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Dave Starman EJEPL Director of Player Development and Montreal Canadiens NCAA Scout

By EJEPL Reporter, 08/09/17, 1:00PM EDT

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Solid Insight for 2017 - 2018 Season

Dave Starman has been with the USA Hockey Coaching education program for 21 years and is the ADM Goalie Development Coordinator for New York State.  A former minor league, youth hockey, and Junior A Coach, Dave is a Pro Scout with the Montreal Canadiens and a Player and Coaching Development Coordinator for the PAL/JR Islanders.

            As the season starts to approach coaches will start to think of many things relating to their teams.

            Puck drops on new seasons create new opportunities for young players yet also bring with them the same issues that pop up every season across our region.  The more involved I become with the the Coaching Education Program, writing age appropriate curriculums, and player development the more obvious it is how many coaches create their own issues by confusing the end goal of their season plans.

            What does that mean?  It means that way too many coaches from the 14U level and down (and across the three tiers of play) are building teams first and players second.  The end goal is "to hang a banner".  Yes, we all want to win and we all have pride and are ultra competitive.  However, there isn't a youth hockey coach in America whose job depends on them winning a league championship. 

            Mites might be the biggest offender with some coaches (and parents) still convinced that mites should be playing and practicing on full ice. You couldn't find one study that would support full ice mites as the proper development avenue for 8U players yet the recreation of the wheel still is out there in many areas, especially here in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic. Google USA Hockey's analytics video on this subject. The facts and data are there.

            I have spoken with many ACE Coordinators, Coaching Coordinators, and Hockey Directors who have said that they would let a coach go if they feel they aren't developing players correctly. So the mixed message is there.  Generally speaking we'll be thrilled as parents if our kids team wins a meaningless league title but don't seem to focus on if the kid is getting good coaching or instruction which is the key to their long term development as players so they can play at the higher levels. 

            Despite the proven success of the American Development Model, its subsequent adoption by the US Olympic Committee (and now USA Football) as its preferred method of age appropriate development for all athletes under it's umbrella, many out there still think the ADM is a fight about cross ice vs full ice mites.  The amount of people who still ignore the facts and science proving how much better cross or half ice play is at that age is staggering. 

            Looking over the practice plans from the recently completed Select 15-17 national camps you see the use of ONLY small area games, small area skill stations, and emphasis on high compete drills.  So our elite players (including our recent World Junior U20 camp) can spend most of its time in stations and small area games but our mites should be doing full ice drills? 

            Squirts also fall into this trap, they don't need a lot of full ice work, they'd maximize their time and double their skill and hockey sense acquisition with a commitment to more smaller ice activity.  I say this from experience, I did it with a squirt team two years ago and am still seeing the positive effects in those players.

            Building a mite team to "win" vs building a mite program to make sure you have a really good squirt program is mindless thinking.  These 8 years olds would rather play sharks and minnows, freeze tag, and soccer on ice then learn how to forecheck. If they are moving they are learning!

            Having built a really progressive mite program recently I speak from experience.  They want to shoot pucks, pass pucks, skate with pucks.  They don't want to stand on line in full ice drills because, like the outfielder in 10U baseball, they'll do anything but pay attention because they are bored standing around.

            The argument I hear with mites is "if we don't play full ice they won't learn offsides".  OK, my son was a mite, he went to squirts. It took him 1 practice spent playing cross ice scrimmage with a red line drawn to figure out that ever incredibly mentally challenging concept of offsides.  What no one stops to think of is, play a small area game, draw a line, and tell the mites "the rule of the game is, you have to let the puck go over this line before you do."  Know what, we've had great success teaching 7 year old kids offsides that way.  It's not rocket science

            The second thing I hear is "well, if we only use half ice we won't be good on the full ice.  We won't be in skating shape and we won't know how to use all that space."

            Please!  Uncle!

            When I was with the Long Beach Lightning, I had a Tier 2 squirt team. Upon a recommendation from long time friend Ken Rausch (USA Hockey Director of Youth Hockey) we created a radical plan for player development.  I told Ken that all we have is two skates a week for an hour each (I wanted three) and only half ice (which I actually liked).  We had 14 skaters on that team, a mix of major and minor kids and 2 goalies.

            I told Ken that I knew we could build a skilled group with our emphasis on small area work and competitive small area game stations.  I also knew we could build not only good players but a good team through the drills at these small stations. We'd put our kids into game like situations with a ton of reps at good pace and in an environment where they would have to figure a lot of things out and would be encouraged to be creative. There would not be much standing around and in a 60 minute skate we'd keep these kids in motion probably 45-50 minutes.  "No laps, no lines, no lectures" as Michigan ADM Regional Manager Bob Mancini likes to say.

            Ken added a twist.  He said "don't allow your team to dump the puck, EVER!"  I said "excuse me?"  He repeated it and said a pee wee team that had won nationals had that same philosophy and it increased their kids focus on making plays under pressure as opposed to just giving up the puck.  He said the message from the coach to the parents was that we'll lose a game here and there because of a turnover but he didn't care, we'll give up goals because of this philosophy but we'll learn from the mistakes. In the end the players will be better because they will have better skills, increased vision, and more confidence with the puck.

            So we did it also.  We allowed kids to chip a puck past a defenseman at the OZ blueline but the rule was it couldn't be a hard dump but rather done so to create a foot race (emphasizes a skill, explosive skating).  If we were on a line change, the puck carrier had to hold it and protect it to allow the change to happen.  Shorthanded we challenged the kids to at least gain the red line before sending it down.  As the season went on they just kept going with it like we were 5v5.  Delayed offsides, don't fire it back in, protect it, regroup, and attack with possesion.

            Between the emphasis on skill development, reps, game situations in small areas, instruction, cross ice scrimmage with ever changing rule parameters (thank you ADM New England Regional Manager Roger Grillo) by the end of the season, despite not winning the league and not one full ice practice we were as skilled/competitive as anyone we played and became the best offensive and defensive transition team in the league. It was the best year I ever spent in youth hockey.

            Coaches, here is my message to you.  Understand the age group you have and what they need to learn to make them better players for the next team they go to.  You have one major job as a coach and that is prepare your kids for the season after this one.  USA Hockey has put out more reference material on this subject and it is constantly updated.  The age appropriate coaching modules and practice plans on the USA Hockey website give you more than enough information to run the player development program you want to run.  Read the USA Hockey Skill Progressions For Youth Hockey book (great job by Northern Plains CIC David Hoff and staff on this).

            Small Area Games, small area skill stations, emphasis on the fundamentals (or more challenging-putting the FUN in FUNdamentals) need to be components of your program.  We need to give the game back to the kids and not over structure it to death.  Kids need time to do things to improve.  12 year olds don't need to be better penalty killers, they need skill development. 

            They need puck touches, they need to shoot more pucks, they need to do more stops and starts, the need to learn how to pivot while skating backwards (yes, even the forwards), they need to know how to make a good pass and receive one.  Teach them all of that and it will be pretty easy to get them to kill a penalty.  You can't do the TACTICAL unless you can do the TECHNICAL. 

            Coaches, do yourself a favor and do your players a favor.  Make it about them.  Many parents think squirts is a mini NHL; it isn't.  Play your kids in games.  Don't create 12 year old role players.  Don't put 5 forwards on your pee wee minor power play and have 5-6 defensemen sitting there watching every power play; what kind of message does that send?

            In practice, allow kids to fail.  There is a old expression with FAIL -- Failure Always Includes Learning.  Don't scream at mistakes. A former NCAA and NHL player told me once that it wasn't until he played professionally in Europe that a coach didn't voice displeasure with him if he tried and failed to beat a d 1v1 at the offensive blue line.  He said the coaches in Europe told him "try it again, use your skills."

            We need more of that.  We need to encourage our kids to try things; that's what these games and practices are for.  No one will remember that bantam game against Team X in Delaware in August 10 years from now nor will they care who won. 

            A young player might remember that game as the game he/she finally took a puck to the net in traffic and scored, or made a pass that created a goal by delaying to find time and space, or tried a move on a defenseman that worked, or had a consistently good game on defense breaking up plays and making good breakout passes. That's winning and that's coaching!!

            Conversely they might have a game where they tried some things that didn't work but learned what they will need to do in practice to make it work.  These games aren't about the coaches or parents, they are about the players.  At some point in their lives these kids will not have mommy/stepmom or daddy/stepdad or legal guardian to helicopter or lawnmower parent for them.  They will need to make decisions based on acquired mental and physical skills and what better way to teach life skills than through this great game.

            Tying this up, let's set out this season to make better hockey players.  As old friend Red Gendron often tells me "Starman, the team that gets off the bus with the best players generally wins."  Now the Head Coach at Maine after Stanley Cup rings won with NJ as an assistant coach and a national title ring won as an assistant at Yale, Gendron practices what he preaches with skates that emphasize making his players better.  How's that for a challenge, create practices and a season plan that will try and create the most skilled team in your league.  Skill matters.

            The banners we want to hang are the ones with players names on them, the ones we helped move onto to higher levels.  As coaches, those are our wins.  Players would trade winning pee wee Silver Sticks for a chance to play in the USHL, the NCAA, and beyond. 

            The myth that development only happens on good teams has been disproven many times over. The list of late bloomers (Chris Kunitz comes to mind) is overwhelming. Former NHL goalie Sean Burke felt that because of how bad his junior team was and how many shots a game he faced was a major reason he a) got noticed and b) got better (I work with Sean on the pro scouting staff of the Montreal Canadiens).

            The building blocks of the young star or late bloomer are laid in good practices that focus on developing skill and gradually adding the tactical component once your players can actually play. 

            As a 31 year coach from mites to the pro level I implore you to think about every practice as a way to make your kids better players first and foremost. Working with former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma a few years ago at the World Junior Championships, I asked him about what guys like Sidney Crosby, the world's best player, were like in practice.  His answer "he is a joy to coach because he expects the coaches to get on the ice every day with a plan to make him a better player.  That's what great players want to do, get better every day."

            Www.admkids.com and www.usahockeygoaltending.com have a lot to offer you.  The USA Hockey Mobile Coaching App is a must for any coach and I'd recommend spending the $10 to access all of the instructional videos.  USA Hockey also has many videos on You Tube to access an learn from.

            Good luck coaches, I'll see you along the tour this season.