HOCKEY IS OUR GAME » Youth Hockey

Youth and High School Pickup Hockey for about $5

Wed, 19 May 2010 01:04:49 +0000

Do you live in the Minneapolis area and have a child who plays hockey? Hockey Finder is offering organized pickup hockey during the summer for mite / squirt / peewee and high school kids. Visit http://www.hockeyfinder.com/youthhockey/ or http://www.hockeyfinder.com/HighSchool/ to sign up.

This week only players can skate for an hour for only 5 hockey credits. Regular price is 10 hockey credits.

Minneapolis Summer Youth Hockey

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:04:59 +0000

Hockey Finder is offering a fun and affordable summer youth hockey program in Hopkins, MN a suburb of Minneapolis. Kids can expect a laid back atmosphere where the word FUN is top priority. Kids have been focused on drills throughout the hockey season and our goal is to freshen things up and bring back the enjoyment of the game while keeping skills tuned.

There are plenty of new fancy training devices and concentrated hockey programs but you simply cannot compare that to skating once or more a week. Most professional hockey players will tell you they attribute most of their skills to playing on the pond with friends. We bring that type of environment and play throughout the summer!

Session 1 – May – July
8 weeks of training and practice, one night per week, no weekends.
Each one hour practice will include 15-20 minutes of drills, focusing on fundamentals, followed by a 40 minute scrimmage.

$120 for the 8 skates.

Mites – Squirts – Peewee – Bantam

Limited to 20 players and 2 goalies of each level.

Go to http://hockeyfinder.com/youthhockey for complete details or directly to http://hockeyfinder.com/mite-registration to register.

How to Choose the Best Hockey Camp for Your Player

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:25:22 +0000

Check out Minnesota Hockey’s article on How to Choose the Best Hockey Camp for Your Player. Timing is perfect because we just booked ice for the HockeyFinder Youth Hockey Program. Our program is based on 15-20 minutes of fundamental training followed by 45 minutes of pick up style scrimmage. Players will be exposed to all player positions, seeing how things come together from every angle.

Focus
Short fundamental drills
Scrimmage
Trying and playing all positions (wing, center, defense)
On ice communication and team building
Consistent weekly ice times during off season (not a concentration with no follow up)
Fun! Light coaching experience. All coaching will be directed towards playing a game, passing, and developing all positions. Players will be able to try new things and see results without getting bombarded with stern coaching. We want kids to walk away knowing what works and what doesnt through their own experiences.

Minnesota Hockeys recommendations for off season hockey is

* Instructors’ qualifications, experience and character as role models
* Instructor-to-player ratio (6 or 7 kids per coach is good; the important thing is that the coaches who are there interact with the kids)
* Availability of off-ice training
* Price (a general guideline is $25-$30 per hour of camp; costs vary by location)
* Schedule: Are there many choices to work around your busy schedule
* Camp choices: General or specific skill development
* Convenience: Can we get there easily, on time?
* Fun: Is it marketed as fun? Will my kid want to come back next summer?

Our program is half the price. Head coach is USA Hockey Coaching Level 3 certified. Regular consistent schedule.

Keep those feet fresh and check it out:
http://www.hockeyfinder.com/youthhockey

Summer Youth Hockey – Mites, Squirts, Peewee, Bantam !

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:59:42 +0000

We are doing out summer youth hockey program again for mites, squirts, peewee and bantam, all in the metro.

Keep kids feet fresh. Low pressure and high results practice and scrimmage allowing kids to be creative, working from all positions, and being accountable for positioning, line changes, and participation. Practice will focus on fundamentals while the scrimmage will be fun much like pick up hockey, making each player fill the position of the person that is coming off the ice. Players will move around and see all positions with their own eyes. Constant communication and team effort will be encouraged.

For more information check out the Summer Youth Hockey program at HockeyFinder.com

Minneapolis hockey players start Pass The Puck Foundation

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:16:29 +0000

A group of Minneapolis friends who met because of the sport of hockey have founded Pass The Puck, a charitable organization which provides financial and volunteer support to organizations that help teach life lessons to the community through sports and other recreational activities.

You can become a fan of Pass The Puck Foundation on Facebook as well as follow them on Twitter @passthepuckmn

Minnesota Disabled Hockey

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:54:34 +0000

All I have to say is I’m inspired!!!

Adult and kids hockey clinics in Minneapolis / St. Paul

Fri, 15 May 2009 20:46:04 +0000

We asked if people would be interested in hockey clinics in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area and the response was sufficient enough to put some skate times together. Hockeyfinder.com is working with a skating coach and a couple of hockey coaches to bring adult and kids hockey clinic opportunities to the Metro area.

We just need to workout times and dates. Please contact us and let us know what days and times work best for you. Also include your age.

If you are interested in running clinics through hockey finder please contact us as well.

Pickup games build skills, character

Tue, 12 May 2009 23:24:28 +0000

The following article is from the Star Tribune and is part of the motivation for the creation of Hockeyfinder.com. We believe that creating a fun and less structured environment for both children and adults to play in leads to greater creativity and passion for the game. Please read on and let us know what you think.

___

More freedom and less structure would serve kids well, says a local coach/scholar who’s writing a book on youth sports.

By BILL WARD, Star Tribune

May 7, 2009 – 8:18 AM

Picture the man who has this to say about youth sports:

“I still remember going to the park and putting together a game. You don’t see that these days. … In the 1980s the pendulum swung from discipline to where kids have to feel good. Kids see through that. … At games, sometimes I think it would be best to put the parents on exercise bikes, so they’re too tired and just shut up.”

Some old coot, a flesh-and-blood embodiment of the comic-strip character Crankshaft, right? Actually, it’s a fresh-faced, St. Paul-born and -bred coach/teacher/social psychologist whose memories of what it’s like to be an active kid haven’t been addled by the fog of age or a yearning for some halcyon “good old days.”

John Tauer, 36, is around kids constantly — from his psychology students and basketball players at the University of St. Thomas and the first- through ninth-graders at his popular summer camps to his own sons, ages 4 and 6 — and knows what makes them tick. By the end of the year he hopes to put the finishing touches on a book about youth sports, kids and parents, with a strong focus on “intrinsic motivation.”

Motivation has been Tauer’s focus, and forte, at least since Jimmy Sioris started playing basketball for him at St. Thomas in 1999.

“He has incredible ability to motivate people and knows how to adjust that for each individual,” said Sioris, now 28 and working in wealth management. “He just knows how to talk to people and understand them.”

Part of that understanding stems from Tauer’s childhood, which was filled with pickup games “where you figure out the rules by yourselves and settle disputes by yourselves.” That helped him develop into an All-State player in baseball and basketball at Cretin-Derham Hall. Another Cretin grad had a similar experience.

“Part of the reason [Twins All-Star catcher] Joe Mauer is wired the way he is is that he was allowed to play at the nearby field as a kid,” Tauer said. “He went down there and his brothers kicked his butt, and he picked himself up and got better.”

Like Mauer, Tauer had a lot of support along the way. His father, also named John, was a successful businessman and part-time coach, but at a different school (Nativity Elementary, while young John attended Highland Catholic from kindergarten through eighth grade). It was off the field where big John and Michele Tauer imparted their influence.

“They taught me powerful lessons about trust, so that I could go out and if I fail, they’ll still love me,” he said. “They also taught me the most about teamwork, about putting others above yourself.”

Today’s parents want the same things for their kids, Tauer maintains, but often their involvement is counterproductive. “I want the book to get parents to recognize, ‘Hey, that’s me, I’m doing that. I have not become a bad parent, but I’m trying too hard to be a good parent.’” he said.

Tauer even has devised an acronym for such folks: WOSPs, for Well-intentioned but Overly Involved Sports Parents, “and they do it to the point where the kid feels smothered.”

Mixed or crossed signals can unfold before, during and after games. “The parents drop [their kids] off and say, ‘Have fun.’ Then when they pick them up the first thing is, ‘Did you win?’” he said. “And during a game, there’s nothing a parent can say that will help. And you want to see a confused kid, look at one whose parents are yelling for him to do one thing and his coach is telling him to do another.

“Parents also tend to look at it financially. They start their kids off in hockey at age 6 because they’re afraid they’ll be behind if they don’t. They might spend tens of thousands of dollars to try to get that $10,000 scholarship. They’d be better off sending their kids to Math Camp.”

Another solution: Let kids be kids, the old-fashioned way.

Minneapolis Summer Mite Hockey

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:02:50 +0000

Objective: This is primarily to provide a place for our Mites to keep playing hockey in the off season. Will focus on skill building while enjoying the game. Structured and moderated hockey games preceded by 15-20 minutes of warm up and skating drills. The intention is to build basic skills and put them into play once a week.

Cost: I am working on two sessions.

Session 1 is 6 Wednesday (5/20-6/24), all near 6-7pm in Minneapolis, Richfield and Edina. $90.
Session 2 is 5 Wednesday (7/1-7/29), all near 6-7pm in Minneapolis, Richfield and Edina. $80.
Session 3 coming soon

There will be a 10% discount if signing up for both session 1 and 2.

There will be a one time admin fee of $30. This will help for the purchase of two jerseys for each player. One light in color, the other dark. Each player will get two jerseys so we can mix up teams and it is easy for players to identify their team members. Jerseys will have player name and number. As long as players have both jerseys there will never be another admin fee.

Players: Limited to 30 hockey players and 2 goalies. We would like to find 2 goalies that want more in goal experience. There will be a goalie coach at some of the skate times. Players will need their USAHockey annual dues current (this is also required by you local hockey association).

Coach: There will be two on ice coaches/facilitators. 2 or more on the bench to facilitate flow. Coaches will have to be USAHockey Level 1 certified.

Waivers: A waiver will be required to play and coach.

Purpose: My goal is to create hockey opportunities for youth players. Unlike most sports hockey has a lot of requirements and playing year round is difficult. I want to make it easy for kids to play/skate once a week and affordable for parents. I have a strong passion for the game and play a lot myself. Most summer programs are $400/month. This will be much more affordable and the commitments are short. It will be easy to take a month off and come back the following month.