Feature Story

Feature Story

Let’s Play Hockey Jack Blatherwick article archive

2009-10

• Learning movement by observation

• Read/react skills are trained, just like physical skills

• Wolf packs: A great example of interdependence and synergy

• The real geniuses

• X’s & O’s: How much is enough?

• Teach creative, deceptive offensive attack

• Puck protection is guaranteed poise

• From beginner to elite skater

• Cardio fitness is a high priority; cardio workouts are not

• Practicing with or without a purpose

• Legislating mediocrity

• Skills in the heat of battle

• Turn off the scoreboard and furnace, and hide the trophies

• Misuse of the word “power” has been a century-long distraction

• Exercise myth?

• Improved endurance performance by rinsing with a carbo drink? Wow.

2008-09

• Hockey endurance…endure what?

• Don’t underestimate the simple things

• Sprinting: the surest off-ice training to improve skating quickness

• Play sports to develop athleticism

• Establish your own priorities for offseason training

• Don Cherry’s NHL

• Solutions to a non-problem

• Blatherwick on USA Hockey: “Oops”

• Blatherwick on the American Development Model

• How do animals do it?

• Improvement of stick skills? It’s a DIY project

• St. Paul Johnson hockey is alive and well

• It’s not the size of dog in the fight

• Pond hockey at the X

• Elevating the comfort zone – It’s more than just speed

• Shooting practice: Expand the comfort zone

• Punishment by reward

• Nature vs. Nurture

• Sitting on the bench cannot be called ‘development’

• Don’t be a spectator coach

• Timberwolves drill is a model for all team sports

• Being the best you can be – for your team, that is

• Why is hockey treated differently?

• Train fast for a fast game

• Does our system encourage creative play?

2007-08

• Does our system encourage creative play?

• Unfocused development

• This is the State of Hockey

• What sets and reps should I do in the weight room?

• The North Rink – a symbol of community commitment

• Stretching is not a warm-up

• Another look at quick starts

• The winter of ‘65

• Planning an overspeed practice

• Smart muscles – not just strong muscles

• More on creativity

• Too much of a good thing?

• The importance of muscular endurance

• Buffalo squirt program a model for all suburbs

• Coaches win by the way they conduct practice

• Wolf packs and state champions

• Where have all the Hogans gone?

• It’s not the size of the fight in the dog

• Train athletic movement – not isolated muscles

• Weight room is just a piece of the puzzle

• Beach balls, balance beams and pseudoscience

• Learning rink sense: what works, what doesn’t

• A sport without rules is not a sport