Frozen Shorts: The Journey

Frozen Shorts: The Journey

 Boy, do I miss the good old days playing youth sports. And yes I am aware, that in most cases, the good old days weren’t always good. The stated goal back then was to have fun, learn life lessons, hang out with your buddies, and play. There were a few wack-a-doodles back then, but not many. We played all sports. Street hockey and basketball were played in the driveway, baseball in a field behind our house, and football and soccer in adjoining neighbors’ yards. The games were very competitive and lots of fun. There was some good natured ribbing, but mostly each guy cared about everyone having fun and getting to play allot. Guys got nicked up, we had disagreements, and settled them easily, and got right back at it the next day.

 Games were made up, and rules were brokered by the older guys. Guys wanted other guys to do well and be successful. If a friend was not as talented it did not matter, he stilled played, and that is the only way to get better. The older guys taught us younger guys and we got better by playing. We all shared playing time. Each new season brought to us a new sport. No one got burned out, and a very few select guys still got scholarships, but most of all; we all played and had fun. Parents had little say in what we did playing sports. When it came time to play organized sports, parents paid a modest fee, volunteered to coach, and hauled us to practice and games. After every game we went for ice cream. We had a blast.

So when I started coaching about 38 years ago in youth sports I just naturally assumed this was the way to coach. My first coaching job came about quite by accident. I was at a friend’s diner, and his son played on a hockey team. The coach, who was a great guy, came in, we talked, and I coached the team the next year because he was too busy with his job. (I am still close to that player today) From there I went on to coach in high school and college hockey.

I started keeping little notes and stuffing them in a drawer as I went on this journey. I wanted to learn, I wanted to get better. Analyzing everything and trying to figure out if there was a better way to do things became an everyday occurrence for me. Mental notes turned into ideas and ideas turned into practice. My broadcasting career with the AHL team in our city gave me access to some pretty good coaches, as did my subsequent time doing DIII and DI broadcasts for R.I.T.

About 15 years ago my son Clayton started playing youth sports. Boy was I shocked. This was nothing like I remembered. I’m old, not ancient. Youth sports had turned into a machine, with what seemed to me to be a new stated goal of “elite” travels teams. Didn’t make much sense to me. They are just kids. Let them play.

But what struck me most were the injuries. There were a lot of them. No one was putting two and two together. The tremendous pressure put on these kids to chose a sport, the long travel to play games against teams in other states, ( which were no better than the teams near us) The importance put on these games, and the driving force to play one sport year round was at the root of these injuries. How could people not see this? Oh, and what about fun? Fun was now taking a back seat to winning, status, and scholarships. The money being spent, and is being spent, was out of control. Value was being put on 8 year olds athletic ability, or lack thereof.

 I’m all for competition, good honest fair competition, and I like to win, a lot. But this, this was different than anything I had ever seen. Kids were getting hurt all the time. I could clearly see the connection between this new era of youth sports and the injuries. I started talking to Certified Athletic trainers, Doctors, Physical Education teachers and athletes.

So I turned the notes I had been taking for all these years into a book. The book, and the company I formed was done with the belief that we had to lower the injury rate and the best way to do this was to embrace the old ways we did things.  I t was the way I had coached all my adult life. Play for fun with balanced excellence, and the overuse injuries would go down, we would have more fun.

So here we are. I have been interviewed all over the United Sates, and twice in Canada, in all forms of media.

 Achieving balanced excellence and health while embracing the value of play for fun became the mission of Frozen Shorts. It is a simple formula, just not easy to implement.

We work with Doctors, coaches, Certified Athletic Trainers, professional athletes, and moms and dads sharing ideas and implementing solutions to right the ship as it has careened off course and out of control.

 Change has started.