Getting new players involved

[Rzorbck]

First, let me say that I am very appreciative of the fact that these RHA individuals are trying to step up and do something positive for the sport of inline hockey. I know the majority of these folks, some I consider friends, others wouldn’t know me if they were coaching against me in a game. That doesn’t really matter to me. To me the thing that matters is that these individuals have earned my respect in the inline community - by their prior actions! They are not afraid to put their time and name towards something new to try to grow this game. You may not agree with this, but that is not the reason I am posting here.

If you review the RHA threads that have been going on so far, people are getting caught up with Insurance, Coaching Certification, and plenty of talk about the tournaments these guys run as well as other things. These are all very interesting discussions and obviously things that need to be resolved; otherwise people would not be nearly as passionate about them. But, are they going to matter if we don’t get new blood into this sport? Can we talk about this instead of always going back to these other sticking points? Let’s leave those discussions in another thread and start a thread where we throw out suggestions on how to get new kids involved.

At the end of the day, the bulk of inline players don’t play in tournaments, don’t travel, don’t play ice, but still want to play. How do we introduce this great sport to a younger generation to get them involved, even if they never walk through the door of a major tournament? On the RHA website there are two goals that really haven’t been discussed on this board – Grass Roots Task Force and Create a Roller Hockey Roadmap. Knowing the RHA members, I don’t think this is something that they just want to do on their own, so let’s generate ideas for them. Let’s generate ideas for everyone, even if you aren’t ready to get involved with the RHA. Ideas don’t have to be right or wrong, but they should be put on the table for discussion. Everyone is doing something at their rink to try to promote this sport, so let’s hear what you are doing. Maybe you don’t have a rink, you’re a parent, you’re an adult player – that doesn’t mean you can’t have an idea of how we can do things locally.

I have hesitated to join any RHA discussions because it seems they always turn negative. I’m sure there are others who have just been reading along too because they don’t want to have someone criticize their opinion. Let’s keep this thread positive. No idea is a bad idea, so what do you think?

I do not own a rink, nor do I work at a rink. My son is probably almost done playing this sport, and my younger son has no interest in playing. I am simply a parent whose kid starting playing about 11 years ago. I am trying to think of why he started playing and how he got involved. Here in our area we have traditional roller skating rinks that also have t-shirt leagues. I had absolutely no idea any of this was going on until my kindergartener came home from school with a flyer from the local roller skating rink. That is how it all started. The local rink has all the equipment available for a kid to try out the sport. Back in that day we didn’t have to purchase any equipment to try it out. Now I think they ask you to have a stick – big deal. Now these local skating rinks have partnered with someone to give skates away to kids signing up for the first time. They never even have to play again, but they have the skates. In these t-shirt leagues, there are no coaches, there are just rink employees on the rink encouraging, teaching, and trying to create a fun and enjoyable environment. I think this is a great concept and it seems to work fairly well around here.

Once these kids are involved, these local rinks provide the next level. There are 5 or 6 skating rinks in the Colorado area and they each have a Club team. If you want to go beyond the t-shirt league, you can join a Club team. They practice once a week, have coaches, and play in a local tournament against the other skating rinks about once a month. Some kids and parents have absolutely no interest in ever playing on a competitive team, and some may never even want to play on a Club team. Some may not be skilled enough to play on a competitive team, but the Club teams provide 3 different skill levels so all the kids can play at their skill level and have a fun and learning experience.

That is what we do here in the Colorado area. It seems to work for us – at least it worked for my kid who has now played at all levels and in all of these tournaments, just because a five-year-old received a simple flyer from school. So, what other ideas do people have? Remember, we shouldn’t be criticizing ideas. You may do something that would work perfectly for someone else, but they just need to know about it.

Signed,

David Needham
Father of a 16-year-old who has made countless friends, had numerous memorable experiences, and has generally stayed out of trouble because of inline hockey and a simple flyer.

[zipyaj]

Everyone is doing something at their rink to try to promote this sport, so let’s hear what you are doing. Maybe you don’t have a rink, you’re a parent, you’re an adult player – that doesn’t mean you can’t have an idea of how we can do things locally...

Let’s keep this thread positive. No idea is a bad idea, so what do you think?...

Signed,
David Needham
Father of a 16-year-old who has made countless friends, had numerous memorable experiences, and has generally stayed out of trouble because of inline hockey and a simple flyer.

David, What A Great Positive!

This forum has had many, many positive suggestions and more could be forthcoming, expecially when they go to the grassroots and keeping this sport healthy and growing.

Borrowing from a 2008 post: Hockey Helping Hockey

Anyone who knows me knows that I am an unpaid volunteer and an advocate for our sport, especially for children and the scholastic segment. I know there to be many IHC readers who also share in the spirit of giving, many are volunteers themselves and I believe we can all agree that this sport thrives on the dedication of its volunteers. I also acknowledge that there are many readers of these forum topics who will never post but look to them for information and positive reinforcement. It is for them and those who choose to share through positive and productive dialogue focused on building this sport for the today and the next generation that I write.

Having read numerous good suggestions in IHC threads, I would like to share the following for your consideration. Please feel free to add and collaborate. If it can result on any new children entering and staying with the sport, then our time will have been well-spent.

Connect with Your Community: It's Free. It's Easy!
 List your facility (rink) with your State's council on physical fitness and their resources directory. Be sure to be accurate with your entry and revisit to maintain your listings at least every six months. Example: California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports: Activity Guide. The Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports' Activity Guide is an on-line searchable database of sporting activities, youth organizations and parks throughout California that parents, health practitioners and other Californians can use to connect California children and youth with physically active opportunities in their communities. Roller Hockey http://www.calgovcouncil.org/activeg...ler%20Hockey/; Ice Hockey http://www.calgovcouncil.org/activeg...tslist/Hockey/

 List your club, league and rink with your local City or Municipality and their directories for children's activities. Parks & Recreation departments and activity directors in many community promote local sporting associations and programs. A great place to engage young parents and their children with Learn To Skate programs, after school programs, special events, and more.

 List your facility (rink) with local newspapers and their web sites as an entertainment venue. Most publisher sites have Events sections and being listed as a venue gives you another opportunity to be found. Most give you a section to describe your business and services, and some even offer a free picture - happy kids posing in front of your facility?

 Add your events to web event directories such as Eventful (http://eventful.com), the newspaper and community sections. And don't forget to list your major events right here on IHC!

 Devise a brochure introducing your facility and youth programs and then distribute to local preschools and elementary schools. While many schools will resist a for profit group from doing this, consider using student-athletes from your middle and high school leagues who may be part of your learn-to-skate program, or invitations to watch the older kids in the neighborhood play roller hockey; maybe even a demonstration event on the playground or basketball court after school.

 Road Work! No, not a warning sign to avoid some patch in the road. Rather, consider employing outdoor skate workouts (road work) with players in Club T-Shirts and team jerseys skating through the neighborhood parks, neighborhoods and school yards. Make it a real WOW by having players do stick work with a roller ball while exercising. (Can you imagine the site of a four team high school club skating through the neighborhood?) Be sure to have brochures handy!

Cooperative Marketing: Others Need Help, Too!
 Some municipalities, YMCAs and communities have outdoor rinks with minimal or even no supervised programs for their community - a premium opportunity to co-op with them and run a clinic with your staff on the fundamentals to local kids, an evening adult program, stick ball Saturdays and such to then convert their interest to your leagues as as they grow. If not programs, consider signage agreements to advertise recreational activities at your rink while kids practice at their neighborhood rink and cul-de-sacs.

 Local sporting goods retailers are always looking for a co-op opportunity and roller hockey can give it to them! Consider conducting a parking lot event: stick ball tourney or exciting demonstration; maybe even tie-in with other roller sports. Work with the retailer and his product reps to sell street or hockey or roller skates and gear they have on hand while participants are instant mobile signs to street traffic and passersby. Don't forget those banners and set up a pop-up tent to promote your facility and youth hockey programs.

 2 Cool 4 Ice? Consider the opportunity of cross-promotion with local youth ice hockey leagues... most ice skaters grew up on roller and made the transition, but are they still competitive on roller? A parking lot match-up between ice and roller teams in a fun, fundraising setting could produce funds and get exposure through traffic and through media potential.

 Tournaments and giving back to the community. As demonstrated this past year by the NCRHA and Mission Hockey, their Mission Hockey College program used collegiate players as teachers during a one hour clinic session for youth skaters as one way to help give back and keep players in the game by demonstrating the path to the top of the pyramid. How many youth skaters, or their parents, are even aware that there is a collegiate league? There's now a few hundred more after this past season. With the top talent available at many tournaments, promoters have a unique opportunity to work with rink owners and their communities to get the message out and bring in new skaters for a wide variety of grass roots programs. Use the WOW factor of a skills contest following a learn-to-skate session and you've got 'em hooked!

 Charities - Give, Give, Give! If you're fortunate enough to be in a market with an NHL team or major hockey league team, work with the Fan Development department to help players who want to produce namesake events for local charities make their way to your facility. It takes a while to mature a program, but community involvement and new interest grows quickly with a hockey blood drive, a contest for cancer or an event to help disaster victims. Even if you don't have a major team, consider how impactful that charity events can be on traffic counts and new media impressions. These events really shine when presenting your facility's resume to prospective sponsors.

 Rinks Helping Rinks. This one is not an original, but it's message has been a common one raised in many threads here in the IHC community. Actually, I borrowed this from the motto of the six facilities in Southern California who bonded this past year and created WIHA (www.westerninline.com/) and are actually putting it into practice.

There's a wealth of good and positive suggestions that many have published here before. Maybe those authors could re-post and new ones add and collaborate. Eventually they'll help to stimulate something positive for someone!

Thanks!

[ACCCT2]

First, let me say that I am very appreciative of the fact that these RHA individuals are trying to step up and do something positive for the sport of inline hockey. I know the majority of these folks, some I consider friends, others wouldn’t know me if they were coaching against me in a game. That doesn’t really matter to me. To me the thing that matters is that these individuals have earned my respect in the inline community - by their prior actions! They are not afraid to put their time and name towards something new to try to grow this game. You may not agree with this, but that is not the reason I am posting here.

If you review the RHA threads that have been going on so far, people are getting caught up with Insurance, Coaching Certification, and plenty of talk about the tournaments these guys run as well as other things. These are all very interesting discussions and obviously things that need to be resolved; otherwise people would not be nearly as passionate about them. But, are they going to matter if we don’t get new blood into this sport? Can we talk about this instead of always going back to these other sticking points? Let’s leave those discussions in another thread and start a thread where we throw out suggestions on how to get new kids involved.

At the end of the day, the bulk of inline players don’t play in tournaments, don’t travel, don’t play ice, but still want to play. How do we introduce this great sport to a younger generation to get them involved, even if they never walk through the door of a major tournament? On the RHA website there are two goals that really haven’t been discussed on this board – Grass Roots Task Force and Create a Roller Hockey Roadmap. Knowing the RHA members, I don’t think this is something that they just want to do on their own, so let’s generate ideas for them. Let’s generate ideas for everyone, even if you aren’t ready to get involved with the RHA. Ideas don’t have to be right or wrong, but they should be put on the table for discussion. Everyone is doing something at their rink to try to promote this sport, so let’s hear what you are doing. Maybe you don’t have a rink, you’re a parent, you’re an adult player – that doesn’t mean you can’t have an idea of how we can do things locally.

I have hesitated to join any RHA discussions because it seems they always turn negative. I’m sure there are others who have just been reading along too because they don’t want to have someone criticize their opinion. Let’s keep this thread positive. No idea is a bad idea, so what do you think?

I do not own a rink, nor do I work at a rink. My son is probably almost done playing this sport, and my younger son has no interest in playing. I am simply a parent whose kid starting playing about 11 years ago. I am trying to think of why he started playing and how he got involved. Here in our area we have traditional roller skating rinks that also have t-shirt leagues. I had absolutely no idea any of this was going on until my kindergartener came home from school with a flyer from the local roller skating rink. That is how it all started. The local rink has all the equipment available for a kid to try out the sport. Back in that day we didn’t have to purchase any equipment to try it out. Now I think they ask you to have a stick – big deal. Now these local skating rinks have partnered with someone to give skates away to kids signing up for the first time. They never even have to play again, but they have the skates. In these t-shirt leagues, there are no coaches, there are just rink employees on the rink encouraging, teaching, and trying to create a fun and enjoyable environment. I think this is a great concept and it seems to work fairly well around here.

Once these kids are involved, these local rinks provide the next level. There are 5 or 6 skating rinks in the Colorado area and they each have a Club team. If you want to go beyond the t-shirt league, you can join a Club team. They practice once a week, have coaches, and play in a local tournament against the other skating rinks about once a month. Some kids and parents have absolutely no interest in ever playing on a competitive team, and some may never even want to play on a Club team. Some may not be skilled enough to play on a competitive team, but the Club teams provide 3 different skill levels so all the kids can play at their skill level and have a fun and learning experience.

That is what we do here in the Colorado area. It seems to work for us – at least it worked for my kid who has now played at all levels and in all of these tournaments, just because a five-year-old received a simple flyer from school. So, what other ideas do people have? Remember, we shouldn’t be criticizing ideas. You may do something that would work perfectly for someone else, but they just need to know about it.

Signed,

David Needham
Father of a 16-year-old who has made countless friends, had numerous memorable experiences, and has generally stayed out of trouble because of inline hockey and a simple flyer.

WOW!!! DEAD-CENTER SUPER-BULLSEYE!!! The absolute essence of what we should be talking about! I'm all for a dialogue on a "Grass Roots Task Force" and how to "Create a Roller Hockey Roadmap" (a GREAT idea, BTW!) and would really enjoy working with other like-hearted individuals on such an essential and quite frankly imperative "imperative" for our sport.

Not to in any way turn your very positive and insightful thread in the least bit "negative", but your comments on the lack of attention to this "grass-roots/imperative" that the RHA's website (and answers on other threads) evidences is more than just slightly revealing -- in my opinion, because it's NOT their central "raison d'être" in forming the RHA, they obviously don't (and won't?) devote anywhere near the time or effort (as in nearly nothing at all) to this rather important "grass-roots/imperative" as they do to say, "insurance" and "mandatory/certification" issues of "control" and so-called "UNITY". Quite frankly, the same "MO" as USAHIL and USARS in simply different "wolves-in-sheep's-clothing" disguise, in my mind.

Back to your incredibly "positive" and insightful thoughts on the game -- as stated earlier, what you've brought up is what we all should be quite frankly talking about, and in my own humble opinion, we should be talking about nothing else but this in terms of a need for anything "NGB-ish" or "mandatory". At this point in time, and especially after everything (so far) said and evidenced, the ONLY thing our sport should be concentrating on is this "grass-roots" seeding and growing of the game -- and there's absolutely NO NEED WHATSOEVER for ANY kind "fee" or "control" based "quasi-NGB" who expects others to 'volunteer' while they inevitably 'cash-in'. And believe it or not, I mean this in the most "positive " way -- I'd "volunteer" my rather extensive advertising/marketing/sponsorship talents, expertise and experience to any inclusive, transparent and democratic effort to accomplish what you've so succinctly brought focus to -- but NOT when "others" are financially "cashing-in" on or non-transparently, non-accounatbly, non-inclusively, non-responsively and non-democratically "controlling" or "slicing-up-the-pie" on anything that I might put my "heart" and/or talents and expertise into.

GREAT POST, David!!!

[ACCCT2]

David, What A Great Positive!

This forum has had many, many positive suggestions and more could be forthcoming, expecially when they go to the grassroots and keeping this sport healthy and growing.

Borrowing from a 2008 post: Hockey Helping Hockey


There's a wealth of good and positive suggestions that many have published here before. Maybe those authors could re-post and new ones add and collaborate. Eventually they'll help to stimulate something positive for someone!

Thanks!

And WOW, yet another GREAT POST and reminder, "zipyaj" -- and we didn't even have incur an RHA "mandatory/certification" anything for either of 'em...!?!

[longboarderj]

I believe that there are many factors that can help grow inline hockey, but I think that there are two that are extremly important.

The first is cost, many parents see the rinks, and the pads and say I can't afford this. The problem is that they don't realize how inexpensive it all is. At the 949 Roller Hockey Center in Irvine the learn to skate class and beginner hockey class are $55.00 for four weeks, after these two classes beginners can play in th beginner hockey league for $49.00 or for $200 they get all of the equipment that is needed and play for free in this league. For $200 dollars they get a full set of equipment and are taught to skate, shoot, and pass so that they can move into the normal rec leagues. The rec leagues cost $175.00 and includes one game a week for ten weeks plus a group clinic and/or a team practice each week.

Little League baseball costs are from $100-$175 and the parents are required to volunteer for feild maintainence 2 times, or work the snack bar 2 times, or pay another $150. The cost seems about the same to me, but most parents I talk with believe that inline hockey is as expensive as ice hockey. We need to let people know that the costs are not as highas they think.

The second problem is that parents don't know about hockey. Most people grew up with baseball, soccer, and football. They played these sports and so they get their kids in these sports. I grew up playing ice hockey so the first sport my son tried was ice hockey, but it was to expensive so we went to inline and we both love it. One thing in our area that seemed to boost parental awareness that hockey existed in our area was when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup. The Ducks organization has also done a tremendous job supporting the local rinks with events and player appearances. After the last time they showed up my sons friends could not believe that Ducks players had come to our rink and helped coach games, autographed jerseys, and took pictures with everyone. They usually don't get this with baseball. If parents can be made aware of hockey in their area then I think more kids would at least try it (I have not yet seen a kid try it who wasn't hooked after a month).

[ACCCT2]

I believe that there are many factors that can help grow inline hockey, but I think that there are two that are extremly important.

The first is cost, many parents see the rinks, and the pads and say I can't afford this. The problem is that they don't realize how inexpensive it all is. At the 949 Roller Hockey Center in Irvine the learn to skate class and beginner hockey class are $55.00 for four weeks, after these two classes beginners can play in th beginner hockey league for $49.00 or for $200 they get all of the equipment that is needed and play for free in this league. For $200 dollars they get a full set of equipment and are taught to skate, shoot, and pass so that they can move into the normal rec leagues. The rec leagues cost $175.00 and includes one game a week for ten weeks plus a group clinic and/or a team practice each week.

Little League baseball costs are from $100-$175 and the parents are required to volunteer for feild maintainence 2 times, or work the snack bar 2 times, or pay another $150. The cost seems about the same to me, but most parents I talk with believe that inline hockey is as expensive as ice hockey. We need to let people know that the costs are not as highas they think.

The second problem is that parents don't know about hockey. Most people grew up with baseball, soccer, and football. They played these sports and so they get their kids in these sports. I grew up playing ice hockey so the first sport my son tried was ice hockey, but it was to expensive so we went to inline and we both love it. One thing in our area that seemed to boost parental awareness that hockey existed in our area was when the Ducks won the Stanley Cup. The Ducks organization has also done a tremendous job supporting the local rinks with events and player appearances. After the last time they showed up my sons friends could not believe that Ducks players had come to our rink and helped coach games, autographed jerseys, and took pictures with everyone. They usually don't get this with baseball. If parents can be made aware of hockey in their area then I think more kids would at least try it (I have not yet seen a kid try it who wasn't hooked after a month).

RIGHT-ON!!! The problem is mostly about making the game accessible, especially at the entry-level (at whatever age), and even more importantly, getting the 'message' out (whatever the "message" of the moment is) in a positive, pro-active and sport-affirming way. And NONE of this requires the "mandatory/certification" of anyone.

[standford]

Yes ,I also believe that thing that many factor can grow inline hockey.Definitely if the two thing are solved then inline hockey grow easily..........................................