WWFHA Assists

Washington Wild Email Newsletter:
March 21, 2016 

WILD TEAM SCHEDULES

• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared in ‘Green Room’ at Xfinity Arena
  • 6:30 – 7:00pm autograph session with some US National team players
  • 7:00 – 8:00pm special practice with some US National team players

• Tuesday, 3/22/16
  • 7:15 – 8:15pm (Highland small ice)
  • 8:30 – 9:00pm – college hockey process session with Zoe Harris
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared in ‘Green Room’ at Xfinity Arena
  • 6:30 – 7:00pm autograph session with some US National team players
  • 7:00 – 8:00pm special practice with some US National team players
• Friday, 3/25/16 through Sunday, 3/27/16
  • See below Richmond Tournament Schedule

• Tuesday, 3/22/16
  • 6:00 – 7:00pm (Highland small ice)
  • 7:15 – 8:15pm dryland
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared in ‘Green Room’ at Xfinity Arena
  • 6:30 – 7:00pm autograph session with some US National team players
  • 7:00 – 8:00pm special practice with some US National team players
• Friday, 3/25/16 through Sunday, 3/27/16
  • See below Richmond Tournament Schedule

• Monday, 3/21/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared at Xfinity Arena main ice
  • 6:30 – 7:30pm special practice with some US National team players
  • Autograph session on Wednesday night
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 7:00 – 7:30pm autograph session with some US National team players at Xfinity Arena near the ‘Green Room’

• Monday, 3/21/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared at Xfinity Arena main ice
  • 6:30 – 7:30pm special practice with some US National team players
  • Autograph session on Wednesday night
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 7:00 – 7:30pm autograph session with some US National team players at Xfinity Arena near the ‘Green Room’
• Friday, 3/25/16 through Sunday, 3/27/16
  • See below Richmond Tournament Schedule

• Monday, 3/21/16
  • 6:00 – 6:30pm get geared at Xfinity Arena main ice
  • 6:30 – 7:30pm special practice with some US National team players
  • Autograph session on Wednesday night
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 7:00 – 7:30pm autograph session with some US National team players at Xfinity Arena near the ‘Green Room’
• Friday, 3/25/16 through Sunday, 3/27/16
  • See below Richmond Tournament Schedule

WWFHA NEWS

 WWFHA Presents the Mikayla Anderson Wild Leadership Award

The Mikayla Anderson Wild Leadership award will be given annually to the Washington Wild player who exemplifies Mikayla’s character and leadership on the ice, in the classroom, and in the community.

Mikayla is an outstanding student, athlete, leader and community member with the highest character. WWFHA is proud to have her as a WWFHA alumna and to declare her the inaugural recipient of the Mikayla Anderson Wild Leadership award.

Click here to read more about Mikayla and the award.

Good Luck to the WA Wild in Tournament Play

Best wishes to the 19U travel, 14U Rep, 12U Travel, 10U Travel and 8U Travel teams in tournament play this weekend! These team travel to Richmond, BC for the Richmond Ice Classic.

Keep a close on eye on the website and social media for updates, scores and pictures. See the master schedule below.

























 

US Women’s National Hockey Team is Here!
 

The best U.S. female hockey players in the world are here at Xfinity Arena in Everett, WA Mach 18 – March 24. The team is preparing for the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships in Kamloops, BC – March 28 – April 4.

Their practices are open to the public. This means you can greet players as they get off the ice and that sort of thing.  The schedule is:

• Friday, 3/18/16
  • 9:00 – 10:15am, Main Arena
  •  3:00 – 4:15pm, Community Rink
• Saturday, 3/19/16
  • 10:00 – 11:15am, Main Arena
  •  5:00 – 7:00pm, Main Arena
• Sunday, 3/20/16
  • 9:30 – 11:00am, Main Arena
  •  5:00 – 6:15pm, Main Arena
• Monday, 3/21/16
  • 5:00 – 6:15pm, Main Arena
• Tuesday, 3/22/16
  • 10:00 – 11:15am, Main Arena
  • 5:00 – 7:00pm, Main Arena
• Wednesday, 3/23/16
  • 3:45 – 5:45pm, Main Arena
• Thursday, 3/23/16
  • 10:00 – 11:15am, Main Arena
  • 5:00 – 7:30pm, Main Arena scrimmage vs. a local team

March Shoot and Score Club Award

Girls' Try Hockey for Free - April 10

Please help spread the news - either send an email, 'share' a social media post, or call someone up and tell them about the April Girls' Try Hockey for Free event.

Join Us - It's FREE

- Date: Sunday, April 10th

- Time: 12:45pm - 1:45pm

- Note: Please arrive 45 minutes early to get skates sized

- Location:  Highland Ice Arena - 18005 Aurora Avenue North, Shoreline

For more information and to register, please visit: http://www.wwfha.com/try-hockey-for-free

Register for Hockey 1 and 2





Registration is open for Hockey 1 and Hockey 2 spring/summer beginner classes, May 1 – July 31, 2016. This program is for females ages 4 to 12 years old to learn to skate and play hockey at Highland Ice Arena - Shoreline.  These classes are based on USA Hockey's ADM model. Each class can be taken over and over again until the player feels like she has mastered the basics, and is ready to move to the next level, and before she is assigned to a team in the Fall of 2016.

More info and to register visit: http://www.wwfha.com/beginner-may-2016.

Ian Gordon’s Girls’ Goalie Camp

WWFHA pro-staffer, Ian Gordon, has 18 years of professional goaltending experience in both North America and Europe.  He has experienced the NHL, AHL and WHL training camps and understands the pressure every goalie feels on a game to game basis.  Ian has worked with numerous NHL goalie coaches and various goalie schools.

 
Coach Gordon will be hosting the girls’ goalie camp July 12 – 15 at Highland Ice Arena.

Click here to get more information and to register.

Register for Wild Sunday 3v3

Wild Performance Camps Registration is Open

Olympian Lyndsey Fry Camp Reg. is Open

Registration is open for the Olympian Lyndsey Fry Camp, April 29 - May 1, for 12U and 19U players. The camp includes on-ice sessions, off-ice conditioning, motivational talk and autograph session, nutrition, fitness, and college recruitment discussions. SPACE IS LIMITED.






























To Register Visit: http://www.FryHockey.com

Miller's Wild Elite/College Wed. Training

Join Washington Wild Rep Head Coach, Shaun Miller and other Washington Wild coaches for the 2016 Youth Elite / College Wednesday Training Sessions this summer!

The program is designed to refine and enhance elite player skills (primarily collegiate and midget) and conditioning in preparation for the up-coming season. Each Thursday focuses on a new area and will entail intense on and off-ice programming for the elite player.

• To register: Email Coach Miller at
  miller014@comcast.net
• More info: http://www.wwfha.com/elite-camp

15U and 19U Seattle Wild Beantown Tryout Registration is Open

The summer ‘Seattle Wild’ returns to the 2016 Beantown Classic; however, this year we will send a 15U Rep team AND a 19U Rep team.

The tournament, located just outside of Boston, MA July 22 – 25, 2016, is one of the most highly attended events by collegiate scouts. Last year’s tournament spot-lit many WWFHA players and helped the scouts see their talents.
 

TEAMS

• 19U (birth years 1997, 1998, 1999 + exceptions)
• 15U (birth years 2000, 2001 + exceptions)

12U Seattle Wild Spring/Summer Training Tournament Team
This spring and summer join the 12U Seattle Wild training and tournament team for all players born in 2003 and 2004. The program includes 13 training sessions at Kirkland and Renton and a select group of players will be asked to attend the Stevenston Meltdown Tournament over Memorial Day weekend and a weekend of games in San Jose, CA in July.  
 
Coached by Matt Cleeton, the head coach of the UW men's collegiate team, and Jenn Wood co-head coaches of the 12U Travel team. There will also be guest coaches that will work with the players on specific skills, including Coach Miller of the Wild 19U Rep team.

Click here for more info and to register

Beyond the Wild    

WWFHA would like to highlight the talents of our players beyond playing for the Washington Wild.

This week, we celebrate 19U Travel team captain, Bonnie Paulson, and her impressive pitching at Shorewood High School!


Please submit pictures and information about your daughter's talents ‘Beyond the Wild’ to info@wwfha.com


Photo by Chris Stuvek
 

The Experts’ Edge

The Power of Practice [From Harry Thompson, USA Hockey]
The benefits of a well-crafted practice far outweigh what can be gained in a game.

In the words of Allen Iverson, when it comes to skill development we are definitely talkin’ about practice. Not a game. Not a game. We’re talkin’ about practice.

While Iverson’s anti-practice rant may be taken a little out of context for the sake of this argument, the message still drives home an important point.

When it comes to skill development, especially at the younger age levels, the best way to improve is not by playing more games than an NHLer, but through station-based practices. The number of puck touches and constant activity that take place in a well-run 50-minute practice far outweigh what transpires in a game.
“One properly-run practice is the equivalent of 11 games when it comes to puck touches,” says ADM Regional Manager Ty Hennes.

Think this is just one person’s opinion? Just look back at the puck possession study that USA Hockey conducted in 2002 during the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the USA Hockey Tier I Youth National Championships to see how much time even the best players had the puck on their stick. 
At the Olympic level, observers followed superstars like Tony Amonte, Joe Sakic and Mike Modano, who averaged 1 minute and 7 seconds with the puck. At the youth level, the best players, including Phil Kessel and Zach Parise, possessed the puck an average of 1:06 per game. 

On the other hand, a well-run station-based practice keeps kids moving and working on their skills. There are more puck touches and more for players to work on their skills. In short, there’s more of everything, including more fun.

Add to the mix small-area games, which work on vital skills in confined spaces that require players to think and act quicker, and you have the makings of a winning formula. 

“One of the fastest ways to make a kid lose the passion for anything is not getting them involved,” says two-time Olympian Guy Gosselin, who works as an ADM regional manager in the upper Midwest.

“Touching the puck for a minute-plus in a game is not really being involved. You can get 30 minutes of puck-touch time in a station-based practice. That not only helps build their skills, but it’s a lot of fun.”
A glance at the My Hockey Rankings website shows that some Peewee teams play almost as many games as an NHL team, and definitely more games than any U.S. college program. Not only does that not help with individual skill development, but playing too many games at too young an age can also lead to burn out.
“It’s not what league they play in or what team they’re on or how many tournaments they play. Their training model is really the dictator of development,” says Roger Grillo, a former Div. I college coach who crisscrosses New England in support of the ADM. 

USA Hockey recommends that teams follow a 3:1 practice-to-game ratio. If teams play 70 games, as several Peewee teams did last season, they would need to hit the practice ice more than 200 times. That would put a youth player on the ice every day from the beginning of August until the end of March. And twice on Sundays.
It’s not just practicing but the right type of practice that will yield the best results. 

One of the driving factors that has shaped the current competition-heavy model is that parents don’t want to sit around and watch their sons and daughters doing a bunch of drills. They want to see them play games, where there is a winner and a loser, a scoreboard and a clock.

“Unfortunately, most people look at practice like it’s something that you have to do rather than embracing it as a quality experience,” Grillo says.

“The challenge is one where we have to make sure that we’re creating practices that are not only providing players with the quality repetitions, but they’re having fun doing it. Practice for little kids shouldn’t be like eating broccoli but more like eating pizza.”

So yes, we are talkin’ about pizza. And practice.

Ask WWFHA

What is physical Literacy? [From USA Hockey]
 
In 2015, the International Olympic Committee made its boldest statement yet on youth athletic development:
 
“Empirical evidence shows that a diversity of activities in early development is an indicator of continued involvement in more intense activities later in life, elite performance and continued participation in sport.”
 
This consensus statement was yet another in support of sport sampling, a common-sense approach to children’s physical development. Advocates of sport sampling encourage children to participate in a variety of sports and activities. Through this varied participation, children not only become better athletes, but also suffer fewer overuse injuries and less burnout.
 
It’s a science-backed counter-movement to the youth sports arms race mentality, the overemphasis on 12-year-old outcomes and the feverish drive for athletic scholarships beginning when little boys or girls first step on the ice, the field or the court.
 
Now More Than Ever
 
A generation ago, the term “sport sampling” didn’t exist. Back then, it was natural for children to play a variety of sports and a badge of honor to be a multi-sport star (remember "Bo Knows?"). Then came year-round single-sport scheduling,

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