Every summer, hockey players across North America sign up for hockey skills camps with the goal of becoming better players before the next season begins. Parents invest time and money into skating camps, stickhandling clinics, shooting programs, and specialized development sessions because they want to help their players improve. Coaches often encourage athletes to use the off-season wisely and continue developing their game. The big question, however…
Here’s another quick CoachChic.com podcast I think my hockey friends will enjoy. It’s all about the posture required of a backward skating defender when he or she has to cover an oncoming attacker.
In today’s hockey world, it can feel like everything revolves around results. Players are judged by goals, points, rankings, and team records almost everywhere they go. Parents sometimes compare ice time, coaches feel pressure to win tournaments, and young hockey players can start believing that success only comes from being the top scorer or making the elite team right away. The problem is that hockey development rarely works in a straight line. Some players grow early, some develop confidence later, and many successful athletes spend years quietly improving before anyone notices.
Few things change the direction of a hockey season faster than coaching turnover. One year a team may have a coach who focuses heavily on skill development, puck possession, and confidence-building, while the next year a completely different coaching style suddenly appears. For hockey players, parents, and even assistant coaches, these changes can create excitement, confusion, stress, or new opportunities depending on the situation.
Every hockey season brings excitement, fresh goals, and new opportunities, but there is one part of the year that can create huge stress for players, parents, and coaches alike: hockey tryouts. Team selection season can feel like a pressure cooker. Players worry about making the top team, parents anxiously watch every drill from the stands, and coaches try to evaluate dozens of athletes fairly in only a few ice sessions. The truth is that hockey tryouts are emotional for almost everyone involved.
Learning how to play both center and wing is one of the most valuable skills a hockey player can develop, especially at the youth and high school level. Coaches are always looking for versatile players who can adapt to different roles, and players who understand both positions often have a higher hockey IQ and more opportunities to contribute.
Gap control is one of the most important defensive skills in hockey, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood and underdeveloped, even at the high school level and beyond. Many players can skate well, understand basic positioning, and compete hard, but still struggle when it comes to managing space against an attacking opponent…
Every player has a natural leaning — something they do a little better than the rest. The key is identifying that strength early and building it into something undeniable. In this episode, we break down the process of selecting the right skill, understanding what makes it valuable, and creating a training approach that actually sticks.
The truth about shoulder checking in hockey is that most young players think they’re doing it right simply because they make contact, but real shoulder‑to‑body checking is a technical skill built on timing, posture, and controlled force. A proper shoulder check isn’t about throwing your weight around or trying to “blow someone up.” It’s about using your shoulder and upper body to legally bump a puck‑carrying opponent and separate him from the puck without losing your own balance or taking yourself out of the play.
Closing the gap is one of the most important defensive skills in hockey, but it’s also one of the hardest for young defensemen to get right. Every player has heard a coach yell “Close the gap!” from the bench, yet very few kids actually understand what that means in real time. They either charge forward too aggressively and get burned wide, or they back off too much and give the puck carrier all the space in the world. The real art of gap control is learning how to shrink the distance between you and the attacker without giving up your inside positioning, your skating base, or your ability to react…