Hi,
I assume PW is pee wee? Can't say I've done it with that age group, but our high school program has grown to the point of having a junior varsity (jv) program too, and due to ice time constraints we have to combine them at times. Here is what we did.
On the days we had 1.5 hours the varsity would get on the ice a half hour early and have a full ice warm up. The jv would do a short chalk talk or some dryland exercises, then get on the ice with the varsity. The last half an hour would be jv only.
There are pluses and minuses to this:
Pluses;
-JV chalk talks are slower and more basic, which was good for a small group
-The shared ice time pushed the varsity kids and inspired the jv kids to compete
-The coaches could see just how close the jv kids were getting to moving
-You can keep a lot of people moving quickly and constantly with a little planning
Minuses;
-You need 2-3 coaches minimum
-You need 1.5 hours
-The low-end jv kids could be "drill killers" and slow everything down
Overall I liked the competition it inspired, but the "drill killer" factor has the potential to rob the enthusiasm of the older/better players, so I guess it depends on the talent disparity from top to bottom too.
Hope this helps....
DM
DMan
Typo:
Under pluses, it should say "-The coaches could see just how close the jv kids were getting to moving UP" which some did eventually.
The more I think about it I really liked the competition it inspired. We didn't do this every practice, which might have had a different effect. I think it made it more clear over time just why each kid was on the team they were picked for, but also kept the jv kids that were hungry excited about the opportunity to earn their way up.
DM
DMan
I would combine them as much as possible. This enables you to do some full ice things as well as half or cross ice activities with the teams by themselves or combined.
TomM
4 posts :: Page 1 of 1
My son will be playing PWA in the fall and both his team and the PWB team have a full sheet and half sheet practice each week. My question is: Should they try to have the same half sheet time slot so that all the kids are on the ice together?
1. Ideally, it would foster unity, and if the coaches handled it properly, could really challenge many of the bubble kids for next season.
2. Worst case would be constant comparisons and questions about who was put on which team and why.
The typical forum answer is that #2 would be the case.
Maybe I'm actually asking for strategies to make #1 work.
Has anyone had any experience with this at the PW level?