Minor Hockey Talks - Hockey Forum

If the training is restricted to teach to be who you aren’t then it’s a problem for sure. I think the issue is that Hockey Canada is trying to grow the sport but teaching qualified coaches to not coach to diversify then it is a problem. The most qualified should always be coaching regardless of race, age and Not Allowed. There are many reasons the sport is not growing and down in registration boundaries, half ice restrictions, no score keeping and too much politics.

Guest wrote: ↑Tue Jan 09, 2024 6:17 pm If the training is restricted to teach to be who you aren’t then it’s a problem for sure. I think the issue is that Hockey Canada is trying to grow the sport but teaching qualified coaches to not coach to diversify then it is a problem. The most qualified should always be coaching regardless of race, age and Not Allowed. There are many reasons the sport is not growing and down in registration boundaries, half ice restrictions, no score keeping and too much politics.

I think we can ALL tell you why its not growing.

1. Its the cost barrier

If your kid wants to play House league for their entire life - no problem - its not that expensive and most people could make it work.
Outside of that, if you want your kid to be able to keep up at any level outside of that, you need to spend money on private/semi-private lessons, money on camps. Rep teams (even U8MD) is ridiculously expensive (I've heard one U8MD team was something like $2800, thats not KSL...thats OMHA U8MD!). Plus Spring teams, travel tournaments...etc

2. Time commitment

Again, if your kid wants to do anything outside of house league, your kid will likely be on the ice on average 4 times a week at minimum. (Some top kids are doing even more). Ice time is often early afternoons and not every parent can get off of work. Plus most weekends for most hockey teams. Plus tournaments, etc.

3. Hockey culture

And here is the most important one. The "Rat race" or "Arms race" of competition. Every kids wants to keep up, so they can continue to play rep hockey. If that is what they are into. Plus all the politics that start as young as U7. The secret things that happen behind the scene.