III. US LACROSSE: TODAY
THE ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT MODEL REIMAGINES HOW WE INTRODUCE YOUTH TO THE SPORT. WHAT HAS BEEN THE FEEDBACK?
We’re not the first to launch an athlete development model. USA Hockey and USA Soccer to some degree were early adopters in that strategy. All of the science, all of the data suggests that a sports experience should be tailored to the child’s physical and cognitive development stage. Sports are for players. With respect to the Athlete Development Model, the feedback we’re getting from players is it’s fun and they love it. If we can get more youth league administrators and more parents to embrace what’s best for their child and what their child most enjoys, versus “Let’s prepare my 8-year-old for his college scholarship,” that will better position the sport for growth and retention.
US LACROSSE RECENTLY ROLLED OUT AN AGE VERIFICATION SYSTEM, RELATED TO A NEW PLAYER SEGMENTATION POLICY. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THAT INITIATIVE?
to play because they need insurance. And that’s kind of the lore that has stuck with US Lacrosse, primarily because we haven’t done as good a job as we need to do in telling our story and better informing our members — players, parents, coaches, officials and the general public — of the impact we’ve had and the vision we have, all of which requires investment. I would say to a member that your membership investment is just that. It’s not a transaction. You are really contributing to the sport’s national growth and development. Things don’t just happen on the field. You show up to take your child to a game. Do you know what that ball is made of? Do you know what the specifications for that ball are? Do you know what went into making that ball safer? Do you know who’s stepping on the field to officiate your game? Do you know how they were trained? Do you know what curricula they used? Do you know how they’ve been developed as an official? Do you know who’s coaching your son? What qualifications do they have to nurture a love of lacrosse and improve your daughter’s abilities? We’re the Wizard of Oz behind the
curtain. We need to do a better job of telling what’s behind the curtain, and exposing our membership and those who care about the game to what we do and why their investment is so important.
laxmagazine.com
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING US LACROSSE DOES?
Growing the sport and providing greater access to the sport for more kids regardless of their zip code or socioeconomic status. The sport continues to have this image of being just for rich white kids. That’s not what we want to portray, and it’s not a recipe for the sport’s success in the long term.
We want kids to come to the sport and stay in the sport. More recently, we’re focused on reimagining how we introduce and develop players. And that’s our Athlete Development Model.
That’s all about competition integrity and player safety. Sport used to be grade-based. And it made a lot of sense, because kids want to play with their friends. The challenge, however, is that in contact or collision sports, that physicality creates opportunity for injury. We don’t want to have situations in which much larger kids are playing against much smaller kids. And that happens today because kids are held back, they go to pre-first or they’re reclassified.
Through a very inclusive strategic discussion and process, we’ve introduced our recommendations relative to player segmentation. They’re primarily age-based, because age is the best determinant of a child’s physical and cognitive and, really, emotional stage. You want kids of similar physical and cognitive stages to compete against each other, because it represents competition integrity and it creates the safest environment for a child. Recruiting events and clubs have proliferated significantly. They’ve all based their classifications or levels of play on graduation year, because that’s the college recruiting pipeline. Convincing clubs and tournaments to convert to primarily age-based is going to be challenging. But we’re seeing a movement in that direction now. I’m confident. You can’t reject the science.
September/october 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 37
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