Coaching On-Ice Activities with Social Distancing

good evening everyone if this is your first webinar you've you haven't heard me say this if this is not your first schedule to the old hat here but uh we'll give people a few minutes just to kind of let the room fill up um got over 300 people uh joining us this evening which is awesome so thanks to all of you coaches that are out there and want to learn a little bit more about how we can run some socially distant drills that will still achieve uh some good skill development opportunities is the goal here tonight so we'll sit tight for just another 30 seconds or so and then we'll get going all right looks like uh we're slowly but surely getting there i'm sure we'll have a few uh people joining us as we go but that's okay so uh with that said why don't we get underway uh welcome everyone uh to our webinar from massachusetts hockey uh talking about socially distant uh practice plans and some things that you can do to make the on ice experience the next few weeks and beyond uh here in massachusetts if you so desire um a good one for your kids uh we've got a great group tonight uh first of all thanks to liz cohen for joining us and as always our tech technology guru so she's the one that makes the webinars go um we've got roger grillo from usa hockey roger's the regional avm manager most of you probably know him and have heard him speak uh on numerous times at this point does a great job and uh we welcome roger tonight and appreciate his willingness to do this and put these plans together and assist everyone i also want to introduce for those of you who don't know paul moore paul is the coach in chief for massachusetts usa hockey so ultimately all the coaching education that takes place here in our state comes under paul's jurisdiction he is a true leader for massachusetts with usa hockey and he is a great voice for us nationally in the coaching education program he's the head coach down at falmouth high school runs the rink down there has run the youth hockey program for a number of years and uh he was the 2012 recipient of the william fair tut award at usa hockey which is given uh annually to uh one of the top volunteers nationally um and it's a it's the largest honor that the volunteer group can get um so uh paul congratulations uh on on all you've done thank you for all that you've done and uh i'm going to let you start us off tonight talking about what the cep program may or may not look like this year to get all of our coaches up to speed uh thank you kevin uh that was a very kind uh intro um and uh i i help uh with the rink down in falmouth but i don't actually run it um general manager tommy peterson down there does a great job but um thank you everybody tonight for joining us on behalf of usa hockey and mass hockey thank you for all you do these are some trying times and i look forward to tonight telling you a little bit about what the coaching education program has been up to but also more the on ice piece that roger's going to give you i think will be unique and give you an opportunity to think outside the box with regard to coaching clinics we are going to run clinics in the short term virtually so they'll be online with zoom the national office has been um awesome with the staff here throughout the country and getting together uh curriculum and how we're actually going to deliver that zoom clinic to um to the membership and as it is right now we've done uh two or three pilot programs throughout the country it's very simple you can still sign up online find a clinic it just will be virtual my plan in this district is to start putting clinics up on the board as soon as possible actually one will go up tonight and they're going to be limited space and so if you're if you're interested in it it will be a level 2 clinic it will be virtual and it will be first come first serve because we can only let so many so many in these clinics um it's been very interesting being part of these pilots and i think the product that we deliver to you will be a professional one and one that i think you'll get a lot out of and again this is hopefully short term we're planning for the long term my plan in this district is we know we'll be doing virtual clinics throughout the summer how deep they go into the fall we just don't know yet it's a very fluid situation as you know but i will plan somewhere in the fall i'm i'm hopeful that we will have some in-person clinics but i'm not suggesting you wait for that we hope throughout the country there'll be plenty of virtual clinics put up on the board where no one will get left out and you'll be able to participate in them one of the other things that we are offering this year you might have already seen it got sent out to the coaches nationally is we're going to be offering temp cards i'm seeing these trying times some people knowing we can't have in-person clinics and don't have the ways to maybe get online and do this virtually usa hockey has offered up the opportunity for attempt card that opportunity will expire june 30th you can go online apply for that temp card and that will get you this season this season the 2020-21 season you will not have to go to a clinic until next year if you choose to go to a clinic on that temp card you could do that without having to pay for that virtual clinic or in-person clinic whatever you choose to do in the short term what we encourage you to do is sign up with usa hockey as a coach so that'll enable you to do a few things one is sign up for a virtual clinic in the district or outside the district for that matter you can sign up for any virtual clinic in the country your background check safe sport in your module those things you will be able to do right away by by signing up for usa hockey as a coach so i encourage you to do that as soon as possible we look forward to seeing you these clinics we're going to try to deliver the best product that we can to you i think you'll see a lot of value in it clearly it's something different but we're all embracing it we're looking forward to the opportunity and again we look forward to seeing you those clinics and thank you everybody for being on here tonight and for everything that you do for usa hockey thank you very much thanks morsi great job and uh one thing i failed to mention uh earlier and i'll mention it now paul's going to stay with us while roger gives his presentation and then we will do some question and answer for anyone that has questions down the bottom of your screen you see the q a feel free to type in a question there if you have one we will try and get to those after roger's presentation so um there's one one out there right now but we'll let it sit there until afterwards and i'll kind of throw those to paul roger or handle it myself depending on the nature of the question but be aware that we do want some interaction here and uh happy to uh answer questions as they come so with that said roger why don't you take it away and uh teach us about some socially distant practice plans yeah and i'd just like to say um i listen into the webinar um last week um that mass hockey did with uh with kevin and some of the rink wink owners and leaders uh throughout the state and i thought it was unbelievably uh informational and really a positive uh night with um the information on how the rinks need to operate so having said that understanding that we that the the recommendations coming from the authorities on social distancing on the ice we as a adm uh group of of coaches designed some practice plans that would kind of focus on the idea of spacing and social distancing on the ice so we've designed a little format here called grid hockey and you can see it here um and you can obviously i think our faces are blocking off the right-hand side but this would be designed this is actually perfectly designed for the setup for for what the rules in mass hockey are where you can have 10 kids in a group with one coach um so the idea behind this is is one of our concerns as a group of adm regional managers is that we we kind of fall back into the static predetermined patterns um you know no no decision making no reads no um um we obviously can't have conflict we can't have body contact in this scenario but we wanted to create a an environment that forced kids to kind of work off each other problem solve make some reads make some decisions some decisions with the puck some decisions obviously off the puck so the idea behind the grid hockey is you'd have a player in each grid the grids are you know about uh six feet by six feet maybe even a little bit bigger um this particular grids pattern is is ten grids uh you'd have a kit in each uh grid with the rules in mass hockey that have one empty grid um but what you would do then is do a series of different drills and games off the off the grids and the idea is each kid in each grid has to kind of read the spacing of the old players so so the grids in the middle especially two three seven and six they've got to see what's happening on each side of them and player and grid number two has to read where the player numbers uh uh the the grid above them and number seven is because you can't have everybody in one corner of their grid because now they're too close together so the idea is to keep them six feet apart but have them six feet apart based on reeds and spacing and visual awareness of what's happening around them just like the game of hockey would be and so some of the some of the different games and and rules and and things that that uh that we would do off of this is for example um have the kids put cattle in their station but then read the spacing on the grids around them uh if you could yell um odds switch with odds and even switch with even so if i'm one i gotta find an odd grid to move to that's open but i've also got to read how i'm going to get there based on what's open in front of me so i'm reading open space i'm reading lanes uh um just like the game of hockey i'm trying to find space um we could even get the gold my our suggestion would be if the gold if you're not doing shooting have the goaltenders do the skating and the other stuff in the box let them compete with this you could have the odds passing to the odds and the evens passing to the evens with two pucks one puck for the evens one puck for the odds obviously when that's happening everybody's got to be aware where everybody else is where where the passing lanes i got to support the puck i got to communicate i got to have visual connection visual communication with my teammates um you could have you could do a math situation where you have to move two spaces so the lower numbers would have to move up they'd have to add and the higher numbers would have to go down and now it's a decision on if i'm number one and the coattails two i have to get the number three but number five might be moving to number three as well so i've got to read that and i gotta try to win the race to that third that that number three grid otherwise i'm out i lose the game i'm it's like musical chairs i don't i don't have a grid um and so that kind of stuff the other thing we thought about too was that you could do a numbers game where the coach yells seven and eight well seven shoots eight's got a final lane to the to the net read the the the the you know the the puck going to the net reading the rebound collecting it and and getting back to their grid if i if i yelled off three numbers so if i said nine three and six so nine would pass the three three would shoot six gotta go to the net so the the variables off this format are you know they're limitless and the creativity of the coaches um actually is the only thing that would get in the way of how far you can go with this type of design but the idea behind it is to to really be cognizant because we don't want any rings to get shut down if somebody walks in and sees they're playing a three-on-three cross-ice game right now they're probably gonna get in trouble um we don't want kids in lines we don't want kids in lines when there's not social distancing but obviously kids in lines right now isn't a good thing and we also predetermine patterns and and things that don't force kids to use their head use their eyes and understand spacing for us that that only goes so far and we got to add different layers to the development of our athletes especially in the game of ice hockey which the decision making in the brain is such a critical part of being a really good player so this is the design uh the plan is for for um uh paul moore and myself are gonna get together sometime this week we're gonna videotape some kids going through this and we'll put it out on the mass hockey website and get it out to our coaches so they can actually see what it looks like if you're having trouble visualizing it here but here's this will be on the website as well and certainly if anybody wants to give me a call um or send me an email with questions uh and we can answer some tonight as well i'm more than happy to that and liz will give my contact information in the chat room okay good job roger thanks for sharing this information there's uh there's about two or three different practice plans with that that will will go out and we'll share that as roger said with everyone um so i think you know it's obviously it's kind of a new world for a lot of our coaches right we've been pushing the avm model we've been pushing station based practices which this still can be in a lot of ways um just obviously having to recognize the need for the the distancing during this phase two period i think i wanted to reiterate that as well in phase two these are our limitations uh but opportunities so i think as we kind of move forward to phase three we don't know what that will look like yet so at this at that point we'll definitely get some additional information out there and be able to share and hopefully it's a little more um you know familiar to those of us that been around the game but um you know obviously a great opportunity here again to get kids just some individual skills over the next few weeks and and kind of work back up towards it so uh with that i'm going to start to hit some of these questions and uh we'll work our way right down so paul this one's for you first question any level four clinics planned yes and we will see one sometime before september virtual what we have done is we changed the um the cep grid so level four now and most of you know in the past it's been a two-day clinic we made the level four a one-day clinic and it was a lot of reasons for that one we felt um it would take less burden off a coach from time-wise because it was a two-day clinic and it was also an expense attached to that which we felt we could in a one-day clinic um get the expense down get their time down and you know give their coaches time back so we do expect a lot out of them and yes there will be a level four clinic look for those postings um down the road and again we're i'm easing into this so at the end of june i'll be doing a level two clinic virtually it'll be posted in the next 24 hours and then what you'll see progressively is more and more of them in our district getting posted throughout the month of june into july and we'll start delivering them uh more of them i should say um instead of just having these pilot plans we're just we're all learning here my staff is learning and we want to make sure we deliver the best clinic possible awesome thanks morsi um one of the questions i think liz uh is if those of you that see your chat button down below she's communicating through you through that way as well um but the the document you should have all received an email from usa hockey explaining what was put up on the screen earlier it's on our social media it's on our website it's on our facebook page and you'll get a copy of that after this as well so but i think yeah liz has the link right there in your chat for anyone that's looking for it as well so you have a great opportunity there to get this information um next one i'll throw back to you again moresi will there be any virtual goaltending clinics offered this summer i virtual goaltending clinics i can i can answer that uh okay we've been on calls with uh with um stevie thompson who's our goaltending adm guy and dave caruso as well and brent seidel and they are they are discussing and there will be some bronze silver and gold uh virtual goaltending clinics coming up in the very near future awesome those guys do a phenomenal job we we're really fortunate to have you know three really high-end goaltending guys on staff and and they they do a phenomenal phenomenal job kevin can i clarify uh a couple things on yeah the virtual clinics so the level one two three and four clinics are gonna be a one-day clinic uh in person obviously but the virtual clinics what we're going to do is my pilot is going to be for level one's twos and three right now is going to be a two-day clinic i'm sorry over two nights so it'll be two and a half hours a night for two nights somewhere in that window two to three hours we're gonna try to have them for two nights and that will get you your level so we're gonna pace it over two nights strictly because we don't want to hold the guys uh obviously we wouldn't hold anyone on a zoom call for five six hours right and the level four which we'll do some virtual ones that will be over three nights um this little there might be a little more content in it and we'll we'll be stretching that over three different nights won't be back to back it will look like something like a monday wednesday or friday a sunday tuesday thursday something like that and they'll the ones i'll be posting in the short term will be at night time awesome a quick clarification i got a text um from one of our co-workers out of usa hockey who's listening in out in colorado springs um actually mark tabron the head of the coaching education program is on listening so but uh he clarified that the gold gold clinics will not be virtual um just the bronze and and the silver okay perfect and kevin in our district brian eckland is the goaltending uh coach in chief uh he's been working closely with me and a lot of actually a lot of great goaltending minds in our district we're very lucky so look for those those will be exciting and um i think they'll be really good yeah awesome awesome and that's the nice thing for a lot of the coaches out there that you know maybe aren't as familiar with this the way this works is you have some opportunities now to kind of broaden your experience and and pick some topics that you like as well i think that's a that's a huge opportunity and goal tending obviously is an area that i think a lot of our coaches could use some some tutelage in and as you said with with eck and uh brian eckland and the group that we have here we're blessed to have a lot of goaltending knowledge and uh they are they are all happy to share it which is really really cool so take advantage of those opportunities when you can um next question we had i'll uh i'll take this one i guess do the temp cards cost anything and paul i can tell you is it right that's 50 for the temp card which is basically in lieu of your clinic this year and and the the i think the thought process there is we don't want someone to just take it take advantage of the temp status this year and and not have the opportunity to then take an online module or go to a a clinic should things change so the deadline for that uh temp card status is june 30th but if things change for you in your life and you decide that hey there is an opportunity for me to do a virtual clinic this year it's already paid for or if it's an in-person one it's already taken care of so that's a that's a great situation but um you know yes there is a 50 fee for that this year that's that's correct that's correct kevin and you get on with the idea of it and we want to accommodate the masses anyone that needs this we want them to take advantage of it and i think the biggest thing is if they decide down the road they want to hit a virtual clinic or an in-person clinic before december 30th it won't cost them a dime and they can jump right in great all right roger i got a couple that's going to come your way now as well so i think uh first one with with the nine player one coach groups can that 10-person group including the coach move to different stations during practice actually i'll take this one because it's kind of yeah specific but um in other words do all 10 man groups need to stay in the same exact spot on the entire ice no they don't so you can rotate if you have three different groups of 10 you can have those groups move throughout the course of the practice the key is that the coach does have to stay with that group for that session so you can't have three coaches and move nine kids and have the coaches stay in the same area if that makes sense but these are the restrictions that were put in place and we're simply sharing the information there and that's uh that's how that would work um so that covers our next one do the coaches have to stay together throughout this phase yes during that individual ice session yes they would uh okay more is he probably coming to you um actually we covered this it's another level four clinic question i think we've established what the level fours will look like this year so um raj uh and this this i would not disagree um with this logic so you can work this one here the question says or not even question statement this seems very complicated for eight-year-olds and i'll i'll jump on the first part of it and say remember this is about a three or four week window that we're doing this at least in this time until we get to phase three but that said roger take it away yeah i think it's it's running age i think it's it's uh you just you just you you you might lessen the difficulty of some of the things you'd be doing within it um you know you you could you could have them kicking soccer balls from you could have multiple soccer balls there's a billion things you could do off of this format um uh the idea of it is just to to be aware of the distancing and the spacing but also for the kids to have some fun it's really critical for kids to have fun and i think if you're doing a lot of in a lot of ways some of the the monotonous just basic skill work that's static and there's no thinking there's no competition there's no working together or problem solving can really get at the end of the day can get monotonous and we want to make sure that we're creating uh the the optimal environment for developing the best players and for us combine this the physical work with the mental work with the spatial work with the visual work with the competition with the fun it's like the perfect scenario um other things that popped up i got guys we got a lot of guys on the call that worked with us uh some really good people um the other the other thing um is just for people to be aware that um because these clinics are virtual they could take a clinic in california if they wanted to um and vice versa people from california or minnesota could take you know uh mass hockey's uh cep virtual clinic so just just go on usa hockey's uh website um and and there's gonna be clinics posted continually as they're popping up uh around the country so you can jump on first come first serve because a lot of those clinics are going to be anywhere from 35 to 50 people max because they're trying to make them interactive and and uh um a little bit smaller groups than some of the in-person ones have been in the past the other thing i would say is and and uh morsi mentioned them as brian equine uh we did a series of um uh webinars through usa hockey and the goaltending staff was stevie thompson and dave grusso did a bunch of specific goaltender ones brian did one of them recently did a phenomenal job on it so there's some information out there that i know mass hockey's posted those webinars on their website uh those of you that have an interest in that in the goaltending piece check those out uh because there's some really good information there uh kevin yeah hey roger one thing back to the grid the grid practice plan i would say that you know this is just a jumping off point and i think that if you really look at that you know one of the key elements of practices is fun the things you can do are absolutely endless on this thing and that that's transferable to the game so i would say if you're in the next this window of phase two in massachusetts and you look at a grid plan like this embrace it if you get on the ice have some fun with it and again roger mentioned we'll be videotaping this practice tomorrow and getting it out to you so you'll see some of the fun you can have with it and how it's transferable to the real game so yeah i know that's that's a great point morsi and thanks for i was gonna hit that as well i think we when we put that video out and i think a lot of you that are on here and kind of hearing that and seeing roger's plan you know it kind of looks what can i do with it how can i make that work i think when you see it in action and you see that video i think you'll have a much better understanding of how how much leeway you have and how many options you have to kind of create your own drills within that format um i would also say if you're going to be using it don't be afraid to share it with your families and your players ahead of time too let them see what the practice is going to look like let them get understanding so it's a little bit less explaining time when you get the kids to the ice and try and put you know again we talk about eight-year-olds the question if you have to put this kid here and this kid here and this kid here let them have that explained a little bit to them ahead of time so that they have an understanding um it just makes practice that much easier so um next question do coaches need to wear a mask on and or off the ice so i think the way the rules are written you do need to wear them in and out of the facility but while you are on the ice assuming that you can maintain your social distancing you don't have to wear one on the ice participants do not and coaches and players fall into the participant category so um that'll make it a little bit easier for you to uh to talk to your players to have them understand you and that is the way the the state guidance has come to us when we get to phase three uh will the practice requirements loosen up we would anticipate there will be some loosening based on what the state has communicated so far we don't have any official answers there so it's purely speculative but certainly um i think the goal is uh for those of you that were on the call on thursday night our hope is that by the time we get to phase three which is a minimum of three weeks from today um and it could be longer again based on where the the trends are and where the numbers and dph uh comes in the the reality is yes we hope that games and potentially some format of tournaments are taking place in phase three um it may be kind of phased in within phase three i think you saw that with uh restaurants today in phase two that they can be outdoor seating today and in part two of phase two maybe they can do some indoor seating we may have some stagger like that in our phase three but that's uh again where we're headed where we don't know officially today uh morsi will how will the level five training be completed this year it won't be it unfortunately it's a great question the the level five in minnesota got moved to next year um i can probably get a quick text from somebody quick to tell me the exact date i don't remember it but it did it did get moved up a year uh in minnesota okay great and i'll i'll volunteer um while we're while we're talking here well i know mark tabrum's listening mark we're pushing hard to get that level five here in massachusetts eventually so i'm putting it out publicly that we want it here uh after minnesota so the pressure's on or at least to provide that's the way to drop the gauntlet on there tapes just texted me texted me august 19th through the 22nd 2021 level 5 minnesota there we go anyone looking for a good trip out to minnesota for the summer it'd be a great place to do it and um you know they do a great job out there as well and coach mack out there and their whole group uh fun way to learn so those of you that are are done with your level four and looking for some fun additional opportunities when that level five is around take advantage of it because there's a lot of a lot of great stuff that goes on uh next question can you do shooting drills what are the limitations guessing no breakaways or anything like that six feet from the goalie any guidance would be helpful rog you want to tackle some of those yeah that's part of the reason why i'll go back and show this again it's part of the reason why if you see the grid um the the grid is kind of a little bit distance off the off the net and off the crease so we would have we would have shooting drills off of this and even shooting drills like i said before where kids would would read the the um the trajectory of the puck and try to anticipate where it's going to end up but putting rules in that you have to read the spacing with the goaltender you can't get on top of them you can't you can't be right in their face so the kids so say if number 10 was shooting okay from further out seven and two could be screening but it'd be a high screen a high or tip you know uh so some different things to think about as you're going through some of these drills you can do with through this understanding that at this particular time the the the people in charge are saying on the ice we need social distancing so a big part of this setup is keeping kids six feet apart and and really roger this this grid has every element except for the conflict and we we just know in phase two we can't do conflict but it's got every element that you'd want in a practice as far as decision making goes and fun and all those other things so exactly i think the guys will have fun with it yeah all right next question uh how are the officials clinics being addressed and uh i would say that's one that uh morsi's not probably ready to speak to but kevin donovan and his group i know are working hard on coming up with a plan for what the officials clinics will be looking like and we will communicate that information in as timely a way as possible so expect to see something about that not too distant future i would anticipate again similar to the coaching side uh some virtual components this year without a doubt um so be prepared but we will communicate that in a separate fashion the one thing we are doing is for coaches players and and referees is is getting people to take the time now to to register so that when things start to open and things start to pop that you're all set and ready to go uh for next season uh take the time the down time now to to uh to re-up your uh your usa hockey registration for the upcoming season yeah we said that on a few of the calls here and i think again it's one of those things that we we hear all the time in the fall about you know how we're we're short on time and i'm coaching i've got three games this weekend and all the different things that go in you know take advantage of the opportunities now to get those modules done to do your safe sport and that's one of the next questions i'll hit uh when will the safe sport refresher be up and i don't know the answer to that one roger or paul have either of you heard anything specific on that okay um tabes or anyone else from usa hockey that may be on there text me if you have an answer for us and we'll get it shared with the group here um i know christine myers been on calls with usa hockey last week and this week is our safe sport coordinator for massachusetts and uh we'll be able to share that information as soon as it's available but um that is one area that hopefully we can get everyone up to speed on that is an annual requirement now although it's not as long as the initial say sport class you all probably originally took so that'll make it a little bit easier for everyone it's a refresher course so um next question says does this mean you can have up to 30 plus or minus kids on the ice at one time the state guidance that we've received and then what we're sharing is that uh they're referring to the groups as cohorts so you can have up to as many cohorts as you can fit on the ice assuming that you have no more than 10 people in the cohort and there's a minimum of 20 feet between them so it sets up very nicely for three groups of 10 on the ice i think to get good usage of the ice in space if you try and do a fourth group out there unless you're on an olympic size sheet and you're really getting creative i would probably stay away from that that size group because you're asking for trouble um but certainly i think most rinks can very easily accommodate a a three-group set up and then a practice plan that uh allows that to take place um is usa hockey or mass soccer requiring additional waivers for covet specific issues that families and players must sign before hitting the ice i know that there's been some discussion in the general player agreement and what that will look like i don't know officially what that is but i will say that i know a lot of facilities are probably going to have some players and families signing waivers before they go in i've heard that discussed but anything that is going to be required will be shared through usa hockey and mass hockey as it becomes available we have not seen anything official at this point so kevin there's a lot of programs right now that i know of program-wise are going to require those coveted waivers yep no this is probably expected and i think um not probably uh uncommon going forward so uh come september if we are in phase three or four will there be changes to the numbers of players and coaches allowed on the ice also working with goalies i think we kind of covered that yes hopefully in phase three there's a loosening of these restrictions uh purely speculative but no that's um that's what we're hoping for and expecting at some point uh can the virtual card be used for more than one clinic uh so let's paul maybe you can kind of re-establish what the actual ver the uh temp card is or the ver there's no the virtual card isn't really a thing it's a temporary card that actually gets you your certification valid for the entire season correct exactly it's a temporary card for your cep for the current season you you will not have to go to a clinic until it's called the fall of 2021 your next step whatever that would be if you were an expiring level two and you needed your three you get it you get a year on it you get a year grace period okay so that but and following back around if you apply right now you register you apply for that temp card and you decide you know what i do want to do my level three this year and there's a opportunity for me to register online then you don't have to pay anything additional but it's good for one one year or one level up this year if you wanted to use it that way fair correct okay and and morsi i got somebody who emailed me level four coach current level four coach would they need a temp card no you got his level you got his level four and 2000 before 2020 yep obviously yeah then they're they're all set they're good to go correct yep great uh what do you think happens with schools reopening in the fall and the guidelines numbers per class allowed will drive what happens with learn to play programs uh too far down the road to even speculate again we hope phase three has a loosening of our restrictions but i think uh you know schools in the fall a lot of moving parts i know a lot of news came out here in massachusetts today about what school may look like for the kids in the fall um and so i think at this point we don't have any answers on how that will all dovetail together but we're looking forward to uh loosening the restrictions in phase three if everything keeps going the right way and if we keep doing what we're supposed to be doing i think that's part of the equation as well uh you know do not try and cram 50 kids on your ice and i think you'll get away with it someone's going to turn you in do not try and skirt the rules here because all it does is put more people in danger so let's keep our you know senses here let's do this the right way for the next three or four weeks so that we can get to that phase three uh the last thing we want is the the governor and the task force to look back at youth hockey and the ranks and say hey they really aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing we're gonna really hold them back going forward because they can't do it the right way let's not be that group um so that's just my my quick speech there on that kevin i wanted to add another thing too it just popped in my head you know we went over the grid hockey thing um we're gonna put some additional drills on on on the website for you as well but also the mobile coaching app um usa hockey.com mass hockey there is so many good uh practice plans and drills out there and i would just encourage the coaches to take a look at that stuff and you may have to tweak it here or there to um adapt to the rules that are in place right now but we have a ton of resources that i would just strongly encourage the coaches to take advantage of um uh online or on your uh mobile coaching app yeah another great one roger thanks for mentioning that because that is a very important message and that that usa hockey mobile app is a phenomenal tool if you don't have it downloaded on your phone i would implore you to do it and you'll see the benefits of it the the resources at your fingertips from practice planning to drills you'll you'll never have to access another resource so thanks for mentioning that roger all right uh will rinks have to paint grids similar to the one roger showed no no rinks won't have to do that um they'll be kind of you can put your cones out there as a coach if you want to and certainly a lot of ways to do that but no the rates will not be required to do that one thing to remember and this is always good to kind of share the information and make sure we're all on the same page so obviously massachusetts hockey and what we do we are the governing body in the state but we're not the exclusive uh body or the exclusive renters of ice so each facility uh has to handle things their own way and is going to basically make sure that they're compliant with the rules on their local uh turf so to speak so we're going to share these practice plans we're going to give this information that's part of our job as the governing body but each facility is going to navigate their own way as far as what they they do as far as entrances exits what the ice will look like what the time in between sessions will look like all of that stuff is really up to the facility um and the individual ranks so um while while it might be great and some rinks may choose to to put that paint down i think most probably wouldn't but each coach has the opportunity to put those cones out and do it that way is that uh anything else beyond that guys you know i would say you don't have to you have to put anything like you said tires cones anything to to mark out the uh the little boxes all right um does it have to stay mandatory to the grid or can you set up passing and shooting drills in the zone spread out like game time situations certainly this the grid is not a mandatory thing that you have to follow um it's a recommendation and an opportunity but there's a lot of drills you can run certainly that can create some opportunities for kids to who still socially distance and create opportunities for them to to think the game to act to react and and play hockey um to the best of their ability as as more as he said the only thing we're missing is the is the conflict that's what the six foot radius kind of gives each kid but other than that be creative coaches we we challenge you to be creative and share those drills with us if you take a video of something you're doing that really worked well send it to us send it to roger we'll get it out and and we'll make you famous on our twitter account we'll do all kinds of good stuff if we if we see some new drills you guys are the ones that a lot of times can can do that and share so don't be shy we encourage that um will they increase the number of coaches who can attend the level five next year morsi i i can't answer for that um i know that um it's usually uh i think they cap it off at 500. that's right it's been that's been the norm for level five and i would assume they're gonna stick with that but if something is different i'm gonna hear it real quick from big brother watching me tonight i got a couple of things i got to clarify and one of them is this temp card okay it's not a one up if you have your if correct level two is about to expire and you need your level three you get that temp card you don't have to take your level three till next year it's not a one-up so you whatever level you're expiring at it just gives you a pass for the next year before you have to take that next level and all right live minnesota is going to go to 600. there you go see technology is very helpful you ask we answer um all right this one i see many organizations having players dress in the parking lot for a goal tender there's a risk of damaging their leg pads and gloves on the pavement is it possible to direct rings to provide goaltender parking areas with rubber mats where goalies can dress um we can't direct the rink to do that i think um any any rink is going to be able and willing to to work within the context of of what is needed um and i think you know talk ultimately to your program to start with have them reach out to the rink and say hey where can our goalies get dressed if that's the case um you know obviously we're not encouraging people to to damage their own equipment and do things of that nature um but there's probably some creative ways that you could you could get away with that and still make it work um but again each each facility is going to have to navigate that on their own kevin kevin and the goalies i mean just come in with your undergarment stuff on put the pads on once you're in the rink once you put your skates on yeah and i would i would think in most cases you're not gonna have any problems doing that so and if you did the other kids are gonna have to tie their skates and put their helmets in their gloves to get inside the ring they're not gonna come in with all that stuff on already right no exactly so um hopefully that helps everyone on that part um do these requirements apply to dry land activities but yes the state's governance on outdoor sports is very similar to indoor sports and at this point we've kind of been covering the on ice products so to speak um i would say that the off ice product and if you're playing other youth sports right now soccer or little league or any of those um they're going to have their their same constraints as well so i think it would be extremely similar to that just because you're outdoors doesn't mean you can also start teaching checking drills in the parking lot uh unfortunately that's the the way that's set up but um in all likelihood yes you would still want to follow those constraints uh last one here uh and we'll end on a great one what are your thoughts on club programs going right into tryouts this week with kids having been off the ice for three months and heavy restrictions uh each program club or town or local or whatever they are you know is going to try and navigate their path as to what they think is best for their program so that's not an area that you know i have a whole lot of opinion on because they've got to do what's best for their program you as a parent have to do what's best for your kid and i think there will be a mix there of what people want to do and can do um you know it's uh obviously given the constraints that these um that you have on the ice and phase two the tryouts are going to look a little bit different than they have in the past i mean most tryouts are traditionally going to be a little bit of skating and shooting and go right into a scrimmage format obviously that's not going to be the case in phase two so um i'm curious to see what some of these tryouts do look like and go from there but uh as a family make a choice on is that a program that you want to go to and are you comfortable with that level of evaluation um you know but the the programs certainly have the right to do that and uh they can they can select players without tryouts if they so desired as well so there's a lot of programs doing things a lot of different ways they're all trying to figure it out and we're all in this together i think you know just because someone does something in a way that you may not like or i may not like doesn't mean that they're wrong they they have their choices we have our choices you have your choices and uh hopefully everyone can can figure out how to kind of work together over the next three to four weeks get through phase two and move us on to phase three so we're prepared to to move forward and keep youth hockey growing and going in the right direction so yeah kevin and on that note i think that it's important to realize and you said it perfectly you got to do what's right for your kid the window now is getting very small i mean we're going to sneeze and it's going to be september and i know a lot of programs are challenged for ice time ice time availability during uh late spring early summer time so you're going to see people doing things differently for that exact reason the the inability to even get on the ice is going to is going to be a challenge to get on the ice so i think you got to just look at it for what it is and getting through some crazy times here yep i would just like to remind the the coaches and and certainly the parents on the call as well that uh i'm the regional manager for for you know massachusetts and uh elizabeth put my contact information on there if you want to have separate of the coaching clinics where you're going to get certified if you want to do something with your association um with me um reach out if you have a specific question on anything that's happening on the ice as far as player development is concerned don't reach out i'm here to help support so uh it's a resource that's available to you if you uh want to take advantage of it great and actually one more question popped up and we'll we'll end on this one because i think it's another good one that i'd like everyone to hear at least my answer to and the question says is there an overwatch department to make sure that each program and facility is complying with phase two guidelines so the the easy answer is yes it's called the local board of health um at the end of the day the board of health is the responsible for allowing or not allowing a facility to operate and open so if if there's something that's going on that doesn't make sense i would strongly encourage you to first talk to your program whoever's renting the ice and what your your program you're a part of if you don't get satisfaction there talk to the facility if you don't get satisfaction and you feel that something's very much at risk then you have options of where you go with that next but ultimately massachusetts hockey or usa hockey we can't shut down a rink we don't have that authority or or governance uh at all um it's a business it's a it's outside of our purview but um the the highest level would be your local board of health if there's if there's that level of concern that they come down and explore what's going on and and um i think most facilities aren't going to risk i hope most facilities aren't going to risk having themselves shut down for longer uh periods and and that would be the the best answer we can give you on that one so with that said uh morsi roger tabes back in colorado springs and others thank you all for uh your participation and most importantly to our coaches who are listening and part of this thank you uh our kids look forward to the opportunity to get back on the ice they look forward to seeing you as the coaches out there and uh keep leading keep helping keep developing our kids you guys are the front line for it and we without it without you as coaches youth hockey wouldn't exist so keep up the great work we appreciate everything you do and look forward to seeing you at the rink soon and kevin did um did liz put up a link to where to find the temp card where you can register for usa hockey and all that is it yeah all of that is in the chat area it will also be on an email that goes to everyone who are registered for this later this evening or first thing tomorrow and we'll get that information out as well so excellent thank you aki's back all right have a great night everyone we'll see you at the rink soon