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Well, good for you. Not sure why you're saying what I said is crap, though. I don't think I said my kid only did hockey, because he doesn't. Like I said, he plays lacrosse and is generally active. Runs, plays a variety of sports and in the warm weather rides a bike quite a bit. Does strength training in various phases of the year. He loves to do everything, but loves to skate/play hockey most of all. In years past, we made a point of making him do other things to develop/maintain general athleticism. I think if you asked the USAH ADM people, they would agree with the notion that specialization occurs at some point and that there is no doubt 15U is a critical age. In fact, the 15 camp (the main pipeline to the NTDP selection camp at 16U) would be in July if it wasn't cancelled this year. Every JR/college scout in the country is there. How do you propose to impress that crowd in July if you don't skate in the spring/summer? The top 200 players in the country at 15U are there, good luck. I agree, you probably focused too much on hockey during your prime developmental years (12-14). That being said, you are a case = 1 and who knows what happened that summer or what happened to your competition. We don't know if you actually got faster or if it's all in your head. It's anecdotal. If all you did is hockey for 4 years, then went away and did some other dynamic sports AND got a testosterone spurt, I can imagine you were better, faster. That being said, you played HS and the difference between 15, then 16, then 17 yr olds in HS is pretty much night and day for each year. It's pretty typical actually to see a freshman struggle, then come back the next year and be a solid contributor and the next year be a dominant player. Anyway, my point was, at 15U, if your objective is to play juniors and college, it is the most critical year in your pre-junior hockey life. Does it mean things are over if 15U doesn't go well? No, but it narrows the choices/opportunities substantially. The spring/summer of 15U, most top players are doing a lot of high level tournaments/showcases. Kids that aren't skating aren't ready for these tournaments/showcases. In conclusion, I think you misconstrued what I wrote. That being said, your situation is just that, one situation and difficult to draw concrete conclusions one way or the other. I would also add, I don't think it's necessary to comment in an unsolicited fashion by saying what I wrote is crap based on your personal experience. Let's be more collegial than that. I edited my initial response to do so. Thanks.

Sorry to hear 😞