IP/Novice Player Development

INITIATION PROGRAM & NOVICE DEVELOPMENT
www.hockeynovascotia.ca

LONG TERM PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
 Doing the right thing for the player at the right stage in their development
 Viewing player development as a long term process….it is 10 year process not a 10
month process
 The broader the foundation of players the more successful the game of hockey will be in
Canada
 A need to better educate parents on the hockey development of their child. It is okay for
parents to want their kids to get to the highest …levels but they need to know the best
way to go about it
“If you play games year round, the season never ends. So you don’t get better each year, you just get
older. You need time to create new habits and dimensions to your game.”

 Aligning player development resources (skills manuals, DVD’s) with coach development
and education resources so that coaches are doing the right things at the right time.
 The game has changed…more options, more money, more technology, pressure to do
what others are doing 12 month a year
 Adopting a player- centered approach and not treating the development of all players the
same way.

LTPD…Areas to Address
 Coaches feel pressure to work on things they should not be working on (systems, special teams)
 Young players over compete-----under train & learn
 The best coaches usually work at the higher levels. Need to focus on coach education and
parent education
•In a 60 minute full ice game, players have the puck for an average of 8 seconds
•10 skaters……1 puck…….what are the other 9 skaters doing

LTPD….Areas to Address
 Focus on supporting the complete athlete not just the athlete training and competition
 Example of Goalies…..easier to teach athletes to the technical side , instead of teaching to
block and then try to make an athlete
 Recommend other sports, activities to get away from hockey and avoid burn out
 Remove the focus of winning at all levels and age
 Introduce athletic skills in a systematic and timely way
 Find ways to keep players involved with different programming options

View LTPD as we would the school system...curriculum in each grade
There is pre school, elementary, junior high, high school, university
Hockey is IP, Novice, Atom, Peewee, Bantam, Midget, Junior
Should be a progression (games are exams)
It doesn’t matter who the best peewee player is

INTERESTING FACTS
 83-96% of age group champions are not the one who win when it counts- Dr Steve Norris
 In Finland, every individual plays all positions until the age of 12. There is no specialization
before that- Tommi Niemela (Finland World Junior Champions with country of 5 million )
 Every year, more than 3.5 million children under age fifteen require medical treatment for
sports injuries, nearly half of which are the result of simple overuse
Until It Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids” by Mark
Hymen
INTERESTING THOUGHTS
 Development is like farming. You can’t speed farm. It’s a process and the process takes time.
– Mike Boyle

NO LIMITATIONS ON HOW TO USE ICE
Cross-ice hockey:
3 games
2 games and a skills area
2 games and a rest area

THE DIFFERENCE
Cross-Ice hockey
Half-Ice hockey

FULL ICE vs HALF ICE
THE FACTS

U8 HOCKEY USA / NHL STUDY
A cutting-edge NHL analytics team puts the test to youth hockey for the first time
ever. Watch this video and see what you think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhxNq59pWg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB_Ygapyl7cUnder 8 Stats
Adults on Lake

PUCK BATTLES
Full Ice Cross Ice
Stats taken from Hockey USA/ NHL Study

SHOTS PER PLAYER
Full Ice Cross Ice

INDIVIDUAL PUCK TOUCHES
Cross IceFull Ice

PLAYER PASS ATTEMPTS
Cross IceFull Ice

PASS RECEPTIONS
Cross IceFull Ice

RECAP
Cons
•Kids are a little late learning all of the rules the rules: off-sides, icings, faceoff locations,
•Kids don’t get ‘structured’ game situations
•Parents attitude: my kids are too good for cross-ice hockey
Long Term-Athlete Development research tells us young players need more interaction in
their games, which is exactly what cross-ice hockey does. Many minor hockey
associations across Canada and USA are starting to mandate and promote cross-ice
games.
Here are some of the pros and cons.

Pros
•More efficient use of ice time …and as a result more ice time for young players
•Allows more kids to be on the ice at the same time
•Increases the use of the core skating skills (Agility, Balance, Coordination)
•Increases the number of puck touches per player
•Provides a better environment for teaching ice awareness and hockey sense
•Promotes stronger passing, pass receiving, and puck support
•Allows young goaltenders, when introduced, to experience more game-like action
•Creates a stronger degree of challenge for the more advanced players by having them face
more opposition on a smaller amount of ice space
•Builds the confidence of our lesser-skilled players because they are more involved in play
•The best players are challenged simply by the fact that others get in their way in a smaller area.
It forces them to change direction , protect puck and play in traffic instead of avoiding it
•Better for Goalie Development….more pucks come to the net…read different situations

1. 6x more shots on goal/ player
2. 5x more passes received/ player
3. 2x more puck battles/ player
4. 2x more puck touches/ player
5. 2x more pass attempts/ player
6. 2x more shot attempts/player
7. 2x more change of direction pivots
8. 1.75 shots/minute vs 0.45 shots/minute playing full ice
9. Turns out the actual stats of the U8 game resemble those of an NHL game
10. Simply put “The numbers show what is good for a child.”
10 FACTS TO WHY CROSS ICE - HALF ICE HOCKEY IS BETTER FOR PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

USEFUL INFORMATION
But to fully understand how Auston Matthews got to where he is, you need to know that when he
was a boy, he spent thousands of hours on tiny rinks – not much larger than an end zone – fighting
off two or three other kids, stickhandling in and around masses of skates and sticks to score a half-
dozen goals every game. Every game was 3-on-3, which meant more time with the puck, more time
in close quarters and a need to find a way through a tight spot.
Auston Matthews (1st
Overall 2016 NHL Draft)
What he didn’t know was the typical development path for NHL prospects. He saw other parents in
Arizona paying more than $20,000 a year for their kids to travel across the country on AAA teams at
nine and 10 years old and he figured that there had to be a better way.
Or, at the very least, a more affordable one.
Having his son play on the smaller sheet, for hours on end against all kinds of competition, made sense
to the new hockey dad. He thought that it was similar to how so many soccer greats started in the
slums and gyms of Brazil with their own makeshift games of futsal, the 5-on-5 version of soccer.
Brian Matthews (Auston’s Father)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/why-everyone-in-hockey-is-talking-about-aust

Jim Peplinski, Former NHL Player
Former Calgary Flam player, Jim Peplinski, shared a story on the topic that summed it up nicely.
Peplinski told me that Bob Johnson used to run half-ice practices for the Flames. "He'd put us through the paces for
45 minutes, and we'd be bagged. Way more stops and starts, turns and battles in small spaces. It was a great change
of pace from regular practice, but it allowed guys to keep improving their skills and it also was a great way to
maintain cardio," said Peplinski.
I'd suggest if NHL players can benefit from half-ice practices, then minor hockey kids will as well, as long as the coach
running the practice knows how to effectively introduce drills.
The best advice Peplinski said during the Hockey Alberta Summit was, "Don't mix amateur and pro hockey." He gave
a pretty interesting example. "You don't need to be at the game 90 minutes early in atom and peewee to prepare. In
the NHL we were playing ping pong before the game, we weren't sitting in our stalls for 90 minutes mentally
preparing," said Peplinski.

George Kingston, Former San Jose Sharks Coach
When I went over to Europe to study the game, I noticed right away that the Europeans were
developing much more skill into their players simply because they practice more,” said Kingston, who
was part of Hockey Canada for more than a decade and had different roles with the 1980, 1984, 1988
and 1994 Olympic teams.
“But their practices were more like small period games, and mini games and mini challenges,
competitions to get faster, to be better with the puck, to be able to shoot faster, to be more accurate,
all of those things were done in practice. They spent no time on systems.
“Their practice ratio for kids was up to five practices with no games, and maybe an occasional game.
They didn’t really need games because what they did in practice emulated a game, in fact it was much
better because the kids touched the puck more often.”
Why should kids between the ages of 5-10 be playing and practicing on the same sized ice surface as
pro hockey players? It makes little sense to me.
The most important aspects of hockey are skating and puck control. Kingston outlined how practicing and
playing games on a smaller surface will improve young player’s skating, but also their puck-handling skills.
It is crazy how infrequently kids actually touch the puck in a game, Kingston informed me

Brendan Shannahan, NHL Hall of Fame
You have been involved in almost every level of this game, and perhaps may be the best person to ask: Where
is this game heading in five years, 10 or even 20? Is it going to be very different from what we see? Where do
you see the sport going and/or where would you like to see the sport go? — Naved
I see people now proposing different ideas to slow the game down a bit, whether it’s putting the red line back in
or allowing defensemen to hold up for each other. But ultimately I think those efforts will always be futile.
Players are not going to get slower. You can’t unteach the skills that are being developed at every level now. My
view is that regardless of what rules are instituted, the game will continue to get faster and the players will
continue to get fitter. In coming years, it’s going to become more and more difficult to distinguish the first line
from the fourth line, and also between a forward and defenseman. In short, hockey players will continue to
become more complete than ever.

INTERESTING LINKS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vncBvxrl7gIACADIA MINOR HOCKEY
TASA MINOR HOCKEY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZzImaPlTFQ
HOCKEY USA U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB_Ygapyl7c
HOCKEY USA LAKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhxNq59pWg
CROSBY- MACKINNON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IonVks2Zvs4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-22mI_uLiAgTEAM USA WORLD CUP

2017-2018 SEASON
Beginning in the 2017 – 2018 season, players in the Novice age category (7-8 years) will play on a modified
or smaller ice surface until Jan 15th
of each year. Hockey Nova Scotia believes this aligns with player
development principles, the progression of our Initiation category and cross-ice and it is our hope that as
players grow the rink size expands as they learn the basic skills and concepts of hockey.
Hockey Canada is amongst the last organizations to look at ice modifications. With Sport Canada’s focus on
the long term development of athletes we have been exposed to the modification of many of the other
major sports in Canada. Picture this: A 7 year old soccer player playing on a World Cup field.
Or an 8 year old baseball player standing at home plate with a pitcher60 feet, 6 inches away.

NOVICE SEASON
DEVELOPMENT SEASON: start date in respective associations until December 1st
HALF ICE / CROSS ICE SEASON December 1st
– January 15th
FULL ICE Season January 15th
with a maximum of 15 games (can still play half ice games)
THINGS TO CONSIDER
 Coach education (evaluating as well)
 Officials / Monitors on the ice
 Penalties
 Benches/ Dressing Rooms
 Goalies (some Novice teams have only 1 goalie)
 Jamborees events with both full ice and cross ice events
DISCUSSION ON BARRIERS WITH IMPLEMENTATION

HOCKEY NOVA SCOTIA CONTACTS
DARREN SUTHERLAND: DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
dsutherland@hockeynovascotia.ca
BRAD TAYLOR: MANAGER, DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
btaylor@hockeynovascotia.ca

IP/Novice Player Development

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