2014 was a memorable year for a lot of reasons. Emily and I got engaged, bought a house, I got a new (used) car, and then we expanded our family to include a new dog, Ruxin. In quick succession, we learned that he…
despite being from Jacksonville, is an Eagles Fan
like me, prefers watching games in the Man Cave
is a little protective over his things
is…not shy
likes sitting by the camp fire
is festive
and no stranger to the weight room
may or may not be familiar with the Heisman
has the same response I do when Emily puts on the Bachelor
adopted Emily’s favorite sleeping position
Emily and I also attended 6 weddings of very close friends of ours, which added a lot of excitement to the year to say the least!
On a professional note, this has been an awesome year for us at Endeavor. Not only was this our largest off-season hockey group ever, but 2014 saw Johnny Gaudreau win the Hobey Baker (and then get off to an incredible start to his NHL career), Anthony DeAngelo get drafted in the first round of the NHL draft (and then compete in his first World Juniors, while leading all OHL defensemen in points), Dwyer Tschantz become the first Delaware-native to ever get drafted in the NHL, and a number of other individual accomplishments that I, along with the rest of our staff, am incredibly proud of.
And while the focus of this site tends to drift toward hockey-specific topics, we have also had a great group of soccer, softball, and baseball players train with us, which includes some of the most dedicated athletes we’ve ever trained.
Christmas Eve training group
A quick aside about the group above. The two HS pitchers to my left are both committed to good D1 schools. One is training 6 days/week with us; the other 5. They came up to me about a week before Christmas and asked about our holiday hours, so I ran them through what the schedule looked like, notably that we’d be closed Christmas Eve and Christmas. Upon hearing this, the one player said, “So you’re closed Christmas eve?”. But he didn’t say it in a way that lead me to believe he was just clarifying. It was said more like “I heard you say you were closed Christmas eve, but I think what you meant to say was that you’ll open so we can come train that morning…right?” A sentiment that was reaffirmed by the fact that they both just stood there with their arms crossed staring at me, intently.
Emily had to work that day anyway and I have a hard time not supporting that level of dedication so I opened up. Upon hearing the news, several others hopped in as well. As a coach, it’s exciting to see extremely talented players are still pushing their development.
With all of that said, I wanted to recap the year by sharing the Top 10 posts of 2014. Enjoy, and if you find one you particularly like, please feel free to pass it along to your friends.
Top 10 Posts of 2014
10) PRI Cervical-Cranio-Mandibular Restoration Course Review
9) Assessing and Monitoring Performance Indicators
8) A New Way to Isolate Your Core
7) Slideboard Intervals for Increased Skating Power
6a) Analyzing the Skating Stride
6b) Analyzing the Skating Stride: Physical Barriers
5) Understanding Range of Motion: More is not Better
4) Ultimate Pull-Up Transformation
3) 10 Qualities of a Great Teammate
2) 5 Things Every Youth Athlete Should Know
and the most popular post of 2014 by a landslide victory..
To your success,
Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com
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“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team
“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University