By Greg Bates, Special to AHAI – As playoff time nears, players and coaches are reminded of the most important aspects of postseason play: have fun and make sure the kids continue to develop in the right direction.

“It’s bonus hockey, but it shouldn’t be any different than the regular season,” USA Hockey American Development Model (ADM) Regional Manager Dan Jablonic said. “You’re focusing on the fundamentals, making sure you’re allowing each kid an experience they’re hoping they’re going to remember for a long time.”

The Spring 2020 Try Hockey For Free Day will take place on February 22, 2020. February provides a great opportunity to attract new families who are thinking about hockey because it's winter. With a goal of 350 host locations, this event is part of the Hockey Week Across America celebration. Participating host locations will receive USA Hockey sanctioning and online registration to maximize participation.

The Schenectady Youth Hockey Association (SYHA) was established as an official charter organization in the early 1970s. Like most nonprofit programs, it has seen plenty of new faces and changes since then. Its mission, however, remains the same: providing a fun, safe environment that promotes hockey instruction, skill development and value-based life lessons for its players.

In 2011, the association strengthened that commitment by working toward full implementation of USA Hockey’s American Development Model, along with its age-appropriate programming and concepts. Three years later, it became one of six organizations to earn official designation by USA Hockey as a Model Association. This allowed SYHA to receive in-person training for coaches, on-ice instruction and parent education, as well as equipment and other resources from USA Hockey.

By Michael Rand - Would you want your 7-year-old child running 90-foot base paths and swinging at pitches from more than 60 feet away? Would you ask them to try being the goalkeeper in soccer with nets that are 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide? What’s the fun in that? Who’s benefiting?

Roger Grillo, a regional manager for USA Hockey’s American Development Model, explains why age-appropriate playing surfaces and environments are the key to cultivating skills, smarts and passion for the game at 8U and beyond.

By Michael Rand - In talking recently to Bob Mancini about small-area games, it seemed as though we had inadvertently crossed over to the meaning of life itself. “It teaches us everything, but it can teach us anything,” Mancini said. But no, really, we were still talking about small-area games and how much benefit young players, particularly those at the 10U level, can derive from them. What exactly did Mancini, a regional manager for USA Hockey’s American Development Model, mean by that? 

By Michael Rand - Hockey at all levels is filled with arbiters of skill who can be brutally harsh in their assessments. But for all the crusty hockey lifers who have canvassed rinks from coast to coast, the cruelest judge of talent and place on a team might be Mother Nature. The rate at which a young hockey player grows can start a chain reaction of events that last well beyond an early, eventual or never-arriving growth spurt. 

As the time ticks off the clock in a tight game, every decision, every moment, is magnified. It is during those tense situations when players have the opportunity to rise to the challenge. However, in youth hockey, it’s also during those intensified stick-gripping moments when coaches need to rise to the test, too, and not shorten the bench. Flint Doungchak, Pacific District coach in chief for USA Hockey, said players in youth hockey, and all youth sports, should get equal playing time regardless of the situation.

By Jessi Pierce - Ask Gretchen Ulion-Silverman what she remembers about winning the 1998 Olympic gold medal – or any moment in her hockey career – and you’ll be surprised to hear it has little to do with the victories, medals or honors. In fact, it has little to do with the actual sport at all.

“Yes, we succeeded, and yes, we won a gold medal, but at the end of the day, it’s not about the trophy or the medal. It’s about all of the fun you had to get there.”

Similarly, players at the younger age levels shouldn’t be focused solely on the outcome of one game or season. While striving for success and improvement is important, at 10U, the real importance lies in everything else a child is learning by being on the ice – especially the lessons and experiences they can take with them off it.