Tony the critical years for development are the Pee Wee years just before the onset of puberty in most boys. Players are able to learn and develop movement patterns more easily than after puberty. So if the coach is much better then I think he would benefit from staying with a coach who will teach him more and introduce him to movement ideas at this accelerated learning age.
Maybe the best of two world. Play on the tier 2 in the regular season and the tier 1 in the summer.
From bantam and up he should play on the better teams.
So up to puberty I believe development coaches and playing as many sports as possible to develop overall athleticism is critical. Then you start to specialize.
Tony
Tony - let him make the decision, not via direct question and answer session but through his own actions. I suspect that he will pick the Tier II group because of his relationship with the coach.
Pops
Thanks for your input.
I always thought it was not important to play Tier 1 until around Bantams given good coaching in Tier 2.
The one thing about playng Tier 1 that I hear is a lot of kids who play it nd get cut quit hockey at a young age. They figure they have played at the best level and nothing else is worth it. This is a symptom of a bigger problem in the US of having to "make the team". Noone wants their kid to play on a "B" level team any more. There are lots of non competitive travel teams that really should be house teams.
Tony
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For Tom or any of the other experienced coaches.
A player at the Pee Wee level has a chance to move to Tier 1 in the US from a strong Tier 2 team. He is considering the move for the spring season as a trial since it is only 2 months long.
He is a top player on his current team benefitting from a strong developmental coach who runs excellent practices including SAGS innovative skating drills etc.
The Tier 1 team has a coach with less experience but obviously the competition and players are stronger. The player has played 3 on 3 tournaments with the Tier 1 players and fit in very well.
The Tier 1 rink is an extra 15 minutes drive.
The player has friends on both teams.
From your experience, what percentage of development is attributal to coaching practices versus competition level?
Thanks!