Ice Box Hockey League
The true path to athletic development
In elementary school, everyone spoke of the Morrison clan. At that time, there were four brothers (which adds a younger sister when she went to high school), grouped among six levels, and each excelled athletically. He was the strongest, fastest child at their level. Before I knew anything about competitive sports, my father showed me their names on the scoreboard of the local swimming trials in the newspaper Sunday. Before I realized that football was a real sport – which was never on TV, and I had never seen him play outside of our recreational season – playing on a "competitive."
Three played Division I football, and one was a first team All-American and professional player. He also played high school basketball (at least one was MVP) and baseball (though not playing Little League) and probably would have played football if it was not in conflict with football. Since they were my friends only primary school that stood out in football (and swimming for that matter), we realized that they had born soccer players better or his father did to the football players or in some way.
Each town seems to have a similar family. In Sports Illustrated in February Gary Smith detailed a family of Grand Forks, North Dakota: Lamoureux family. For now, the Lamoureux may be famous – the twin daughters, Jocelyne and Monique played in Women's Hockey Team USA at the Olympics. His four older brothers were All-American, or professional hockey players in their own right.
Smith tells the typical story of athlete development. The story begins with the support of parents, as hockey is not a cheap sport to play with all the equipment to buy track equipment and fees to pay. Driver six children to hockey practice and games can be a full time job, and none of the children can succeed without such support to allow children the opportunity to develop their talents.
Of course, when six children excel in such a way, other parents get jealous. Instead of celebrating their achievements or learn from their experience, people criticize the parents. As Smith writes:
"There was only one way that many could Lamoureux play the game at that level of aggression and skill, some grumbled Grand Forkers: Children had no choice, the robots were more regular. Why his father was planning to send children to Russia and girls to Winnipeg to dominate the game. He beat them do not play and hard work was out rumors heard by children. We did exercises in each department and others in his basement. "
People said the same thing about Morrison. When people to the success of others who are not as successful creating excuses to explain their own lack of success and the success down. However, these comments show a lack of understanding the talent development process. While there are some famous examples of the opposite – Pistol Pete Maravich, Jennifer Capriati, Todd Marinovich – aggressive parents are not the way to develop talent. Successful people – in sports, school or business – are self-motivated and choose to participate in the activity for their own enjoyment and satisfaction.
Moreover, often the circumstances that led to the excellence of luck or pure chance. I do not remember why or how Morrison ended in a swim team when were very young. If I remember correctly, it could have been the only one in my class with a pool in your backyard when they entered first grade, which may have had something to do with that or maybe his mother or his father was a swimmer (never asked).
In the case of Lamoureux, one of the reasons for his athletic talents, it was pure coincidence. In North Dakota, is called lava flows cut the Ice Age. In 1987, a developer in Grand Forks knocked out a bank and created a 70 × 200 meters and filled hole of water. The Lamoureux did not realize this in the next cul-de-sac when they moved into the neighborhood. However, as Smith explains:
"You freak year shallow lava flow was frozen at the end of September, and sometimes other on Halloween. But almost always frozen in mid-November, a month or more before local tracks open, allowing the Lamoureux, who spent 20 hours a weekend in the lava flow and a dozen other during the week-to accumulate thousands of hours skating than their peers. "
Recent books such as Daniel Coyle Talent Code and Malcolm Gladwell quote and support enclaves Anders K. Ericsson Research in the performance of experts has found that one has 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. Living next to the lava flow, of something that happened by chance, the young Lamoureux always a huge advantage, and took advantage of their advantage to play early and often on the ice.
Although Code of talent and Ericsson The Road to Excellence in advocating a more structured practice in the development of sport experience, Jean Costa and Jessica Fraser-Thomas argue that the game is deliberate as instrumental as a structured practice, and play this account for 10,000 hours of work necessary for the performance of experts. Deliberate play defined as "activities like backyard football or basketball on the street is covered by the old and adaptation standards have been created and supervised by adults or children involved in the activity. These activities are intrinsically motivating, offer immediate gratification and are specifically designed to maximize enjoyment. "
As Smith explains, the Lamoureux take place in the game deliberated for hours all the while sharpening their skating skills and stick, and the development of consciousness game.
"They should be wrapped in underwear long, extra socks, sweat pants, snow pants, sweatshirts, winter jackets, bomber hats, two pairs of gloves and, sometimes, 20 or 30 later, when the prairie winds threw a mixture of snow and dirt that locals called snirt in masks that made them look like wool grinding demons …
"Children who launched Phil practice shots, which had begun in his goaltending diapers … Then there was free play for all, a cacophony of chirps greatest saves and takeaways, until someone shouted: "Sticks in the middle!" When they had cast their sticks a lot, a boy ran into the pile with a wool cap pulled over his eyes, blindly grabbing two at a time and throwing one on each side and over again until none remained, dividing the group into two teams.
"When it ran along the railroad ties preparing the embankment on the side of Howes, who flew along the boards in the Montreal Forum. It was his forum, and eyes to adults in them, encourage Phil to yell: "I am Richter!" Jacques and scream, "I am dirty! "and Pierre-Paul and Mario to become Leetch and Lemieux, and all of them to try the twists and turns, and between the legs of witchcraft they saw on television. "
When explaining the sporting success, these are the moments that we overlook. These days, everyone has a coach personal and sports lessons. Around the same time that Smith wrote about Lamoreux, Luke Winn wrote of the University of Virginia star basketball player Sylvan Landesberger. Winn asked about his coaches and coach had a trickle, a shooting coach, a specialist in weightlifting and boxing instructor, "In addition to his club team coach and his high school coach. This is the modern way of developing a sports star: surround him with more and more instructors high price.
However, regardless of instructors and coaches, great athletes spring from a love of playing the game – are not manufactured by coaches specialty.
"The first layer of the heart, that's what the coach of the twins in high school, Gordie Stafford, call that love deep down-in-the-tissue for the game that was implanted in the stream of lava. That is what there is no organized version of a sport could implant in the chest of a child, no parent or dynasty minivanning mother never could fix. That's what made the Lamoureux luck. "
Talent development has more to do with playing hockey on a frozen pond in the freezing weather to work with the right coach. A coach or trainer can increase the development of a player to give you some technical tools, but without the pure intrinsic motivation and desire to play the game, technical skills are insufficient. Great athletes develop a love of "deep-down-in-the-web-for the game."
About the Author
Brian McCormick is a professional basketball coach and trainer. He has coached professionally in Europe and directed camps and clinics around the world. He has published 11 books, including Developing Basketball Intelligence. He is the Director of Coaching for Playmakers Basketball Development League and the Founder of the Youth Basketball Coaching Association.
Hockey Fights – Ice Box