The ADM Continued

I would like to make a correction to my blog post of April 30. In that post I stated that the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s developed the American Development Model (ADM); however, it was USA Hockey that developed and instituted the ADM in 2009 and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s later partnered with the National Governing Bodies of their sports to adopt a model for team USA. This was done in 2014 to help Americans realize their full athletic potential and utilize sport as a path towards an active and healthy lifestyle. Now that I’ve cleared that up I would like to move on to talk more on ADM.

As I stated, ADM was developed by USA hockey, but the question is why? In a February 2019 article Sean Jensen, a freelance journalist at SportsEngine, wrote that Ken Martel, who played hockey collegiately at Michigan and is a longtime member of the USA hockey coaching and player development teams, was tasked to research the sports declining participation rate as 40,000 male players had dropped out of the sport over the preceding years. Mr. Martel spoke with hockey insiders and found ice time started to cost money and the adults started to care more about wins, titles and fees and less about fun and personal development. It was then that Mr. Martel and others at USA hockey started to create the framework for the ADM. The ADM emphasizes age appropriate/age specific competition and training structured to empower all kids while taking a long-term approach to development.

Mr. Jensen further writes that Bob Mancini, another youth hockey coach, had a problem when his 3 ½ year-old son started playing hockey and was practicing on a full-size ice rink. Mr. Mancini thought there was a better way, but he didn’t know what it was until he learned about the ADM. Mr. Mancini stated that the ADM changed his life in terms of how to look at the development of youth playing hockey. Bob Frank, another youth hockey coach, also committed to the ADM by encouraging his athletes to play other sports, he started limiting practices to three times for each game played and prohibited eight-year old’s from “playing up”. Before adopting the ADM Mr. Franks program retained about 55% of its players but after adopting ADM the retention rate grew to more than 90%.

USA hockey has a club structure that does the following:

· It limits the number of practices per season

· It limits the number of off-season practices;

· It limits the number and length of time of ice sessions;

· It limits the number of weeks for a season;

· It limits the number of skaters per team; and,

· It limits the number of cross ice/half ice games to a minimum and maximum number.

These limits change as children move up the ladder to older age groups. The National Hockey League has embraced this initiative and USA hockey has reported that the retention numbers are increasing and the number of injuries to youth are decreasing.

The other day, a post popped up on my Facebook feed from the Florida Fastpitch Forum and it stated the following:

· Travel Ballers: your parents are paying for your equipment, team fees, camps, hotels, food, gas, plane tickets, and using their vacation days on YOU. Let me catch your eye roll, have them carry your bag, or yell at them from the dugout to get you a drink. Oh, I SWEAR.

This was posted by a travel softball coach. Now I usually don’t read the comments on these posts because they are usually full of vitriol and nastiness; however, I did read a few of the comments and came across one where a parent stated that “sometimes we forget that “travel ballers” are only nine years old and there are too many expectations put on them” (I’m paraphrasing the comment due to its length). So, in an unusual move for me I responded that if “we” are putting too many expectations on the nine-year-old “travel ballers” then maybe nine years old is too young to start “travel ball”. Well, this comment led to other responses and one where a particular parent made my argument for me by stating their seven-year-old child plays travel softball and most of the times she is “chasing butterflies in the outfield”. I did not respond to this comment because I’ve found that no good can come from getting into Facebook wars, but it really made me wonder why these parents were spending their hard-earned money when their child could be chasing butterflies for free at the local park.

The reason I told that story is that I’ve been writing for weeks that we need to change the way we teach/coach our youth. To have a seven-year-old on a “travel team” chasing butterflies in the outfield is a waste of everyone’s time; however, I’m sure that someone is making money off of this “travel team” and even if the travel is very local there are ancillary costs besides the travel fee that will have to be paid by the parents of the butterfly chaser. Now wouldn’t it be better if this “travel team” was following the ADM where they would be learning the necessary skills to play the game in an age-appropriate atmosphere without the pressure of “competition” and the need to “win championships”? My answer to that question would be yes.

USA hockey uses the ADM not as a mandate, but as a tool that every coach can use so that every child will have a chance to succeed (this is from USA Hockey’s Brighter Future For All pamphlet). I firmly believe that local baseball, soccer and basketball leagues should be able to develop an ADM type of training program that eliminates the need for competition at an early age and replaces that with skills training that allows children to grow at their own pace (and play multiple sports) while not being “pushed aside” because they may not be physically or mentally ready at a young age to play a sport. Additionally, this concept can allow for a child to mentally physically develop to be ready to play and understand their chosen sport at a competitive level at 11, 12 or 13 years old, which will then hopefully make them a lifelong participant and possible mentor in that sport or sports.