MAWHA - ADM (American Development Model)

The Advanced Development Model (ADM) provides age based guidelines and curriculum to hockey organizations. The program focuses on helping kids play, love and excel at hockey. The new website is admkids.com. On the website players, parents and volunteers can learn more about the ADM mission, read an overview of the program, and increase their understanding of the Long-Term Athlete Development stages.

The Long-Term Athlete Development Stages are a critical component of the ADM program. They are the framework of the ADM program, providing guidelines and curriculum to improve the players experience, training and ultimately love of the game. The Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey Association fully supports the ADM program and the Long Term Athlete Development Stages.

  MAWHA  Executive Vice President Nick Slagis recently interviewed Jim Hunt the newly appointed ADM Regional Coordinator for New York, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Virginia, District of Columbia, and Maryland.  Jim has extensive experience developing and training athletes.  He has worked with the USA Hockey National Development Program, and with the National Junior and Under-18 teams.  Jim has been the Atlantic District Director of Player Developments since 1995. 

Jim Hunt will be at the MAWHA Mid-Winter Meeting which will be held in the McClellan Room at the Lawrenceville School on Monday January 25th, 2010.  The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m.

NICK: Hi Jim, welcome aboard.  We at MAWHA were very happy to learn you were appointed as our ADM Regional Manager.    You've only been on the job for a couple of months, how has it been going so far?
JIM: The first couple of months have been a learning period. I have done a lot of reading and studying up on development principals  with respect to other sports and other countries. I am fortunate that I have a strong working knowledge of our area and a great support network in the districts and leagues. My first priority has been to open up the lines of communication with the districts and leagues in order to put together an implementation plan.

NICK: You have a large region to cover, how do you see managing the region?
JIM: Even though the region is large it only encompasses three affiliates (NY, Atlantic and the Potomac Valley) my hope is that working with the existing infrastructure a lot can get accomplished.

NICK: What do you see as your biggest challenges with the ADM program?
JIM: There are challenges everywhere and at every level. Overall trying to put the cultural piece of the equation in place to bring the model to life will be the biggest challenge. On paper lots of things look good. Getting the rubber to hit the road by applying sound economic principals along with the scientific tenets of ADM will take a lot of work by a lot of people.

NICK:   In what ways can the Mid-Atlantic Women's hockey association work with you to help you get the ADM program message out?
JIM:: MAWHA has a unique opportunity to partner with the ADM.  The early stages are gender neutral and MAWHA mite and squirt age players can gain the benefits of the Long Term Athlete Development principals right away.  They will be able to apply what they have gained later on when the sport becomes gender specific. I think that experience will serve those players extremely well in their long term endeavors.

NICK: Are there specific segments of the ADM program that you would like the Member Organizations of MAWHA to implement first?
JIM:: The first step of implementation is the 8&U mite cross ice program. We need to reduce the cost and time commitment (travel) that is expected of these young hockey families. Between those two issues and the natural selection that affords certain kids to realize early success while others take longer to grasp the game we seem to be designing a system that discourages players and families from staying in the game.

NICK: On the ADMkids.com website I read that "A nine year old is only a nine year old once"  What is the USA Hockey and ADM Management team message there?
JIM: The message is that we only get to develop each kid once, we can't afford to make mistakes. While we look forward to the potential of the "next generation" we have to take care of the kids of today now.        

NICK: Jim thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.  We at MAWHA look forward to working with you to implement the ADM program in our Association.  We are confident that the ADM program will enrich the hockey experiences of our players.  

  Nick Slagis is one of our MAWHA coordinators of the program. He recently had a discussion with Ken Martel, the ADM Director for USA Hockey.

view interview

NICK: Ken, thank you for taking the time to talk with me and share your thoughts on how to roll out the ADM/LTAD program to the players in the Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey Association. Donna Guariglia asked me to work with our member organizations on this important initiative. This season we have re-designed the website and as part of that redesign we are adding a tab for the ADM/LTAD program.

NICK: Would you prefer that we reprint all the ADM materials on our website or link to yours? (or both)
KEN: We will have a new website for the ADM coming on-line at the end of September. Eventually there will be too much material for you to easily replicate so linking through might be best, however feel free to put forth the information on your site if you feel it will make it easier for people to access.

NICK: The new website is admkids.com?
KEN: Yes. It contains a lot of valuable information on the ADM/ LTAD program.

NICK: The implementation of the Long Term Athlete Development component could take several possible tracks. One - our member organization's implement the program in at the FUNdamental level first and add the next level of the LTAD as the first group ages up, and two - member organizations weave the program into each level they currently offer. Is there any preference and/or guidance from USAH on how to best accomplish implementation?
KEN: There are organizations that are attempting both cases. We have found that most are implementing at the lowest age group and then expanding as the kids grow. We do think that organizations should do as much as they think they can across all ages as we realize that a 10 year old is only a 10 year old once.

NICK: Will there be more formal training for coaching staffs, if so what should organizations expect/look for?
KEN: The CEP program is currently working to make changes but that will take some time. We will continually put out new information as it is developed on our web site. However the best resource will be our regional managers as they can come to your association and assist in person.

NICK: All of our MAWHA organizations are located in the Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia Atlantic areas. I understand that the new regional manager for these areas is Jim Hunt, who has been the Director of Player Development for the Atlantic District since 1996, and has worked with both the 2008 National Junior Team and 2006 National Under-18 team.
KEN: We're really pleased to have Jim Hunt on board, he is going to be an excellent resource for your members.

NICK: Are there global components you want discussed? For instance, in reviewing the materials a critical global component is to increase the ratio of teaching/training time to competition time. Is this a correct distillation of the ADM? Are there two or three global takeaway points you want highlighted?
KEN: Much of the current information is geared to let people at least know why we are doing this. There are several key points to focus on. First as you have noted, is structure of how we develop players. We need a higher practice to game ratio. Next is how we organize practices. If you only have 14 eight or 10 year olds on the ice we are wasting huge amounts of our resources and it is doing little to develop players. Putting more players on the ice reduces the cost to play. Last would be that cross-ice hockey is so much more valuable for our kids at the young ages than full ice games. There are too many positives to list here!

NICK: Ken, thank you again for your time and insights. We on the MAWHA board look forward to working with you and Jim Hunt to bring the positive messages and training guideline of the ADM program to our MAWHA Member Organizations.