Player Development: The 10, 000 Hour Rule

[Tom Molloy]

Player Development: The 10, 000 Hour Rule

The Problem:

There are some constants when we want to become a maestro in music, dance, coaching, playing or basically anything in life. One of these constants is the 10, 000 hour rule. It has been found that to be amongst the best requires that we spend a lot of time to acquire the skills and understanding of any discipline.

The rule states that it takes 10,000 hours spread over 10 years but most of this time must be put in before the onset of puberty.

To focus on hockey this means that you must start as a child and learn the proper techniques and habits early in your development because we get good at what we practice. It also takes 10,000 repetitions to develop movement patterns that become entrenched i.e. after you learn to walk you no longer have to think about it like a toddler does. So we get very good at what we practice and if we practice with good technique we do things efficiently and if we practice with poor technique we get really good at being really bad. i.e. Most players my age were never shown how to handle the stick properly and are Bottom Hand dominant. This causes the shoulders to be tight, makes moves such as a toe drag almost impossible, causes problems taking passes and makes shooting very inefficient.

Now players get on the ice with teams and depend on the coach to design practices that are efficient and supply enough repetitions with good technique to develop these individual skills. The players who want to excel will take the lessons they learn in practices and do a lot of reps on their own because not many teams get enough practice time for all that individual work.

To play the game well doesn’t only require individual skill development, a player also needs good playing habits and game understanding as well as a high fitness level.

Hockey specific development has to address both Health and Skill Related Fitness. If you aren’t healthy it doesn’t matter how good or strong you are and if you are very healthy and fit you also require the hockey specific training.

Health related fitness includes; ideal body weight, flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness.

Skill related fitness includes; speed, power, reaction time, agility, coordination, balance.

To play hockey we need a good aerobic base (the blood carries lots of oxygen and food to nourish the body and remove wastes) because the game is mostly anaerobic (a hockey shift is too hard for the aerobic system to supply the energy so stored energy is used but it is limited and produces waste products that tire the muscles). A player needs to recover between shifts and a good aerobic base does two things; one, is that he/she can do more work before dipping into the anaerobic energy and two, aerobically fit people recover more quickly between shifts and between games.

We also have a huge problem in organized youth sport. The children are quitting hockey and other sports when they become teenagers. In hockey it is about 80% who stop playing by 14 years of age. There are lots of reasons but the second biggest reason given by both girls and boys in Bob Bigelow’s research (Just Let Them Play) is that they hate going to practice.

What is the Solution?

The first thing is that a youth coach does not have the mission to produce world class players but he/she does have the responsibility to:

1. Create a good environment so that the players and parents want to be there.

2. Instruct good technique so the players are working on the right things and don’t have to unlearn and then relearn later.

3. Strive for efficient practices that follow the IAM Rule. 10% instruction, 10% maintenance – moving from place to place, 80% activity.

4. Practices should include:
a. Warm up activities that reinforce individual skills such as skating, shooting, passing.
b. Goalie specific warm up.
c. Individual or team play instruction.
d. Drills to practice the proper technique.
e. Transition games to isolate the technique at full speed.
f. Games to reinforce the technique under pressure.
e. Shoot-out or contest to end practice.

4. The practices should relate to the skill level and cover the 4 Game Playing Roles.
– Role One – individual offensive skills.
– Role Two – team offensive skills.
– Role Three – individual defensive skills.
– Role Four – team defensive skills.
Of course the individual skills are emphasized more at the younger ages as the tools need to perform the team skills later.

I don’t know of any existing hockey program that can supply the time needed and it doesn’t have to be all in hockey. The 10,000 hours in 10 years also includes other sports whether individual or team. Any activity that enhances either the health or skill related fitness contributes to development.

Activities like gymnastics are great for balance, agility, strength, coordination, power. Soccer develops game sense, aerobic fitness, reaction time, speed, agility, etc. Baseball requires reaction time, speed, coordination, agility, power. Football needs a lot of muscular strength, agility, power, reaction time. Dance needs flexibility, agility, coordination (also helps you meet girl’s later in life)

After Sweden won the 2006 Olympics they asked their team to list what sports they played growing up. The average player participated in 6 sports. Most played tennis, soccer, a form of floor hockey and various other sports. I think there is a danger in the trend to specialize in hockey too early and not do other activities.

Summary:

The goal is not to develop elite athletes but instead to make their hockey experience a good experience and something they want to continue for the rest of their lives. We don’t want 80% of the children to quit our sport by the time they are 14. We need to help them acquire the skills so that when they step on the ice they “want the puck and are able to do something constructive with it.” The top 1% of the players will go on to the top high school, junior, college and 10% of that 1% on to professional.

We need to change the trend that is in Canada. They quit and stay out of the game until they are adults and then a lot return and play in their own leagues with no coach and no outside pressure to ruin it for them. They love the game. They just want it to be fun again. We have lots of rinks for adults. In most countries they just quit and never play again.

Hockey is a game you can play all your life. It is easy on the joints compared with other sports. I was just at a tournament in Victoria and they had divisions 55+, 60+, 70+, 75+. The oldest player was Mario Marasco who is 87.

If the players we coach are still playing at 87 then we have done one hell of a job.

Credits:
I haven’t cited where I got my information from but it has been accumulated over the years in hundreds of hours of attending coaching seminars, nine years of college and university with 3 degrees in education, teaching over 20,000 PE classes from elementary to college, coaching every level since 1972 from 5 year olds to professionals and coaching with people from 3 continents who have played and coached in the NHL, college, Olympics and World Championships.

The goal of the Hockeycoachingabcs site is to develp more Mario’s who love the game and to help and not hinder players like Dany Heatley and Mason Raymond along their journey to be elite players.

Attachments

• Player Development The 10,000 Rule.doc (33 KB)
• Player Development The 10,000 Rule (2).pdf (19 KB)

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[Tom Molloy]

I think before we plan practice for skills or system it is important to define exactly what the game is. Here are some hockey facts.

In a game between 2 equal teams with good skills you are on;
offense 35% of the time
defense 35% of the time
the puck is loose 30% of the time (not on someones stick) For low skilled teams the loose puck situation is much higher.

The average for someone to carry the puck is about 2.5".
The average for the team to have the puck is about 4.5".
Each team has possession and loses possession of the puck about 200 times during a game.

So a hockey game is a constant transition between the 4 Game Playing Roles. Every player is always in one of these roles. There is never a time when a player has nothing to do.

Role One: player has the puck.
Role Two: players supports the puck carrier, close player creating a 2-1 and farther away width and depth.
Role Three: player checks the puck carrier with either a pressure or contain decision..
Role Four: player gives either close or farther support to the first checker depending on whether the first checker pressured or contained.

If you look at the game in this manner then you realize that good habits like facing the puck, always having your stick on the ice, angling, moving to open ice quickly with the puck and again to open ice once you pass it are essential. It takes a team about 2" to get into good defending position after losing the puck, so quick transition to the attack is essential if you want to attack an unorganized defense as compared to an orgainized defense. Good technique at game speed are the tools you need.

The coach has to organize practices that not only work on one game playing role at a time but also on the constant transition between roles. One game playing role drills are fine for perfecting a technique but if you only do 1 on 1's in drills where the defender and attacker knows it is a 1 on 1 and after the shot they go back to the lineup then you are not practicing the reality of hockey which is a. both players read the situation. b. attack and defend with good technique. c. after the shot the attacker follow the shot for the rebound and defender deny a second shot. d. make a second play on offense or the defender start the breakout.

A coach who doesn't practice transition is missing the essence of the game.

Some other numbers to consider are:

1. A turnover in the offensive end followed by an attack the other way results in a scoring chance about 2% of the time. (why do teams play so cautiously on the forecheck)
2. Neutral zone turnovers give up scoring chances 7-10% of the time.
3. Defensive zone turnovers give up scoring chances about 25% of the time. In other words the farther the puck is from your net the more time you have to get back and defend. (so what is the point of the neutral zone trap being a teams only forecheck)

Also teams that play systems that are purely contain or totally aggressive also don't understand the game. The plan should be to pressure when possible (you are within a half stick and have a good angle) and contain when there is no chance for the closest player to get a stick on the puck and body on body.

So hockey is more like a tennis game than like basketball (pplays are similar to bball). i.e. hit the ball-offense, ball in the air – loose puck -get in defensive position to hit – defense. Constant changing of roles.

Our practices and our team play philosophy should reflect this.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[Tom Molloy]

Daniel Coyle just wrote a book that explains how we learn any skill. It supports the 10 000 hour concept but he explains how to practice effectively. He goes to places around the world that are developing world class athletes. Places like a tennis academy in Moscow that is run down and has one indoor court but has trained half of the women's top 10 tennis players. A baseball hotbed on a small Caribean island that produces major leage players by the bushelful. He travels to a small music academy that trains singers like Jessica Simpson from age 11 and many others. He explains why Korea now has 45 women on the LPGA tour.

I just returned from Europe where I visited Salzburg to see the friends I have there and then went to Heidelberg Germany to the IIHF coaching conference which had Daniel Cole as the first speaker. I had a good talk with him that evening and he signed the book I bought and now have read twice. I then travelled to Finland to visit my co-author Juhani Wahlsten and we had a meeting with some coaches there and plan to produce a booklet on games.

The book is the Talent Codeby Daniel Coyle. It explains how we have to gradually produce movement circuits (or any other kind of learning) by trying, failing, trying again. This connects the nervous system patterns and the circuit is wrapped with myelin which is white fatty matter (like the rubber coating on an electrical cord) This myelin holds together this new knowledge (movement, reading, speaking etc.) and the more we repeat this movement the more times the circuit is wrapped and the fasted the response time.

Anyone can learn anything if they work long enough at it to produce these circuits. We can learn all our lives. Up to puberty then up to 30 we learn faster but we retain the ability to learn. Deseases like MS or dementia are caused by the breakdown of this myelin coating and we lose the circuitry to control our muscles with MS and the cognitive ability with dementia.

Sports, music, education, behavior are all dependent on developing the proper circuits and there are effective techniques that enhance learning in coaching, teaching, parenting and learning anything.

Team games need not only individual skills (how and what) but the ability to recognize the the when and where and why.) So technique and game sense have to be practiced. So we can't just practice like we would teaching the piano and focus on just one participant but we have to add the dimension of all the variables that the game presents. Brazilian Futsal is the example given for why Brazil produces most of the world greatest players. (intense game in a small area)

Best book on learning I have read so far.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[Kai K]

It seems to be really interesting book (ordered it today). It allso has really interesting website.
http://thetalentcode.com/

Kai

Kai

[DMan]

I'm excited about this book. I first read about the concept here:
http://web.me.com/workouts/OutsideTheBarrel/LearnSkill.html

and in the NY Times article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/playmagazine/04play-talent.html?_r=1&ex=1173758400&en=ff5fcfa9ff62bb41&ei=5070

The scientific articles at the bottom of the first link were a bit complex to grab my interest at the time, but the NY Times Article was fascinating and I wanted to know more. I think the book will be just what I'm looking for.

Thanks for sharing this resource.

[Eric Fink]

I am also awaiting my copy of Talent Code. I'll offer up another book for those still looking for more on a similar subject. Bounce by Matthew Syed is a good glimpse into the Science of Success. Unlike others, it is directed at athletes and quotes The Talent Code, Outliers(Gladwell) and (Blink) Gladwell, along with others. It goes into the psyche of athletes as well. A worthwhile read.

[Kai K]

I got my The Talent Code just few days a go and really interesting.
Here's link to interesting article about reading the play
Reading the play in team sports: yes it's trainable!

Kai

[Pops Ryan]

Tom wrote "A coach who doesn't practice transition is missing the essence of the game" In my humble opinion, the key to coaching is to get players to think in terms of the 4 Roles… until they get so comfortable with it that they don't even have to think about them anymore. When I get my team to that point I will consider the season to be a success. There is nothing in hockey but transition, that's why traditional drills do not work. I thank God for this website.

[Tom Molloy]

At the conference in Heidelberg one presentor put up a diagrm with game playing roles 1-2-3-4 numbers in a square and then drew arrows across and down to joing them as well as arrows from one diagonal corner to the other. the idea was to emphsize that in a hockey shift we go from passer-1, to receiver-2, or maybe from passer-1 to closest defender-3, or covering away from the puck-4 and this happens about 400 times in a game as the puck goes from one player to another and one team to the other.

An example is that good players pass and then get open for a give and go return pass right away. They don't stand and watch. they have good habits like facing the puck and facing the play with the puck so that they always see where the other players are and know the correct response. The Why, When and Where of the game.

We are now doing a pretty good job of the technical skills of What and How. The challenge is to use these tools effectively during a game. That is where using small area and full ice games with modified rules fit into the practice plans.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[hockeygod]

Tom,

Hope you had a good trip to Europe! I will call you to hook up this week so we can get caught up.

Glad to hear you read one of the books I was telling you about! I knew it would strike a chord with you! Some Hockey Canada people had some good one-on-one time with Daniel Coyle while over there. He made a positive impact in helping cement their beliefs that we need to continue our work on our LTAD model (which the Americans have rolled out nationally this past year as the ADM.)

I have heard rumours of some very interesting (and most likely controversial) programs that will start getting implemented in minor hockey… perhaps as early as this fall; after the Hockey Canada AGM wraps up this weekend in Montreal! They are to designed to further enhance player development… stay tuned!

Another book that may be of interest to you and your readers is "Spark – the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain" by John J. Ratey. He just presented at MRU and at Red Deer College. This has created further interest (national / provincial / local) in how this can be applied to the Canadian LTAD model. I am in conversations with many people about this as I believe we should look to try to implement these findings into the school systems. (For all that are interested in books, please go to my previous post about books I have read / am reading for other titles / recommendations.)

Cheers,

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Eric Fink]

I tried to find your post with your recommended reads but couldn't find it.

[hockeygod]

Eric, it was posted Dec 7 2009. Here is the link for those interested:

https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/forums/topic/books-for-coaches-to-read/

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Aberdeen]

Talent Code is worth getting?

[hockeygod]

Yup. Not written in scientific prose. Don't even need to drink a BIG beer to make sense of it. Check out my reading list for some other titles (above) as there are some good'ers on it! Try your local library first as it will save you a few scheckles…

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Here is an article by Ericsson, one of the most renowned researchers in expertise:

https://webmail.shaw.ca/attach/28112010421.jpg?sid=&mbox=INBOX&uid=24935&number=4&filename=28112010421.jpg

Psychological Review
1993, Vol. 100. No. 3, 363-406
Copyright 1993 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
0033-295X/93/S3.00

The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance

K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer

Abstract

The theoretical framework presented in this article explains expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.

Conclusion

People believe that because expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance the expert performer must be endowed with characteristics qualitatively different from those of normal adults. This view has discouraged scientists from systematically examining expert performers and accounting for their performance in terms of the laws and principles of general psychology. We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.

Most of our scientific knowledge about improvement and change comes from laboratory studies of training and practice that lasted hours, days, and occasionally weeks and months. In addition, there is a growing body of data on the heritabilities of various abilities and characteristics estimated for twins and parents and their offspring sampled from the general population (Plomin et al., 1990). Although behavioural geneticists carefully point out that their heritability estimates are valid only for the limited range of practice and skill in the normal environment of the adults studied, it is often incorrectly assumed by lay people that these estimates can be directly extended to extreme manipulations of environmental conditions, such as extended deliberate practice. Most important, the effects of short-term training cannot be readily extended to the effects of orders of magnitude more practice.

A promising direction for research on the effects of extended activities is to identify activities relevant to some goal and to assess the amount of time individuals allocate to these activities. Recent research has shown that the amount of time individuals spend reading as assessed by diaries is related to memory for prose even when education and vocabulary are partialed out (Rice, Meyer, & Miller, 1988). The estimated amount of reading is also related to reading ability and, most interestingly, increases in reading ability (R. C. Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding, 1988). Research on physical fitness has a long tradition of measuring daily physical activity and exercise, and we have cited the study in which Fagard et al. (1991) assessed the influence of both genetic factors and regular activity on aerobic and anaerobic abilities. It would be ideal to plot the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in longitudinal studies across the entire life span (Rutter, 1989). Within this context, we view the study of elite performers as particularly interesting because from early ages their lives appear to maximize the influence of environmental activities (deliberate practice) improving a specific type of performance. In a rare study Schneider, Bos, and Rieder (1993) included environmental factors along with physical characteristics and motivational characteristics of individuals in a longitudinal study of elite tennis players. Consistent with our framework they found that tennis performance at ages 11 and 17 was primarily determined by parental support and in particular motivation and tennis-specific skills, where the level of these skills in turn are mainly attributable to assessed levels of motivation and concentration.

We view elite performance as the product of a decade or more of maximal efforts to improve performance in a domain through an optimal distribution of deliberate practice. This view provides us with unique insights into the potential for and limits to modifying the human body and mind. Many anatomical characteristics, traditionally believed to be fixed, can adapt and change in response to intense practice sustained for years. Substantial change and learning can occur even during childhood, when some changes, such as in certain perceptual-motor abilities, might be even easier to attain than during adulthood. Untrained adults can overcome limits on speed and processing capacity by acquiring new cognitive skills that circumvent these limits by qualitatively different processes. Further research on the capacities and characteristics of expert performance will give us a much deeper understanding of the full range of possible adaptations and methods for circumventing limits (Ericsson & Smith, 199la).

It does not follow from the rejection of innate limits on acquired performance that everyone can easily attain high levels of skill. Contemporary elite performers have overcome a number of constraints. They have obtained early access to instructors, maintained high levels of deliberate practice throughout development, received continued parental and environmental support, and avoided disease and injury. When one considers in addition the prerequisite motivation necessary to engage in deliberate practice every day for years and decades, when most children and adolescents of similar ages engage in play and leisure, the real constraints on the acquisition of expert performance become apparent. The commitment to deliberate practice distinguishes the expert performer from the vast majority of children and adults who seem to have remarkable difficulty meeting the much lower demands on practice in schools, adult education, and in physical exercise programs.

We believe that a more careful analysis of the lives of future elite performers will tell us how motivation is promoted and sustained. It is also entirely plausible that such a detailed analysis will reveal environmental conditions as well as heritable individual differences that predispose individuals to engage in deliberate practice during extended periods and facilitate motivating them. Our empirical studies have already shown that experts carefully schedule deliberate practice and limit its duration to avoid exhaustion and burnout. By viewing expert performers not simply as domain-specific experts but as experts in maintaining high levels of practice and improving performance, we are likely to uncover valuable information about the optimal conditions for learning and education.

Received April 14, 1992
Revision received December 11,1992
Accepted December 11,1992 •

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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