Reply To: World Jr’s – Speed of the Game

[CoachP7]

I always find coaches from the USA to be more open to ideas for dryland training and using SAG in practices. I think that is why the Americans are developing players who skate fast and think fast.

I was sitting beside Bob Murdoch in the dressing room yesterday and he was saying how impressed he was by the speed the USA jr team has.

Most of the Canadian players are from major jr. teams that play too many games for them to do hard dryland during the season. I think they develop hockey savvy from playing so many games but individual power and speed development is sacrificed.

The Red Bull U18 team just did very well in a tournament in Finland. They have about 45 practice sessions a month with 2 on ice skills session, 4 ice practices, 2 games, 2 dryland and 1 treadmill skate per week. I think they have added one combative session like boxing since opening the new training centre.

If you are a good athlete and are in a program like that with good coaching you are going to develop into a player.

Interesting you bring this up Tom. My son attended an academy where the emphasis is skill and skating. Five days a week they did: 1.5hrs ice (2x per day), 1hr dryland, 1hr of skills (from shooting practice, stickhandling ball work, hockey/plyo combo work, etc.) and 1hr of hockey classrm theory (team systems, hi-perf nutrition, going the college route, going the Jr. route, etc.). Then, they played exhib games or tourneys on the weekend.

People would ask me "Was it worth it?" or "Do you see an improvement?" And, without being too biased in my reply and me saying 'Yeah, for that money, he better have !!" BUT I can honestly say I saw great improvements in his skating (edge use, balance, leg power, quickness); stickhandling (wrist strength, puck manoeverability, variousn puck movements away from his body; and shot (snap, slap, wrist in regards to overall speed, quickness/release, accuracy). In fact, I always considered more a puck mover vice shooter but it was like a different player. He can reeeeally shoot now.

So, worth it? Well, that's a relative term to me. Will he make NHL? Probably not but that's up to him really; not me now. Costly? Sure is. Would I recommend doing it (paying for it) for a player from his/her pee wee major year thru to his/her 1st or 2nd year of midget, sure would. But, back to the 'worth it' query, that's approx well over $100 000. Too rich for my blood. Factor in the other aspectds of lifeskill bldg, new friends, diff coaches, quality coaching, living away from home – all great stuff over and above the hockey deveopment.

Point is, I'd love to be able to see an experiment with two equal players say at the PW age and one go the normal route (we all do) and the other go thru 5 yrs of skill/skating development as offered by some of these academies. To me, there would be no comparison – no way, no how.

I know of a fellow highly respected coach who does an after school (predominantly) stickhandling only session once/twice a week. The results I have seen in this just can't be got in a typical practice. Myself included but you just don't spend 40 min on stickhandling moves and separation of the puck away from the body and the like. BUT, maybe we should !!

I'd have to agree with Tom, the practice to game ratio should be looked at and closely monitored. Off-ice training and non-game play activity is really important too.