The Inside Post

The best athletes in hockey are generally those who can excel at other sports as well.  While hockey-specific skills are definitely important, consider how playing other sports can help refine your hand-eye coordination, footwork, reaction times, balance and other movement to improve your on-ice performance. Coach Lance explores the topic further in this week's article.

Finding the best combination of players at each lines, with the right chemistry and balance, can be a difficult task as a coach. Often times takes months of trial and error until you find the ideal line combinations, and there might be some ugly games along the way. In this week's article, Coach Lance shares some of his philosophies that helped the youth teams he coached find their stride just in time for playoff push. 

Playing defense in hockey may not be as glamorous as their goal-scoring forward teammates, but is a critical position at all levels of play. Those who can master the position provide their team with a significant competitive advantage by shutting down scoring opportunities and controlling field position. In this week's article, our founder Lance Pitlick shares some of his observations from his years as a NHL defenseman, and shares his top-5 tips for how to be successful defenseman. 

While the spotlight usually finds the goal-scorer, the truly great players are also outstanding passers, both to move the puck and to create opportunities for others. Just with other skills development, becoming an effective passer takes both hockey IQ and repetitions on-ice and at home so that you can find your teammates' tape when it matters. Coach Lance takes us through four tips to becoming a dominant passer in this week's article.   

The winter break and new year provides not only opportunity for rest and recovery, but an opportunity to reflect on your season thus far, and whether and how to realign your goals for the remainder of the season. For many, the solution is to re-commit to handling and shooting pucks at home to develop muscle memory and confidence to help your team in the second half of your winter season. 

Outdoor hockey season has arrived in north, and ushers more incredible opportunities to have fun, make memories, and get better at hockey. Whether you skate on a pond across the street, community park or backyard rink with boards, playing outdoor hockey with friends in a non-structured environment is not only great fun for players of all ages, but offers tremendous benefits for hockey development between the extra skating, puck touches, and decision-making in tight spaces. We dive deeper into what makes outdoor hockey so magical in this week's article.