Feature Story
Establish your own priorities for off-season
training
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
If your goal in hockey is to be as good
as you can possibly be, there is no more important question than: how should
I spend my time and energy? You already know you’ll have to work hard and
long, but it’s just as important to have a good plan, so your efforts transfer
to results.
For the best plan, trust yourself if
you’re old enough to read this article. The answers are simple, inexpensive and
fun.
You’ve been taught to ask adults, but
this can be confusing at best. Besides, you already know what the experts would
say: buy their program. They’d like you to think that the more expensive the
program, the better it is.
The problem with this approach is that
there are so many pieces to the development puzzle, and if each piece is developed
separately, there is no coordinated athleticism like a Randy Moss. There is less chance of multi-tasking like
Sidney Crosby. This is “compartmentalized” training. The end product is a
bionic super robot, not a smooth, skillful athletic wizard like Michael Jordan.
USA Hockey recently presented some
incredibly important advice; but unfortunately it was disguised in
condescending rhetoric and pseudo-scientific graphs and charts about optimum
windows of opportunity.
What they should have said is, “You have
only one chance to be young. Use this golden opportunity wisely.” In other
words, don’t think it is best for your development to play a schedule with 50
high-stakes games, trophies for weekend tournaments and cheerleaders in the
stands. Adults want the best for you, so they try to make a season of youth
hockey look like a mini-
In this hyped-up environment where winning
is so important to adults, they make poor decisions. Structure replaces
creativity. You are told to dump the puck in, don’t control it — that a “coachable player” goes where the X or O is drawn, not where
intuition or rink sense would lead you. Another poor decision: teams are too
large, and you have no chance to become a Wayne Gretzky playing one-third of a
game. Whistles and faceoffs waste valuable ice time.
Scoreboards, coaches, screaming parents and the pressure to win make it
intimidating to learn by trial and error.
However, the winter structure has ended,
and now you have the chance to plan your own development. Don’t start by asking
a strength/conditioning expert, because you’ll hear about their priority. You
may go to that person later, but first, you have to decide your own priorities,
not someone else’s.
Start with a simple question: what are
the qualities most important for success? Every coach, scout and player would
agree. Success in hockey depends on rink sense, stick skills, skating and athleticism,
plus mental qualities like confidence and toughness.
It is now a simpler puzzle. Rink sense:
get a parent to buy some ice time, organize a group of friends and scrimmage
all summer. Stick skills and skating are more about practice than advice, but
as a serious golfer might do, you may seek help first — then practice,
practice, practice.
Athleticism,
confidence and mental toughness? Play other
sports. And for the strength and conditioning, reduce compartmentalization
where you can. Make sure your training is highly athletic, like your mental
highlight tape of Randy Moss, Alex Ovechkin and
Michael Jordan.
Visit Jack's website at www.overspeed.info.
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