Nope! Don’t Follow The Hockey Crowd!

I recently posted an article entitled “Adapting to a Pandemic Lifestyle”.  My real point in that piece was to help those in charge of young players from getting dragged onto and off of (and onto and off of) the numerous hockey guru bandwagons.  

Unfortunately, here’s what I meant — and there are two sides to this potential rollercoaster ride…

First off, no two players are alike, nor are their needs anything alike.

Secondly, the hockey world is now flooded with advisors who never previously cared a lick about alternative training.  Let’s face it, it can take separate college courses for one to be truly able to scientifically guide a player — in the likes of biomechanics, physiology, plyometrics and so on.  So, inexperienced coaches and parents ought to be careful about following someone who just suddenly retires from playing and, well…

I’m going to do everyone a favor here, however, and only share a bit of common sense. 

A while back I suggested that a long range plan is the best kind of all.  Actually, something like September 1 sounded good to me, for a player to be ready to go full-tilt.  If you think about it, my article from back in the spring would have given almost any healthy player a good 5-months — count them:  April, May, June, July and August — to be stronger, to be in pretty good condition, to be a little faster, to shoot a little quicker and stronger, to be more agile, and so much more.

This aside has me thinking that the little girl (to the left) could have already been well on her way to those changes, and so could the much more mature young guy (further down below). Hey, is there any doubt, that almost anyone will benefit from a long range approach to building the body (and the mind)?

Then, before wrapping things up here, let me ask the reader one more rather common sense question, this having to do with a target ready date of around September 1…

No matter how much I believe in the things I’ve promoted over recent months — like my agility ladder exercises, my skating analysis and remedies, and the things promoted by some truly tops in the world specialists featured in the CCC-TV Hockey Shows, those have only been meant as ideas to help get a player ready for the 2021-22 season.

Why so?  It’s because of what I said up top, in that each player is different, and only his or her coach or parent is going to know what will help the most.

Now, as for that so-called “ready date”, the idea should be for a player to come out of the gate — or just a little before then — with guns-a-blazing.    

What goes wrong is that everyone in the world wants to wrestle control away from a smart parent, and have a player or group of players ready for a purpose other than the start of next season.  Ya, the guiltiest parties are often the rinks who sponsor tournaments, camps or clinics, or the coaches who need to recruit for tournaments.

I have to ask you, though:  does it make sense for a player to be at his or her absolute best in June?  How about July? Or, how about…

Lastly, almost everything above is a matter of common sense, and has nothing to do with my Phys Ed & Coaching education.  If there’s one tidbit buried in all the above, it’s something I learned in my Soviet Studies many years ago.  I shared that concept here a few weeks ago, but I’ve since reserved it for my exclusive members. 

PS: I apologize at sometimes having my presentations get out of sync. And by that I’m feeling sorry for publishing this article rather late (I probably should have shared most of this info with you a little after publishing the above noted spring article). Still, it’s my hope that this piece will remain here for years to come, and thus be available — on time — for future readers. Again, sorry.