On Monday I flew to Minneapolis to work at USA Hockey’s Women’s National Team Camp. The camp boasts the top 28 U-18 girls, and top 51 O-18 players in the country and provides a great opportunity to check with everyone to assess their progress both on and off the ice. It’s been a great experience so far, and as always, I’ve been learning a lot about what it takes to develop a world-leading program.
Thoughts on the American Development Model
I wanted to take a moment and bring USA Hockey’s ADM program to everyone’s attention. I’m sure you all have heard mention of this program (our team is now ADM compliant etc). This program is very extensive and detailed and there are tons of lists of factors and other implementation strategies (read sleeping pills). I can’t claim that I’m an expert on the ins and outs of this model but I’d like to share a few highlights that I think are important and worth sharing.
This is a long-term athlete development model that was introduced by USAH a few years ago (2009 if you’re curious) essentially to grow the sport of hockey and introduce it to more and more players. This was not done overnight nor on a whim; they spent years gathering data and talking to the leaders worldwide within the sport of hockey. The idea was to shift the focus away from games & results. This incorrect focus led to a large numbers (more than half) of players quitting before Peewee’s and one in five players quit after their first year. USAH wants youth teams to spend more time on the practice and effort. The program is supported by virtually every coach from the junior/college levels and up.
The key difference and the key for the success of growing the sport of hockey is positive reinforcement and allowing players to learn, fail, and ultimately succeed. Spending LESS time playing games, traveling to games, preparing for games, worrying about the scores of games, worrying about how much ice time I will get in games….you get the idea. USA Hockey wants all players to have an opportunity to learn to love the game of ice hockey, not be discouraged before they even get familiar with it. Why would anyone, adult or child, want to keep playing a sport in which the coach tells you you aren’t good enough, directly or indirectly, and you don’t get the same opportunity to participate games and practice? I bet a lot of guys (and girls) playing in adult leagues wouldn’t be very happy if there was a coach behind the bench doing these very same things when all you want to do is go out there and have fun.
If not wasn’t enough, games are not the best place for skill development….practice is. The best Peewee aged players touches the puck for 38 seconds per game (according to a puck possession study done by USAH) if I told parents that their son/daughter will only touch a puck for 38 seconds during an entire practice you would tell me I’m crazy. How can you get good at anything in 38 seconds? The answer of course is you can’t, you need time and you need repetition which you can only get in practice. Even further, NCAA college teams or the best prep schools in the country play nearly as many games as some of the mite teams in this area. Why? They know it’s in their players best interest to practice to help their players get onto the next level.
Some will argue that this is taking away from the “stronger” players at the younger levels who are so far ahead of their peers, or that it doesn’t allow the kids to compete fully. To put it bluntly, that is the biggest crock of you-know-what I’ve ever heard. When I hear, “oh he/she is the best player in the area”, although that’s great and yes that player should be proud of his accomplishments so far, there is a 60% chance that player will quit by the time he’s a Peewee or older. The ADM model allows the players who have the potential to be truly “better” to develop and emerge over time rather than have players to “peak out” at 11-12. Also, it still DOES encourage competition and not what I call “everyone-gets-a-trophy”.
The biggest obstacle to successfully implementing this program are adults. We are the biggest problem, yet we are the ones in charge of making it happen. Too many times have I heard/seen/experiences coaches who focus on their own short-term goals, such as shortening the bench in a Squirt game to get the W, or screaming at a player for making a bad play, convincing themselves that the kids really care if they win that tournament and get a trophy, etc etc (you know what I’m talking about) instead of really truly having the best interest of the kids in mind. We spend energy to plan tournaments, games, and develop the most advanced practices when all we really need to do is throw a puck out there and let the kids do the rest. A study was completed by Michigan State among 10,000 middle school and high school students to list the top 12 reasons why they play a sport; #1 for both boys and girls was to have fun. Winning ranked as number #8 for boys and dead last #12 for girls. There were at least 7 other reasons besides winning that were more important. The same institute also surveyed why kids stop playing, reason #2 –> they weren’t having fun.
This is a lot of information to comprehend and digest. The biggest takeaway is to allow our kids to have fun, truly enjoy the sport, and not try to implement adult values on kids sports. There’s plenty of reading material out there, research papers, and other information that supports these thoughts and that you’re can Google on a late night if you’re out of sheep to count. I have yet to come across one article supporting a 70-80 game schedule, or even 40 games, at the Peewee level but in all honesty and without sarcasm I would love to see one that did. As I said earlier, I am not an expert on this ADM stuff nor do I have a formal education in coaching or psychology, which is why I need to spend the time to learn what is out there and what are the best ways to help young players develop. Please feel free to share your thoughts on this subject and thank you for taking the time to read this note.
To your success,
Kevin Neeld
P.S. A significant piece of the new player development recommendations revolves around following a quality hockey training program!
Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!
post comments
Together We Rise: A Campaign for Everyone
I’m a huge fan of ADM- much better practice and game model for sure. We did ADM all year- however, what I DID notice is there is alot of validity in the “old school” drills per say. The only issue I have with ADM- and there aren’t many, is that the players don’t develop the “speed” because of small station work….I think USA Hockey needs to realize that while ADM is superior in many many ways- there is still validity in the “old school” drills that have worked for so long and a combination needs to be implemented..
I couldn’t haven’t said it any better myself. My only gripe is that USAH needs to get off their asses and implement this system. It’s been on paper for several years now. They need to lead with an iron fist. I’m pretty sure every rink in the Pittsburgh area doesn’t make money. If we practice our AAA teams more that would lead to more income for the rinks. It would cost the parents any more because they wouldn’t be spending $10k a year on travel. They could save half and put it towards ice time.
I was just discussing youth hockey yesterday with a local coaches wife whom he played for the Soviet Red Army Team and she was from the former Soviet Union. They are both on the same page with us. I’m working with a AA team whose coach “gets it”, but the parents do not. Ironically, the guy that played some of the best hockey in the world in one of the best hockey systems ever(Red Army) wants to practice more and parents of lower level hockey kids want to play 80+ games.
There needs to be a paradigm shift but the media won’t help. When I look at the Olympics I just shake my head. First off, the tv coverage is terrible. Next, we are fighting with China for both the overall medal lead and the lead for the most gold medals. I appreciate China’s population. However, they don’t have the gene pool that we posses nor do they posses the resources that we have here in the states.
I’m done ranting… It’s been a long week with crappy sleep.. I need to watch “How It’s Made” when in bed (which is THE greatest show ever in regards to putting one to sleep) instead of Olympic coverage which keeps my attention!
Kevin,
Can you please list the on and off ice tests that USA Hockey uses? Do they keep stats to compare the girls? I coach girls hockey so I am interested in the tests.
Thank you
Jim-I hear you, but I do think we need to qualify which age group we’re talking about. At the youngest levels, top speed isn’t really all that fast, and therefore doesn’t require very much room to attain. To your point, even players at this group aren’t likely to reach top speed in condensed cross-ice scrimmages. That said, the whole idea behind the ADM is providing the appropriate stimulus to maximize development at each age group. Players at this age are likely to benefit more from small area edge work then “opening it up” in full ice work. This isn’t an “ADM” vs “Traditional” battle; it’s a matter of understanding the age group and providing the most appropriate stimulus. My understanding, however, is also that they do recommend sectioning off a portion of the ice to do straight ahead skating technique work in a less obstructive environment, which gets at the qualities you’re referring to. I’ll have to scroll back through some of their practice plans and see what I can dig up though. Thanks for the discussion!
Scott-I hear your frustration, but I can assure you they aren’t “sitting on their asses” as you say. The regional managers that I’ve had the pleasure to meet are CONSTANTLY on the road meeting with different people form different organizations and trying to spread the word. Given the number of organizations across the country and the distance that they span, you can imagine that it may be difficult for a dozen regional managers to recommend the implementation of these changes on a massive scale quickly. This is aside from the fact that organizations are private and essentially have the freedom to do whatever they want (no matter how nonsensical), AND the overwhelming sense of “I know what I’m doing and don’t want or need your help” that exists among coaches at all levels. The open-minded constantly learning youth coach is a rare commodity, unfortunately. In all honesty, and I’ve said this from the beginning, I don’t think anything ADM will be widely accepted until we turn over a generation of coaches. We need to graduate from the “old school” mentality and progress.
As for the Olympics, the country that wins the “medal race” is HIGHLY confounded by population and sports participation. I recommend checking out Tom Farrey’s book “Game On: How the Pressure to Win at All Costs Endangers Youth Sports and What Parents Can Do About It” as it contains statistics on medals per sports participant for many of the top countries, a statistic which paints a very different picture about the success of the programs in the US and China.
John-I’m not in a position to share that information, but it’s nothing overwhelmingly complex. Think about what physical qualities are important for the sport and test accordingly. I can tell you, however, that the girls here are VERY strong, extremely fit, and working harder than ever to attain new heights in all categories. It’s an inspiring group to be around.
You can have an approach and a plan, but if you can’t effectively implement it, then it won’t work. For the program to work you need the coaches and association leadership to lead the way. I believe the US hockey association needs to improve substantially in certifying and annually re-certifying coaches to coach. The change starts and grows from this!
Kevin: Thank you! I have been harping on the fact that the kids are there to have fun for years and because I am not a “hockey coach” I am treated as if I don’t know what I am talking about! I will be forwarding your article to our coaches. Unfortunately my sons have had these coaches that scream & curse at them and tell them how they suck. As a child they are suppose to take it and be motivated??? Yet if I as a parent/adult spoke to any of the coaches they way they speak to and treat the kids I would be banned from the rink! How about some positive reinforcement?? I know if someone is nice to me and I like them I will go through a wall for them – if you are cursing at me and telling me I really suck – I’m going to turn a deaf ear to you. Thanks again Kevin for the great article!
Is there a youth sport out there where the adults aren’t the #1 problem?
Brian-I completely agree. I’ve heard that USA Hockey is in the process of revamping some of their coaching modules. As you can imagine, they will ALWAYS be a work in progress, as new information becomes available on best practice. That said, as I mentioned above, there are organization heads that are not open to the information, so it’s almost a moot point. It’s also tough to maintain a minimum competency level in a volunteer position. If a coach isn’t sufficiently informed, but a team is completely dependent upon his or her willingness to coach, then the kids having a coach takes priority. The sport has grown rapidly over the last decade, and hockey is lucky to have so many parents step up to volunteer so much of their time and money to coach, but there is a quality control issue inherent in this situation. The future will bring higher standards for sure, but it starts with us!
Sharon-Thank you for your comments. I think one of the major problems in youth sports is simply applying an adult paradigm to the wrong population. Coaches, possibly out of some sense of respect or admiration for some of the great professional coaches, mimic the tactics of these folks and don’t appreciate that professionals need to be coached and handled much differently than youth athletes. Hearing stories of coaches matching lines and benching players at the squirt level is agitating and saddening. Hopefully continuing to point out some of the positive decisions made by the few that do things correctly will serve as an example for the rest that may simply lack the knowledge of which direction to precede.
James-It’s funny you say that. I’ve been interested to hear professionals from other countries talk about how much parents are a problem there too. Seems it’s a worldwide problem. In some ways I think the best thing a parent could do is drop their kids off at the practice or game, leave, come back to pick them up, ask if they had fun, and then talk about something completely unrelated.
I was really suprised on how many games juniors play there.. over 40 or even 80?
I coach U-17 years in Finland, and we have around 45-50games this season, including training games and if all playoffs games goes to 5-or 7-game.
And it´s not good to see, that you have same kind of problems with coaches/parents than we have here..
BTW, love your blog and site. Got the book also and have used a lot of your excersices on this summer to prepare for the hunt.
Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts here Kevin. I think the more we talk about it, the more we will all remind ourselves about the big picture and what it’s all about…which is kids having fun playing a game.
To expand on the world-wide problem discussion, yes there are crazy dads everywhere (let’s be honest, it is mostly dads). However, and this may be tough given recent developments (ie Sandusky case) speaking specifically to Sweden and Finland there is a much greater overall trust in coaches. You mentioned it would be best if parents just dropped their kids off and stayed out of it, which is largely how it works over there. In my own experience, and I may have just gotten lucky, but the knowledge among coaches is head-and-shoulders above what it is locally in the PA/NJ area. It probably has to do with the fact that hockey is to Sweden what baseball is to the US and is much more ingrained in our DNA, but I’m hopeful that with the ADM model and with raising the bar for both coaches and players will improve the caliber of hockey players that come out of this area.
Juho-That’s a large part of the problem and one of the things the ADM is proactively adjusting. An unfavorable practice:game ratio, as you know, will hamper development because players spend the majority of the time on the bench or on the ice only loosely engaged. It’s always great to get a Finnish perspective. There’s a lot we can learn from what you guys do!
Andreas-Agreed all around. As I mentioned in a comment above, quality control from a coaching standpoint is a huge issue and priority, but it’s also extremely difficult to control on a large scale for a volunteer position. To your point, hockey may be more popular in Sweden and Finland, but the baseball folks aren’t exactly “proficient” in LTAD concepts here either. It’s a nationwide, sport-wide problem.
Love your stuff Kevin. I am an avid follower. But I have to disagree on this one. Like many things, this is all about the money. USA hockey doesn’t want anyone quitting, because they want to keep collecting the $40 per child enrolled. I’ve been to these ADM practices and cross ice games… they are the hockey equivalent of tee- ball. Every kid is told that they “did great” regardless of effort, attitude, or attentiveness. Who does this hurt? The kids who are initially excited and engaged but end up standing in the same group as kids who don’t want to be there. At the end of the day, they are all patted on the back and told they were equal. The delusional parents of the kid who sat on the ice the whole time can post his hockey picture on Facebook for a few years. The participation dropout rate will only be pushed down the road to squirts or peewees. Skills and scores were never the problem as most areas have teams at AAA, A, B, C, and instructional levels. This isn’t about lifting up the bottom performers, it’s about reigning in the high performers (by bringing them down to the mean) to make the majority feel better about themselves. This same attitude leads to kids in South Korea can doing calculus in 5th grade while most American college kids can’t… but, I digress.
PDavis-I appreciate the kind words and your honestly, but I respectfully disagree. I can assure you 100% that this isn’t a ploy by USA Hockey to make more money. There is plenty of evidence for this view, most of which isn’t worth discussing, but the goal here isn’t just to keep more kids in hockey, it’s to keep more kids in sports. EVERY sport loses kids around the age that hockey does and several sports are working to revamp their development models to change the focus from winning to allowing the kids to develop a passion. Passion breeds effort and high achievers for sure, but it also breeds future coaches, officials, managers, and spokespeople for the sport. If you spent any amount of time surrounded by the people running the ADM, you’d know their intentions were pure, and admirable.
I can’t speak on behalf of any program that I haven’t seen or personally worked with, so I can’t comment on your experiences at “these ADM practices”, but I have no problem at all with providing kids with positive feedback, even in some circumstances if they haven’t fully earned it. I strongly believe that you want to give kids a reputation to live up to. I’ve told misbehaving kids they were great leaders, and they BECAME great leaders. I’ve told moderate workers that I really appreciated how they always put forth the extra effort, even while others were quitting, and they took on that persona. Our current sports culture puts together “elite” 8-year old teams; in other words, at 8 years old we’re telling certain kids that they’re not good enough. Based on what? A couple kids developing faster? We’ve adopted a high performance and entertainment-based model at all ages of the sport and it’s crippled development. Read “Game On” by Tom Farrey. We’re successful internationally because we have exponentially larger pools of athletes to choose form than other countries. All the ADM is (and the other sports’ revamped development models) is a slightly adopted version of what other countries have been using for decades. The ADM is nothing more than age-specific recommendations (based on decades of research from countries all over the world) for on- and off-ice training that allows kids to develop both a passion for the game, and higher level skill sets. It’s a 100% win for the kids, athletically, psychologically, and socially.
Kevin – love the last comment, may borrow some for a future post! The words “elite”, “showcase”, and mite or even squirt should not be used in the same sentence. I also agree that it’s not about as I mentioned a “everyone gets a trophy” mentality, competition needs to be taught correctly, but as you said positive reinforcement can change behavior
First practice today with the team I took over responsibility for in the spring, implementing a fun and exciting new approach to practices and what is really important. I’l keep you posted how this goes because it will be an interesting “experiment” of implementing ADM without calling it ADM, thus avoiding conversations about who’s right and wrong!
Hi Kevin, I’m a big fan of your website and love reading and learning from your emails. I know this is a subject from August but I must comment and say I am completely against the Adm. To me, Adm is about money and getting 60 kids on the ice at once. I started playing hockey at 4 years old in Chicago back in 1988 and I had a coach at 9 years old who played for the Polish Olympic team and he pounded us w what is referred to as “old school traditional drills” and every player in that program who had him as a coach and power skating coach was an outstanding skater and overall player. I feel the ADM is a lot of kids on the ice doing everything poorly. What I mean by that is you have kids who can’t even skate trying to stick handle pucks around cones in the corner of the rink and the whole drill is done like crap. The drills are all done at their own pace and w no intensity. A close friend of mine has been coaching youth hockey since 1985 and is so well respected that Chris Chelios asked him to teach his son to play. he thinks ADM is the worst thing that happened to youth hockey. Drills like lateral crossovers, one foot hops, and shoot the duck are drills of the past bc they’re not “game specific training.” But I assure you, the players who can do those drills can do anything u ask them on skates. Thank you
Hi Steve, Thank you so much for the kind words and for sharing your opinion. The idea that the ADM is a money grab is a common misconception; I’ve addressed this in the comments sections of other ADM-related posts on my site. In fact, it’s actually a strategy to LOWER the costs associated with playing hockey. Holding ice time costs constant, getting more kids on the ice means less money per kid. That said, there is A LOT that goes into the ADM, most of which most people aren’t familiar with. I remember sitting next to two hockey parents (and possibly coaches) discussing the ADM at one of the Women’s World Championship games and they were talking about how the ADM involved ONLY cross-ice and small area games at all levels. This is the problem that arises when people get a small glimpse of recommendations at ONE level and make the assumption it’s applied across the board.
There is a lot that went in to the recommendations for the younger players, including research on psychological development, motor development, and simply a way to cultivate a fun atmosphere and positive experience so kids develop a passion for the game. Could you squeeze more development out of a less chaotic looking coaching environment with more intense coaching? Sure, but that isn’t as fun for the kids. Athletic development at younger ages should look like organized chaos; it’s more “guided play” than it is coaching. This is a VERY difficult concept for adult coaches, including myself initially, to understand because adults think like adults. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen coaches lose their cool on young kids for not grasping a “simple” concept, when the reality is that the majority of kids at that level probably aren’t cognitively developed enough to grasp that concept. As a society, we have a tendency to admire the outliers, especially when they’re young (and despite whether or not they continue to be ahead of the curve in the future) and ignore the parameters of long-term athletic development. THAT is what ADM is all about. I’m not at all surprised that there are experts, very competent coaches, that will disagree with the ADM. It’s very rare that any decision in any field is made with 100% of experts agreeing. In my opinion, until a coach has ALL of the knowledge that went into making these recommendations, they aren’t really qualified to argue against them. Most coaches aren’t very well versed in the physical and cognitive development stages of kids; that’s a major gap in understanding the intentions of the ADM.
[…] Thoughts on USA Hockey’s American Development Model […]