Feature Story

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Buffalo squirt program a model for all suburbs

By Jack Blatherwick

Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

Mike MacMillan, the head high school coach at Buffalo for years, is also the director of Minnesota Hockey’s coaching development program. The squirt program they’ve designed for the Buffalo Youth Association is a terrific example of what results when folks are thinking outside the (suburban) box.

Actually, the program resembles that of a small northern town — adapted to a larger city where hundreds of kids play hockey.

Let’s get serious about development. Hockey skills and instincts are learned by repetition — by experimentation — by trial and error, followed by trial and success. This was the advantage of pond hockey, because it allowed for hours — not minutes — of skill practice — and it provided competition where players could try any cool move without fear of failure.

Most great players will tell you their important learning experiences came from informal pick-up games, some of them simply keep-away games with a friend, some were pond hockey scrimmages where the goals were lumps of snow. Rink sense is developed in competition of some kind — formal or informal.

However, for the majority of players, skills are developed only in practice. Of course, the very best players improve their skills in games as well. They get to the puck more often, and they have the confidence to try something when they get it.

Weaker players get to the puck less often and just bat the puck northward when they get there. They haven’t developed the talent and poise to keep it on their stick, and even if the coach doesn’t berate them for a mistake, they understand the magnitude of the situation. After all, the tournament trophies are displayed prominently, parents are cheering and their friends are passionate about winning.

Better to bat the puck north.

MacMillan and the BYHA understood this when they outlined their squirt program. The basic philosophy was to increase the number of skill repetitions in practice and the number of times a player would touch the puck in competition. Furthermore, they wanted to create some competitive environments where winning was less important than improvement and fun — just like pond hockey.

In a business-as-usual squirt season, there are some rules and traditions that stand in the way of development. Buffalo has taken steps to eliminate the hurdles:

(1) Big-time games against the other suburbs are intimidating for those who haven’t perfected their skills. On the other hand, pond hockey games provide competition without big-time fear of failure. On the pond, each game is a race to get five goals, and you play 50 games in one day. So, go for it.

If you try a new move, and it doesn’t work — no problem — just try it until it works, or trash it and try something else. Buffalo has added many more in-house games where coaches match up lines and the goal is for everyone to try new skills.

(2) Big-time games in most suburbs have rosters that are way too large. BYHA squirts have teams with one goalie and 10-12 players.

(3) Practices are a study in efficiency — three small teams on the ice at once, so you can have more practices for the same price. This might bother a coach who wants to work on systems in order to win the next tournament. But, if everyone agrees that improvement is the goal, these practices can really fit the need.

(4) Skills and skating are improved off-ice in areas of the Buffalo arena built for dryland training. This is a page from the Russian and European development plans, and has been a staple of the Moorhead program for years.

I would add my own touch — referees without whistles. Right now, they have the puck in their hands for 50% of the rental time, and this certainly doesn’t make anyone a better hockey player.

Northern towns like Roseau, Warroad, Baudette, Moorhead and others continue to develop some of the best players in the world, because of their philosophy, not because they have thousands of players. The wisdom is in their old-fashioned philosophy — increased ice time, informal competition and puck possession. Buffalo is way ahead of other suburbs in adopting this approach.

Many of the arenas in northern towns allow kids to practice and play for little or no charge. Suburban arenas are monuments to the architect — so elaborate and expensive that inner-city kids can no longer play hockey. And even when we build a smaller, less expensive arena, it becomes someone’s business to make sure the fee is maxed out.

We like rosters of 16-18 players counting goalies, because every parent wants their kid to be on an “A” team. In Roseau, they like smaller rosters, because they don’t think anyone gets better sitting on the bench.

Competition must allow for trial and error the way pond hockey does — and players need to touch the puck hundreds of times in a game — not five or 10 times. Development is not enhanced by making grandiose productions out of youth hockey games. Kids do not gain the poise, confidence and rink sense of a Sidney Crosby because there are cheerleaders in the stands and trophies for the winner.

Development is a simple matter when you think outside the suburban box — as Buffalo has discovered. Improvement requires more ice time to practice skills — not bigger rosters. It requires some competition that resembles pond hockey, where trial and error is expected. And finally, dryland training should be an integral part of every arena, as a dedicated place to work on skating and stick skills.

Jack Blatherwick, Ph.D., is a physiologist for the Washington Capitals.