It is now mid-September, and for many programs the winter team tryout dates have been set (or will be soon), and “refresher” camps and clinics are underway. Everyone looks ahead to those dates with a mix of both nervousness and excitement, as the players will be eager to show the evaluators the results of all their hard work and skills development over the summer.
The uncertainty behind tryouts can make this a stressful time of year, to be sure. Whether your motivation is to make an elite team, to be with your closest friends, or for parents to be with hockey parents they enjoy, we want our players to have the best chance of earning one of those limited available spots.
In this week’s article, we highlight our top-10 recommendations a hockey family needs to do today to ensure their player is ready from the first whistle of tryouts.
- Equipment checks. Key items include mouthguard, neck guards (now required by USA Hockey!), sharpen skates, check laces (are they broken, twisted, uneven), and retape your stick. Don’t wait until loading up the bag the day of tryouts to realize that one of these things is missing!
- Skip the heavy lifting workouts. Cardio and sprints are good, and so are working the hockey-specific muscle groups like core and quads, but no need to max out on long distance runs or squatting. Focus on reps and total weight lifted.
- Daily puck touches. Keep your wrists and hand-eye coordination sharp by doing some stickhandling drills at home. Practice top hand control, figure 8s, toe drags, and out wides, then both stationary and dynamic patterns, then with your eyes up. Consider picking up a shooting pad, dryland slick tiles or SWEETHANDS to help give you the most amount of space to train with.
- Daily shots. Whether you participated in your association’s 10k puck challenge, or haven’t picked up a stick in months, it always helps to fire shots at your shooting tarp or backyard goal. Things to consider for players of all ages are accuracy, shot type (mixing of wrist, snaps, backhands), mix up locations (high slot, in-tight, both sides of post), weight transfer, and quick release. Train with a friend or PASSMASTER to get passes and quick shot as well. Shooting 100 pucks a day only takes most players about 10-15 minutes. Getting 700-1,000 more shots between now and tryouts will definitely put you at an advantage.
- Get enough sleep. The sleepovers and watching the end of Monday night football can wait. Your muscles need to heal and recover, and your body needs to store up energy. The doctor recommended number of hours differs by age, with 9-12 hours recommended for kids 13 and under, and 8-10 hours recommended for kids 14-18. Keep a consistent bedtime and routine, and avoid screens before bed.
- Nutrition. Focus on clean protein, fruits and vegetables and grains. This is true not just on game day, but for several days leading up to tryouts also. The sweets and junk food can wait for a few days.
- Hydrate. Skip the energy drinks and sugary drinks, and be sure to be drinking water constantly in the days leading up to tryouts. Recommended amounts depend on age, weight and gender, but a general rule of thumb is to drink “half your body weight in ounces” for a regular day…so a 100 pound person should drink 50 fluid ounces (6 cups).
- Develop a strategy to get noticed. Talk to your athlete about things to do during tryouts to stand out, such as battling for pucks, skating hard every shift, and paying attention during drill explanations. You should also talk with your athlete about things NOT to do during tryouts, such as a) don’t socialize with friends in line, b) don’t skip cones or coast at the end of shifts and c) don’t assume that just since you were on a team last year that your spot is assured again…you have to prove you deserve it again. Think about what your player is best at relative to his/her peers (i.e. fastest skater, hardest shot, strong backwards skater), and make sure the evaluators see that.
- Double and triple check dates, times, rink locations, jersey colors, and special instructions. Don’t wait until day of to confirm which session you can attend, whether kids can get dressed at rink or not, and how to handle a schedule conflict or issue (such as what happens if a child is sick). Research this ahead of time to minimize day of surprises.
- Have fun with it, help your athlete do their best, and be ready to accept the outcome. If parents are stressed, kids will be stressed and will play with nerves. Help them prepare and battle, but also help them understand that there are positives in any of the outcomes. Whether that is making a top team, or being a leader at a lower team, there are valuable life lessons that come from playing youth sports to gain. The important thing is for kids to make the team that is best for them.
