When the season is over a lot of players simply hang-up their skates and turn to other activities - watching TV, jobs, eating, and girls. Not necessarily your best training program in the off season. Then when tryouts begin or just before a big push is made to 'get in shape.' Sure, you can take a breather just after the season is over for a week or two, but then you got to stay in shape. If you want to be good, it will take a lot of training and dedication. If you want to be the best, then you have to train the best. The simple answer is you need to train on a regular basis, which means almost daily.- Shoot pucks daily. Recommend at least 250 per day.
- Minimum 25-100 push-ups and 25-100 sit-ups daily. They can be done in what ever increments that can be managed: 15's, 25's, 50's etc. and can be done all at once or split with ½ in the morning and ½ in the evening. (The best I have seen from 12 year old players is 100 push-ups in a row with perfect form and +375 sit-ups in a row.)
- "3 on 3" once a week. Besides the best training value, the kids have the most fun because of the competition. This accomplishes the need to be on the ice about 5-6 hours a week.
- At least 1 skill session. In order of importance: Skating; Shooting/Saving; Passing & Stickhandling. This isn't just for 10-12 year olds, even AHL and NHL players still go to skill sessions to improve.
At last year's Wrangler Main Camp I was amazed at how many players came to try out that could not run and were just plain out of shape. Many of them were exhausted. Even during the regular season very few Wrangler players continued to train; and it showed. Last year's Coach McLean shared with me an E-mail that I thought was great. It said, that instead of getting noticed, players should work on getting better. "Getting noticed" and "getting better" are two very different things. His E-mail went on to say, "Instead of spending the entire summer in a hockey rink, go to the 1 or 2 camps or tournaments that have the most value and spend the rest of the summer focusing on training. Instead of spending the entire summer trying to convince coaches how good you are, spend the summer getting better by training and being in shape so that they will notice you next season when it really counts. Your primary focus should be on getting faster and stronger - to be ready for the season. Your dedication to summer training will give you an advantage over everyone else on the ice when the season starts - then you'll be able to "get noticed."" The E-mail concluded with this statement, which I believe, "The best hockey players don't play hockey all summer long. They train."
So, you want to be a Wrangler? You want to play hockey? Now is the time to start training.
