Last Updated on Thursday, 12 July 2012 11:08
By Diane Ness
So we’re at the point of the year in which we would call the “offseason.” This is the valuable time of year in which you want your son or daughter to improve their individual skills. What is development? What does it really mean? What’s the best way to do this?
Development means to continue getting better on your strengths, as well as identifying and improving your weaknesses. Putting the most concentrated effort in areas in which the skater needs to improve upon is key.
For example, let’s say his/her weakness is skating. You will want to find a good skating camp where the focus is just that – skating. Don’t confuse skating camps with conditioning camps.
Skating camps should be a learning experience and will take time and quality repetition to learn or relearn any new or old skill. During skating sessions, there will be talking and teaching time. If your only concern is to have your child work up a sweat, then have them do a conditioning camp or just let them play games.
Learning a skill is more than just having them move as fast as they possibly can. After each skill has been taught and learned properly, the skaters will then be able to move up to an overspeed pace. But what’s the hurry? Learning the skill correctly, whatever skill it is (skating, shooting, stickhandling, passing, even checking), is what the offseason is designed for. Training the skill until it becomes muscle memory is the key to “skill development.”
Years ago, I started with a group of young, talented skaters from Shattuck-St. Mary’s. The first practice I had with this group we did a ton of overspeed and drills that really moved them fast. Move, move, move – that’s what I thought we would do so they could do an up-tempo practice.
Right after the session, some of the guys were able to tell me that they are able to do high paced, overspeed drills anytime with their coaches and that’s not what they wanted. They wanted to learn in detail about skating. The ability to break down every skating skill.
They wanted to learn and they wanted to do it the right way. The concentration and attention to detail is exactly why these guys are in the NHL. They are able to identify what needs work, practice it the right way and improve.
Remember, each skater improves at a different rate. Sometimes as parents we lose focus of what we want our child to accomplish and put all of our attention to other skaters. We worry more about who our son/daughter is skating with rather than our child’s actual improvement. We worry about what others are doing rather than what our child needs to do.
The only thing that should be our main concern is if our child is learning and improving. The only concern our skaters should have is what they can control. They control their effort, concentration, focus, attention to detail and passion to get better.
Good luck and work hard.
Diane Ness has been a full-time professional skating coach for over 35 years. She has coached both figure skaters and hockey players alike and is a former U.S. gold medalist in figure skating. She is the Director for the Pro Edge Power hockey camps and the Learn to Skate program at Highland Park Arena. Ness is the skating coach for the New Jersey Devils, the University of Minnesota men’s and women’s hockey teams and the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team. She has trained players in the NHL, AHL, NCAA, USHL and NAHL.
