Aiming to Please
December 8, 2003

Story by: Suzannah M. Archibald

Last week we looked at how recent incidents in hockey, both on and off the ice, have contributed to rink rage and how it is changing the entire climate of the game and not necessarily for the better. This leads to questions about the psychology behind rink rage, and the pressure a young athlete has to excel.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Dr.Gordon Bloom of McGill University, a well-known sport psychologist who has counselled NHL players, as well as players from a variety of different amateur sporting organizations and leagues. After completing his PhD in Sport Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 1996, Dr. Bloom spent four years as a faculty member at Fresno State University, studying the implications of coaching and sport psychology. Since 2000, Dr. Bloom has worked at McGill focusing much of his research on the psychosocial aspects of talent development and sport participation, including the impact of aggression and violence in hockey.

Bloom says the biggest problem with youth sport today including hockey is that many coaches and parents have lost sight of why kids participate in sport in the first place - to have FUN! He believes many of us forget that children are not participating in organized sport to please a parent or win an award, but for the simple pleasure of having fun, while improving skills, exercising, socializing and for the thrill of competing.

Too often, he continues, the focus is on winning for the sake of winning, which may end up pushing children past their natural limits. Taking the fun out of playing and the time spent with your child means not only are you, the parent no longer having fun, but may be contributing to such incredible numbers as the 35% statistic. Which is? Simply put, during the past dozen or so years, an astonishing 35% of youth have dropped out of organized sport every single calendar year.

And while this might be attributed to our children's increased obsession with sedentary habits like playing Game Boy, instant messaging, and downloading MP3s, if we follow Bloom's reasoning, we owe a lot of the drop in hockey participation to the simple fact that it's not fun being badgered by a parent or coach to win at all costs.

Think that your high-scoring teammate when you were young was NHL-bound? Think again. Most kids aren't destined to be the next Gretzky, Kariya, or even Cujo the Toronto traitor (sorry, to his fans). The actual number of minor league hockey players who make it into a professional league is significantly lower then we're led to believe.

This is not to say that there's no hope for our budding superstars but it does lead to another interesting track in Dr. Bloom's research. Kids that reach the highest level of the game in the sport in which they excel have always benefited from a varied childhood; meaning they weren't just one-trick ponies.

Bloom cautions (hockey) parents and coaches alike by discussing the dangers of enrolling their 8 or 9 year old son or daughter in power skating, figure skating, summer leagues for most of the year. Not only can it be unhealthy for a developing player, but research shows that it may in fact be detrimental to their psychosocial development in that sport. So Gretzky played baseball and lacrosse …why shouldn't your kids?

Bloom sees it in the following terms: if you (as a parent, or coach), are focused on your child having the top stats, and being the best, and quickest player on the ice, then this serves as a kind of trickle-down effect on that child. What you're going to see in the meantime is a player who patterns himself on that behaviour, becoming unreasonably fixated on winning and 'besting' other players, and taking all of the negative behaviours - an obsession with winning and maybe even overly aggressive playing (hence the rink rage tag) - to become the norm in hockey.

So you may think you're creating a hockey-playing fiend, but you may also be creating a bit of a monster in the process.

The best thing a parent or coach can do to ensure this doesn't happen is to praise your child when he/she does something good or bad, be it for their effort, or their social skills with other players. Above all, talk to them about their experiences on the ice and in the dressing room.

And if it's little Johnny's third summer in a row at an eight-week hockey fantasy camp, by all means, find out if that's what he wants! Who knows, he may end up more Bill Gates then Wayne Gretzky, but at least he's earned the opportunity to figure that out on his own.

Revised: Gordon Bloom, PhD, specializes in sport psychology and works in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He has conducted research on aggression and violence in women's and men's hockey, as well as aspects of coaching expertise, team building, and the psychological aspects of concussions. He can be reached at gordon.bloom@mcgill.ca.

To contact the author with your comments, or future story ideas, she can be emailed at: smarchibald@yahoo.ca, or sma@hockeylink.ca