Philosophically, youth hockey in Finland is approached much differently than in the United States. And for former Aspen Junior Hockey executive director Shaun Hathaway, trying to sell the Finn methodology to the local club coaches and parents was difficult.<\/p>\n
Now the director of Team Colorado, Hathaway plans to bring the partnership AJH had with the Finnish Ice Hockey Association (FIHA) to the rest of the state\u2019s club teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinland truly is leading the world in terms of best practices and some of the most up-to-date research,\u201d Hathaway said. \u201cThe hard part was trying to get our coaches to embrace it, to get our parents to embrace it, and I think having it at the state level where we\u2019re now going to be dealing directly with hockey directors and programs, it will have more of an impact and will be less trying to convince the parents, and specifically the coaches, that this is groundbreaking information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hathaway first brought FIHA to Aspen for the 2016-17 hockey season<\/a>, when Finland\u2019s youth hockey manager, Kalle Valiaho, spent the winter here sharing ideas and helping train young Aspen Leaf players. A year later was the start of a planned 10-year relationship that would bring in Finnish student-coaches to Aspen<\/a> each winter, something it\u2019s done each of the past three seasons.<\/p>\n This same partnership is now moving statewide, as FIHA recently formed what they are calling a \u201ccollaborative partnership\u201d with the Colorado Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), with support of USA Hockey.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Shaun working with us at the state level, it was just a natural evolution of the program to bring it to the state as well,\u201d said CAHA president Randy Kanai. \u201cJust watching what\u2019s happened the last 3 or 4 years since Shaun has been doing it in Aspen, there is no question. When Shaun brought it to the state level, it was a unanimous thumbs up.\u201d<\/p>\n Considering the state of the world among the novel coronavirus pandemic and other logistical hurdles of taking this partnership statewide, this coming winter won\u2019t include any coaching swaps like the Aspen program had. Instead, it will mostly be a series of webinars on many different topics that will be available to the state\u2019s club programs, including AJH, should it participate. <\/p>\n The hope is that by the second year of the statewide partnership, CAHA will be able to physically bring in Finnish coaches for the season, and possibly send some American coaches to Finland.<\/p>\n Clubs are by no means required to adapt to the Finnish model, but may choose to take what pieces they want and apply them to their own programs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to grow the program as it evolves over the course of the next couple of years,\u201d Kanai said. \u201cIt\u2019s always an uphill battle with our coaching staffs \u2026 the majority of people are old school, right? They think the old school way is the best way and I\u2019m convinced, especially at the younger age levels, smaller ice surfaces are much better for skill development.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Hathaway and Kanai agreed the key to making the relationship work is overcoming those philosophical differences. It starts with the competitive mindset \u2014 the Finns focus more on skill development as opposed to competing at the youth levels \u2014 and exactly how to implement that on ice. More and more, Finland is using half-ice or cross-ice play with children 10-and-under instead of skating the full length of the rink.<\/p>\n And they aren\u2019t just doing this for practices, but actual in-season competitions.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you do that over here, it would be blasphemy to have a game that doesn\u2019t look like the NHL, that doesn\u2019t look like it does on TV,\u201d Hathaway said. \u201cI kind of liken it to a football player, a 10-year-old, playing on a 100-yard field for football. To modify that field and to have that player play on a much narrower field and a much shorter field, that helps all the athletes as opposed to just the fastest kids that can run around the end and score all the touchdowns.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite a relatively small population of about 5.5 million \u2014 roughly the same as Minnesota, which has produced more NHL players than any other state \u2014 Finland is one of the world\u2019s hockey powerhouses, along with Canada, Sweden, Russia and the United States. While hockey is considered the favorite sport among Finns in terms of audience \u2014 similar to football or baseball in the U.S. \u2014 Hathaway largely credits their unique approach to youth training for their international success.<\/p>\n On top of directing Team Colorado and coaching a AAA bantam team out of Colorado Springs, Hathaway was recently named the ADM coordinator for Colorado. ADM, or American Development Model, is what USA Hockey uses for its long-term development plans in youth hockey, which it filters down through its affiliate club programs, like in Aspen.<\/p>\n