Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Calm Before the Storm

I had hoped to do a blog entry on the lead up to the Alberta Open today or yesterday. That hasn't been possible since I am still waiting for schedule adjustments and clarifications before it is settled. This is a big event but for some reason they are reluctant to limit teams or do an advanced schedule for club input.

There are too many teams at the Alberta Open this year. We don't need 9 Atom or Cadet teams and the 11 Bantam teams is too many as well. 8 or 12 teams in divisions of 4 would be ideal. Some clubs have pushed for "more games is better" and "we want to play LA" so the host tries to give everyone a balanced, meaningful event. I like that accommodating approach but we have past over into the overwhelming. For 12 and unders who are learning to train, exploring skill development, forging psychological patterns it is not possible to play 9 games in 3.5 days and have time to play, recover, enjoy, learn, observe. They will not know how to look after themselves and will burn out, many will return home ill.

So, I will wait to see how things unfold, may be there is a surprise revision in the works.

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