Common Sense is the Foundation of High Performance
Champions usually believe the essentials of life were learned in kindergarten. Their world view is that success is simple and constructed fundamentally from common sense. While average people search for complex answers to their problems, the world class looks for the simple solution first—and usually finds it. They solve more complex challenges by looking at [...]
Elements of Power in Hockey Skating: The Windup
In this continuing series on the Elements of Power Skating, Laura Stamm explains the concept of the windup, which involves attention to the edges, knees, body weight, balance and center of gravity. For the windup: Edges Every push must be executed against an edge. Some pushes, as in the forward and backward stride, are executed [...]
Elements of Power in Hockey Skating
In my 40 years of teaching experience, I have too often watched (in amazement) coaches stressing quick feet while overlooking power generation. Of course quickness is vital—but so is power! And in order to achieve power, players need to push correctly! Hockey is comprised of numerous intricate and complicated skating maneuvers such as the forward [...]
Champions Are Driven By Fun
One of the most closely held secrets of world-class performers is how much fun they have in what they do. Outsiders see big-time performers as super self-disciplined, self-sacrificing, success-and-achievement machines. Yet a closer look gives a more accurate portrayal of what really drives these people: fun. Champions have more fun in their work than any [...]
Do You Have to Play Your Age?
If you’re new to hockey, you might think that hockey parents’ habit of talking about 1996s and 2002s rather than 14-year-olds and 9-year-olds is just a quirk. But in fact, it’s significant because almost all players are strictly assigned to play U8, Squirt, PeeWee, Bantam or Midget by birth year. This, however, doesn’t stop parents [...]
The Summer Hockey Growth Spurt
Summer is an integral part of the hockey season. Though it is the off season, it can also be a time for a hockey growth spurt. Summer is a time to recharge your batteries after the long hockey season of early mornings and late nights in the height of cold and flu season. A time [...]
8 Arm Swing Tips for Skating
You may be thinking, why would hockey players swing their arms while skating? Hockey players should keep both hands on the stick! In general, this is sound advice, but in certain game situations, players should hold their hockey sticks with just the top hand—enabling them to use their arms for additional momentum and speed. For [...]
Managing Mites’ Minute Attention Spans
Even 5-year-olds look so tough in their hockey gear that you forget that, well, they’re 5-year-olds. But the coaches down on the ice don’t forget since they’re the ones repeating instructions and reigning in the distracted players. To keep players engaged during a full hour practice, limit the amount of time per drill. One minute [...]
Get Quick Fast with 10 Dryland Tips
Much quickness training can be done off the ice, leaving more ice time to spend on technique training. Drills that can be done off-ice to train for quickness on-ice are: Sprint and interval running Lunges Russian box jumps Speed chutes Slideboards Many sporting activities help develop quickness, too. At the same time, kids can have [...]
7 Tips for Keeping Your Head in the Game
This is a message about mental toughness—when you reach a particular level in hockey, you will realize that mental toughness will set you apart from your competition. The same two players can have pretty much the same skills and speed, but their minds will enable one player to be great and the other to be [...]