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A better way |
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Written by Dylan Purcell
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
Remember when Canada bombed out of the men’s Olympic hockey tournament in 1998?
Fourth place in Nagano, the first year our NHL players were supposed to dominate?
There were hockey summits proposing a monumental change in the way hockey at all levels was managed. There would be more skill development, more practices, less games and everything would get better overnight.
Unfortunately, a lot of steam went out of that initiative when the NHLers won it all in 2002.
Because it is all about winning and losing.
From a very young age, coaches are behind the bench more than twice as often as they are on the ice. And when the clock is running and the scoreboard is lit, it is all about winning and losing.
Vicki Harber draws on a PhD. in exercise and physiology to preach change from the game-heavy, competitive aspect of youth sports, to a more development-based idea. A more long-term model which emphasizes skills at the youth levels before becoming more specialized as the athlete grows. She preaches a philosophy of “physical literacy” to build athletes first and then decide where they best fit.
The University of Alberta associate professor was in Lethbridge Monday night hoping to change the way Canadians think about sports. She hosted an Alberta Sport Development Centre – Southwest information session dealing with the Long-term Athlete Development Model (LATD).
The problem, according to the science backing up the Canadian Sport For Life advocate, is too much game time, not enough practice time. That problem is compounded by the early specialization forced on athletes by parents, coaches and sports organizations.
Remember, Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team finished seventh in 2006.
“There’s the coach who says you can’t play basketball if you already play hockey,” said Harber. “It’s the parents who want their kid to be the next Wayne Gretzky or Tiger Woods.
“There are a lot of factors and people who influence these young athletes in a negative way.”
The LATD encourages a well rounded experience for athletes as they develop, and it isn’t until the teenage years at the earliest that they should begin specialization. Harber should know. She didn’t begin rowing until she was 17 years old. Always a good athlete, she focused much of her attention on another sport. But after attending two Olympics (1980 and 1984) as a member of Canada’s rowing team, she was glad her physical literacy was up to the task.
“When you’ve looked at the physical end of it, the skills needed to excel at a number of activities will come in handy should you decide to specialize in one sport. But it’s different for some athletes than others. What is clear when you look at the science behind it, is that doing it the Wayne Gretzky or the Tiger Woods way, where you just play one sport, doesn’t work.”
It worked for those two athletes, said Harber, but their unique accomplishment and the failure rate for that method is horrifying.
“I think to really get some of these groups, to get some of the parents to listen, we need more train wrecks,” she said. “You know, the kids who turn 180 degrees away from physical activity or who self-destruct.
“Because that’s the only way some of them are going to learn.”
Harber endorses the experience of athletes like Lethbridge’s own Jim Steacy, the Olympic hammer thrower who played several sports in high school before narrowing his focus. She points to Olympic speedskater and cyclist Clara Hughes as a great example.
“She’s been to a Summer and a Winter Games and is just a wonderful case of that athlete who tries everything and excels at those two to where she can compete at the highest level,” said Harber. “Imagine if she had said ‘I’m a hockey player’ when she was 10 years old but didn’t make the Olympic team. She might not have found her way to speedskating or cycling and deprived herself of the experience.”
But that’s at the older end of the development model. The focus for Harber and Canadian Sport for Life is younger. But thewy are focusing on more than just the minor sports. Parents need to encourage more experiences and schools and teachers must allow the hockey players to miss a few practices but still be on the team. The LATD requires work from every sector.
“Our competition-to-development ratio is dominated by competition at the detriment of the child in that under-12 age range,” she said. “We are trying to exact a change in that mentality of compete, score, win. We’re not denying it and we’re not getting rid of it entirely. This is a relatively new idea and we’re aware it will take time. But organizations are going to have to buy into it or they’ll be left behind.”
While Harber said the idea isn’t to threaten the way groups like minor soccer and hockey run things, she’s concerned that the dropout rate for children in their teenage year will hold steady or even increase. The pressure to win is leaving a lot of very young athletes burnt out.
“You talk about dropout rates. Well, that affects more than just the recreation levels of the sport. If you’re recruiting for elite programs and you follow the development model, you’re looking at 16, 17 years,” said Harber. With dropout rates, you go from potentially choosing from a thousand athletes to just 200.”
And 20 per cent is optimistic. In most minor sports, dropout rates from age 13 to age 17 are much higher. Harber believes that every child who quits is a failure on the part of parents, teachers, and society.
“You’re talking about an avenue of life that can bring so much more than just physical well being to a child. But we’re willing to throw it away because of this insistence on compete, compete, compete,” she said. “When, really, you’re also hurting the competitive end of it.”
Organizations like Hockey Canada have adopted models similar to the LATD, but it will take time for that 2:1 practice to game ratio to come into being. Harber said groups like the Alberta Sport Development Centre and information sessions like the one she hosted Monday are slowly getting the word out.
“Every group which buys in is a victory for the long-term growth of physical literacy in Canada. We are taking a cross-sectoral approach to this, trying to hit education, all the way to daycare workers, getting them to start the development there because when you look at the numbers, this is the way it works. This is the way to a better society.”
And to more gold medals.
“I love to watch sports competed at the highest levels in every competition,” said Harber. “But I also know the best way to get there and still ensure that our children are becoming active for the long term.”
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