When I speak with parents and present the risks of early specialization in hockey (overuse injuries, psychological burnout and stunted athletic development), I often am asked, “But the best players all seem to be doing this year-round hockey training. Doesn’t that show the benefit of training year-round? I don’t want to disadvantage my kid because I didn’t put him or her in one of these programs.” 

It’s tempting to think along these lines, especially in today’s hockey environment. However, the previous statement makes about as much sense as me saying ice cream drowns people. 

We know when ice creams sales at the beach go up, so too do drowning accidents. Just because these two variables correlate positively doesn’t mean that one is causing the other to happen. With warm weather more people eat ice cream, more head to the beach for a swim and unfortunately, more drown as well.

All this is to say, playing year-round hockey and specializing early may be correlated with the best players at a given level (I say this because the “elite ranks” continuously shift), but it certainly isn’t causing players to become elite. There is a big difference, as the ice cream example highlights, between correlation and causation. What happens more often than not is programs are identifying the top players in any given age bracket – not too difficult a task at the young ages where there are wide maturity differences between players. You almost don’t even need to see them skate. Just assessing their physical maturity levels and birthdates will get you pretty close. Once these “elite” programs find their top talent, they seem to all but claim to have conceived the little guys. And too many of us are buying the spin.

Ultimately, many factors affect the development of truly elite hockey players. Stating that any one of them single-handedly causes a player to become elite should be viewed with skepticism. The kind of skepticism you would have if someone told you ice cream was found guilty of drowning people. 

Josh Levine is the Assistant Coach of the Bloomington Jefferson Girls Varsity Hockey team and owner of The Fortis Academy. Fortis works with youth associations to implement skill development programs with all teams, from Mites to Bantams. The program includes parent education seminars, coaching clinics and Fortis skill-based practices. If you’re interested in learning more, shoot Josh an email at joshletsplayhockey@gmail.com. Follow Fortis on Facebook and Instagram.