What Makes Athletic Development Of Elite Hockey Players Possible In A Private School Environment?

In a small town outside of the small city of Sherbrooke, Quebec sits Lennoxville. Home to 2 elementary schools, 2 high schools, a cégep, and a University. Quite a busy place when you consider the size of the town (pop. 15,000). Of these schools one brings an extra ounce of prestige with it, Bishop's College School (BCS). BCS for many in town, especially out of province University students, is a hidden gem, not knowing exactly what or where it is even when it is standing right in front of them. The magic of a private boarding school, hidden in plain sight. There are many aspects of BCS that make it very special, from its founding in 1836 as a preparatory school for boys, it's involvement in the first world war with the second oldest regiment in Canada, several visits by the royal family, yearly visits by the Governor General, and its rich history of successful entrepreneurs, celebrities, and athletes. For a small private boarding school hosting 280 students on a good year, there lies a lot of history amongst its walls. However, as of recently, BCS has sparked a reputation as an elite hockey school, producing 2 current NHL players (Dawson Mercer '19 & Noah Dobson '18) and an extensive list of QMJHL, NCAA Div 1-3, BCHL, and USHL players. Players come to BCS to commit to hockey at the elite level. With it comes volumes of practice, training, and games. A true insight to what the next step in these athlete's young professional careers will demand.

The demands however make this pathway an interesting topic for discussion when considering the implications of athletic development. As we will see here, adapting to the private boarding school environment requires more than what most bargain for, making progress as an athlete is sometimes difficult.

Developing any athlete regardless of their age, skills, or aspirations is a time consuming job. It requires precise planning and individualized considerations to best suit the athletes needs. For most strength and conditioning coaches the needs aren't determined solely by the physical nature of the athlete and their sport requirements. The needs of a program are determined by both the physical nature of the athlete and their social nature. Considering both the mental and physical inputs of an athlete's life are crucial for optimizing their athletic development. And with a socially scrutinizing world our youth athletes live in, having to live up to unrealistic standards, it is no easy task.

BCS, like most private boarding schools, is built on generations of customs, dating the rules and routines back to the early 1900s. Being kin to private schools in the UK, BCS has many traditions that would seem foreign to many Canadian students. Using nomenclature such as 'crease' for sports, 'forms' for grades, 'prefects' as senior valedictorians,'prep' for study, and 'colors' as sport awards of merit. It also has the customs of wearing a uniform, having specific curfews, and boarding in a residence. With all this comes a uniform routine that sees students eating breakfast at 7:30am, in chapel (morning assembly) by 8:10am, and in class 9-3:10PM (with lunch of course). Following classes all students must partake in crease; all students must compete in 1 sport per term (3 per year). Following crease students have free time to mingle until supper, and then some time before prep (homework time) where they all must be in their respective residences to do homework from 7:30-9:15pm, leaving them free time before bedtime (between 10-12pm depending on age). With sports, games or practices, taking place on weekends, life at BCS is for most a 6/7 days/week deal. This only paints the picture of what an average student at the school goes through. As an elite hockey player (50 students) throw on 2 hours (sometimes 3) of practice and training daily, traveling 3-4 days/week, and maintaining a healthy social life. It makes you wonder if it's sustainable.

Disclaimer: Our athletes have access to many resources: On-road tutoring, in-school tutoring and academic support, physiotherapy, and are advised on their nutrition, with a lot of clean food to access. With these resources, very few athletes fail to excel in this space.

The players present in the hockey program are of all different backgrounds, making it a very diverse program that sees development in all athletes in many different ways. For some, it is an opportunity at higher education, for others higher levels of hockey, but for all it is an opportunity at growth. With the demands of school life being so high, it requires an elite student, athlete, and individual to thrive in this environment, making it an excellent group of athletes to see athletic progress happening in real time. It's important to mention and re-focus on the principle of youth athletic development, as the crop of athletes at the school are between 14 and 18 years of age, smack dab in the developmental years of their maturity, thus making the approach to athletic development even more important, as this is when they develop their relationship with training, recovery, and fuelling for performance.

All those commitments and it seems no time to get it all done, yet the program continues to produce high caliber student athletes. What makes the formula work?

The pros

The most important aspect of a private school that leads to strong athletic development, in my experience, is routine. Having a set schedule with daily commitments results in complete involvement. Student-athletes are focused on the task at all times of the day. Building a routine improves the efficacy of the information and time spent together. As long as the coach applies the appropriate detail to each session, the goal can be reached regardless of time allocated to that task.

In a private boarding school like BCS, the population of students is low in comparison to a public school. With 200-280 students the group sizes are small. This allows for precise delivery of information, interpersonal connections, and an environment where student-athletes ask questions and receive answers without any intermediary exchanges. Smaller group sizes allow coaches to develop diverse programming that meets the requirements of all their respective athletes. This I would say is the most crucial 'pro' for this type of athletic development environment, as providing blanket programming to sporting teams only sees variable results. The specificity of your programming will determine results to a higher degree, especially when operating with elite youth athletes.

Though not all members of the program are considered to be elite, having a crop of elite athletes aids greatly in their athletic development. When you spend enough time coaching, you develop a strong sense of what an elite athlete possesses that others do not. Focus, attention to detail, drive, and typically unteachable levels of athleticism/flexibility/strength and an aptitude for sport specific movements. Working with a team where a majority possess these skills and abilities in some way or another, makes providing effective programming easier. You have the freedom of providing "boring" foundational movements and your athletes not totally dismiss them as "boring", as well as provide more technically demanding lifts and exercises without a lengthy introduction or acclimatization period. Though this is not the case for every member of the team, there still remains a higher degree of members allowing you to facilitate a more rigorous and technical program.

Coaching in any high school provides a fruitful learning environment for yourself and for your athletes. The dynamic nature of a high school environment provides many hurdles and requires a great deal of reactive learning and teaching. As stressful as it can be, it is a prime environment to learn and adapt as a strength and conditioning coach.

As with virtually any sporting team there comes a boat load of competition. Whether interpersonal or inter-team, the sporting environment is chocked full of competition. Working and breeding a competitive environment is a joy for any coach. Competition brings the most out of every player and teaches them valuable lessons. Creating a competitive environment makes for the highest attendance and commitment rate among other practice types, it gets a lot of laughs and smiles, and is often the root of most athlete's favorite practices. Regardless of level of sport, you are working with teenage athletes who express themselves through sport, so being in and creating a competitive environment builds a strong relationship amongst players and helps them passively work on elements of athletic development that are otherwise boring or too technically specific to coach and expect full commitment/attention.

The Cons

As noted above, and from what you've probably pulled away so far, there remains a fair few roadblocks that may inhibit the true potential of your athletes in a private school environment.

Firstly, time commitment. In a 16 hour day student-athletes face 12-14 hours of scheduled commitments. For the average student this itself puts a fair burden on their social and physical meter. Throwing an extra training session and the stress of traveling on a weekly basis puts a great deal of stress on these elite athletes. This type of stress, even for the energized youth, can weigh a great deal. For some, when a hockey team hits the road it would seem they are 'on vacation', the truth however, is they uphold the same commitments as their fellow students in class. They do their prep time, they get in extra training sessions, stretches, mobility, or flushes, and uphold the image of the school at all times (curfews, uniform, attitude etc.) Not to mention their timetable is dictated by game times, so all obligations are taken care of around games. This leaves players staying up late or getting up early in certain cases. Coupling school time, extracurriculars, and traveling for games, the time commitment of an elite hockey program in this learning environment reduces contact time in the gym, thus reducing the potential for athletic development. Furthermore, time commitment breeds exhaustion when it's delivered to this degree. The result of which is a reduction in training completions when players return home for breaks (winter/spring/summer). Though many remain active, the intensity level drops or the specificity of their training is unmonitored. The result is a fluctuation in progress. Seeing many players see massive improvements across the season, only to see a retraction in gains over the course of a long holiday or summer vacation. Thus, making time commitment and all of its stressors a major downside of trying to develop athletes in this type of environment.

Though most would harbor a guess that a private school is wealthy and has tons of financial support, it is not always the case, and even when it is, it does not mean those financial resources are always allocated to the right places or quite simply can be. As large of a campus BCS has (250 acres, 6 fields, 2 gyms, ice rink, and weight room), it's facility resources are limited (more so in the winter months). With a full house and many sports to facilitate proper training, getting enough quality time in the weight room can be hard to come by. The needs of the many outweigh that of the few in most cases and thus alternatives must be formed to facilitate the stimulus the players require. This has been both a pro and a con. As a reduced presence in the weight room has taught many athletes that lifting heavy weight and doing the bench press is not only not the most effective way but also not the most important part of athletic development. It has proven to grow a greater respect for conditioning, multi joint lifts, pre-habilitation, and working on muscular deficiencies. However, it still remains important, especially in the later stages of their teenage development, to utilize the weight-room to both improve muscular development and educate on the proper mechanics of compound/isolation lifts. Showing youth athletes first hand how what you do in the gym translates to the ice, when done properly, is a crucial component of coaching, and should be at the front of all coaches' teachings.

With any team there comes a scale of skill and talent. Some boast natural athleticism second to none but have no skill, others have tremendous skill but can hardly run in a straight line. This is the nature of coaching athletes at the youth level. This makes the job more rewarding as you can help individuals develop properly and they get the riches of seeing progress first hand amongst their peers. However, it can also be a con for some as it can provide a great deal of extra work and frustration. I include this as a con more as an insight for others, as this aspect of a team environment is something I personally enjoy as it provides the opportunity to develop variable types of athletes. If the interest lies in becoming a coach for a preparatory school sporting program or any high school level sporting team, expect varying skill and ages to be a factor in your approach to athletic development.

Conclusion

To provide an outcome that sees youth elite hockey players proceed to the next level, there are many requirements. Consideration of each student's social and physical nature plays a huge role. Navigating the intricacies of a private school learning environment and optimizing time spent with your athletes is step number one. How you proceed with step one will ultimately dictate the progress of your athletes, your relationship with your athletes, their relationship with training, and their ability to see, enjoy, and continue to progress as both a student and an athlete. How you as a strength and conditioning coach prepare for and react to the changing requirements of the sport and the resources allocated to you will determine your success in this type of environment. Understanding that in most cases providing the minimum effective dose is the most effective way of providing for the majority and going the extra mile for the minority is what will make the difference in you being a good and bad coach, regardless of what players think of you.

What makes athletic development of youth elite hockey players possible in a private school learning environment? Routine, group size, elite athleticism, and fruitful learning environment with lots of competition.

Coaching elite hockey players in a private boarding school is a slippery slope that is made solid only by the effort you put in, the cons are but after thoughts when outweighed by the pros.

"Progression is built through consistency and tested by passion"

JB