Here’s one to have a think on…
“What do coaches produce?”
That depends, are you an Old Way or New Wave coach? Since you’re here, let’s answer as if you’re a New Wave Coach. I tend to agree with my buddy Tanner, from a beautiful post called, “What Makes a Coach Productive.” He writes:
And I think the best answer for modern coaches is:
Systems that build better players and teams.
When I talk about coaching systems, you might think about Phil Jackson’s Triangle, Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense, or Jürgen Klopp’s Gegenpress. But that’s not exactly what I’m talking about…
When I talk about systems, I want you to think about a process-driven machine that produces a consistent result.
This can be a “system” of play, but when it comes to producing a result, you want to systematize your knowledge so that you can solve increasingly more challenging problems year-over-year rather than having to re-invent the wheel every season.
When you have systems, you can package up what you know and replicate it time and time again to get the ultimate downstream result: better players and teams.
Systematizing to solve increasingly challenging problems vs. having to reinvent the wheel every season resonates with me. When I observe our current system, this is what I see.
Most coaches at the youth level stay at 14u while their players move up. They have to start over year after year. Not to mention how most parents team-hop for X, Y, and Z reasons that mostly relate to not winning enough at 12u.
Instead of interrupting the compounding that would take place, we want to keep building a compounding advantage. Parents, are you listening yet?
How do we do that? Let’s build on what Tanner has started for us.
Building on Top With Inception
Let’s do a little inception. Now that we are more familiar with the system we will be talking about, what about the “system that your system is in?” Is there an even longer timeline we can leverage to build better players? The answer is yes, and I’ll explain. The answers lie in a certain system. The academy system.
Early Movers are Moving Players
US Soccer was the earliest adopter of the youth academy system. They didn’t reinvent the wheel, Europe has the academy system in what we call soccer. Here’s an inside look at Arsenal’s Hale End Academy:
The results are speaking for themselves in US soccer academies. Because they are beating the pants off other youth sports in terms of producing players that can flat out play.
The idea to put high-level coaches in charge of the development of 12u,14u, and 16u players is something to copy. Educating the parents that staying at a place like Hale End from U8 to U18 is actually the best thing the parent can do for their child. That’s going to take some work in hockey.
Why does this system work well? One major reason.
They don’t interrupt compounding.
You’re not advised to take your kid out of the machine when it’s 40% of the way through the building process because you can go win somewhere else. The status quo and current fucked up parent programming will have you making the biggest mistake of your child’s athletic life.
Don’t Mess This Up
The best machines don’t look anything like the status quo. Soccer doesn’t make the same mistakes as hockey parents. Gone are the days when you play for a coach for a year and then look for the next best thing. Because you didn’t win the 12u national championship. Leaving for “better” isn’t better, it’s disaster.
Looking to leave a great place for more winning, more playing time, a new coach that will put up with your bullshit as a parent is a loser’s game now. The winner’s game is longer timelines for real development, not youth trophies and other dumbass status games.
At Hale End, the parents know the grass is greener where you water it. And at Hale End, they don’t forget to water.
Longer Timelines
In great academies, the player development runway is longer. They make sure by the time your player reaches 10u he has certain skills and competencies. By 12u they add another layer, 14u another, 16u another, and then when it’s time to try and jump to London Colney( The U18, U23, and 1st team facility).
The academy hands the 1st team a complete player that doesn’t have what Ryan Hardy calls, “developmental grenades.”
The goal of the coach is simple here. To make sure all of those players develop the requisite age-specific skill competencies to move forward. That’s it.
Doing this ensures his next coach doesn’t have to spend time “fixing” the player or playing catch-up because he lacks a skill required to excel in the next age group. Players that don’t come to the next level with grenades, don’t blow up their progression, advancement, and future success.
They earn their way to the next step. The player progression is intentional. The system is intentional. And the machine creates the player. I’d just add one twist that could help even more.
Academy With A Twist
One question I always ask:
Why don’t youth organizations adopt the US National Team Development Program coaching model?
They have a U17 and a U18 team. And the coaching staff that coaches the U17 team moves up with that team to U18. Instead of one year, they get 2 with each player.
In youth hockey, it would be your U14 coach moving up with the team to 15’s. The next year he coaches U16, the next U18, and then can drop back down and start the process over. This does 3 things:
Fosters deeper relationships
Proves or disproves that your coach can develop players
Doesn’t interrupt compounding
Deeper Relationships
Most coaches are looking to make a “meaningful impact.” Just ask them.
But how many deep relationships can you make in 7 months? Look to your own life. How many of your friends are making more impact on your life today than they were 2 years ago just because the relationship had a longer runway to develop?
Ask a junior coach. Unless the player is advancing to the next level, they would rather have the player for 2 years than 1. And they would choose 3 years over 2. If we can set this up intentionally at youth hockey… Why aren’t we?
Can you Develop a Player?
This is what great coaches want to be tested on. So why not put them to the test? There is immediately more personal responsibility created by the coach. If you’re going to take a player from U15 to U18… How would your coaching change?
Think of it like this:
If you want a more “bought-in” player… Give him more responsibility.
The same thing applies to the coach. Do you want a more “bought-in” coach? Give him multi-year player development responsibilities. Instead of doing the same things year after year, he’ll have to adjust and change with the players. Coaching on a longer timeline. What a test that would be.
The Environment: What to Start and Stop Caring About
The reason places like Hale End and La Masia work and produces players for the first team at Arsenal and Barcelona is the process-driven environment. They don’t care about winning the Spanish Championship at 12u (if that’s a thing).
They do care if your player can’t use his weak foot at 12u. They do care if he’s pre-scanning the field before first touch. They care about things that matter. Things that translate to success in the 1st team.
Great academies are also building the whole player. There is education and training before getting to the 1st team on:
training
sleep
nutrition
behavior skills
leadership skills
principles of play
Half-Life Summary
We have to start earlier with these players. They are getting through to very high levels of junior hockey on their own talent and then the junior coaches have to spend time “fixing” instead of “building” the player further.
Imagine how much better the game would be if we were handing off better, more complete, higher-agency players to the junior teams.
If our goal is to develop better players, we need a better system. One that doesn’t interrupt compounding.
And we don’t even have to build it from scratch. The blueprint is there from soccer. Who wants to go to work?
If youth hockey is so broken, why don’t we blow it up?
NHL or USHL teams step in and build academy systems just like at Arsenal and Barcelona. Some places already have the wheels in motion and will have first mover advantage. For example, The Tri City Storm oversaw the creation of the Windy City Storm. The Nashville Jr. Predators have a different set-up at TPH than most of the locations where it looks more similar to the academy model.
The Minnesota youth model acts as an unofficial academy system where at least the playing group sticks together all the way up.
An infinite player does what is right for the “game.”
Taking more steps like these would be for the good of the game.
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