At Endeavor Sports Performance, we see hockey players from a wide range of age and ability. We have players as young as 11 competing in Tier II youth programs up through the NHL. We’re very fortunate to have such a diverse population because it allows us to pick up on trends in movement patterns and structural asymmetries that develop over the player’s career. Being able to “look into the future” has really helped us develop better long-term player development training and programs and recommendations for players, parents, and coaches.
On that topic, I asked David Lasnier, who has been my right hand man for the last year and a half, to put together an article on a few things that all hockey parents should know in order to maximize their kids’ development. Check out his response below!
1. First, and most importantly in my
opinion, your kid should have fun playing hockey!! I can give all the
tips in the world about training, nutrition and injury prevention, but
the most important thing parents need to know (and trust me there are
wayyy too many that either don’t know it or just don’t care) is the
first reason your kids play sports is to have fun. When you start to
send them to every hockey clinic, every development camp and every
showcase and you do that year-round when your kid is 10-years old, it’s
not about fun anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about developing
skills and taking the necessary steps to get better at one sport, but
there is such a thing as overloading your kids too young. This is the
first step toward them dropping out of hockey at a young age because
they’re burnt out. Kids are kids; they’re not adults. There is no
reason we should ask of them to get too serious too young; it’s true
with sports and it’s true with everything else in life.
Another thing that leads me to believe
that parents might not prioritize their kids having fun and enjoying the
game is the way some of them behave in the stands. I’ve seen it happen
too many times; parents yelling at their kids, at the referees or at
the other players on the ice. I’m not talking about encouragement, but
some parents flip out in the stands and get aggressive to a point it
gets completely absurd! I’ve seen this happen in amateur hockey at
pretty much every level, including Mites! What kind of message do you
think it sends to your kid? There is no way when seeing that that the
kid is going to think it’s all fun and he should enjoy himself on the
ice. He’s going to get very competitive and play to win, and nothing
else will matter. Parents need to understand that hockey, like every
other sport, is a game. The first goal at the youth level is to have
fun. There is a time to start to get competitive and to specialize in
one sport, but anything under 13-years old is way too young.
Sit down.
2. This second point is very closely
related to what I mentioned above. Don’t push your kid into
specializing too early in one sport. For one, it might contribute to
taking the fun out of the practice of their sport. But it also can lead
to a lot of issues. Skating on the ice, much like other movement
patterns from other sports, causes a certain stress to your body and
your joints. It is important at a young age when the body is still in
development that we don’t force kids into playing one sport year-round.
This can lead to overuse conditions very young (Check out these
studies: Sports-Related Injuries in Youth Athletes: Is Overscheduling a Risk Factor? and Early sport specialization: roots, effectiveness, risks.).
It’s no coincidence that there are so many sports hernias, groin pulls
and hip surgeries nowadays. Early specialization in sport is more
common practice than it has ever been before. You impose a lot of
stress on your joints from a very young age, you keep the stress
accumulating by playing hockey year-round and never give them rest or
use any injury prevention modalities to avoid reaching the injury
threshold. Again, let kids have fun, play multiple sports in different
seasons and don’t make or LET them specialize in one sport before they
reach at least 15-years old.
3. The last thing is nutritional habits!
We know that nutrition and sports performance are closely related.
Whether most parents know that or not, I’m not sure, but I can tell you
one thing: I don’t know many kids we train at Endeavor that actually
have good nutritional habits. Most of them skip breakfast (and if they
don’t they eat pop-tarts), they snack on candy all the time, and they
show up to work out without having eaten anything in the previous 5
hours before their session! It’s part of our job as strength and
conditioning coaches to educate kids on how to eat well and fuel their
body to perform optimally. But in the end, if the parents are not
educated themselves, or if they just don’t apply these good habits,
we’re fighting a losing battle. We can tell the kids to eat more
protein and more vegetables, but if the parents don’t encourage that,
it’s just not going to happen. I don’t know of many kids who go food
shopping by themselves (or simply have the power to decide what their
parents are actually buying at the grocery store). That’s why it’s so
important for the parents to be educated on that subject and make sure
they give their kids good eating habits like eating a good breakfast
every morning, prepare food for the day, have a pre- and a post workout
meal/shake, etc.
Precision Nutrition: The best sports nutrition resource available (your kids will love these smoothie recipes)
David continues to be an outstanding resource for me. I appreciate that he and I can work in the same environment, but have different interpretations of what we see. Because he’s from Quebec, he has a slightly different vantage point on the state of youth hockey development and athletic development in general. If you haven’t yet, head over to his site and sign up for his newsletter. It’s free and he puts up some great content every week.
Click here >> David Lasnier Sports Training
To your success,
Kevin Neeld
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