Hockey Season Too Long

[Guest]

My kids play other sports. Soccer starts in mid-August and ends end of Nov. Basketball starts early Nov and ends end of Feb. Baseball starts in April and ends end of June. Lacrosse stars March ends early June. That is about 3.5 months per sport.

Hockey starts mid-August and ends end of Feb. That is a 6.5 month season. Why can't hockey start in mid-oct and end end of Feb? I know that is still 4.5 months but it is better than 6.5. Since when did hockey become a fall and winter sport and not just a winter sport?

Kids are playing 50+ games but getting only about 60 practices. This is not following USA hockey guidelines of 3 to 1 practices to games. Kids get better from more practice and not games. In a game a kid will have the puck on their stick for maybe 2 minutes total. In practice if designed correctly they could have it on their stick for 45 minutes.

USA Hockey needs to tone this down under the ages of 15 years old. It is too much! It is not making the kids better, just makes them burn out and quit by age 13!

Parents think they are doing the best by their kids, but they are not. It is the parents that need to push back on this. The rinks just want you in the building for as long as possible to make their $! It was better pre-COVID and worse since BB came into the picture. AAA was for the 50+ game schedule, not A!

[Guest]

Great point. Does Canada do the same thing?

Why not let the kids who play high school hockey (and short season travel), be the only ones starting in August for their shorter season

[Guest]

USA Hockey should limit all levels below age 13 to 30 games a season with allowance for 4 game playoffs. Take the other 20-30 games, add them the 60 practices and you have about 80-90+ practices for an almost 3-1 ratio. Parents/Coaches would be happier, kids would not be exhausted every Monday, kids would probably stay with sport longer and some of the kids that run like penguins would be forced to play another sport! It is too much and the kids are not any better because of all these games.

[Guest]

I’ve some Genesis teams play 80 games between Dhvl, Ejepl, tournaments, and playoffs.  Insane.

The rinks and programs will keep putting things together as long as parents keep buying it.  Keeping up with the Jones’s is very much alive in hockey.

[Guest]

I’ve some Genesis teams play 80 games between Dhvl, Ejepl, tournaments, and playoffs.  Insane.

The rinks and programs will keep putting things together as long as parents keep buying it.  Keeping up with the Jones’s is very much alive in hockey.

Yes it is alive to the detriment of the kids. No kid below 13 should play more than 40 games in a season and should be off the ice at least 6 weeks minimum in the summer. Parents think they are creating great hockey players, but they are not. The kids are good until other kids get stronger during puberty and catch up. My kids play 3 other sports and are off the ice 10 weeks a year. Both kids skating is fine, but during off ice you can see my kids are better athletes than the kids that only play hockey. Once puberty hits and my kids are stronger, they have a good shot at surpassing the hockey only kids!

[Guest]

Couldn't agree more. I believe evals should happen at the end of the Summer and games start end of Oct or early Nov. Kids and families get burnt out. For my family it's like a full time job just getting the kids to the rink everyday.

[Guest]

I state this to be factual not argumentative but you are understating the season length of other sports on a travel level.  You are basically citing in house seasons.  My son plays travel baseball.  November and December are the only off months and many teams offer off season training in December.  My nephew plays lacrosse.  It’s pretty close to year round too.  Spring soccer exists.  Youth sports is a business across all sports, not just hockey.

[Guest]

I state this to be factual not argumentative but you are understating the season length of other sports on a travel level.  You are basically citing in house seasons.  My son plays travel baseball.  November and December are the only off months and many teams offer off season training in December.  My nephew plays lacrosse.  It’s pretty close to year round too.  Spring soccer exists.  Youth sports is a business across all sports, not just hockey.

I see the same, if its travel, its essentially year round.  Doesn't make it right but as to another posters comment, if there's money to be made, they'll continue to offer and push year round. 

At least with hockey I can understand the financials of it.... running a rink is expensive and hard to turn a profit so the more activity they have at the rink, the better from a business ownership standpoint (Black Bear or other).  So, if we as parents will pay it, they will offer it.

[Guest]

If you feel it's to long then play house and scholastic. My kid played rec baseball(16 games) and tournament baseball(12 games), a 60+ game travel peewee season, scholastic(15 games), spring league(11 games) and loved every minute of it. The yr after that he added 2 spring hockey tournament teams, another 16 games. Only one coach had an issue with it and was his rec league baseball coach. He told my kid he had to pick between spring hockey and baseball, he changed his tone when he picked hockey.

[Guest]

I have been saying the hockey season is too long for the last 20 years. Happy to hear others feel the same way. However, I agree that most travel sports are almost year round.

The rule in our house was you were not permitted to play ANY sport year round. My oldest played in-house baseball for 4 years. He decided to try travel until he was told he would have to play in-house & travel in the same season which would mean being at the field almost daily. He then decided on rec league lacrosse, but the problem was he would never make the top teams because the coach kept the travel lacrosse players on their rec team together.

When the hockey season ended our boys played lacrosse in the spring. In the summer they took skating lessons. We encouraged them to exercise and do off-ice training on their own if they wanted to improve. They listened to our encouragement.

Years ago I remember speaking to a parent from the Piedmont Predators at a pee wee tournament. I said I was incredibly impressed with the skill level of their team and asked what did they do.

The parent said at the mite, squirt and pee wee levels, the Piedmont Predators followed a 3 to 1 practice to game ratio. Teams would practice 2 days during the week and 1 practice during the weekend and have 1 weekend game. Practices emphasized skating and skills development which was apparent since collectively their team had more skill than our team.

Their tuition was more than our tuition up front, but when you factor in that we did more tournaments it really was the same amount.

In our experience we watched the kids whose parents pushed their children to specialize in any sport year-round usually quit around 13 or 14 because they were developing their own voice.  It was their only opportunity to stand up to their parents.