The Ride to The Rink: How Young Hockey Players Can Build Skills On and Off the Ice

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of The Ride to the Rink. Don't know where you're at today. Don't really care. I just love that you're listening to the show. It's Lee with Mike and Christy, and our friend Andrew is here. Andrew is a very high-level coach at the junior level. He played NCAA hockey. He's extremely qualified to be here. He was our guest on the big episode this week. And we want to talk to him for a few minutes here, kids, about a few different topics. One of them, Andrew, being skill development versus team kind of system development. We have no shortage of kids working on their skills right now, right? And kids, you know from Ride to the Rink episodes how important those skill sets are. But Andrew, there's a lot of team concepts, team systems that they need to be working on as well. What are your thoughts on some of those systems? And how can kids maybe open the aperture? There's a word for you guys to look up, uh, on team building or team systems that these kids should be looking into at a younger age.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

So I feel that it's a funnel that narrows as you get older. So most of your skill development, most of your practices should be skill focused from 8U, 10U, 12U. That should be the bulk of everything that you do. Um, and that net narrows as you get to 18U and junior hockey. Um, and it gets replaced more with the team concepts. But there's so many team concepts you can teach to kids off the ice that don't waste ice time. Um, you can you can teach a D zone setup in the parking lot at your rink, you can teach um your offensive zone entry stuff on your video reviews, you can teach so many things or your chalk talks, you can teach a four-tech check in a chalk talk to a 12-year-old. That's easy. So, wasting time with that on the ice, I think is a real disservice to the kids. You got to focus on skills, improving their their abilities on the ice, but then improving their brains oftentimes off the ice.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Love it. All right, so I'm on eight, nine, 10, 11, 12-year-old listening to you right now. Talk to me directly, Andrew. I'm just starting out my season. What is the most important thing for me to focus on? How do I get better? How do I become a really good teammate?

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Really good teammate. Well, you can that's a tough one, right? Like that's that's a lot of this stuff going on at home, too. You got to make sure that your parents are supporting the coaches, that you're attending practice, you're getting out on time. Um, you're not, you know, when it comes to conditioning drills at the end of practice, you're not uh tying your skates, right? Or you're putting more tape on your shin pads. Um, I think a lot of it is off-the-ice habits. So it's making sure that you're getting plenty of rest, your academics are taken care of, you're um you're shooting in the backyard, you're stick handling, you're doing all those other things. That's going to help you uh develop your game more than just that one hour you're on the ice with your with your coach and your coaching staff and your team. Um, those things make the biggest difference in the long run. I truly believe.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Ah, so it's not just what I'm doing on the ice that matters, but what I'm doing off the ice too.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

Seems to be a theme for this episode.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah.

unknown 3:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I'm wondering, Andrew, can you just maybe explain as a coach and director and somebody who manages you know programs from the youth level to the junior level, you know, how important it is for players to kind of overcome the fear that they're doing more than what other players are doing. So they kind of fall to the level of the other kids. You talked on our big show about how you know you almost left, you know, you did leave your kind of hockey environment because you felt like, you know, there's bigger, you know, fish to fry for you, somewhere where you could really hone your skills and get better. And you didn't want to be, I don't want to say held back, but didn't want to kind of conform to the area of player that just wasn't as serious. And in all of our youth hockey programs, right? We have our kids that are high performers, and then we have kids that are just there for fun, or maybe they don't want to be there at all. But it's really important. Uh, can you describe what a player can do to kind of separate themselves from the pack and you know, really go out and find a way and find that path to don't settle on what everybody else is doing in the locker room. Think about what you can do as an individual.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

Yeah, I think one of the biggest separators at 14, 15, 16 is your strength and your conditioning. So many kids, like all kids, all the kids love getting on the ice, they love doing the skill work, they love going to open hockey or um you know, stick and pock. That's that's kind of the easy stuff. That's the layups. But really committing yourself to the gym, that's a big separator. You know, we had a kid, Zach Spacuzzi, who's been in our program for you know for forever. And you know, he was naturally um really short. I mean, I think he's only like five foot five or five foot six, but he's the best conditioned athlete. And he's gonna play in picks here and see play hockey because of that effort that he put in off the ice, and it's it's totally transformed his game and his life.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

I I just think that's tremendous advice. And and what I'd say again, for especially the parents with the younger kids out there is while while it eight, nine, ten, and andrew, I I know you agree with this. The gym is not the option. There are still things you can do off the ice to work on your mobility and your strength. I always say that because like I don't want some parent being like, get in the gym. No, no, there's always something you can do, sure right? And again, you have to find the age-appropriate things. If you don't know where to go, ask your doctor, they'll tell you, right? They'll tell you exactly what to do. But mobility, strength, and and again, you know, my son, 12 years old, is getting into that weightlifting kind of gym aspect now. It's and I think, Andrew, you're 100% right. It's it's what are you doing away from the thing?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

So and in the summer, inline skating is a great option for kids to learn all kinds of skills.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Absolutely. Yeah, and Andrew, you mentioned our big episode the street hockey, too. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to build your game, kids. And again, no two journeys are the same. You've got to find it at the end of the day, kids, though, it comes down to your drive and your desire. Your parents can't put that in you, your teammates can't put that in you, your coaches can't put that in you. All we can do is water the seed. You have to want it to grow, right? So cultivate those. So, Andrew, this has been a fantastic ride to the rink as always. Thanks for being here with us and talking to the kids grouping.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

It's been my pleasure, guys. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

All right, kids. As we say at the end of every ride of the rink, remember we believe in you. You should too. Have fun, skate hard, go learn something. We'll see you on the next ride of the rink.