the opportunity to coach your child, take the time to appreciate the moments you are sharing, and seek enjoyment in their development and growth through sport.
4. Find Other Opportunities Sport parents are responsible for finding appropriate sporting opportunities for their child. Even though you love coaching your own child, it is important maintain perspective on the best opportunities available for their development. Experiences on different teams and working with different coaches can be beneficial for child development and it provides the opportunity for parent-coaches to focus solely on parenting. Be open to finding other sport opportunities for your child and avoid being the only one to coach your child.
Isabel Ormond is an MCoach student in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. Her Masters capping project focuses on the experiences of parentcoaches. Isabel is also an assistant coach with the University of Alberta Pandas basketball team.
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SPORT PARENT SPOTLGHT In the next issue of The Sport Parent, we would like to feature someone who exemplifies what it means to be a great sport parent! Got someone in mind? Click below to nominate someone you know and tell us why you think they are a great sport parent!
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