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[Tom Molloy]

Relentless pursuit of excellence

Hal Terse the Coach in Chief of Minnesota Hockey and Jack Blatherwick a training expert wrote articles in Let's Play Hockey magzine. Hal about the changes to the American youth develoment model that they are encouraging coaches to adopt and Jack writes how young players should train and why they can't simply imitate what the pro's do.

Kevin Sullivan of Boston, who I consider the bridge of information exchange between the hockey playing countries, sent me the articles.Good stuff.
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By Hal Tearse

Coach in Chief, Minnesota Hockey

USA Hockey continues to expand their American Development Model (ADM) that is intended to provide youth players a better quality of experience in the game, higher skill levels and a safer environment that will attract and retain more players. The model is tested in other parts of the world, makes lots of sense for kids, and it has the support from many disciplines in the medical field.

Hockey associations and clubs around the country are quickly adopting the concepts and ideas, although some are fearful of the changes that are required. The interesting part of all of this is that many of these ideas have been around for a long time and only now are they organized into a coherent long term development program for youth players and older athletes.

The next step for the ADM is to begin to change the culture of our programs from one that is focused on short term measurements of numbers of games won to a long term view of a relentless pursuit of excellence.

A change in view to long-term development requires a very different approach from the very lowest levels of the game all the way through high school and junior hockey in this country. It is about the relentless commitment on the part of coaches and program organizers to insure that all players are given the opportunity to learn the skills they need to successfully advance to the next age level and competitive level of the game. Players that reach their mid teens with skill deficiencies are doomed and will not ever have a chance to realize their potential. This occurs far to often.

Other hockey federations in the world, including Canada, view the player development period all the way to ages 19 or 20. In the NHL, the ages for optimal performance is 26-36, according to researchers. There are some players who stand out at earlier ages but not many.

Only after the development period is complete are players ready to move into the highly competitive environment where they can continue to grow as players. Sadly, in the U.S. nearly 95 percent of our players have already left the game by age 16 and we have very few programs for those who want to continue to train and develop as players.

Although broad reaching organizations like USA Hockey and Minnesota Hockey are difficult to change, change occurs one coach and one team at a time. The coaches of each youth, high school, and junior team are the true leaders and developers of hockey players as they move through the system. It is at this point where we succeed or fail as developers of hockey players.

Coaching is the fulcrum of success or failure in every team and program. There are four essential criteria for successful coaching and development of players.

1. A coach needs to be relentless in improving as a coach each year.

2. Each team needs an assessment and development plan that is tailored to the specific needs of the players on the team.

3. Insuring that every player on the team acquires the necessary individual and tactical skills required to play at the next level.

4. Be accountable for achieving results in the three points above.

Does this mean winning lots of games and maybe going to the state tournaments? No. It means focusing on developing all of the players on the team with an understanding that each season is just one chapter in the long career of each player.

Maybe a coach gets 2 or 3 seasons with some players and that is even better if the coach is really focused on development. Otherwise the players move on and hopefully to coach who is also development oriented rather than just focused on winning games in youth hockey.

Making a shift like this is not easy in our current culture of �win, win, win.� It is also not easy for coaches because a shift of this nature makes the job more difficult. It does require coaches to be better prepared and more knowledgeable about the game and how to teach it.

Attending the required Coach Education Programs (CEP) is just beginning for coaches as they prepare for each season. Other seminars, books, and DVDs will enhance a coach�s skills. Spending time with more experienced and like-minded coaches is time well spent.

Adopting a viewpoint of learning as a coach is critical. A relentless pursuit of excellence for a coach will translate to the same for their team and players.

In Minnesota, local associations are responsible for their own programs and development of coaches and players. Every association should have an on going coach development, mentoring and assessment program in place that focus on technical competency and measurable outcomes. There are hurdles to this idea but it does work and the players get better because the coaching is better and focused on the right areas.

Youth hockey in Minnesota is a $150 million industry that hinges on coaching. Poor or inadequate coaching means time and money are wasted and players leave the game at an early age well before they have reached their potential. Good coaching should be the relentless pursuit of every association.

Minnesota Hockey offers a coach development program for local associations. It is a combination of on- and off-ice sessions and can be expanded on request. A team of experienced coaches will come to a local association and work with youth coaches to help them in their relentless pursuit of excellence. Interested associations can contact Minnesota Hockey for more information. halt@minnesotahockey.org

The offseason is the best time for coaches and associations to begin their own relentless pursuit of excellence.

See you around the rink.

Why young athletes should NOT train like NHL players
By Jack Blatherwick

Let�s Play Hockey Columnist

One hundred percent of the offseason training for young hockey players should be planned to develop (or improve) skills, athleticism and creative rink sense. On the other hand, established NHLers are often training to recover from a grueling season of competition, injuries, stress and travel. Their priorities include maintenance of endurance, strength and core stability.

These are huge differences: development or improvement vs. recovery and maintenance. Therefore, the definition of �young� in this case includes any player who wants to make great improvements in the offseason, and this includes high school, youth, junior and college players, plus many young professionals who are not satisfied that they have reached their peak performance yet.

The most important athletic qualities � as defined by coaching groups I�ve polled � include quickness, agility, speed, explosive strength, reaction to sudden changes, plus the endurance to maintain these qualities throughout a game. To play at a higher level, it is essential to combine athleticism with stick skills, skating, vision, rink sense and creative decision-making.

For several weeks after an NHL season, professionals should not train with the intensity required for these anaerobic capacities; recovery is more important. This often takes a few weeks of aerobic training, which means long, slow distances, jogging or bicycling. Late in the summer, the intensity and range of motion is increased before starting the NHL season.

Young players should NEVER waste valuable time doing long, slow distances. Aerobic endurance is important, but it can be improved by doing interval training for the higher priorities: athleticism, skills and rink sense. In other words, don�t waste time doing what fitness gurus call �cardio� workouts.

Cardiovascular fitness can be improved to a greater extent using intense anaerobic interval training. This has been verified for three decades by solid scientific research (see articles and books by EI Fox, WD McArdle, VL Katch, FL Katch, and most recently, an excellent study by E Ziemann et al., in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, April 2011).

To develop athleticism at young ages, strength training should be combined with jumps and sprints, not separated from them, so learn all you can about post-activation potentiation and complex training (discussed in future articles). Core stability for young athletes means strengthening core muscles at increased speed and range of motion, and this should be integrated into highly athletic movements.

On the other hand, established NHLers must isolate core muscles and train them at slower speeds for the first weeks of the offseason, because they aren�t doing as much dynamic athletic training at this time of the year.

How does a young athlete accomplish all this? Participate in sports that require quickness, speed, agility and explosive strength. There are many team sports that fulfill this need, and tennis or other racket sports are tremendous. Skills, vision and decisions are integrated with athleticism, just as in hockey.

High-speed, creative hockey scrimmages can be the best, whether this is 5-on-5, or fewer players � on full ice or smaller areas. The smaller rinks (Hat-Trick and Velocity) require skills and decisions in tight areas. Eliminate whistles for icing and offside, and encourage goalies to avoid freezing the puck. Turn the scoreboards off, so players are encouraged to try creative new skills with no fear of failure.

If coaches are concerned about winning in the winter, and if this restricts development of creativity and skill � this should never happen in the summer. Scrimmage for development and fun. Keep the game moving at high tempo. Eliminate whistles and there will be improvement in cardiovascular fitness as well as speed, agility, quickness and explosive strength.

Scrimmages are the best way to combine athleticism with skills and rink sense, and great players say unstructured hockey is the key to improvement.

Train the way NHLers did when they were young, not the way they do to recover and maintain fitness.

Visit Jack�s website at http://www.overspeed.info.

Let�s Play Hockey wants to publish your hockey stories. From tournament reports, to feature stories on teams, players or coaches, to opinion pieces on the game of hockey, Let�s Play Hockey accepts submissions from readers throughout the hockey community. To submit your hockey story and/or photo(s), e-mail us at editor@letsplayhockey.com.

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