Let’s face it, every youth hockey team has a few (or…more than a few) knuckleheads that have their own agenda. Some just don’t buy into off-ice (yet); some don’t respect authority; some may suspect blood sugar fluctuations due to their even more suspect food choices; and some may have just had a bad day/week. What [...]

What percentage of performance is mental? I was first posed this question while taking a class at the University of Delaware on the mental aspects of peak performance. Every one of my classmates responded somewhere between 50-90%. Since that time, I’ve asked dozens of people the same question, and the responses almost invariably fall within [...]

Tomorrow I’m going to share a detailed article series on off-ice hockey training for youth hockey organizations that I wrote for Hockey Strength and Conditioning several months ago. The best hockey training resource.Before I get to that, I want to diverge from the normal hockey training content nature of this site and congratulate some of [...]

I’ve been involved in the game of hockey for 20 years now. Throughout that time I’ve played the roles of diverse player, power skating and skills clinic instructor, coach, athletic development coach, and injury consultant. Within each one of these roles, I’ve worn many hats. I’ve been a forward and defenseman, a leader and a [...]

Piggy-backing on last week’s post on the importance of developing great coaching skills to compliment a sound knowledge base (refer here: Become a Great COACH!), I thought I’d share 5 ways I’ve found to get the most out of our athletes. 5) Make Exercises/Instruction Specific to the Athlete In a strength and conditioning setting, there [...]