WHERE OUR FOCUS NEEDS TO BE

Being a multi-sport athlete and having an off-season is crucial to becoming a great hockey player.

Hockey players are so focused on playing on the best team, scoring the most goals, and making that select team in the summer time. They continue to neglect the most important ingredient for development. With today’s hockey players, where is the time for playing another sport or spending lots of time in the gym developing your body? It isn’t there! The focus is only on winning and playing games, all year long.

Young hockey players need to see the benefit of being a multi-sport athlete. They need to see the benefit of completing an off-season workout program. We need to learn from our European counterparts.  Europeans spend fun time playing soccer, basketball and tennis to develop other skills related to hockey.  While the other sports are not priority, they participate enough to develop other athletic skills related to hockey.

European players do not skate or play hockey games 12 months a year. European players spend their off-seasons playing other sports, and training off-ice to prepare for the hockey season. This means there is an off-season.  It is safe to say that the European players train 2 ½ times more than North Americans.

Last month’s Olympic Games and the men’s hockey tournament are a prime example. Sweden took home the gold. They were followed by Finland (silver), Czech Republic (bronze), and Russia took fourth. The top four placed teams are all outside of North America. If we break it down even further, Slovakia beat the United States and Latvia tied the United States. There are no secrets.  They simply have more quality training at an age where young people improve the most.  No gimmicks; just a well thought out, quality training plan.

We have gone on record before saying, “We are creating generations of players who have distaste for training.”  A 10 or 12-year-old player living in the United States is usually skating in a summer exposure tournament. While his European counterpart is either A) taking one month off B) playing another sport or C) training in a hockey specific off-ice workout program.

If we look at the National Hockey League there is not one US born player under the age of 26 in the top 100 in scoring. There are 13 Europeans under the age of 26 in the top 100 in scoring in the NHL.

There are 42 Europeans in the top 100 in scoring in the NHL. There are 9 Americans in the top 100 in scoring.

Sweden has 9 players in the top 100. There are 9 million people that live in Sweden. Finland has 5 players in the top 100. There are 5 million people that live in Finland. Czech Republic has 10 in the top 100 and has a population of 10 million people. Slovakia has 7 scorers in the top 100 and there are 5 million people that live in Slovakia. Statistically, there is one player per million of population in the top 100 in scoring in the National Hockey League of these small countries.

Let’s compare that with the US population. If we take out the non-hockey playing states and only look at New England, New York, Michigan, and Minnesota alone, there are more than 100 million people. Statistically, that would be 1 top 100 scorer per 10 million people. These smaller countries are producing 10 times more top 100 scorers in the NHL than the US is.

I go back to an earlier thought. We can either learn from our European counterparts and TRAIN & PREPARE for our upcoming hockey seasons, or we can turn to gimmicks and shortcuts to try and reach our goals.

Our philosophy at Minnesota Hockey Camps is to TRAIN & PREPARE for your upcoming season. We don’t want to leave anything to chance. We believe that a player is made in the off-season.

In the strength and conditioning field, when preparing a weight program, the off-season phase is the hardest, most demanding phase. Athletes need to work the hardest during this phase to maximize the benefits.  Benefits come from time and energy in the weight room and dryland activities.

If a young player is always focusing on playing games during the summer time, when can he work through an off-season workout program? When can he improve and become a better player? What will happen next year when everyone passes him up? It is scary to think of the answers to these questions.

If we rated, 15 to 22 year old players, in each age group at the beginning of the season, that rating would change before the season concluded.  NHL Central Scouting is a glaring example.  Player rankings change from pre-season rankings to mid-term rankings to the final rankings with only a few months in between each ranking.

Being a multi-sport athlete helps improve your athletic ability. Becoming a better athlete will help you become a better hockey player. By playing other sports, an athlete can improve and strengthen muscles that are not used in the sport of hockey, therefore becoming a better hockey player.

American born players have the mind-set of being the best. Having this mind-set is a good thing. This mind-set can hinder your performance. Because of the mind-set most North Americans have, they want to play games and showcase their skills all season long. They want to go to every tryout, make every team and play every single game all year around. Where is the time for training? Where is the time for other sports? Where is the time for a summer camp, an important element of growth in any young person’s life?

Imagine having this mind-set of being the best. Imagine haveing 30 players in a group who all have the same mind-set. Imagine all of these players going through a plyometrics work out at the same time, each one trying to be the best. What a sight! Now imagine on the other side of the room another group of 30 players lifting weights.  We have sixty players from all over the country, all working towards perfection at the same time, and all of them respectful of each person’s aspirations and goals. Each player is pushing his counterpart in life. Each player is trying to be the best, thinking towards next year and striving to meet their goals. This is what happens for ten weeks each summer at Minnesota Hockey Camps.

Think what each of these players brings back to their home town teams in the fall. All the improvements they have made, all the knowledge they have learned, and all the training they received. None of this would have happened had they spent their summer playing games.

Having an off-season workout program and being a multi-sport athlete works for the Europeans, why wouldn’t it work for us?

Minnesota Hockey Camps has developed a hockey specific off-season program like none other. It has worked for over 25 years with thousands of athletes. Minnesota Hockey Camps has been a summer destination to over 300 players that have played in the National Hockey League. Twenty-five of those players have won a major award. Those players dedicated themselves to furthering their careers through determination and hard work with no shortcuts.

We can line the walls with 8 x 10’s of successful athletes.  More important, we can line the walls further with productive citizens in real life.

Summers spent at Minnesota Hockey Camps have proven to be the right thing for players who want to go to another level in the game.  We are a time tested place that preaches “Hard work is fun!”  

MHC – “Helping Others Help Themselves”