ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES PARENTS ARE MAKING TODAY
There are many things a parent can do to help their athlete thrive in the game of hockey. There are also many things a parent unknowingly does to hinder the development of their child. In this email we will take a look at one of the most common mistakes parents make when trying to help their child reach their potential.
The first thing that must be established is understanding what the goal of the player is. In all honesty, if the goal is truly “just to have fun” than there is no need to read any further. The fact is if your player is only playing hockey for recreation it doesn’t really matter how you develop their game. However, if there is any desire to compete at any level than it becomes important to try and put a development plan in place. The loftier the goals the more important this plan becomes.
Before we talk about one of the biggest mistakes a parent can make we would like to share our thoughts on sports in general. We at Pro Performance Hockey believe that the life lessons learned while striving to become better at hockey, or any other sport, will serve your child well throughout their life. Whether the player ultimately achieves their goals in hockey or not, they will learn key lessons in the “process of improvement” that will last a lifetime. When your child starts to approach adulthood they will know whether their development plan was sufficient enough to help them achieve their potential in sport. The process of failing and succeeding, planning or winging it, will certainly help them make better decisions in the future. Our contention is that sports are a great metaphor for life.
That being said, it brings us to one of the biggest mistakes parents make when trying to help their child:
MISTAKE #1: LETTING THE CHILD DECIDE THE DEVELOPMENT PATH. As well meaning as we parents can be it is a big mistake to let the young player decide how to spend their time and energy in developing their game. Most young players do not have the capacity to understand what is and what isn’t needed in their development to become a really good player. Unfortunately, we at Pro Performance Hockey, are seeing this on a daily basis. The biggest problem right now is that parents are allowing their children to play an inordinate amount of games and sacrificing skill development.
Consider this, the average youth travel hockey player plays over 100 games a year!!! That is more games than most professional hockey players play. These games come in the form of pre-season games, regular season games, play-offs, spring tournaments, summer tournaments, in-season tournaments, 3v3 leagues, modified hockey, summer leagues, etc. The fact is that when the focus is on games and not on skill development it is causing your players skill set to stagnate. This is putting your child way behind the top players that are constantly improving their skill set.
To put this more bluntly:
YOUR CHOICE TODAY TO PLAY SO MANY GAMES IS SEVERELY DAMAGING ANY CHANCE OF YOUR PLAYER HAVING LONG TERM SUCCESS!!!
The issue begins with asking your player what they want to do. Of course, a player is going to choose playing in games over a practice/clinic. Also, if you ask any parent what they would rather watch, they will typically choose a game over a clinic as well. This is where the decline or stagnation in a players skill set begins. Again, if your athlete is playing “just to have fun” than there is no need to worry. If your player wants to strive for a higher level or higher proficiency you will need to optimize their training.
It should also be realized that not all practices are optimizing a players time wisely. This is why choosing a high quality clinic and/or camp is vital. It takes a great deal of long term discipline to follow a well established development plan and stick with it for long term results. Playing over a 100 games a year at the sacrifice of skill development has not worked and will not work for the vast majority of hockey players throughout the world.
Many countries have researched the proper “game to practice ratio” to ensure the optimal development of their hockey players. Most people are familiar with the USA Hockey Development Model which states that every player should have 3 practices to every 1 game. In our estimation most local travel players are much closer to the 1 practice 1 game ratio over the course of the entire year. Humorously, if a player plays 100 games a year they would have to practice 300 times a year to develop properly!!
IF YOU WANT TO ENSURE YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER DOES NOT REACH THEIR POTENTIAL THEN SIGN THEM UP FOR MORE GAMES.
Finally, here is a clue to tip you off that your player is playing too many games. If you notice your player does not have consistently high intensity for every game, you have signed them up for too many games. It is impossible to expect any young player to maintain a high game intensity over the course of 100+ games. All you are doing is reinforcing that these players play at about 80% intensity. If you feel your son or daughter could be trying harder during games than your development plan might be at fault.
The bottom line is that the combination of a stagnant skill set and a lower “compete level” due to the inability to maintain intensity over the course of 100+ games is relegating your player to mediocrity.
THE CHOICES YOU MAKE TODAY WILL EITHER HELP OR HINDER YOUR PLAYERS DEVELOPMENT AND FUTURE SUCCESS.
Our hope is that this article will help parents realize this major issue before it’s too late. If anyone would like to discuss their child’s development further please feel free to call or text Coach Rutherford at 716-912-4465. We love talking hockey.
Thank you,
PRO PERFORMANCE HOCKEY STAFF