OUR PHILOSOPHY

STOP playing spring and summer hockey and START training!

This is something anyone in hockey development worth his/her salt already knows, but parents really struggle with. A couple dozen of these games were filmed and analyzed a while back and they found that in any 90 minute game, on average, the third line right winger had the puck on his stick for about two seconds and did not complete a single pass, the point is clear.

The American Game-to-Practice ratio is completely wrong, and spring and summer hockey are the worst culprits. This is the time where players should be taking time away from the rigors of competitive hockey and training to improve their athleticism. When they are on the ice, it should be for non-competitive SKILL work only.

How much would that right wingers hands improve during that game? Probably none. How much would they improve with a 60 minute puck handling clinic? Probably substantially. This is so intuitive and obvious I'm shocked that it's not already the norm.

The European countries are way ahead of us in this regard. Igor Larionov, one of the most skilled players ever played his first organized hockey game at the age of 12. Before that it was all for fun and for SKILL.