Tag: andreas wochtl

Preparing for failure

Today’s post from Andreas Wochtl touches on an incredibly important topic that I think may be the single biggest problem with youth sports in general, but especially ice hockey.

Last week I came across an infographic from USA Hockey (Andreas links to the article below) displaying the number of games in a typical peewee, junior, college, and professional season. As you’re probably aware, the NHL, which is largely reliant on ticket sales for revenue, plays an 82 game regular season. A lot of junior seasons are set up similarly for the same reason. The college season, on the other hand, plays about half as many games (typically around 2/week for around 40), but places a much larger emphasis on practice and training. In other words, the focus is on development.

The question, which should be one every youth parent is asking, is why does the typically PeeWee (and Bantam, Midget, etc) season more closely resemble an NHL season than a college one?

Players skate more, handle a puck more, and have infinitely more opportunities to develop skills in practice than in a game, yet kids play 65+ game schedules. The travel associated with these ridiculous schedules also often leads to cancelled on- or off-ice practices. This system sacrifices preparation for competition and ultimately impedes the development of our youth players.

Hopefully the coaches and parents reading this follow Andreas’ call to action! Enjoy the post below.

Is your player getting enough practice?

USA Hockey’s ADM is a great model as I’ve stated in numerous previous posts. Having grown up in Sweden this concept fits in so well with my own experience and coaching style. It focuses on progressive skill development at an age-appropriate level. One aspect of the model that speaks to me is the 3:1 practice-to-game ratio. Unfortunately there are not many teams (if any) that truly accept, believe, and follow the model.

Some teams claim to accomplish this requirement by taking all the practice offered throughout the calendar year – tryouts, summer ice, summer camps, etc. The problem here is that a sporadic practice in the summer – in my humble opinion – is a little bit of a waste of time. Development takes time and dedication – skating once a week in July is not development. Although summer practice may be fun, it’s maintenance at best.

The opposite end of the spectrum of this issue is that teams play around 60 games – some even more (see USAH article citing Team Comcast Peewees). I’ve worked with players on this team and I know they did not practice 228 times last year (228/3=76 games). To be fair, this happens at every skill level. A look at last seasons game stats show Jr Flyers Squirt Minor played 71 games….Delco Phantoms Peewee AA 53 games… Even teams that claim they only play 35-40 games likely play well over that after taking into account the three-four tournaments they played in.

As we are nearing the halfway mark of our seasons, tally up the games and practices. Ask your coach if the team is on the right track. At any age or level practices are important, and they should be fun! It’s on you as a coach to take a stand and work with your organization to fix this problem. Ask your organization for more practice time, shared ice time, less game slots, and no tournaments. Stack the deck in your favor. I’ve never seen a parent want to spend $100 to get 10 extra practices but I know that spending that amount on 4 games in a tournament is never an issue. Yes, we – the American hockey community – are improving and change takes time but we are still way behind and this is another way we can address it.

Happy holidays!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team

“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University

The secret to getting the most out of your athletes

Today I have a guest post from my friend Andreas Wochtl. Andreas has been a great resource for me since we reconnected a few years ago, as he’s not only a dedicated student of hockey development, but he brings an interesting perspective having split his youth hockey years playing in Sweden and the US. If you’ve missed his previous articles, you can check them out here:

Today’s post touches on an important piece of the coaching process that I agree gets overlooked a lot. This “secret” to getting the most out of your athletes is about as simple as it gets, but it’s important that all coaches (myself included) check in with themselves to make sure they’re doing this consistently. Enjoy the post, and please pass this along to other coaches; we could all use the reminder!

Teaching Work Ethic

Hockey development in the U.S. has taken some major strides in the past few years with the introduction of ADM, SAGs, and most importantly even more FUN! Coaches everywhere are doing a great job adjusting to this “new” structure of how the game is taught. I love looking down on a sheet of ice and seeing almost every player engaged in something.

“The Lab” in Exton, PA

There’s one area where I see an opportunity to continue this improvement and connection with players development. We spend a lot of time teaching technique, Xs and Os, and other technical aspects of the game. We spend very little time on the emotional aspect of the game – aside from maybe an occasional (and likely exaggerated) pre-game speech. Most coaches expect their players to show up and always want to play their hardest….something all of us will agree is never going to be the case. How do you teach dedication? How do you teach work ethic? One way is to get to know your players better – what makes them tic? Spend 10-15 minutes at some point during the season talking to players individually. Get to know them, find out what motivates them, how they learn new things, what they feel like their struggles are on and off the ice.

I argue that just taking the time to have this conversation will have a meaningful impact on your ability to push these individuals to new limits. If you listen to their comments and apply it to your coaching you will take them even further. Kids are not robots, they can spot the coaches who care and those who do not. There may be one kid out of a million who naturally has the innate drive to spend his free time practicing his outside edge turns. If we can help some of the other 999,999 get to that point imagine what we can help these kids accomplish both on and off the ice!

-Andreas

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
BreakawayHockeySpeed.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Get Ultimate Hockey Transformation Now!

Year-round age-specific hockey training programs complete with a comprehensive instructional video database!

Get access to your game-changing program now >> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team

“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University

How to Breed Talent

Today’s post comes from my friend Andreas Wochtl. Andreas runs AW Hockey Skills, which (to be overly simplistic) aims to bring European on-ice hockey training methods to the humble Mid-Atlantic area. Andreas and I actually played hockey in the same organization together years ago and reconnected recently as we’re both interested in bring the long-term player development perspective to youth hockey in the area (and throughout the country). I have so much respect for the approach he takes with his athletes that I offered to team up with him and speak to all the kids he’s having at his Swedish Hockey Exchange Camp in August 2013. Should be a good time!

On to today’s post…

How to Breed Talent

We’re just about half-way through the season and as an ACE coordinator (person in charge of the coaches for a club) I’m preparing mid-season coaches evaluations to get a consensus of how the season is going thus far. One of the questions I place the biggest emphasis on at any level is the simple question “Is your child having fun?” and also whether a positive learning environment was created both during practice and in games. Obviously not every player can play professional hockey so I spend a lot of time researching what the best methods are to help players reach their fullest potential and a “positive learning environment” frequently shows up in these publications.

There is book out called “The Gold Mine Effect” by Danish author and ex-proathlete Rasmus Ankersen examining how talent is produced and why certain specific places in the world produce them at higher rates than others. It all started with a challenge posed to a group of youth coaches; what 5 players on your team will be the most successful in five years? They sealed the answers up and did not open the envelopes up until five years later to find that none of the coaches were very good at predicting talent. (If you have played any one sport your whole life, you know this to be true already, but that’s neither here nor there!). The author took it one step further to find common traits in elite athletes. For example, why do the best sprinters all come from Kingston, Jamaica? Who do 137 of the world’s top 500 golfers come from South Korea? How has one small town of 30.000 in Ethiopia won 32 world championships, 10 Olympic golds, and ten world records in track and field?

His conclusion was this; hard work and character are the only common thread across the world; character to overcome the inevitable setbacks that will happen in sports and the determination and willingness to sacrifice by working harder than anyone else. There are not shortcuts. Passion for the sport is essential to success. The author points to the 10,000 hour rule; two hours and 44 minutes of practice every day for 10 years. (parents, please don’t apply this just yet!). The desire to practice this hard has to be a cognitive decision and come from the athletes themselves. Is practicing this much going to be fun all the time? Absolutely not. But when there is passion and desire, the hard work will feel less difficult. Lastly, the author found that these athletes were introduced to a coach that unlocked his/her potential and provided the athlete with the drive and passion necessary to succeed. The research also shows that it’s important for coaches to take a broad, long-term view with younger athletes and not place too much emphasis on results.

Let’s apply this to our sport, hockey. There is hidden talent everywhere waiting to be uncovered. As a coach, we should love weaknesses and see them as opportunities for finding the rare talent that everyone else has overlooked (that’s a quote from the book for full disclosure). I always joke that the best Peewee aged player will quit by the time he’s 16. I also argue that at 11-12, the best hockey player to come out of this area has yet to begin playing hockey but is playing three other sports. So when you are taking stock of the season think about if your coaches are giving all athletes an equal opportunity to succeed. That doesn’t mean they will ultimately succeed, but if we don’t give them the chance we will never know. Take away the focus of winning at the younger ages and concentrate on making each player the best he/she can become. This does NOT make winning a bad thing, but it shouldn’t be the central focus but a by-product of the hard-work and dedication by the players.

Best of luck and Happy Holidays!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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Thoughts on the American Development Model (ADM)

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.

As you can imagine, orchestrating on- and off-ice testing for 79 girls and processing the subsequent data has occupied a significant amount of time over the last 4 days. As a result, I haven’t had as much time to read or write as I typically do. I did, however, come across a great article from Andreas Wochtl, who coaches a few hours away from where our facility is. Andreas and I actually grew up playing in the same organization, but missed playing with each other by a year. As a European, I’ve been really interested to hear his thoughts on the current state of youth hockey development and learn about how he runs his programs. On that note, I want to share his article “Thoughts on the American Development Model” with you. Hopefully this stimulates some thought and discussion in the comments section below.

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”.

Attitude. Competition is part of any sport, but it must be healthy competition not irate and, at times, shall we say ethically questionable.

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!

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