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Mapping Out Your Game Plan for
Summer Hockey Training
A message from Coach Kasie Strong-
Mapping out your game plan for
summer training- How to rapidly improve and still enjoy summer.
Balance is the key!
In terms of your child’s on ice
training routine, have you spoken to him or her lately about
upcoming plans for this summer? With summer almost here, it’s
important to have a plan of attack that fits your child’s needs,
your schedule and the family budget.
Today’s options for on-ice summer
training seem to come in all different forms such as camps,
clinics and skill sessions, summer league teams, showcase
tournaments and pick-up hockey to name a few. All of these
choices can be somewhat overwhelming and it’s hard to always
know what activity will benefit your child the most. From my
own personal experience as a player and as a coach, I have found
that the best plan of attack for summer training is to have
balance in your routine.
Too often I see players who take all
summer off then cram in some rigorous camps right before the
season starts. This procrastination approach as I call it does
not allow your player to develop and perfect his or her skills
over a period of time. In the end your player will demonstrate
the concepts learned for the week they are at camp and then
forget everything once they jump into regular season practices
and games. We all know this cram model from back in our school
days when we would cram for a test, get an “A”, but then can’t
remember any of the material we learned a week later. The same
thing will happen in hockey if you don’t continue your practice
throughout the season.
On the other extreme are the players
who are skating all summer and do not have proper balance
between being a player and being a kid. They aren’t spending
enough time with their friends and enjoying their summer
vacation and in the end, suffer from burnout and are dragging
come the beginning of September. Like the procrastination
approach, both of these extremes should be avoided if possible.
Here is a brief outline of what I
mean by balance in your schedule. Remember, you, the parents,
are the best judge of what your children’s needs are and what
they can mentally and physically undertake. I encourage you to
sit down with your children and hear them out. Ultimately it
will make for the best family decision where everyone’s needs
are considered.
Example of Balanced Hockey
Schedule:
March/April- Hockey
Season Ends.
TAKE A BREAK and has hard as it may
be, limit your time at the rink. I promise, this will help
rejuvenate your young players.
May- Spring Sports
Start.
I encourage all of my players to
play other sports in the off season to help create more dynamic
and well rounded athletes. Some of the best NHL players played
at least two sports into their high school or college years
before opting to specialize in hockey. Example: Bobby Allen-
graduated from BC and headed for the NHL, but did you know he
was a four-year All-Independent School League baseball selection
as a catcher at Cushing Academy? Chris Drury- excelled
at both baseball and hockey as a child and in 1989 had the
privilege of winning both a PeeWee National Hockey Championship
in the same year as he won the Little League World Series.
Tom Glavine- drafted by LA Kings and Atlanta Braves in
1984. He elected to play baseball.
June-
Schools Out/ Summer Begins
J
You’ve had a nice little break from
hockey but right about now you’re probably starting to get the
itch to jump back onto the ice. Remember to do this gradually
and not jump back into anything too quickly. Private and
semi-private lesson or some once a week pick- up hockey is a
great way to incorporate both fun and hockey to help you get
back into the swing of things this summer!
*Late June/Early July-
Time to Get Serious.
Strong Dynamics Summer Camp June 26 to July 3.
About this time is when I would
suggest a week long camp that offers continuous days of
training. This kind of camp format provides an opportunity for
rapid development because of back to back training days where
each day you can build off the previous day without having to
spend too much time reviewing the last lesson as it’s still
fresh in your players’ heads. A good camp model should also
offer ample rest and recovery time between days so that our
players can actually make it through the week without getting
bored or feeling like they are missing out on summer fun with
their friends. A week long, continuous day camp is a great way
to build a strong base of core skills that you can build on
throughout the summer months.
July- Sustain and
Perfect.
Weekly Clinics at Strong Dynamics
Take those skills you learned from
your week long camp and perfect them throughout the month of
July. This can easily be done with private or semi-private
lessons or perhaps a once a week skills clinic where your child
is able to get specialized and individualized attention without
spending too much time at the rink. Don’t forget to keep the
balance in your routine and find time for that vacation you were
thinking about or the music camp your child mentioned back at
the end of spring.
August- Hockey Season
is Right around the Corner.
With hockey season only a month
away, it might be time (towards the middle/end of the month) to
do another week long camp, showcase tournament, some high tempo
scrimmages or anything that involves a good amount of actual
game play. At this point, you’ve done a good amount of skill
development work and now have to incorporate what you’ve learned
into a real live game environment. Don’t forget, we always want
to sustain what we’ve learned throughout the season and this
requires practice, practice, practice. Even though we are
incorporating some games into our routine, it’s essential to
balance that with adequate skill development time, i.e.
practice!
September- It’s Time
and You’re Ready!
The hockey season is now here and
hopefully you’ve had a fun filled summer where you were able to
balance summer fun with on-ice development. This balance is
what will keep your athlete in top shape physically and mentally
so that he or she will be able to compete with the best this
season. Congratulations on a successful summer and here’s to an
even more successful season!
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