I pulled the following off the Hockey Analysis Group on Yahoo!
This email is only intended for those who seek to provide input into making this project better or more relevant. It is not intended for those who think this project is not worthwhile. (i.e., If this party is not for you, don’t come through the door!).
As some of you may know, I have been running for 5 years now a scouting project, seeking input from baseball fans:
http://tangotiger.net/scouting/scoutResults2007.htmlI would now like to do the same for hockey.
In order to provide good results and good participation, it is important to limit the number of choices, as no one wants to fill out a survey that is too long (but also not too short that it captures only part of what is needed).
As it stands, here are the categories I’ve come up with. If someone wants to offer more relevant categories, or think that some of the categories ought to be dismissed for either lack of relevancy or difficulty in assessing, please do so.
GOALIES
Style
1. butterfly, standup
2. stays deep, challenges shooters, flops around
3. on shoot-ins: roams away from crease, stays in creaseSkills
4. side-to-side skating: how well
5. up/down: how quick
6. plays angles, positioning: how well
7. glove hand, blocker: how well
8. passing: how wellSKATERS
Style
1. defensive zone: pass puck, skate with puck
2. neutral zone: pass puck, skate with puck, dump and chase
3. offensive zone: pass puck, skate in, shoot puck
4. teammate has puck, player will: charge net, hang back, skate around to be open
5. team without the puck, player will: play the body, play the puck, block passing laneSkills
5. skating start/acceleration: how well
6. skating straight away speed: how well
7. skating stop/reverse: how well
8. shooting speed: how fast
9. shooting accuracy: how well
10. passing accuracy: how well
For those who aren’t familiar with him, Tom M. Tango (possibly a pseudonym) is a sabrmetrician who has done work in MLB and does some consulting work for an NHL team. I’m reasonably certain that he’s not Doug MacLean but that’s about it. The Fans Scouting Report is a pretty cool thing and what intrigues me about this is the idea of being able to classify players into types. If anyone has anything that they think should be added, feel free to add a note and I’ll point him to the comments thread.
This could be cool.
For skating, I’d suggest a category around “power of stride” which isn’t quite like first step quickness, and possibly something to do with balance (again understanding he doesn’t want a project scoresheet “first to third on a single to LF” laundry list).
And for me the number one issue for kids is passing accuracy but they need to be able to accept that pass on the fly too so maybe a catch and receive box in that area.
Fun, fun stuff. 25 years from now when I’m putting my teeth in a glass at the old folks home you bunch will be living in a world I wish were here today.
Youth is wasted on all the wrong people.
Thanks for posting my project, along with the response.
I like the “accepting pass” as a category.
The “power of stride” is interesting. I’d like to keep it to 3 skating choices. So, what would be the proposal? Also keep in mind that the category headers should be succinct enough that you don’t need a glossary explanation.
Thanks…
Well I guess using your three elements of skating it would fall into category 3.
skating straight away speed: how well
If we had video I could show you an example, but there was a good one not long ago involving Sheldon Souray. He was deep in the opposition end and his stick broke and of course it was a jailbreak the other way. Souray was badly exposed on the play and skated balls out for the only time he was an Oiler (so far), catching the puck carrier and pushing him off the puck like a bandit in the parking lot.
Funny as hell, but a perfect example of power of stride. The guy looked manic.
Horcoff at the skills competition the other night showed exceptional power of stride too.