Volume 3, Issue 1 - September, 2002  

 "From the Right Wing…"

Dan  and some of his friends at a       

 press conference introducing IT PAYS    

For a printer friendly version - click here

 www.DanBylsma.com  

This month's issue contains:

 DAN'S TIP OF THE MONTH   THIS MONTH'S QUESTION   TRUST FUND AUCTION   TIPS FROM HOCKEY CAMP 

 DAN'S HONOR ROLL  COACH'S TIP   THE SAYING OF THE MONTH   DAN TRIP IN THE NHL   DAN & JAY'S BOOKS 

  A WAY TO SUBSCRIBE

Most of the subscribers to my newsletter are interested in improving their skill level.  One of the things I've been telling you that you can do to improve your hockey skills is not to play hockey.  That is: don't play a lot of games (play a lot of shinny games with your friends), and don't play in the summer (play other sports).  I know that advice is not popular with a lot of parents and coaches who think you need to play a lot games, only play one sport, and play the year around to make significant progress in the sport - what ever "significant progress" means.  This in spite of the advice of nearly every professional player who has made the ultimate "significant progress" themselves - from Wayne Gretzky to myself.

One parent tried a hockey-free summer and we got this letter early this fall.  It is sanitized to preserve the confidentiality of the player, but its message is unaltered.

Dear Dan and Jay:

I wanted to thank you for your advice on a hockey-less summer. We heeded your advice and wanted to share a success story with you.

Andy is 15 years old. He came off a long season of hockey last year, with his Bantam AA team making it all the way to the State Championships, losing only in a heart-breaking sudden death overtime. His Select team also made it to the State Playoffs but was eliminated in round-robin.

When we came home from the State tournament, we told him "no hockey until one week before tryouts next fall!" He was, of course, unwilling and defensive, but eventually gave in. Truth be told, he was a little tired from hockey. Baseball season kicked into high gear for him within a week and continued on throughout the rest of the school year.

Instead of driving to the rink 4-5 days a week for skating, hockey clinics, lessons, summer league, etc. like we had in the previous years, we encouraged him to explore other sports and activities. He did, however, want to "condition" so that he could be a better hockey player for the upcoming season. For 6 weeks in the summer he worked out with a personal trainer for strength, plyometrics, endurance, and balance two mornings a week, and worked out by himself 3-4 mornings. This summer, he also played baseball, tennis, and learned to water ski. All in all, the past two months had been "a lot of fun, much better than last summer" as he put it. He only skated once at public skating during the entire summer, and that was for his little cousin's birthday party.

True to our words, Andy was back on the ice 2 weeks ago in preparation for Midget tryouts. He skated a couple days at public skating and attended 2 hockey clinics. Just as you advise, he didn’t "lose" any of his hockey skills by not playing in the summer, contrary to the conventional wisdom.

When Andy got on the ice last week for tryouts though, he played with a passion that I had not seen in him for over 3 years. He was a lot stronger and faster than last year, and a real threat to be reckoned with. He played better than I've ever seen him played. After the first night of tryouts, I asked him about it, and his reply was simply, "I'm not tired anymore, and I just wanted to play!"

After 3 stressful nights of tryouts, I received a phone call yesterday from the hockey director that Andy has made the Midget AA team. All the coaches and evaluators agreed that he belongs on the AA team as he is undoubtedly a much improved player from last year. They asked me where I sent Andy to hockey camp this summer and who he was working with. I told them, he did not play hockey all summer long, but he did work hard to condition himself for hockey.

(For the complete letter see http://www.danbylsma.com/askDanAnswer.asp?q=134)

I'm including this father's letter now - long before you get the pressure to play hockey year round so you don't miss the chance to improve your hockey by signing up for baseball in the spring and golf or soccer in the summer.  And water skiing won't hurt either.  Remember you will become a better hockey player by increasing your athleticism and you do that by playing other sports... as this player and his father learned as did my father and I.

THIS MONTH'S BEST QUESTION ON THE WEB SITE…

Dan: My daughter is 13 and currently playing with her twin brother on a boys' team. When should we start looking for a girls' team for her? Concerned Father.

C.F.: What are her goals for hockey? Dan

Dan: She'd like to play at the college level. Concerned Father

Dan Replies:

Dear C.F.: On the basis that development is her primary goal - we have a general philosophy that typically a player will tend to develop and improve his or her skills more if they are pushed, that is, play at the highest level of challenge (competition) possible. If playing against boys is the only way to provide that challenge, that's where she should play. Only if she has the opportunity to be challenged by playing with older girls (i.e. an U15 team), would playing with girls at her age be a consideration.

As a corollary, generally speaking, the girls who played baseball on boys' teams were better softball players when they got to high school than were girls who only played girls' softball.

There are two other considerations - one that her mom will be quick to recognize. There may come a time in her development when it may become uncomfortable to play with boys - either logistically (different locker rooms, etc.), sociologically, or physically (checking) and you should be alert to the signals for that to occur if it does.

Secondly, in terms of "looking for a place to play," we are not advocates of excessive travel times to practices and games. It's wasted time and the only time I played travel hockey (age 14), the travel nearly burned me out of the game. In addition, you don't improve your skills by playing organized games. Puck handling time in a 60-minute game is 30 seconds on average and you don't improve much in 30 seconds. An hour spent in the driveway with a stick and tennis ball on roller blades has more value in improvement potential than perhaps 20 games. An hour playing rat hockey (three on three) against older players or adults will also be more beneficial than a 60-minute game. So if development is the goal, personal practice time and rat hockey should not be sacrificed for travel to play a lot of games... especially since she has a built in playmate (opponent).

Then there may be some who say that if she doesn't play with girls, she won't get noticed. But there are ways to get noticed (and they apply to boys as well) - see below.

Here's what an Assistant Coach at a Div I Women's Ice Hockey Team had to say to your question:

There are a lot of factors to deciding whether to play girls' hockey or boys' hockey. There's strength, exposure to college coaches, and most important... where she is most comfortable playing.

I would say they should allow their daughter to play with the boys as long as she is physically able. Most boys begin to hit their growth spurt around the Peewee age (although that may be different with the age changes over the last several years, I haven't kept up to date on them). This is usually when most girls switch over to girls' teams. They also switch because the boys start checking at Peewee's and girls teams don't allow checking and some girls find that physical part of the game distasteful.

I have known girls that have played boys' hockey until college. They tend to be physically the strongest players at the college level. These girls are also exceptional athletes. If she is able to play with the boys and does not shy away when she goes into the corners with them, let her play boys' hockey as long as she is comfortable.

However, if she is thinking about going to college to play hockey...she either needs to play on an elite girls team (for exposure to Div. I coaches), or they will need to do a lot of marketing of her skills (through videos), and/or send her to girls' camps with college coaches (this is the main way I made it to school).

We hope this helps.

Go to TOP  DAN'S TIP  THIS MONTH'S QUESTION  HONOR ROLL  COACH'S TIP  SAYING  DAN in the NHL  BOOKS  SUBSCRIBE

Based on the response, the kid's auction is a big hit and we're collecting some things you will find interesting.  In the meantime, there's no auction this month.

One more hockey camp is over.  For those of you who attended, I know we had a lot of fun together and I hope what you learned will help you both play and live the game better.  My hockey camp has a very strong emphasis on skating technique because I believe you can't enjoy the game if you can't skate and all of us can be better skaters, right Sammy?  So I'm going to review some of the things we talked about in camp.  If you didn't attend, you get the benefit of the lesson without attending (but you didn't have the fun).

If you did attend the camp you saw a lot of this picture.  It's my attempt to show you the things I think are important to becoming a good skater. 1) Skating in a seated position - also expressed as a 90-degree bend in the weight bearing leg.  This is a case of do as I say, not as I do because my knee bend could be better.  The only way to get the long strides that you need for speed is to get your butt down, right James? 2) Full leg extension.  Notice that you can draw a straight line from the back of my neck to the boot of my skate, my leg is straight, and my toe

is just leaving the ice.  And the last thing I do is give my toe a little flick to give myself just a little bit more push down the ice.  Right Piero? (a.k.a Long Strides).

3) Striding to the side.  You can see the toe of my boot on my striding leg but my heel is hidden from view.  This is an indication that I've pushed off to the side, not to the rear.  Pushing off more to the rear causes you to try to maintain your edge on the toe of your blade. But because you don't have toe picks, your foot slips and you lose your edge before the power in your leg is fully expended.  You can also tell my stride was to the side by the shadows on the ice. Can't you Brad - Brad is my neighbor in Grand Haven.

4) My head and chest are up.  Many young skaters have a tendency to be bent over.  Too much of their momentum is going down into the ice instead of forward along the ice.  I tend to be bent over when I'm exhausted after a long shift and I have to fight the tendency.  It's also important to keep your head and chest up because you want to be able to see what's going on around you instead of the ice under you.  Right Travis?

5) I'm in good balance.  My center of gravity is well behind my weight bearing foot.  Good balance is important when we're skating forward, but essential when we try to turn or do crossovers. Right Brandon?

6) My arm swing is straight forward and back.  Arm swings that go to the side are not only a waste of energy, but tend to throw the skater off balance.  Think of an Olympic sprinter - his arm swing is straight forward (in the direction he wants to go) and back.  The same is important to good skating, isn't it Eric.

In following newsletters, we'll talk more about some if these points in detail.  If you would like our pamphlet on how we do the video analysis at camp, order it on my website.  It gives you the step-by-step details of how we do it, what to look for, and what a skater can do to improve his technique.  The $12.50 cost goes to my charitable foundation.

NAME

AGE

GPA

 SCHOOL

 TEAM

STATE

There's lot's of room for you here

Go to - TOP  DAN'S TIP THIS MONTH'S QUESTION  HOCKEY CAMP  HONOR ROLL  DAN in the NHL  BOOKS  SUBSCRIBE

PARENT TO PARENTS, COACHES, AND LEAGUE OFFICIALS from Jay...  

Dan's initiative to improve the reputation and climate of youth hockey has been launched and is fully operational.  It's called IT PAYS which is an acronym for I Teach Positive Attitudes in Youth Sports and so far we have 34 local associations with nearly 1,500 Mites in the program.  We are optimistic that we'll attain our first year's goal of 5,000 Mites playing under the IT PAYS system.

The IT PAYS web site (www.HockeyITPAYS.com) is up and running.  You are invited to go there and spend some time.  I think you'll be impressed by who has agreed to serve on our Board of Directors.  See the professional teams that have supported IT PAYS, the growing list of NHL players who endorse the program, and see how the National Reporting System works by following the demo input.

If you feel as Dan and I do that something should be done about improving the atmosphere our kids play in, you can help us.  Introduce IT PAYS to five hockey people in your sphere of influence and suggest that your local hockey association board look into IT PAYS for your Mites.

Email me at jbylsma@hockeyITPAYS.com to get a packet of information or to put us in touch with someone who's interested in the program.  Dan and I cannot do this alone but this newsletter reaches more than 2,000 hockey people.  Together we can change the atmosphere of youth hockey - as Dan says, "so that it can be for my son and nephews the fun, wholesome game it was for my brothers and me."

Jay M. Bylsma

THIS MONTH'S SAYING IS FOR COACHES TO PUT IN THEIR LOCKER AS A REMINDER AS TO WHETHER THEY COACH TO TEACH THE GAME OR LIFE LESSONS...

" "I know everything there is to know about hitting. 

I don't know anything there is to know about living."

                                                      Daryl Strawberry

ONE KID'S TRIP TO THE NHL - current installment...

September is here and training camp has begun... finally.  And that means the beginning of a new season for me just like it is for most of you who play.  It seems like each year brings new challenges, new experiences, and new issues to deal with.  For the Duckies, it means a new coach... again.  My father asked me what that would mean and my response was, "It means I have to convince one more coach that I can play in the NHL."  It would seem that after 379 games, I wouldn't have to prove anything anymore, but there aren't many jobs at the top and there are so many candidates who are ready to take your spot that you have to prove your worth each season, each game, each shift.

There is a sense of optimism in the Duckies camp that I didn't sense in the past two seasons.  The addition of Adam Oates and Petr Sykora - two potentially first line players for anyone's team - should give our offense a big boost.  I know that we lost 34 one-goal games last season and at the same time were almost last in the NHL in power play conversions.  So the addition of these two snipers on our power play should be a big help.  If these guys can help us score just one more goal a game we'll be deep into the playoffs come spring.  Plus it should be fun to play with them because they're great guys, as well as outstanding talents.

Today was the first day we worked on the penalty kill.  This is the area of the game where I make my living and in which I take a great deal of pride.  While the Ducks were seventh in the league in penalty killing last season, there's room for improvement and I take that as my personal challenge.  No one scores against us on my shift.  

There's another very nice wind blowing through the Arrowhead Pond.  Disney (our owners) has made a commitment to make the Mighty Ducks the best place to play in the NHL.  I'm telling you this because as much as money talks in professional sports, the quality of life speaks more loudly than you may think.  Good players are attracted as much by the quality of life a team can offer as by the money.  There's an aspect of this that might not be apparent.  An administration that tries to be the best it can be - that is has a winning attitude - has a positive effect on the players.  If you know that the organization is concerned for your personal life as well as your performance on the ice and does everything it can to be the best they can be, it has a positive effect on your attitude about being the best you can be (winning).

  For example, I've learned that the team is going to invite our fathers to accompany us on a road trip.  In the total cost of operating expenses for the season, it's not a big deal.  But it is a big deal for us to invite our fathers - the people who are probably most instrumental in our success - on a road trip, to fly the charter jet, enjoy staying with us in our hotels, eat at our table, and watch the game.  Would you like to speculate as to how hard we're going to try to win that game for our Dads?  And then there's a policy that our little boys will be allowed in the locker room - family involvement - Disney - family - get it?  That's important to me for Bryan so see where his Daddy works.

 I'm telling you this to encourage coaches and general managers to remember that at every level, although it's a game - lives revolve around the game.  You are touching lives and the little things you do can have an enormous impact on these lives.  Don't fail to pay attention to the little details that make the game funand that teach lessons about how to do things with class and dignity - perhaps even grace and elegance.

I'm excited about the possibilities this season.  Mostly I'm excited to get the season started.  As I have written before, the summer vacation is no vacation and not close to being a picnic.  And now the season is here and I can't wait to skate out into the spotlights, hear the roar of the crowds, play with and against the best players in the world, and feel like I'm on top of the world. 

I hope in your own way, you feel the same when you skate out for your first game this season. 

So Your Son Wants to Play In The NHL Published in 1998 by Sleeping Bear Press in the US and McClelland & Stewart in Canada. HC $24.95. The story of Dan’s journey from the ice rink in our back yard to the NHL. is "...the best hockey advice since ‘Don’t rile Gordie Howe’”. "This is more than a hockey book. It's a book about life and how to use simple lessons and values for success. …a refreshing straight-ahead approach that makes you feel that you've learned something." LA Times.  Autographed and personalized copies available at www.DanBylsma.com.  

So You Want to Play In The NHL Published in November, 2000, by NTC/ Contemporary/McGraw-Hill. Trade paperback—$14.95. Thirty-five questions that aspiring young athletes have and Dan’s and Jay’s alternating answers. Forward by Luc Robitaille. This book won’t help you play the game better, but we think it will help you live the game better. “I am making this book required reading for my team because it confirms everything I have ever said in the locker room and to parents.” Coach John M. You can read a chapter by clicking here.  Autographed and personalized copies available at www.DanBylsma.com. Now it its second printing.