OH .... OK I see now. My bad! Thanks Tom. LOL
I have decided to move back to boy's hockey and will be coaching a Bantam AA team next year in the Calgary Royals Association.
The team will be mostly first year Bantams; so 13 and 14 year old players. Lots of emphasis on skill development.
The first talent id camp is May 2-4 and tryouts are in late August.
Tom,
Congratulations....welcome back to the darkside. 
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Iceman, I am leaving the Dark Side and returning to the Light.
Great age group to coach . They will eat up your knowledge . I'm currently coaching Minor Midget AAA . Fantastic league . You should check it out next season . Good Luck
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I gave that level as my first preference but I haven't coached in this organization since I had Chuck Fletcher (Minn. GM) as one of my Midget AA players. Since that season I coached men's ACAC college 4 years, CIS men 8 years, Female ACAC college 5, WWHL 2, U18G 3 and Red Bulls skill coach for 2 pro a U20 and U17 team (head coach of U17) one season. So it has been a long time. I have been doing skill classes for the school district with the Bantam aged kid's since I returned from Austria 5 years ago. Also lots of the spring and summer things I do are with the same age group. I coached my son's team from 97-2003 through Pee Wee, Bantam, Midget. (11-16 years) and paid for his year at a sports school by doing skill classes with U16 boy's 3 times a week for two years. So I have been all over the place with boy's, men, girl's, Women and then the Korean high school, college and pro teams for 9 summers, hockey schools and camps in Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, USA, Mexico, Canada.
It is always the same game with the same skills. Just different starting points with each group.
The Bantams U15 should be a strong group of players because the Pee Wee U13 teams that supply the new players have been very good the last few seasons. I am looking forward to it. The organization asked me to take on an assistant who played quite a lot and wants to get into coaching. He seems like a good fit. Yesterday my son got his acceptance letter to Law school in Calgary and it sounds like he wants to choose here and if he does he wants to help coach as well. So one old guy and two assistants in their 20's should work well.
A girl I have been doing private sessions with the last 3 years recently signed a 'letter of intent' to go to the current NCAA Div. 1 Champs in 2015. I did two sessions with her Easter weekend. They are giving her a Full Ride, which means they really want her. That is what putting in the extra time and effort means.
SMAC
Quote by: TomMI have decided to move back to boy's hockey and will be coaching a Bantam AA team next year in the Calgary Royals Association.
The team will be mostly first year Bantams; so 13 and 14 year old players. Lots of emphasis on skill development.
The first talent id camp is May 2-4 and tryouts are in late August.
Congrats, Tom - they are lucky to have you!
This is the age range (2000-2001) that I'll be coaching this year, so would you mind posting your practice plans a little earlier in the week? ;-)
One wrinkle that we're seeing in spring hockey is the 2001 cohort have played with bodychecking 2 years ago then none last year and now again... with growth and testosterone affecting about half the group, it's quite a different mix of player roles and effectiveness. Injuries are up again, too. As always, your approach of 'thinking the game' first allows skill and team play to determine success.
Let me know if you plan any west coast road trips!
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Ice Sage
I won't know anything about the kind or tournaments they want to attend until we pick the team and the parents decide how much money they want to kick in for travelling. The 85 born group I had for two springs went to Vancouver at the start of July to play in eh Snepts tournament and other teams went to bantam and midget tourney's. So who knows.
Sounds like a fun year . I had a 25 year old helping me this year ( I'm 55 ) Fantastic coach, worked incredibly well together . So well we won Provincials ( Alberta ) . These young men will be in for an incredible season with you - good luck !!!!
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SMAC, sound like you had a great season and a fantastic experience.
I let them know I want Jim as an asst. and it sounds like it is a go. He can do the F and Alex the D and I will organize the practices.
SMAC
This link allows access to the drills and games that are in the booklets but you can see the titles and view them one at a time.
http://1drv.ms/1huk1bu
This weekend there is a talent ID camp for the Bantam U15 Royals. There are 4 teams with 36 skaters and 12 goalies divided equally. They will have one practice with two teams on the ice at once and then play 3 games.
Niklas Westerlund wrote a Thesis for his degree in Finland. He talks about the Finnish view of 'Our Game' and he quotes from Juhani and my book quite a few times. I have attached his Thesis for anyone who is interested in the Finns view of how the game should be practiced.
Ice Sage, I was just looking at your earlier posting about the 2001 having body checking their fiirst year in U13 and then none their second year. Now they are going into U15 Bantam hockey which has full contact.
The posting I made with the Swedish and Finnish material on body checking as well as some clips from when I was with the Red Bulls has some good ideas about teaching body checking.
I will be using a lot of these drills next season.
Dave, I checked it and everything is there. It starts with DWC 10-11 then 11-12 then DWC 13-14. I wasn't a member in 12-13.
I have to fix the pdf in the files section. It is too big at 102 mb and doesn't load on my devices. The whole thing is over 500 pages. I will have to put it in smaller sections.
Tom
'Enjoy the Game'