8yo is MITES. Teaching basic skating, hockey stops, and basic stick handling. No concept of how to play defense. No concept of offensive positioning. No concept of how to be a teammate. And that 1/2 ice of the “beehive syndrome” is miserable. My 8yo came home from every team practice, and game, in tears & begging not to return. For a kid who loves to play hockey, and who loves skating & skills lessons, how am I supposed to make him go to practice & games when he’s bored and miserable. The result? We moved him up to SQUIRTS. SQUIRT ADM is still boring, and very easy, compared to his skills lessons (that routinely include AA & AAA PeeWees & Bantams). He’s, thankfully, enjoying the full-ice so maybe he’ll stick with “organized hockey” a little longer.

Here’s my biggest complaint with ADM. The kids who love hockey, and are committed to improving, are the kids taking skating & skills lessons, attending clinics and camps, and choosing to get up for 6am Stick&Puck. So, where are these kids, who so love the game and want to improve, supposed to learn the actual game of hockey? As of right now, they’re not. They’re fighting boredom because they don’t understand the game (the talented kids are bored scoring 7 goals in a 20minute game, while the less talented kids are bored because they never get the puck), and their parents are fighting to keep these talented kids in “organized hockey”.

The end result is the better talent is playing travel early & often, and suffering the burnout; or they’re completely quitting to play a sport that’s more encompassing in it’s teaching process. It’s happening all the time in our league. There has to be something more than the beginner’s skills (& resulting boredom) of ADM, especially in such an expensive sport, for our kids who show early commitment, competitiveness, and talent or we’ll continue to lose them.

My son’s dad swam Division I in college. I was recruited Division I for softball. My daughter will attend college on a Division I rifle scholarship (shooting – like in the Olympics – not twirling), next fall. We are not naive when it comes to the sports’ world, but we feel as if USA Hockey is. The players, parents, and coaches we find who love ADM are the kids who will never make the commitment to even make their high school team. USA Hockey is shuffling talented, committed kids even faster into the burn-out travel system because they are putting a product on the table that is severely lacking in their service to those talented, committed kids. I hope I’m wrong, but I see Team USA U20 getting hammered in IIHF World’s in 10 years because we’re severely lacking in the nuances of the game.

Let’s skate. Let’s teach hockey. Let’s play hockey. Let’s keep skating and skills lessons where they belong – in the lesson system. As a result, let’s keep the game fun for as long as we can for all the kids who play.