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Letter to the Editor: A Voice from Apple Valley

By Guest, 05/02/13, 8:00AM CDT

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We received a letter to the Editor a couple weeks ago.  The letter has sparked some great conversation both on the usho.com message board and a few choice comments in our comments section on that post.  Last week, we got a great reply from an Apple Valley volunteer who makes some great points about development and specifically Apple Valley.  What made his post even more unique, he put his name next to it (CSlater22).  Here it is:

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The original Letter to the Editor brings several toughts to mind. There are many good points to the letter, including the emphasis we need to place on practice time vs. structured games, focus on hockey skill development and the elimiation of the elitism hockey seems to encourage, largely based upon off-season, for-profit programs.


That said, the question of giving the “ADM” full buy-in is almost an irrelevant one in Minnesota. The ADM was developed largely based upon the Minnesota Development Model. While there are facets to the ADM that go above and beyond what the MDM professed, its tenets are similar; skill-work through practice repition, limited game exposure at young ages, small area, cross-ice and half-ice game emphasis. Virtually every qualified coach would agree that the ADM has some great aspects and some where it lacks. To give it full buy-in with the assumption that USA Hockey is the Bible of player development would be short-sighted in my opinion. The folks at USA Hockey are running a business, just like many of the hockey development centers around the country. We should always be challenging the model to ask how we can do it better, not simply accept it as gospel.

Further, your comments about traveling team selection causing the number of youth players to drop “dramatically” over the past 15 yeras is completely wrong. The number of players has in fact increased the past 15 years. According USA Hockey, in 2011-12, 511,178 hockey players were registereed in his country, the most ever. Minnesota lead the country in overall players registered with a record-high 54,951, which is 1.15% higher than even the prevoius year.

I would argue that lumping all kids together at a given age group actually discourages participation. The kids at the higher end of the relative spectrum get bored; the lower kids get overwhelmed, embarassed and quit. Over time, the gap will narrow and become almost non-existent, but we will never get to that point if a kid never touches the puck because a handful of players are that much better than him or her at a young age. Let the kids compete against their peers from an ability perspective…they will come together from an age perspective eventually.

To your quesiton, what is the kids motivation to continue playing and trying to improve when placed at a lower level? I believe you have answered your own question. Competitive athletics is just that; competitive. Playing at a “lower level” is the incentive! To ignore that side of things ignores some of the important life lessons we believe sports teaches these children. The kids at the lower levels will either a) continue playing for the love of the game at their current level, or b)strive to improve, achieve and compete at a higher level for the love of the game or c) quit because they really dont’ want to play hockey. Pretty simple. And believe me, this does not come from the father of an “elite” hockey player. I have two kids who play hockey who are absolutely average but love the game.

To Scout’s response, again there are many good points. He is correct, diversified training is the key to quality player development. It isn’t games, practices, clinics, 3-on-3, small area, it is all of them. To ignore any componenet is a failure of development. To say that playing games is harmful to development again is just wrong. Good coaches look at their kids constantly and tweak their structure to match what the kids need. Hell, sometimes the kids are sick of working on edges and small area games and just need a game to demonstrate the skills they’ve acquired. There are no sports in the world that don’t include games in the development of their players. Can you imagine USA Basketball saying kids could only play half-court basketball until they were 12 yeras old??? Not going to happen.

Hockey Minnesota is light years ahead of the other sports. Anyone who has ever coached baseball or football, you know how much more game-focused they are and how much less they work on individual skills. Last year, my son’s squirt hockey team had over 90 practices and 25 games (3+ to 1 practice to game ratio); his 10U baseball team had 30 practices and 30 games (1 to 1). His minor football team had 15 practices and 10 games (1.5 to 1). Now explain to me how we are doing it wrong in hockey?

Scout’s comments about Apple Valley are really not relevant…or correct. Apple Valley did go head-long into the ADM model but more like 9-10 years ago based upon a Director of Hockey who was and is very active in USA Hockey.

I spent 3 years as the mite coordinator between 2008-11 and when I took over we were about 7 years into the general ADM philosophy. (I say general because we always played full-ice games as a component to the development). Those first Apple Valley players (previous to any involvement I had) under this format would have just graduated high school…as an fyi, 3 of them will be playing Big 10 hockey next year with several others playing minor college hockey. Frankly, I believe that is a coincidence. These are kids who are exceptional players and love the sport. They would have likely excelled no matter what format was used.

I believe the ADM philosophy is a part of the process, but to either blame it for Apple Valley’s struggles or to credit it for creating several D1 playres is wrong on both ends. Apple Valley might be a community of 49,000 people, but many of them go to Eastview (you might have noticed them in the state tournament this year). Further, the demographics in the Apple Valley High School attendance area are not what they were 20 years ago; I can tell you first-hand, it’s hard to get kids to come out to hockey. Additionally, AVHS has excellent basketball and wrestling programs that draw athelets away from hockey. It is not an Edina, where kids grow up living the hockey life. It is not the number 1 sport in AV.

Additionally, the struggles in Apple Valley have been much more due to the better players leaving for larger associations where more of their AAA friends played. It has had NOTHING to do with the development philosophies in the association. Those people who left for other associations were responsible for implementing those philosophies before they left.

In summary, the correct approach cannot be labeled, ADM or otherwise. Kids need passionate coaches who develop diverse training programs (both on and off the ice). It is our job as coaches to use all resources at our disposal, whether that is a 5-on-5 game on an Olympic sheet of ice, a 2-on-2 battle inside a face off circle, powerskating, dry land stick handling, or shinny hockey on outside ice. All of those will aid in development and make better hockey players who love this great game.

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