Survey Results - Part Deux

Welcome back for more results from the Hockey Parents' Satisfaction Survey. This is the second installment of survey results. You can find the first part of the survey results here including some background information on the survey and the respondents. 

The first post was a summary of the "How satisfied were you" questions. I originally intended to release the survey results in two blog posts, but as I was preparing this one I decided to make it three. There's so much information that this post was getting too long. And this way I could get the second installment to you sooner.

This post begins with parents' priorities. I wanted to see what it is that drives parents to a certain program. After that we explore the parents' view of the coaches' priorities. The next post will pick up from there with the reasons for leaving or staying with a hockey program.

Parents' Priorities

Parents were asked, "When choosing a hockey program, what characteristics are most important to you?" and were able to select their top three priorities (in order) from a list of 11 choices. Parents were also able to write-in their own responses.

For the top priority, it was a landslide. Making sure my son/daughter has fun was far and away the leading choice with 45% of the responses (49 responses). The following graph shows the results. Dedication to player development was second with 30% (32), and Quality of coaching staff was third with 14% (15). Those three answers accounted for almost 90% of the total responses for top priority.

Graph 1: Showing total responses by choice for parents' Top Priority.

Now, this seems about right to me. There’s the cynical side of me that says that “having fun” was the easy answer so of course it was selected the most often. But while there may sometimes be a difference between what parents say and what they do, I do believe that most parents truly want their kids to have fun first and foremost.

The answers that came in second and third are not surprising either.  Parents want to see their kids develop as hockey players. This goes hand-in-hand with having quality coaching.

The results became more interesting when I saw the second priority responses. 

Graph 2: Showing total responses by choice for parents' Second Priority.

The same three answers appeared when looking at the “second priority” too, comprising 82% of the total responses.  The top 3 answers were: Dedication to player development (37%), Quality of coaching staff (25%), and Making sure my son/daughter has fun (20%).

The results start to spread out by the third priority, but those same three answers still accounted for 42% of the responses to this question. Other priorities began to emerge, such as Having a competitive team (18%) and Proximity to your home (10%).

Graph 3: Showing total responses by choice for parents' Third Priority.

When viewed in aggregate, however, the trend is clear. The next chart sums it all up. The red, green, and purple bars are the results of top priority, second priority, and third priority questions, respectively. The blue bars represent the total number of times that each answer was chosen as any one of the top three priorities. Having fun, player development, and quality coaching were far and away the top priorities of parents, accounting for 71% of the total responses.

Graph 4: Summary of total responses by choice for each of the top three priorities and in total.

This is pretty convincing evidence and I have to say I was surprised to see such consistency in the responses. For hockey directors, I wonder if these results would come as a surprise. 

I'm sure that programs are aware of the importance of having quality coaching. Coaches are the direct link between the program and the parents and kids. Parents could go an entire season without seeing the hockey director more than a handful of times. But they'll see the coaches 3 or 4 times a week for 8 or 9 months! And no one has a more direct impact on the players' development and overall hockey experience than the coaches.

Programs that hire non-parent coaches probably have more control over quality than those that rely on volunteers. With volunteer coaches, parents are often subject to the luck of the draw. We've probably all seen the case where a player gets bumped up or down a level at evaluations because his parent is needed on the bench for that particular team.

I also want to believe - though I can't say for sure - that programs are focused on player development. That is, after all, the crux of youth hockey. The goal is to develop better kids, better athletes, and better hockey players.

For parents, the question is how can you assess a hockey program's ability to develop better players? To deliver a fun hockey experience? To provide quality - often volunteer - coaching?

From my experience, this is currently done through word-of-mouth. Hockey parents talk - a lot! There's a network of parents who are well connected to various programs. Around the end of the season when it's time for next season's evaluations, that network buzzes with a rumor mill that would put HockeyBuzz to shame! It starts a series of dominoes that will determine the landscape for next season, as players and parents decide where they will try out based on following - or avoiding - other players and coaches. 

The problem is that even if you have the inside scoop from impeccable sources and find the perfect team, you still may have little control over the result - your player still has to make the team you want. By the time you know for sure what you're dealing with next season it may be too late to do anything about it.

Is there any way to change this? I don't know. I've spoken with other parents who acknowledge these challenges. Some have suggested that there should be more consistency in coaching within a given program. That a hockey program should have certain standards, goals for each skill level, common approaches to structuring and running practices, core drills that would be consistent from season to season to build familiarity, and an underlying approach and philosophy to coaching that is identifiable no matter what team you observe.

Other parents have mentioned it would be helpful to have an objective way to evaluate different programs rather than relying on word of mouth. Youth hockey team rankings are great for bragging rights but they don't tell the whole story. Ultimately, this survey may evolve into a way to evaluate different programs, but right now there's not enough data to do so. 

Incidentally, this is one area that you might expect some variation among parents at different skill levels. I examined this and the data did indicate some differences in priorities, but there is not enough data at each level to draw any firm conclusions. Besides, the differences mainly represented shifting percentage points among the top four most common responses, so the conclusions were the same.

There were clear trends in the parents’ priorities, but the next question was, how did the parents view their children’s coaches’ priorities, and how did those priorities align with their own?

Parents' Views of Coaches' Priorities

In this section parents were asked, "During the 2012-13 season, which of the following do you think were the top priorities of your player's coaches?" Just like in the section on parents' priorities, there was a list of priorities to choose from - 8 in this case - and parents were able to write-in their own responses as well.

It's important to remember that this section is about how the parents perceived their children's coaches' priorities. These may or may not be what the coaches' priorities actually were, but we can't say for sure - at least until the Beeski Hockey Coaches' Survey is published! But this section is about communication and the relationship between parents and coaches.

As was the case with the parents’ priorities, some clear trends emerged when it came to the parents' view of the coaches’ priorities. The most common response to the coaches’ top priority was Skill development for every player at 35% (37 responses). This was followed by Making sure the players had fun at 17% (18) and Teaching the game at 14% (14).

Graph 5: Showing total responses by choice for Coaches' Top Priority.

It's not surprising that the coaches were perceived to be focused on skill development and teaching. Actually, it's encouraging – that is their primary role on and around the ice. And the fact that having fun was the third most frequent answer chosen is encouraging too since, as we saw in the prior section, fun is highly valued by the parents.


I noticed with this question that the responses were dispersed a little more than with the parents' priorities. Skill development was a clear number one, but several of the choices each received around 10% of the responses. A couple of those responses were the nasty kind - Playing their own kids as much as possible and Winning as many games as possible each received 8 responses. More on that later.

Looking at what the parents thought was the coaches' second priority, you see the same three responses at the top.

Graph 6: Showing total responses by choice for Coaches' Second Priority.

Skill development for every player was at the top again with 33% (35 responses). Teaching the game at 17% (18) and Making sure the players had fun at 15% (16) were next.

For the coaches' third priority, the responses were spread out a bit more, but you see the same familiar choices near the top of the list.

Graph 7: Showing total responses by choice for Coaches' Third Priority.

When viewed in aggregate, it becomes clear that skill development, teaching the game, and having fun were the top priorities of the coaches as perceived by the parents.

Graph 8: Summary of total responses by choice for each of the top three Coaches' Priorities and in total.

There are a couple of ways to look at this result. The positive view is that these three priorities are the right ones - not as decided by me, but rather in the view of USA Hockey, the mission statements of many of the hockey programs these players belonged to in 2012-13, and in your eyes. These responses are fairly consistent with the parents' top three priorities. Having consistent priorities among the parents and coaches is likely to lead to a positive hockey experience.

At the same time, there does seem to be somewhat of a disconnect between the relative importance that parents and coaches place on each priority. Parents put almost equal importance on having fun – selected as one of the parents’ top three priorities 84 times – and skill development (selected 78 times).

The coaches, on the other hand, were viewed as placing more relative importance on skill development than on having fun. Skill development was chosen as one of the top three coaches' priorities 87 times but having fun was chosen only 52 times.

This would seem to indicate that the parents place more relative value on their kids having fun than they believe their kids' coaches do. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing – it’s hard to say. There’s a certain need for the coaches to focus on teaching and skill development. It’s easy to have fun when a team is winning and a good deal harder to do so when it’s not.

Back to the issue of those negative priorities - Playing their own kids as much as possible and Winning as many games as possible. The obvious question was whether these responses came from parents who are moving to a new program in 2013-14.

Not surprisingly, there does seem to be a connection. The next graph shows the Coaches' Top Priority according to parents who are moving to a new program. Playing their own kids as much as possible was the top response, and Winning as many games as possible was tied for second most responses.

Graph 9: Showing total responses by choice for Coaches' Top Priority by parents who are moving to a new program.

Looking in aggregate at the top three Coaches' Priorities as selected my parents who are moving to a new program you'll see that the responses balanced out a bit. At the end of the day, skill development and teaching the game still came out on top among the parents who are switching to a new team. But Winning as many games as possible and Playing their own kids as much as possible were chosen much more frequently.

Graph 10: Summary of total responses by choice for each of the top three Coaches' Priorities and in total - by parents who are moving to a new program.

This puts the focus on coaching again as a possible major determinant of whether parents will stay or go. Like I said in the prior section, the coaches are the most direct link between the parents and the hockey program. The importance of this link should not be underestimated.

One final note here, and it relates to the discussion on parents who are moving to new hockey programs. There were several written-in responses to the questions on Coaches' Priorities. Interestingly, all of them came from parents who are moving next season, and almost every one was basically some sort of negative comment. The written-in responses ranged from "No priorities" to "Practicing shootouts" to "Socializing and partying". I think it's fair to say the coaching experience had an impact on these parents' decisions to leave.

Summary

The sections on priorities yielded some good information. It was clear what the parents’ top priorities are – and what they think the coaches’ priorities were in the 2012-13 season.  In general, those two lists were fairly well aligned.

The parents placed an almost equal importance on having fun and skill development. Quality coaching and having a competitive team were also important to the parents.

The coaches were perceived to be focused on skill development primarily, followed by teaching the game and having fun. But there was a noticeable difference among the parents who are moving to a new program next season. Those parents tended to have less flattering views of their coaches' priorities. 

Interestingly enough – when it came to the parents’ priorities, the answer “Winning as many games as possible” received exactly zero responses. Well done, parents.

Next post will be the conclusion of the survey results. Stay tuned!