PLAYERS FIRST DEVELOPMENT

The Players First model developed by the Oakville Oilers organization prioritizes the long-term development of every player associated with the organization. The emphasis is on helping each and every player develop into the best player they’re capable of becoming, thus maximizing enjoyment of the game for everyone.

While players will be encouraged to play as hard as possible and attempt to win every game they compete in, long-term development of everyone will always be prioritized over short-term outcomes. This means that the bench doesn’t get shortened to benefit a handful of players. All players will receive special teams time. Goalies play equally. No players are favoured over others because they happen to be further developed at this point in time, related to the coach or friends with the coach.

All skill development and tactical training sessions will be provided by the experienced, knowledgable and professional coaches at the Cutting Edge Hockey Development Centre. Skill development will never be left to chance since it is the foundation upon which all great hockey players are built.

The Players First development model always emphasizes the individual development of the player as opposed to winning or team success. With the Oakville Oilers organization, the adults needs do not come first, this program is about what’s best for the individual players who make up the roster.

Following a Players First model in athletic development is nothing new. In fact, Belgium instituted this model in their soccer system after a disastrous performance by their men’s national team at Euro 2000. At the time, they were ranked 66th in the world. Today, they’re the number 1 ranked team in the world. Not bad for a relatively small European country.

Here is an article which discusses the Players First path the Belgium Soccer Federation instituted:

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/soccer/big-interview-golden-generation-nursedfrom-the-grassroots-926589.html

HOW IS THE PLAYERS FIRST MODEL DIFFERENT FROM THE TRADITIONAL REP HOCKEY SYSTEM?

Here is something that won’t surprise you: The traditional minor hockey model in Canada is deeply flawed. It doesn’t place the long-term development of your son or daughter anywhere near the top – it often isn’t about the players at all.

Instead, the traditional minor hockey system often sees volunteer coaches with varying levels of qualifications and experience, who coach for a variety of reasons, with winning almost always the priority. For this reason, playing games is preferred to more practice time. Practices are typically designed to help the team win its next game. If the team’s special teams are struggling a large portion of practice time will be devoted to those areas ahead of the individual developmental needs of the players because improved special teams increases the odds of winning the next game. Similarly, if a team has trouble getting out of its end breakouts will receive most of the attention. Never mind the fact that many of the players on the team can’t skate well enough to get to proper position and lack the skill required to both make and receive a pass – if the team wants to win it must be better at getting out of its own end. And so the weaknesses that are part of your child’s game will continue to be weaknesses because the coach has neither the time, desire or ability to address them.

Further, The traditional minor hockey system usually caters to the early maturer who is bigger, stronger, faster and an overall better player than the late maturer and thus able to help the team win more now. As a result, the early maturer often receives far more attention from the coaches and more opportunity to contribute since they’re deemed critical to the team’s success. They receive more ice time, more power play and penalty kill time, are often on the ice during critical junctures of a game and play with better players as their line mates and defence partners. If you aren’t one of those players then your development takes a backseat to the team’s desire to win.

THE INDIVIDUAL APPROACH TO PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Here is the truth: while your son or daughter plays a team sport – hockey, they’re essentially an individual within that sport. Every time they’re evaluated or assessed, whether it is at minor hockey tryouts, in their OHL draft year, by NCAA coaches, or if they are good enough, in their NHL draft year, they will always be evaluated as an individual.

Those doing the assessing do not care how good your son or daughters team was last season. Instead, they’re chiefly concerned with how well they skate, handle the puck, pass and shoot, think the game and make decisions, and how hard they compete. They will also look at character. What kind of person is the player? Do they work hard? Are they a good teammate? What kind of life do they live away from the arena?

The dream dies for most hockey players not because their team was good or bad – it’s irrelevant, but because they lack one or more critical skills that are essential to getting to the next level – their skating isn’t good enough, they don’t have the puck handling skills to dominate oﬀensively, or they lack the hockey sense required to make good decisions on a consistent basis.

Do you know how many players have fallen short of achieving their goals in hockey because their weaknesses were never addressed by their minor hockey coaches? How many defencemen who could only pivot well to one direction but not the other? How many forwards could not turn sharply because of poorly developed outside edges? How many players cannot make or receive a pass on their backhand? All of these players are victims of a minor hockey system that consistently placed the coaches short term desire to win over the players long term desire to achieve their individual goals in hockey.

That’s not to say that winning in hockey isn’t important. Every time you step on the ice during competition you should be competing as hard as you can to win. But, a minor hockey system that is only concerned with winning at the expense of proper, long- term, systematic player development will fail its players every time.

So if your son or daughter has a strong desire to play hockey beyond the minor hockey level does it make any sense to subject them to a model that doesn’t make that a priority, instead using your son or daughters talent to help the team win now while neglecting their individual needs?

If you have ever had a child participate in an individual sport like figure skating, skiing, golf, tennis, or gymnastics then you’re well aware of the amount of time elite athletes in these sports dedicate to training as opposed to competing. For an elite athlete with the goal of competing internationally or professionally in these sports the practice to competition ratio could be as high as 25:1 hours.

LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

The Oakville Oilers organization adheres to the principles of the Long-Term Athlete Development program developed by some of the top sports scientists in the world. We will provide a planned, systematic, progressive and developmentally appropriate plan given the age and physical maturation of the athletes involved. In our program, there will be no champions of chance – athletes who make it in spite of the system.

The Oakville Oilers program is rooted in the following principles:

1) Athlete first, hockey player second. The program will place an emphasis on developing the key physical attributes that will allow for accelerated skill acquisition and dynamic performances. The concept of developing the total athlete is not new. The European approach to player development has emphasized an athlete first mentality for many years beginning with the Anatoli Tarasov coached Soviet Union teams in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Indeed, a player who is agile, flexible, quick, strong, and who possesses heightened levels of balance and coordination will acquire skills quicker and at a much higher level than the player who simply trains on the ice but makes no commitment to becoming a better athlete oﬀ of it.

2) It’s all about skill. Although hockey is a team sport, when hockey players are evaluated by scouts and coaches at every level they are assessed first and foremost on their individual technical skill level – how well they skate, handle the puck, pass and receive the puck, and shoot. But for some reason, most minor hockey programs and coaches continue to neglect the development of these foundational skills in favour of a more short-term focus on team tactics and strategy. Sadly, when a player falls short of reaching their dream it is almost always due to deficiencies in their skating, puck handling, passing and shooting skills and almost never because they have a hard time fitting into a certain team system.

For this reason, the vast majority of training time in the Oakville Oilers program will be devoted to individual skill development.

3) Fun: Hockey is an inherently enjoyable sport to play. Unfortunately, the adults involved in minor hockey destroy the fun aspect of the game for the children playing it far too often. While the athletes involved in the Oakville Oilers program are required to invest a great deal of time and eﬀort, the importance of enjoying the game will never be forgotten.