The Inside Post

Investing time to learn new skills is an essential part of personal growth. And with the learning of any new technique, such as a stickhandling move, there will undoubtedly make mistakes. This is a good thing. Mistakes are signals that let you know forward progress is taking place. Instead of getting frustrated and abandoning the drill, challenge yourself to think like an elite player and become determined to conquer the issue. Learn from the mistake, make the adjustment, and go again. Soon the mistakes get fewer and fewer, and before long they’ve developed mastery of the new skill.

Every hockey player has different motivating factors for playing the game. For many, the answer could be for love of the game, to have fun with friends, and/or to be active, which are all perfectly good reasons! Those committed to becoming elite athletes, however, have other personality traits in common that motivate them on their hockey journey, which we explore further in this week's article.

Coaches want players who have effective "split vision". It means bringing your eyes up far enough so you can see what’s around you, but more importantly, still being able to see the puck out of the corner of your eyes. Just like other hockey skills, split vision can be developed by athletes of all ages by performing certain exercises at home to train the eyes, hands and brain to work together. 

For those committed to becoming elite hockey players, game day preparation isn't just the 4-5 minutes of on-ice warm-up time right before a game. These players are shooting pucks and refining stickhandling skills at home to build confidence and muscle memory, so they can simply read and react in a game situation.   

In this week's article, we discuss how playing with passion and persistence (i.e. grit) is the secret to outstanding achievement.

Learning from some of the best goalies over the last 30 years, Coach Lance breaks down four critical tactics for how you can keep the goalie guessing and score more goals.