For example, the report suggests that kids might have more fun if they didn’t have to worry about keeping score. The 15-member committee, chaired by former NHL goaltender and RDS analyst Marc Denis, recommended that standings and statistics should be abandoned for players 13 and younger.
“We take (hockey too) seriously far too early,” said Denis, who called for a review of the number of major tournaments for younger players. “We forget that the pleasure is in learning new things.”
It’s not a new concept. Sports psychologists Terry Orlick and Cal Botterill — a hockey dad whose daughter Jennifer and son Jason collected gold for Canada at the international level — proposed a similar approach in their 1975 book Every Kid Can Win. The idea would be to focus on skills and having fun with the goal of keeping youngsters from becoming discouraged and dropping out.
