Travel Run-Away Games

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To end up with an appropriate level of competition, you have to be in an open league with promotion/relegation, which would eventually place the teams in appropriate divisions according to their ability. CCL is a closed league so there is no surprise here.

Not suggesting CCL is the answer. I don't know what is. The problem for promotion/relegation leagues is even they seem to not have access to the top talent. What we need is a way to get teams of leagues competing with each other, even if it's just through friendlies.

[Anonymous]

Would love for our coach to pull players, or to set up friendlies with other top teams in the region on weeknights or Saturdays. Our team's kids aren't learning much about grit when every game is a cake walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love for our coach to pull players, or to set up friendlies with other top teams in the region on weeknights or Saturdays. Our team's kids aren't learning much about grit when every game is a cake walk.

Our coach has started to set up scrimmages with strong teams after a (so far) not very competitive season. It is really useful to make sure the kids realize they have a ton to work on and to let them see how a faster speed of play feels.

This season has made me realize one benefit of being the losing team in a blowout: the opportunity to recognize the importance of staying mentally strong and not giving up. We played one team that seemed to be roughly equal to ours in ability, but their first few shots hit the post, and ours went in. They got demoralized (very normal for this age), and ended up losing by a wide margin. This has been true for our team many times in the past too. We have talked to our kid about carrying that lesson to the scrimmages against the better teams, and treating each restart as a 0-0 situation.