Tryout Talk: Time for a Change?

 

By MYHockeyRankings.com Staff

It’s a topic that seems to be discussed throughout the youth hockey community every year about this time. Yet, despite the annual discussion – and even though most people seem to feel strongly that a change is needed – nothing ever really materializes.

And here we are again.

It’s July, more than a month from when most United States youth hockey teams will begin serious preparations for the 2024-25 season, and many programs held tryouts and filled their rosters months ago. In fact, more than a few rosters have been filled since March, with many more organizations holding tryouts and picking their teams in April.

Programs in some parts of the country began the tryout process as early as February, advertising “voluntary” skills and skating sessions for prospective players that lead directly into tryouts at the earliest permissible date. These sessions aren’t free, and while voluntary implies that players can choose whether they will attend, the fear of missing out or getting pushed down the lineup likely influences many families to send their kids.

This leads to the annual discussion among those involved in youth hockey as to whether it’s necessary to hold tryouts as far out as five months prior to the beginning of the season.

If there was a real benefit for the players to hold tryouts so close to the end of the previous season, of course, that’s something most of us would support. After all, we are talking about YOUTH hockey, so the well-being, development and enjoyment of the participants always should be the driving force.

Upon further review, however, you don’t have to be Scotty Bowman to see that the youth hockey landscape – and really the entire world of youth sports – has changed considerably since many of us participated. Youth sports in general have become big business in 2024, and hockey is no different.

While USA Hockey serves as the governing body for the vast majority of American youth hockey programs, the organization largely has stayed out of the way of the its 12 affiliate districts when it comes to regulating tryouts. Districts are allowed to set their own tryout start dates and do so based on many factors. But with most tryouts being held in the spring, it seems as though those decisions often are based on what the adults want or what benefits the clubs instead of what might be best for the players.

Tier 1 youth hockey has been an arms race for years, and that’s not a secret. Spring tryouts probably originated when either some newly created program or a perennial powerhouse thought it could lock down the best players in their area before the other programs had a chance to evaluate the available talent pool or offer contracts. 

One product of holding earlier tryouts and charging players for the opportunity to participate was an influx of revenue for clubs at a time of year when there previously may have been little or no money coming in. In addition, picking teams and requiring players to decide if they wanted to accept a club’s contract offer within 48 or 72 hours – and requiring a substantial deposit to do so – created another revenue stream as did requiring installment tuition payments during the months leading up to the season.

It didn’t end there, though. As with many things in life, once one club dipped its toes in the water and experienced either financial or on-ice success, most or all of the other clubs in that area were likely to dive right into the pool.

Having teams picked by April or early May also left clubs with several months of potential new programming to offer to its membership as the sport moved toward becoming a year-round commitment for even the youngest players. 

That’s where we find ourselves in 2024.

 

A Year-Round Commitment

No one wants to start off on the wrong foot with a new coach or lag behind the other players when practice starts, so even if off-season skills and skating sessions aren’t “required,” they often are viewed as necessary and highly attended. And as more off-season tournaments continue to pop up around the country – another source of revenue for event organizers and clubs – teams have begun holding more organized practices during the spring and summer and playing in highly competitive games throughout the calendar year.

Because of this, many young hockey players are going straight from long, grueling seasons featuring as many as 75 games immediately into tryouts and then into off-season, on-ice developmental programs, practices and tournaments.

This process filters down from the Tier 1 AAA level to Tier 2 youth programs, especially in areas where AAA opportunities are limited and at the age groups for which USA Hockey holds national championships, as competitive Tier 2 programs fight over the best players who are cut by the AAA teams.

The end result is that hockey, which for many of us used to begin in October or November and end in February or March, has become an intense year-round commitment that doesn’t provide participants with an opportunity to take the physical or mental breaks necessary for their bodies and brains to rest, and recover and to prevent burnout.

“Kids play far too much {hockey},” hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr said in an article more than 10 years ago. “I mean, kids are playing 12 months a year – little ones. They don’t need it. Play other sports. Have other coaches. Hang around other kids, other parents. I think it’s all healthy.

"I never went to a hockey school until I turned pro, and I went as an instructor. Kids don’t need to play all year; they can have a program of light exercise and play other sports. If you look at the best players in all sports, they’re athletes – they play other sports.”

Many adults argue that as kids they were outside playing some kind of sport in their neighborhood every day and that playing hockey or another sport year-round is no different. While for many of us that may have been true, playing street hockey, pick-up basketball, touch football or sandlot baseball in the neighborhood was a conscious choice. It was something we enjoyed, and we competed with each other without coaches yelling at us, parents cheering and screaming at officials from the stands and referees blowing whistles.

There was no stress involved in those activities, and we were able to be active and play whichever sport struck our fancy on a given day. We were able to develop our overall athleticism, hand-eye coordination and sports IQ without risking the overuse injuries that are becoming more prevalent at younger ages every year as a result of sport specialization.

If you ask any successful professional or college athlete or coach what is most beneficial for a young athlete who aspires to reach the highest levels of a particular sport, they will almost always tell you that kids should play multiple sports. Multi-sport participation allows kids to train all body parts and muscle groups equally while having fun and taking a mental break from the sport about which they are the most serious.

"In youth hockey, in most cases, it's really important for kids to play other sports – whether it's indoor lacrosse or soccer or baseball,” hockey all-time great Wayne Gretzky said in an interview many years ago. “I think what that does is two things: One, each sport helps the other sport. And then I think taking time off in the offseason – that three- or four-month window – really rejuvenates kids so when they come back at the end of August, they're more excited. They think, 'All right, hockey's back, I'm ready to go.' " 

Toronto Maple Leafs forward John Tavares agrees and said in another article that playing lacrosse actually helped him develop skills and concepts that made him a better hockey player.

“People always talk about my hand-eye coordination and how that translates from lacrosse to hockey and from hockey to lacrosse, which is true,” said Tavares, who played lacrosse for 13 years before focusing only on hockey. “But the biggest thing that translated for me was using my body to protect the ball, spinning off checks and moving through traffic. All of those things translated into skills on the ice that have helped me excel in many areas in hockey, such as puck protection, moving through traffic and gaining time and space from tight checking.”

Unfortunately, participation in multiple sports becomes less realistic and more challenging as parents push their kids to speed up the developmental process and not fall behind in the quest for that coveted college scholarship. Kids often are forced to play on the top teams and to compete and train as much as possible at a very young age.

To play on the top hockey teams, even for players as young as 9 or 10 years old, there are spring tryouts and then all of the subsequent offseason programming that goes along with that opportunity. It’s a vicious cycle that seemingly never ends, prevents young players form becoming well-rounded athletes and frankly isn’t healthy for most kids.

“Some young athletes now face surgeries befitting their grandparents,” David Epstein wrote in The New York Times. “Young hockey goaltenders repeatedly practice butterfly style – which stresses the developing hip joint when the legs are splayed to block the bottom of the goal. The sports surgeon Mark Philippon, based in Vail, Colo., saw a 25-year-old goalie who already needed a hip replacement.”

If playing one sport year-round isn’t healthy for young people mentally or physically, what is the point of holding tryouts so close to the end of one season and so far away from the beginning of the next season? Is there any benefit to youth hockey’s evolution from a six-month season into a year-round grind other than the financial gain realized by the adults who run the sport?

 

The Pros of Early Tryouts

Other than the obvious benefits to the clubs of holding spring tryouts in terms of locking in the best players before other teams can offer them contracts and generating revenue, are there any tangible benefits to the players?

One argument that is repeated frequently is that players are more likely to be at their peak in terms of hockey fitness the closer that tryouts are held to the end of the season. While there may be some truth to this claim, it’s possible to counter with the argument that players will be worn down physically and mentally from the grind of their season and would benefit from some time off to rest, heal and rejuvenate before trying out.

In addition, for players just entering their teens or approaching puberty, it’s possible that they could grow several inches and add weight over the course of a few months during the offseason, which could turn out to be the difference between them making a team or getting cut.

“While the early tryouts no doubt help with our club in terms of planning, from a development standpoint it’s tough because every year we see kids in September who would have made a team that they didn’t make in April,” said Mike Shramek, who runs the Tomorrow’s Ice hockey program for Tier 1 and Tier 2 youth players of all ages in Maryland.

So, if the early tryouts help the clubs financially and in terms of planning but have little or no real benefit to the players, what are some of the arguments against spring tryouts?

 

The Cons of Early Tryouts

Year-round hockey can be too expensive for many families

One of the negative effects of early tryouts we already mentioned is that selecting teams well in advance of the season essentially turns hockey into a year-round sport with a substantial price tag that continues to rise each year. Once a team is formed, families are asked to spend more money on spring and summer skills sessions, practices and tournaments and “strongly encouraged” to participate.

Early tryouts also discourage clubs from spending time developing a plan to improve their product and reduce costs each year. In many cases, most of next year’s customers are in the pipeline before the current season has even concluded or immediately thereafter, so their attention turns to creating more programming and opportunities to generate more revenue from those same families during the offseason.  

Even when well-run and organized clubs with the best of intentions understand the bigger picture and want to do what's best for families and players, they can feel forced to do the opposite in order to remain competitive and solvent.

The end result is that the price of participating in hockey continues to rise and some families are either priced out of the sport or find it impossible to make the year-round commitment required for their kids to play at a level that is best for their continued development.

 

More of the same thing isn’t always better

As mentioned previously, the year-round hockey commitment prevents young players from developing their overall athleticism and avoiding burnout by playing other sports and participating in other activities. Many studies have determined that multi-sport athletes display improved athletic performance, improved leadership skills and teamwork, better attendance in school and better academic performance.

A study published by the National Institutes of Health determined that, “for most sports, there is no evidence that intense training and specialization before puberty are necessary to achieve elite status. Risks of early sports specialization include higher rates of injury, increased psychological stress, and quitting sports at a young age.”

The study also concluded, “some degree of sports specialization is necessary to develop elite-level skill development. However, for most sports, such intense training in a single sport to the exclusion of others should be delayed until late adolescence to optimize success while minimizing injury, psychological stress and burnout.”

Additional research in athletes who have advanced to the most elite levels of a sport have not consistently demonstrated that early intense training is essential to attain that level. Ironically, studies have shown that world-class athletes are more likely to have started competing and training seriously in their sport at later ages, to have competed in other sports and often were first selected for a national training program at a later date than others who didn’t advance to the same level.

In addition, a survey of nearly 400 NCAA Division 1 intercollegiate athletes found that most of them initially participated in other sports. Fewer than 20 percent had previously participated solely in the sport they played collegiately, and the majority simultaneously participated in individual sports. 

 

Too much hockey can take a physical and mental toll

Early intensive training and specialization can lead to overuse and other types of injuries. For young athletes, time away from their sport is essential to foster rest, recovery and natural physical development while avoiding burnout.

The NIH study cited that “early diversification followed by specialization may lead to more enjoyment, fewer injuries, and longer participation, contributing to the chances of success.” 

NIH also reported, “in a retrospective 10-year review, one-out-of-five of the most competitive elite athletes reported injury as the reason for quitting one’s sport.”

Young athletes who aspire to play at the highest levels feel tremendous pressure to focus on only one sport, but such specialization likely increases the risk of injury, according to a Loyola University Health System study.

"Young athletes who were injured tended to have more intense specialized training in one sport," said Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, medical director of primary care sports medicine at Loyola and senior author of the study. "We should be cautious about intense specialization in one sport before and during adolescence. Parents should consider enrolling their children in multiple sports."

It was determined that 60.4 percent of the injured athletes that were part of the study specialized in sports, while only 31.3 percent of the uninjured athletes specialized. 

The American Association of Pediatrics also entered the chat in regards to sport specialization in a more recent clinical report, stating that “pediatricians should encourage athletes to take at least one to two days off a week from competition and sport-specific training, as well as two to three months a year away from a specific sport, to help them recover physically and psychologically.

The report continued to point out that the pressure placed on young athletes to train and specialize if they hope to ascend to the highest levels in the future contributes to both overtraining that leads to injuries and psychological burnout. Injuries and burnout often cause young athletes to drop out of competitive sports, which can lead to longer-term health concerns.

“Injury and burnout are among the top reasons for attrition in youth sports,” the report stated. “While more than 60-million children and adolescents participate in organized sports, 70 percent of youth athletes drop out of these sports by age 13. That plays a role in the 75 percent or more of U.S. teens who don’t meet physical activity recommendations.”

Longtime National Hockey League forward and current NHL national-television analyst Ray Ferraro has addressed the issue often from a less-clinical perspective.

“Don’t pay for power skating, dryland training, skill development and expect your son to score 50 goals,” Ferraro once told a group of parents. “If you decide to invest in extras do it because your son asked for it and wants to improve and has a smile on his face each and every time … Too many parents decide what they want their kids to do instead of their kids asking to do it.”

 

Early tryouts don’t allow time for players to develop

The current youth-hockey model, which seems to get more demanding during the offseason every year, doesn’t give kids an opportunity to develop and improve before having to try out for the following season and doesn’t reward players who put in the work necessary to improve during the offseason. A few months also can make a huge difference in a young athlete’s physical and emotional maturity, especially during puberty.

  

Selecting teams in the spring often limits a player’s options

Tryouts for various Tier 1 teams in specific areas often are held at conflicting times, limiting a player’s options for the following season. Instead of being able to try out for multiple teams and make a choice, a player might get cut form one team and have no opportunity to try out for a makeable team if the tryout dates conflict. This often is repeated at the Tier 2 or AA level once the AAA tryouts have concluded. 

On top of that, families may move to new areas of the country during the summer after the school year is done, and their kids may not get the opportunity to try out for the appropriate-level team in their new area when the rosters are finalized months in advance of the season.

  

Possible Solutions

While it would be ideal for USA Hockey to step in and provide a tryout structure for the entire country, that doesn’t seem likely given the autonomy that it has given its district affiliates in the past and the varying needs and participation levels that are found in different parts of the United States. What’s good for Minnesota and Massachusetts may not be feasible or make sense for the Southeast or Pacific Coast.

Still, it would be reasonable for USA Hockey to establish basic tryout guidelines on a national scale that would create a general structure ensuring that the best interests of the players are the top priority when clubs select their teams.

Below is a framework of potential tryout guidelines that could be implemented and tweaked or molded slightly to meet local needs in various areas of the country:

 

Potential New Tryout Guidelines:

• Tier 1 tryouts may not begin before July 15.

• Tier 2 tryouts may not begin before Aug. 1.

• Non-tiered tryouts may not begin before Aug. 15.

• No player contracts can be offered or verbal commitments made before tryouts are held.

• Organized tryouts or practices of any kind are prohibited for any prospective or returning players from the end of the regular season until the formal tryout process is underway.

• Clubs that circumvent the rules will be disciplined and may be banned from USA Hockey National Championships at all age levels for a year or more. Repeat offenders can be stripped of their Tier 1 or Tier 2 National-bound status for an extended period of time or even permanently.