Joe Garry
Yeah, yeah, all the old timers talking about how they played the game back in the day. “We would just go out on the pond and play for hours non-stop. That’s what’s missing in today’s game.” Well, I will tell you that I recently watched a Philadelphia Flyers classic game and no one could skate. Except for my favorite guy, Rick MacLeish. He was so smooth.
Here is my take on pond hockey and pickup games. I just don’t see any real value if you are looking for true development. I hate when my kids play, especially my older son, whose endurance is questionable from the start. Let’s say your kid plays a pickup game with friends at a stick and puck. The game starts, the puck drops, and everyone flies around. Your kid’s flying around the fastest, and he’s all over the ice. One minute goes by and now he is gassed. There is no line change because it’s a pickup game. He starts to coast around and now when the puck comes free, sort of near him, he just “kinda” goes after it because he is tired. This is how he should feel/act because he was just flying around for a solid minute. That is what happens. It becomes a slow paced pickup game because everyone is just too tired to skate the way they are supposed to.
There is also a good chance of ruining any real technical training your child may have learned because he/she reverts back to bad skating habits. This is because he forgets to focus on changes or is too tired and slips back into bad technique. This slow paced pick-up game doesn’t mimic a real game whatsoever. The only way to make this sort of okay… is to have my 2 kids playing as one person. They can play in a pickup game and keep changing every 45 seconds to a minute. Now that’s valuable…go your hardest…rest…go your hardest then rest.
Don’t get me wrong…I believe creativity, sense of moving without the puck and some passing skills (because you’re dead tired and can’t skate) can all be achieved in a pond hockey game.…including fostering a true pure love of the game. As far as transferring to the real team game… it just isn’t happening, it is a complete waste of time… But hey, little Billy is having fun so don’t yell at him at his next real game when he skates like sh*t.