Stricter Rules for Hockey Parents
The sport of hockey has a long proud history of being one of the best sports in the
world. Great excitement for the fans and great fun for the players, but lately there has
been too much emphasis on winning in the lower levels. It is very hard for children now
days to play hockey for the fun of the game.
It is not the children themselves, or even the coaches that put this pressure to win
on them. It is the parents of the children who create this pressure. Hockey parents have
made winning so important that they sometimes lose sight of the reason that they are
there in the first place. Hockey may be a fast paced, high adrenaline sport (you see more
fights in hockey than any other team sport), but parents should leave the body contact to
the players.
Fortunately, physical abuse is still not very common in arenas but every year there
are more reports of enraged parents assaulting referees or other players due to mishaps
that took place during the game. Winning is not the only reason that some parents
become upset. There has also been a growing dilemma with parents becoming outraged
with coaches for factors as small as the amount of ice time their child receives during a
game. There is a growing ambition among parents for their child to succeed in hockey
and become a professional even before the child reaches adolescence.
Although very serious, physical abuse is still not a common sight in arenas, but it
is a serious problem which needs to be corrected. Verbal abuse however, is very
common in arenas all over Ontario. Names and threats can be heard coming from the
stands at any caliber of hockey at any age. This is also a significant problem which needs
to be stopped.
The best defense against this kind of behaviour would be to create stricter
penalties for anyone parents who get out of control. Anyone who is verbally abusive to
officials or coaches should be given fines which increase for each infraction. If the abuse
continues after three fines then the person should be banned from arenas for a specified
amount of time depending on the severity and the frequency of the instances. If not
abuse persists even after the ban the parent should be banned from all minor hockey
games for life.
In modern time medical science has gotten the ability to heal all injuries that occur in sports. It has given us variety of medicines and health care practices by which we can prevent the injury that could happen to the player in any sport. Medical science has advanced so much now that it can recover almost anything; therefore hockey injuries are not a big deal. 58% of injuries are from the lower body and upper body, and 42% are head, and also almost 82% of the times it is a minor injury. Study has now advanced and can help a player heal from an injury quickly, easily, and in less time.
In a growing trend that reaches to all corners of the athletic world, coaches are being forced to cope with the added stress of disgruntled parents. More and more they are required to defend personal coaching styles and philosophies, uphold team decisions and go head to head with angry, and sometimes violent parents. The pressure has gotten to the point where coaches all over the country are quitting or being forced out of their jobs by groups of parents. High school athletics should be about learning and having fun, and when parents cross the line between cheerleader and ringleader everyone suffers.
This large part of Canada’s culture and heritage will be inherited by Canada’s future generations. Hockey is one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. Hockey players require powerful legs, strong upper body strength,
pp. 58-59. Kidman, Lynn, McKenzie, Alex, and Brigid. The nature of target parents' comments during youth sport competitions. Journal of Sport Behavior 98:1 (March 1999): 54-68.
Canadian hockey is an important component to Canadian identity and way of life and if hockey had a less prominent place in Canadian society, this would change Canadians in many ways. Hockey impacts Canadians at all levels including youth hockey, minor hockey and professional hockey in the NHL. As hockey is one of Canada’s national sports, it demonstrates how valued the sport is in Canada. Hockey to Canadians is not just a sport, but is also a means of community and unity. It is also one of the most widespread sports across Canada and influences Canadians directly through individual or family participation or indirectly by cheering for local or professional NHL teams or by watching Olympic hockey.
In 1990 women’s hockey had its first World Championship. Team Canada was made to wear pink jerseys as described in Hockey: A People’s History which showed a clear difference in the opinions of men playing versus women, as the women did not get to wear the red and white that the men wore to represent their country. However, this was still an important step. Men’s hockey was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1920. Women’s hockey was not included until 1998. It took 78 years for female hockey players to get to the same level on an international scale that men had been welcomed to. Olympic competition is arguably the best of the best; as countries send their most successful athletes to compete against the best from countries that they may not have the opportunity to play against in regular competition. While it may have taken many years, the introduction of women’s hockey into the Olympics was a clear display of the legitimization of the game. Thanks to the addition, many girls in Canada and around the world have had more exposure to women playing hockey. Especially for Canadian’s, seeing Team Canada dominate so frequently on the world stage has helped the growth of the game for women and has helped with the acceptance of female
"Verbal Abuse Causes Hockey Refs to Quit." Global News. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.
Statsky also makes another faulty assumption, which is that competition is an adult imposition on the world of children’s play. She says in her article, “The primary goal of a professional athlete – winning – is not appropriate for children” (629). Children compete to win in the same way that adults do, and they do so on their own without any adult pressure. Common playground gam...
Remember the days where the kids used to holler and run in the park, and swing in playgrounds on nice summer afternoons while the parents sat on benches. Maybe they had a soccer lesson after and played a basketball match with friends at YMCA. But today, kids run with sports gear to tournaments conducted by "elite" Little Leagues, while the parents who drove all over town to find the stadium settle down into the bleachers ready to observe every move their kid makes in the game. And of course, they share their complaints to other fellow parents about the coach, who is getting paid half of their paycheck. After a gruesome match on a field that is way too big for the kids, the parents provide some Greek Yogurt and ample of suggestions on how to
...know" (The Canadian Press, 2013). Hockey is one of the most difficult sports out there, and dropping the gloves and looking another fighter straight in the face is one of the most challenging parts of it. Getting rid of fighting will not necessarily make the game safer, and it could potentially cause a decrease in the number of fan viewership. The players and leagues understand what they are getting themselves into and they are aware of the culture of the sport, which is rich with fighting history. They respect that aspect of the game, and they respect their opponents as players and fighters. There will never be a time when everybody is happy about the state of fighting in hockey, but for now, the NHL is taking the right steps toward maintaining this historically important part of the game, while also making adjustments to keep the players as safe as possible.
Armentrout , Suzannah, and Cindra Kamphoff. 2011. Organizational barriers and factors that contribute to youth hockey attrition. Journal of Sports Behavior (2): 121-136.
When most people hear the word hockey, they think about skating, ice, and a puck. What most people do not think about is running, the blistering heat, and a small orange ball, however, I do. That is because I play dek hockey, not ice, meaning that we run, and our season is never over. Playing hockey is my favorite thing to do, and I have so many fond memories. Some of those memories are, playing hockey at Bill’s Golfland, U.S.A. Ball Hockey Tryouts, and playing at Penn Hills Dek Hockey.
The first reason I conclude they shouldn’t get trophies is because kids don’t learn that everything in life must be earned and not given to them all the time (Website #3). According to the text, kids aren’t working hard, helping others, and improving and learning new skills because they don’t care as long as they get the trophy as a reward in the end (Website #3). The author stated, that kids need to determine that it is okay to make mistakes so you can learn from them and try again (Website #2). An example from the text that shows kids are learning bad life skills is, lots of younger kids don’t understand the difference between winning and losing, which is a positive life skill to learn as a young child (Website #3). For instance, every kid thinks they are a winner because they get trophies but they could have lost every game (Website #1). According to the text, kids also give no effort and just have their eyes on the prize (Website #1). After reading Today (Website #3) I know that kids may just want to come back next season to get more trophies to add to their collection. According to the text, kids think if they participate they are automatically a champion. In the text, it stated how kids may have a bad attitude because they don’t care as long as they get a trophy in return for participating (Website #3). I think all kids should try their best and not get a trophy because they won’t improve if you give them a trophy (Website #1). Overall, participation trophies are teaching younger children the wrong ideas for later on
is very true when dealing with a physical contact sport like hockey. There is a
With more and more children participating in some sort of organized sport than ever before, there is a constant concern regarding the pressures kids are brought into to excel. Emotionally over-involved parents often think that it is their responsibility to persuade, push, or support the children's fantasies or sporting objectives, even if the kids themselves do not share the same aspirations as his/her parents. Part of growing up is learning what interests you the most. It's how one becomes familiar with who they really are and what they enjoy doing in life. Unfortunately, for many young children, his/her parents seem to take his/her own lives into their own hands. Most parents want their kids to grow up to be "superstars", make it big after the college scenario, and perhaps go on to play professionally or succeed in the Olympics. We all know that there are the few that make it professionally, and having your parent paint a picture for you as you're barely going into grade school is unethical. Yet for the unfortunate, these kids are helpless to the pressure that is put on them at such a young age. Take Todd Marinovich, for example. For the child's entire life he was exercised, fed, schooled, and drilled with his fathers' one g...