Everyone, Take a Knee!

My kids have been on a few teams where the coach instructs the whole team to bring it in and take a knee when going over a new drill.

I have a love/hate relationship with this tactic.

It's a discipline thing.

It's a respect thing.

It's a "making sure the short kid can see" thing.

Love that, all of that.

But...what I've noticed from season-to-season is that my kids break sticks with uncommon frequency under coaches like this.

The problem?

When the kids get up from the knee, they use their stick as leverage.

You can tell them not to do that but, well, from a kneeling position, in skates, it's the easiest way to get up...especially while holding something in your hands.

For real... Try it.

I'll wait.

90%, if not 100%, of the leverage goes on the stick...where the lower hand is...which also happens to be where the main flex point on most sticks sits cause, when you're in a prone keeling position, your bottom hand drifts lower on the shaft.

And if you're not putting your full weight down there, it's all on the heel.

Recipe for failure.

Stick failure, that is.

My oldest hasn't broken a stick for over two years...which my wallet felt unusually fortunate for. The season prior to that -- under a "take the knee" coach -- two snapped right in the middle of the shaft and two more just beyond the heel.

Yep -- the two places that take the weight when getting up off of that knee.

Just something to keep in mind.

Total pivot here... Let's talk about another common occurence where players "take a knee", you know, when a player feigns injury.

I used the word "feign" because 99 times out of a hundred, in youth hockey, the players that go down and don't get up are repeat offenders.

Attention starved divas.

Yeah, I said it.

And you know it's true.

It is always one or two players, on EVERY roster that goes down, in slow motion, on the slightest contact, grabs their head and stays down playing dead waiting for the whistle...

And when that whistle blows, for reasons I'll never understand, the other kids on the ice are often expected, and sometimes instructed, to follow youth soccer trends and "take a knee".

Aside from stick issues mentioned above...this is also WRONG.

You should not take a knee -- you should go to your bench while you wait for a "miracle" to occur and the player to pop back up.

Hilariously, you ever notice the kids clutch their head...and then pretend their legs don't work on the way to the bench...and then wonder why they can't take the next faceoff?

So odd. Perplexing, even. But we're witnessing miracles. MIRACLES!

Now, we've have parents on opposing teams go absolutely BONKERS when our team goes to the bench while their team is all scattered around the ice on their knees.

You can't have a time out! There's an injury! Little Billy's hurt! Why are you coaching!

I mean, the vitriol in the crowd (for mites, mostly!) makes it out like going to the bench is the equivalent to stomping on the kid who's pretending to be hurt... It's out of control...

But, again, should you ever be so unfortunate to attend a game where a player legitimately gets hurt and paramedics have to go on the ice -- guess what?

Not a rhetorical question this time... for real, guess what?

When they open the emergency doors and the stretcher and backboard come off the back of an ambulance -- THEY DON'T WANT ANYONE ON THE ICE.

Referees and a coach -- that's it.

The proper protocol is for all players to go to the bench.

So next game you lose your mind screaming your head off while the opposing team goes to the bench while one of your players is down with a nasty hangnail, remember that they're actually in the right.

And, getting on the soapbox, if it were up to me, any player that stays down so long that whistle has to be blown, boom, that kid should sit for the remainder of the period.

You're either hurt...or you're not.

And, legit, I wanted so badly to post a photo of a kid lying on the ice in this post but, truth be told, my kids have never stayed down long enough to generate a whistle...over, what, a thousand plus games?

For that, I'm noth forutnate and thankful.

Even better, I guess they don't crave that "type" of attention...

Agree? Disagree? Let me know -- I love the feedback from all angles!

Chris Rutsch

Hockey Dad

Year round, I spend a significant amount of time and money transporting my three boys to and from freezing cold ice rinks. Not because I expect them to make it to the NHL but because I know the rigorous youth hockey experience will serve them well in the future.