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Dr. Steven Norris was the keynote speaker at the MAHA meetings in Traverse City.
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A message to parents from Dr. Steven Norris

MiHockey Staff

By Michael Caples –

TRAVERSE CITY – Dr. Steven Norris has a message for hockey parents and coaches everywhere – sit down, take a Valium, and listen and learn.

Norris, an expert in long-term athlete development who has worked extensively with both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, said that with a smile, of course. The keynote speaker at the MAHA meetings in Traverse City just wants the adults in charge to understand why MAHA and USA Hockey are establishing new rules for their players.

Dr. Steven Norris was the keynote speaker at the MAHA meetings in Traverse City.

“I know it’s going to sound lame, but I would always strive to make sure the kids and youths have fun,” Norris said. “That’s what will bring them back to the next session, the next game, whatever. As I said before, as soon as it becomes not fun, you’re going to run into some problems. The other thing is, coupled with the fun – that’s for them – for us, we need to be more patient, and understand that it’s not all about winning at a young age. In fact, all the stats show completely the reverse of that.”

During his speech to the various league and association presidents, Norris made several analogies to how youth hockey is currently structured, such as giving a piano player one day to practice his set list, then making him perform at a recital the next day. Norris said that that cross-ice hockey for younger kids is a no-brainer, citing that other sports adapt to the size of the athlete, as well as real-world activities like school and driving a car.

“One of the key things that is so important about using smaller surfaces is it can have much greater time on task. It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting a tennis ball, or playing the puck, or whatever. That’s what you need. If you’ve only got 12 seconds where you’re actually playing the puck (referring to game situations), how do you actually learn? That would be like me telling you that I’m going to teach you the piano, but all you can do is touch middle-C on Wednesday. “We just tend to break all the rules when it comes to kids and sports,” Norris said. “It’s unfortunate because the whole thing is meant to be fun, whether you’re going to a professional career or the Olympics or not. It’s meant to be fun and you’re learning many transferable skills to other sports, but also to life skills.”