NHL Analytics Tracking of 8U Hockey Players

Share it with your friends Like

Thanks! Share it with your friends!

Close

A cutting-edge NHL analytics team puts the test to youth hockey for the first time ever. Watch this video and see what you think.

Comments

Kim Dobranski says:

Everything they are doing here is great, but games are not where kids
should be or are developing skill, games are for fun. Running good and
well-planned skill practices on big ice develops all theses skill, most
important of which is skating. This concept has been done in Europe for
years (Sorry USA you are not pioneering anything here) and it hasn’t done a
thing for their player development. USA can keep doing what they are doing
but Canada produces the best players in the world so we will keep doing
what we do, thanks for trying. 

Petar Kraguljac says:

how come there were not any analytics on the half ice being shown in the
video? I am wondering what the difference between cross ice and half ice is

Cara Christy says:

One of my sons had passed the mite level when cross ice was instituted. He
is now a peewee and has been playing full ice since he was 5 or 6. My other
son came into the cross ice program and this season would have been his
fifth year playing cross ice because of where his birthday falls. (His
brother had a couple years of full ice under his belt by this point.) My
younger son was so bored with cross ice, he quit and is playing basketball
this winter. I don’t know if he will go back to hockey next year when he
can finally play full ice, but I hope cross ice didn’t ruin his love of
hockey.

ReidGoon27 says:

Using those reduced size ice surfaces are limiting kids development in the
game. The style of play from a half ice game to a full ice game is very
different, if they’re trying to get every player to touch the puck that’s
great. 8 year old’s should not be the level to try these tests, they are
just happy to be playing.

Andrew Sundseth says:

I’d also like to see a comparison between ADM practices VS scrimmage/game
practices. The stats for “touches”, passes, shooting might be close but
most of those drills don’t teach “hockey sense” and measure the “FUN” that
kids have. Drill drills drills isn’t the most fun thing for kids. Ask any
kid what their favorite time of practice was and its almost always
scrimmages (or the shootouts drill). Know when to pass is as important as
how to pass. Directional/coached scrimmages is totally underrated.

The best thing about the ADM model is that it prevents clueless
coaches/dads/volunteers from being completely bad coaches. The problem is
that there are a lot of mite players that are more advanced than “house”
players that could be learning more advanced skills so they are better
prepared for for the jump to squirt/full ice. For example mites are fully
capable of learning basic positioning and even cycling but coaches have
need to be able to recognize when kids and teams are ready for to learn
these skills.

Tim Hall says:

You can create statistics to show anything you want. The kids have such few
years in organized hockey and now your pushing the concept of learning the
game to the squirt level. I have zero issues with creating a novice/house
division in ALL age groups to get kids interested in the sport, I’ll even
give you no contact in those novice divisions as some argue kids leave the
sport when checking starts.

Let people decide what they want to play. I am sure if you offered full
contact / full ice at Mite travel and beyond it would be extremely popular
and I would even bet the full contact / full ice would be more popular then
the half/cross/x whatever garbage you want to call it. STOP forcing people
to play something they don’t want. They are the ones paying the ice bills!
Give them a choice and let the puck fall where it will.

The problem is you know if given the choice 8/10 (2 just have no clue)
people will choose full ice and therefore the whole cross ice concept will
fail.

What are you afraid of? Give people the choice and stop punishing
associations/rinks for allowing full ice.

ZORSHRINER says:

They are little kids, of course you’ll have them do better on half ice. The
same happens with T-ball vs baseball, half field football vs full field,
half range soccer vs full field. You do not need a computer or analysis to
figure that out. The question is: do you want them to play half field, half
range, half ice all the time, just because they are little kids? do you
want to do this just to make more money selling ice to two teams instead of
one? That is a cynical question, but it has to be asked, especially that
you are doing it on the NHL level 

Robert Chritstenberry says:

A lot of talk about puck touches. I have a great analytic for you all. Lets
tape a puck to little Johnny’s stick and then he can touch that puck all
the time during the chaos of cross ice while he learns nothing about play
the real game of hockey.
Main Entry Defined: chaos
Function: noun
1: a state of things in which chance is supreme; especially : the
confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of
distinct forms. b: the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a
complex natural system.
ADD: (Complex Natural System = Hockey)
2: a state of utter confusion. b : a confused mass or mixture 

MMAStoopid says:

I liked the video up until I heard, RFID chips. Those creepy little devices
suck. What a waste of time and money.

Dennis DeYoung says:

Statistics is a game itself… Vegetables have 100x the fiber of steak…
These stats show only things that got higher in cross-ice. Measure how many
times a player gets up to full speed in cross-ice vs. full-ice for example
– that’s a hockey skill you need to develop also. Like it’s best to mix
vegetables and meat – maybe it’s best to mix different size ice surfaces
during a season…

YouthFitnessGuy says:

Congratulations on bringing hockey back to the kids. Keep up the awesome
work! 

Joe Lopez says:

Great info here as usual. I have a 7 year old Mite that is having a great
time playing 3/4 ice hockey.

Charles Robinson says:

A U8 team made up of kids who grew up from day one in ADM just finished
playing a full ice tournament in Detroit at the AA2 level and went 6-0
giving up less than 40 shots over six games. Even the ref noticed the
difference in passing and TEAM play, he commented ADM 6- AAU 0 ….. and
that team was from Virginia, as in below the Mason Dixon line.

GM M says:

One sample is not statistically significant that anyone should draw
conclusions from. I would like to see a larger study done.

Jim Eskimo says:

My kids had passed the mite level when this was coming out. Being an
official I was interested to see how this would play out. One of the things
discussed was that soccer for younger players play on a smaller field.
After looking at it, it did and does make sense. The only problem is that
mite games was a good place for young officials to get their starts, now if
they need a ref, it is only one. I have also heard that in some places in
house squirts are playing cross ice or half ice.

James LeDoux says:

If you are going to use a generalized analytic’s review, lets used a
generalized group of association kids. With the caliber of coaching you
see at the association level. Little Caesar’s team is an elite team and
can’t be compared. The coach is also from USA hockey. 

Tim Hall says:

Ahh a friend made some GREAT points…

If Cross-Ice is so great then why did they feel the need to grab some good
players from teams that play their league games as full-ice within AAU and
only do their practices within USAH.

If they grabbed Detroit area players who only do Cross-Ice then they’d be
House Players (since all of the Travel teams are in AAU) and they wouldn’t
look as good as a backdrop for a video. Plus there wouldn’t be many passes
or shots to count (full-ice, half-ice or cross-ice).

Miriam Moodley says:

Problem with cross ice is that it doesn’t teach the rules of the game like
offside, icing, and penalties!

G05Box says:

develop a score-line technology similar to tennis!

hockeyalley1 says:

USA Hockey got the idea from us at Hockey Alley we have been doing this
type of small game for over 16 years now. We have videos you can see on our
channel.

canadajoe1 says:

X ICE HOCKEY is a highly effective training method for developing of
superior skills and hockey sense in players at all age levels, not just for
players at 8U level.

Matt Christensen says:

Great ad. Hope some minds get changed

HockeyFYLE says:

NHL Analytics Tracking of 8U Hockey Players – YouTube http://ow.ly/IbqOO
#hockeyfyle

Youth Hockey Review says:

NHL Analyzes practices of young 8u players to show clear benefits of #ADM &
cross-ice games. WATCH VIDEO http://ow.ly/IbpG9

Damian Kopietz says:
Suzanne Doody says:

proof

Write a comment