TGHA Update July 10,
2006
Summer Hockey
Online Registration Coming
A Perspective on Kids and Athletics
Summer Hockey
Thanks to everyone who has emailed to sign up for summer ice hockey offered by
TGHA on Mondays starting July 24. If you can't send an email, please call
Carol's cell phone 342-1475. So far there are several House/Initiation
girls signed up for each night, and over a dozen travel girls. The exact
times for each group will be announced next week. Please try to register
by July 15, but don't hesitate to sign up late if you can't commit or aren't in
town at this time. smrhky06@yahoo.com
Carol Mullins
TGHA is proud to announce that starting the 2006-2007 season we will switch
to online registration for
This means that the fees TGHA formerly collected and then sent in to USA Hockey
to register our players (along with a ton of paperwork, mailing in floppy disks
and many other amazingly tedious and time-wasting things!) will now be done
online by each family PRIOR to registration with TGHA for the season. TGHA will
continue to collect our own fees for ice time and other program costs.
I have included some details below from USA Hockey but please feel free to
contact me with any questions or concerns. This process will have to be
completed for our Shooting Stars travel team players prior to tryouts, and for
our returning House and Initiation players prior to the beginning of the
season.
TGHA is committed to assisting anyone who doesn't have access to the internet
or to a printer, or to a credit/debit card. Keep us posted if you cannot
do online processing.
Much more to come about this process later this summer.
Richard Goldstein (Registrar) rg225@cornell.edu
Some More Information from USA Hockey
Online registration allows individuals to register directly with USA Hockey
through an Internet connection at www.usahockey.com. The USA Hockey Waiver is
completed, and USA Hockey and Affiliate fees (if applicable) are paid online
with a credit card. A confirmation email is also sent to the member immediately
after an online registration. The member prints out the confirmation receipt to
take to the local program to complete the registration process.
Why online registration for USA Hockey?
First, to reduce the workload of local program volunteers – you’ll no longer
need to collect USA Hockey fees and Affiliate fees, request and receive checks,
reconcile fees paid, collect and retain signed waivers, do data entry, create
disks, print reports to go with disks, and make trips to the post office!
Second, online registration will ensure accurate, efficient and direct
communication with our members. Many members don’t know about
When will online registration be available?
Online registration for the 2006-07 season will be
available on
What credit cards can be used?
Online registration will accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover
Cards. Credit or debit cards can be used.
From the National Media:
Character Builder or Pressure-Cooker: Parents and Youth Sports
Fresh air, physical activity and a chance to run around with friends are
big draws for the millions of kids who fill football fields, baseball diamonds,
soccer pitches and basketball courts across the United States.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/07/03/kids.sports.parents/index.html
And experts say children can also learn some valuable
life lessons -- if their parents stay on the sidelines.
"Sports are a wonderful vehicle for kids to learn how to deal with
adversity, the sense of learning how to master skills," said Rick Wolff,
chairman of the Center for Sports Parenting and a former professional baseball
player and coach. "For example, if they're learning how to dribble a
basketball first with one hand then with another, [it] gives them a sense of
accomplishment."
The National Council of Youth Sports estimates that about 41 million boys and
girls play organized sports, and that number has been growing steadily. (Full
story)
Wolff, who's also the author of "Coaching Kids for Dummies," said
that it's good for kids to learn how to bounce back if they strike out or get
cut from a team and to talk to their coach if they don't think they're getting
enough playing time.
"If parents really do want their children to enjoy amateur sports -- while
it's wonderful to be supportive, as you should be -- it's really about having
your child go out and learn life lessons from the actual experience," he
said.
Darrell Burnett, a clinical psychologist who specializes in youth sports, said
that sports can give kids the building blocks of self-esteem.
"If you plug a little guy or girl into sports ... they automatically get
the uniform, the trophy, the snacks and the team name and the nicknames and
photos and see each other at school," he said. "All of that is an
instant sense of belonging."
Burnett said that recreational leagues that let everybody play, regardless of
their ability, make kids feel worthwhile while giving them a sense of
self-respect and dignity.
It also gives them some control in a world run by parents and teachers, he
said.
"They're going to be learning to use the tools of the trade [of the sport
they're playing]. They're going to learn the rules of the game -- and the more
they learn, the more they are in control -- and they're going to learn about
sportsmanship and [how] to control their emotions," Burnett said.
Kids first, athletes second
Burnett said that it is important for parents to see their children as kids who
happen to be good athletes, "because if you don't, the kid runs the risk
of his or her self-esteem being tied to performance, which can be tragic."
"I had one girl who went 0-for-4 in softball who said that when she got
home, nobody talked to her at supper," he said. "And even more
tragically, I had a boy who was a very good athlete. He had a full
[scholarship] as a senior. He was going to go to a Division I school in
football. He was a big kid, and a big kid on campus. Then he blew out his knee,
lost the offer, lost his scholarship and tried to commit suicide."
Burnett said the boy was distraught because he felt he had blown his big
chance, and he felt like he had let his parents down.
"Whether the parents proposed that or not, it was the kid's
perception," he said. "And if the kid somehow perceives that he's not
a kid first, then that becomes a problem."
Burnett said he once saw a 9-year-old whose father brought him in for treatment
because he felt the boy wasn't motivated. The boy was on two baseball teams and
had practice two or three times a week. But the father was upset because he did
not want to hit a ball off of a batting tee 200 times a night to improve his
swing.
"It's like parents with really smart kids (who say), 'You'll never get
into Stanford this way,' " Burnett said. "Well,
the kid's 9, he doesn't even know what Stanford is, and they want him to be a
super student."
Wolff said that pushing kids to succeed can have the opposite effect.
"If you find yourself as a mom or dad pushing your kid to do things --
like try out for a travel team or to go to practice seven days a week -- and
the kid doesn't have the enthusiasm to do it, ultimately the kid is going to
walk away from the sport. And probably a lot sooner than you anticipate,"
he said. "And when kids walk away they don't come back."
Burnett said parents need to stay calm if their child makes a mistake in a
game.
"I think the biggest thing that sports teaches
kids is that it's OK to make a mistake," he said. "In baseball [if]
you hit .300, seven times [in 10 at-bats] you were out. When you make a mistake
it's OK. You can learn from it and move on."
He said that if parents overreact, kids are more likely to get emotional and
beat themselves up over a mistake instead of making adjustments to fix the
problem.
Burnett also said that parents should make a real effort to praise their
children for the good things they do in a game instead of focusing on what they
need to improve. He recommended a ratio of four positive comments for every
negative comment.
"When you praise your kids, make sure it's specific -- 'Good game, nice
try,' doesn't make it," he said. "But (if you say) 'Hey, I like the
way you got the ball back to the cutoff man,' then the kid hears that and
visualizes that and says 'Hey, I did do good there.' "
Mary
Mary M. Grainger
Phone 607-257-3268
Fax 607-257-0483
Cell 607-280-4380