Will Playing More Hockey Make You Better?
January is quickly coming to a close, which means most youth hockey seasons are wrapping up. I remember at the beginning of the year when talking to several of the teams I train saying something along the lines of:
“It’s important that we get these things down now, because when December and January roll around and you’re all grumpy and miserable, we still need to be able to do things right.”
The borderline depression that almost all players go through about mid-season is incredibly predictable. Enthusiasm to play goes down. Enthusiasm to train is non-existent. Fatigue is high. Attitudes are generally mediocre, at best. Players start to get sick. Some get hurt. I don’t generally think that you need to be an ex-player to properly train hockey players, but I do think my background as a player allows me to relate to this mid-season struggle a bit better than an “outsider” and also allows me to make anticipatory changes to their in-season training programs.
That said, it’s important to take a step back and gain an understanding of why this mid-season lull occurs in the first place, as it certainly has a notable effect on most players’ physical and psychological readiness, and typically also in their production. Essentially, players begin to show signs of over-training and under-recovery. Think about what happens at this time of year:
- Fatigue accumulates from the volume of past practices and games
- In most areas the weather is cold and dark, depriving players of the physical benefit of Vitamin D derived from sunlight (most players should probably be taking supplemental Vitamin D for the majority of the year), and the psychological benefit of sun exposure
- School marking periods or semesters are wrapping up so players have a ton of last minute papers and assignments to hand in and tests to prepare for
- In many areas, high school hockey is also underway, adding MORE volume on top of the already rigorous schedules of club hockey
This latter point is one I want to expand on. In talking with one of our U16 teams the other week, I asked them about how many games they had on the schedule, which was about 70. Practices? About 100. So across the ~7 month season (roughly the end of August through early March), they skate ~175 times. This shakes out to a weekly schedule that involves 2-3 practices and 2 games, on average, with weeks of more practices and tournaments mixed in throughout the season. A weekly schedule might look like:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off-Ice Training and On-Ice Practice
Wednesday: On-Ice Practice
Thursday: Off-Ice Training and On-Ice Practice
Friday: Off
Saturday: Game
Sunday: Game
When you superimpose high school hockey schedules on to this, at least in our area, you’re looking at another 2 practices per week and a game each weekend. Now instead of 4-5 skates per week, the player has 7-8. Now the weekly schedule looks something like:
Monday: HS On-Ice Practice
Tuesday: Off-Ice Training and On-Ice Practice for Club Team
Wednesday: HS On-Ice Practice and Club On-Ice Practice
Thursday: Off-Ice Training and On-Ice Practice for Club Team
Friday: HS Game
Saturday: Club Game
Sunday: Club Game
“Okay now off to school practice!”
The high school hockey schedule is typically a bit shorter, but it occupies the times of year when fatigue accumulation from club hockey is at an all time high. The overlapping schedules add more stressors (in the true sense of the word stress, not in an “anxiety” sense to which stress is often referred) AND provides less time for recovery between stressors to an athlete that is already struggling to fully recover from the current demands. Unfortunately this manifests in the symptoms I described above, the most recognizable of which may be a lack of on-ice production. The kicker is that the best intentioned players may respond to this by saying things like “I just need to work harder.” The truth is that the best option for the players is to do less. It’s not that they aren’t providing sufficient stimuli for adaptation; it’s that they aren’t providing adequate recovery opportunities between these stimuli. These players make appear to not be giving an effort and/or not mentally focused. It’s not that they aren’t, it’s that they don’t have the capacity to do so. They’ve exceeded their recovery capacity. They need a nap, some sunlight, and this incredible food type called “vegetables” (which most teenagers are only loosely familiar with), but not a different attitude and certainly not more conditioning.
The cure for a mid-season slump!
This may raise the appropriate question about whether playing more hockey will make the player better. As you can infer from the tone of the current discussion, the answer isn’t always yes. Playing more hockey will make the player better if these conditions are met:
- The level of play challenges the player or inspires sufficient creativity to develop improved skill sets, and an augmented ability to read the play
- The player is given adequate time and resources to fully recover from the stresses associated with playing more
In reality, high school hockey probably doesn’t meet either of these criterion, at least not for the level of players I’m referring to. If you play Tier I youth hockey in the US, school hockey will probably involve a lower level of competition, and push you over your recovery threshold from a volume standpoint. I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule as there are likely to be a few outstanding school teams with above average coaches, but in general, it’s a step down.
I understand why most club players play high school. Bragging rights. Notoriety. Fun. Unfortunately these players will need to make a mature decision whether these things are worth the potential negative outcomes. Injuries. Impaired club team performance. Impaired school performance. Overall moodiness! This all comes back to the message I’ve been trying to share a lot with you over the last several months in that development is a long-term process and it’s important to keep your ideal finish line in mind while you’re taking steps along the way. If you don’t plan on playing beyond high school, it might not be that difficult to suffer the consequences of over-playing and under-recovery. If, however, your finish line involves playing college and possibly pursuing professional hockey, you’ll need to take the appropriate steps to pursue that goal, which may mean passing on opportunities to play more hockey. This could include high school hockey in-season, and most spring leagues and tournament teams in the off-season. The decision is always in your hands. What’s your finish line?
To your success,
Kevin Neeld
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Hi Kevin,
This is a really important issue that is often overlooked. In my research on sport expertise development I interviewed a member of a field hockey U21 national team, who shared her experiences in relation to this issue.
As a 15 year old, this athlete was playing on seven different hockey teams at the one time (school age group, school firsts, club age group, club senior, state age group, state U18, state U21). She said that at the time she hated hockey because all she ever did was hockey. She played because she felt like she was expected to play, not because she wanted to. Obviously she was very good or she wouldn’t have been selected for all of the teams, but the overload made her hate the game she had been playing since she was 6.
As soon as she finished high school, this athlete quit hockey and went on a soul searching expedition in south america (if I am not mistaken). After taking some time off, and then gradually returning to small amounts of play, her love of hockey was renewed, and now she is back on the U21 national team, but deliberately restricting her involvement in multiple representative teams.
This anecdote is a real eye opener and a warning to be careful when making decisions to play on multiple teams.
Thanks for the article.
Melissa Hopwood
26.01.2012, 10:07 pmLead Researcher – Pathways to the Podium Research Project
http://www.yorku.ca/podium
http://expertadvantage.wordpress.com
@pathways2podium
Hi Melissa,
Thank you for sharing this story. In my experience, some degree of what the girl felt is extremely common in almost all youth athletes. They may not go to the extreme of quitting (although many do!), but they all experience a serious motivation and enthusiasm lull. It’s painfully evident that the current norms in youth sports simply asks too much of our kids AND too much of the wrong stuff. Some of the contentedness with the status quo lies in a failure to see the performance gap. In other words, people don’t understand how much better it could be, so they don’t see what’s wrong with what is. Stories like the one you shared are certainly eye-opening, but it’s very easy for the people that need to hear that message most (youth organization kids, coaches, parents, etc.) to say “that will never happen to us” and ignore the merit and powerful message that those stories hold. It’s really a shame.
Kevin
27.01.2012, 12:19 pmThanks for the post Kevin and thanks for the story Melissa. We talk about how training should be developmentally appropriate and goal focused. But, it seems easy to forget those things when parents, players or coaches make choices about competition – what teams to play for, which level, what leagues or tournaments, etc. Those choices need to Be considered in that light as well. There’s also an emotional stress that impacts players from constant competition that adds to the physical wear and tear. In the end we risk not only injury or loss of love of the game but, we reduce the likelihood a young player will reach their optimal level of performance. Thanks for putting this issue out there.
27.01.2012, 12:35 pmPretty easy solution. Play on one team at a time. I am wondering if have you coached a team for a entire season? If so, what level?
27.01.2012, 2:42 pmErik-Easy on paper. It’s a tough sell for the players, their parents, and the coaches of both club and high school teams. And to be honest, that’s only half the battle. The year-round competition and spring/summer select tournaments are a huge part of the problem. The kids don’t have an off-season and the time when they should be playing without structure just to have some fun with their friends is being occupied by “exposure opportunities”.
I was the assistant coach of UMass Amherst’s Women’s Hockey Team for a year. Other than that, the majority of my on-ice work was in running clinics. Most of my time now is spent off the ice.
27.01.2012, 2:53 pm