IceTimesMagazine
BEHIND THE BENCH By Mark Dyslin
A
quiz: the phrase “Olly Olly Oxen Free” means: a) the lite, fat-free version of Olly Olly Oxen (“mmmm, that’s great Olly Olly Oxen, mom!”) b) with the purchase of the Coach Op Art purse and Mini Skinny, you get one of these at no charge c) the chant used to free Nelson Mandella’s third cousin, once removed, from prison d) a ruse used during a game of “kick the can” declaring it was safe to come out of hiding. If you chose D you chose wisely. If you guessed D, you got lucky and are probably not old enough to have ever used that phrase. For us card-carrying “over-the-hill” types it’s a reminder of the games we played back in the day. Some games had pre-defined rules. More often than not we had “parameters,” so the games changed all the time and without warning. Kids made(up) the rules. Kids negotiated the terms. Often our activities were an amalgam
of other reputable games. We valued our freedom to make stuff up. Whatever sounded fun is how we rolled. I only joined the city baseball league because I coveted the free cap. I mostly played neighborhood ball in a “meadow” with no backstop, no real bases (we used pieces of wood), and we had base paths only if Perry McWilliams was able to sneak his dad’s lawn mower out of the garage. The remainder of the infield and outfield was covered in 2 foot high prairie grasses (read: weeds). If you could hit a ball in the outfield gap you were assured a home run, because it took longer to find the ball than to round the bases. In the winter, we played hockey anywhere and anyway we could. We played mukluk-hockey in my driveway (mukluks are rubber over-boots). After about a month the driveway snow would transform into ice and we had our poor-boy version of a backyard rink. At the end of October the village would flood the LanOak pool parking lot yielding two hockey rinks. There were no hours of play or scheduled ice
times. No parents or organizers of fun. We “structured” our game by imitating Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Pierre Pilote, and Keith Magnuson. We figured if they were pros we should play like them. As a parent-coach, I often worry we’re choking the creativity out of our kids. Think about it: kids spend a lot of time in scheduled, defined activities. Practices, games, even “open-hockey” are all predetermined. “All right kids, wheels up at o-eight-hundred for open hockey...” Think about it, f rom their first experience on ice, they are being told what to do. Yes, I find value in some structured events like beginners being taught proper skating techniques. But there has to be balance. We need to back off some and push our kids to do their thing. Learn through self-realization. So whaddya say? Let’s change, right now. Allow time in every practice for the kids to create...stuff. Spend 10 minutes every practice playing “pond-hockey”. Let the kids practice their shoot-out skills and encourage trick shots. I think back on the times I would get
Mark Dyslin has been coaching youth sports for over 15 years and coaching youth hockey since 1999. He is currently one of the coaches for St. Mark’s Junior Varisty Hockey Team.
on the kids for doing goofy things on a shoot-out drill and cringe (see, I had to have a drill to be creative!). What a golden opportunity and I ruined it! Mix small area games into your practices and turn the kids loose. Encourage kids to take chances by doing something new. Until “over teaching” is eased up they will continue to perform like robots and do only what is safe. They will only take actions that won’t get them “in trouble.” If we don’t push creativity, the Alexander Ovechkin’s of the world will dry up. ■
North Texas Hockey League – Squirt A Gold team – the Grapevine Wolves
28 Keep your kids out of hot water – put them on ice!
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