There’s a reason coaches smile when players show up early for games, but they really take notice of the ones who arrive early for practice. Just like in life, the early bird gets the worm… and in hockey, it gets the advantage!

If you look closely, the top players are almost always the first to arrive at the arena. They’re also the first ones on the ice and the last to leave. Why? Because preparation is one of the biggest contributors to success.

In sports, preparation means taking the time to get ready physically, mentally, and technically. Compare that to the players who rush into the rink at the last minute, scrambling to throw on their gear and tighten their skates. They hit the ice flustered and behind, with no chance to settle in or get focused.

Preparation Drives Performance

Great performance doesn’t happen by accident. It’s directly tied to deliberate, consistent preparation.
The player with the most accurate shot? They’ve put thousands of pucks into a shooting tarp.
The player with the smoothest stride? They’ve invested hours into power skating and technique work.

As the new season approaches, it’s worth asking: How prepared are you? Are you evaluating your game? Setting goals? Working on the details that separate good players from great ones?

If so, we’ve got something designed just for you.

Jump-Start Your Game With Summer Camp Early Bird Special

Our 2026 Summer Hockey Camp Early Bird Special rewards the players who want to get ahead and for parents, it’s the best pricing of the entire year!

For a limited time, all of our summer camp dates and locations feature a special Early Bird 10% discount.

Check out our Summer Hockey School page for camp dates, program details, and to secure your spot at an unbeatable price.

Thanks for reading, we can’t wait to see you at the rink!

The new youth hockey season is officially underway, and now is the time for all your hard work to come to life! The hours you spent training this summer, the goals you set, and the challenges you pushed through all led you to this moment. The season has begun, and your opportunity to grow, compete, and shine is NOW!

Reflect, But Keep Moving Forward

Think back to last season for just a moment.
What held you back? What did you promise yourself you’d improve? Those areas became the focus of your offseason, for good reason. Whether you committed to strengthening your skating, sharpening your shot, or improving your hockey sense, you invested in becoming a better version of yourself.

Now, with the season underway, it’s time to build on that foundation. Reflection fuels growth, but progress happens in the present!

Turn Your Training Into Confidence

Every stride you took this summer, every rep, every drill, those weren’t just workouts. They were building blocks. You earned more speed. You built better habits. You added tools to your game. Now it’s time to trust your work. Bring that effort into every practice and every shift. Let your confidence show. Play with purpose. Remember that development doesn’t stop when the games begin, it accelerates!

Rise to the Daily Challenge

Hockey is a game of constant improvement. Some days will feel great, and some will challenge you. But every day gives you a chance to grow.

Use this season to push your limits.
Use every mistake as a lesson.
Use every success as motivation to reach even higher.

Your effort, your attitude, your commitment . . . these are the things that will define your season.

Make This Season Your Breakthrough

Thanks for reading and good luck this season. For information on our Thanksgiving Clinic click here and for details on our summer 2026 youth hockey schools, click here!

There’s an old saying in sports about hitting home runs in baseball, scoring touchdowns in football or scoring goals in hockey: “Nobody asks how, they just ask how many.”

As you start your youth hockey season that will include ups and downs, it’s important to stay focused and keep your eye on the prize. 

In youth hockey, that prize should be development, improving fundamental skills and ending the season a better hockey. Of course championships are great as well, and typically if players are improving throughout the season, championships will follow!

And this is where they ask how many, not how. But the how is a key to how many. And the how is:
• The how is hard work.
• The how is the 10,000 pucks shot in the driveway, basement or training facility.
• The how is the extra strength training and powerskating.
• The how is teamwork, selflessness, discipline, character and focus.

As you start your own youth hockey season, work on the how, and ultimately it will lead to how many!

Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you at the rink soon! 

When it comes to applying your hard work from hockey camp this summer, what is your goal to make it matter?

Each summer at our hockey schools we teach a wide variety of hockey skills including shooting, passing, power skating, speed, agility and of course, scoring! We enjoy watching hockey players develop and improve fundamental skills, as well as helping them understand what it really takes to become a better hockey player.

There are no secrets in the ingredients for success, and it all  starts with a big helping of hard work. What the best players understand is that while the ingredients may be similar for any players path to achieving their goals, it’s the recipe that differs from player to player. And the top players understand that the recipe, just like a favorite food, requires discipline.

Summer hockey school is a great time to fine tune your game and work on developing your personal goals. Everything that you worked on this past summer will play an important role in your success this season. And to really make it matter this season, an emphasis needs to be placed on continuing to improve on the skills learned over the summer.

It’s easy to get lost in the excitement of the start of the season and get caught up in some early season success. By mid-season however, it’s not uncommon to fall back into bad habits or taking short cuts. Players need to take the instruction learned over the summer and apply it each and every practice. Think of this in terms of building the foundation to a home. Each layer of bricks will continue to support the structure of the house, and every layer must be as strong or stronger than the previous.

In the same way, hockey players must advance through their development consistently striving to improve skills, and adding to a strong foundation that will lead them to becoming a great hockey player and achieving their goals.

So with the hockey season upon us, and to really make it matter this season, write down your greatest strengths and also areas of your game that require improvement.  Think back to what you learned at summer hockey school and how you can apply that knowledge at every practice and every game.

Continue to work hard and tweak the ingredients in your recipe for success. When things are going great continue to stay focused, and when you find a challenging time, think back to your foundation and the skills that you have developed.

And most of all this season, make it matter!

A friend in Minnesota, the Great State of Hockey, loves fishing during the summer months. While early season fish are abundant, when the calendar turns to mid-July and August – the dog days of summer – fishing slows down. But these are the summer months when he gets the most excited!

Why? Because it’s the time of year when skill wins.

Many fisherman during these months don’t put in the time to try new presentations to catch fish. They are sort of stuck in the same old way of doing things, and the result is very few fish finding their way into the frying pan. However, if time is invested in skill development and in this case, exploring new ways to catch fish, the results speak for themselves.

For hockey players, this fish story is no different than the hockey season. There will be the ‘grind’, when you are physically and mentally tired. You have already played a lot of games and you still have a lot to go, plus playoffs!

The question is, what are you doing now, during the off-season, to prepare for the grind, or the dog days of the season. Are you preparing yourself so that when the team needs you most, you can answer the call and score that big goal.

Players who prepare now, trying new moves, perfecting their stride, shooting pucks on a regular basis, they are the players who will outperform the opponents during the season. It takes dedication and commitment during the off-season to not just hit the ice this fall in great shape, but perhaps more importantly, to carry your team through the tough stretches of the season.

Work hard this summer, train with a purpose and you will be ready for the mid-season grind when, like many fishermen, many hockey players go through a slump. Train hard and be ready to take advantage of the opportunity, because when everyone else slows down, the best players speed up.

Good luck and we look forward to seeing you at the rink soon!

Click here for a full list of our remaining summer hockey schools.

Our summer 2025 hockey schools are underway! As we are already heading into the 4th of July holiday, it’s a great time to look back on the past 30 days and forecast the rest of the summer.

Clear Skies & Sunny. June was full of action, energy and talent. From Alaska to Illinois, Vermont, New Jersey and Massachusetts, skills were on display at every level.

We are excited to hit the ice in July in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Virginia, among many great locations. If the talent we’ve seen on display so far this summer is any indication of what’s to come in July and August, the forecast has never been brighter.

Hockey is a a high energy, high skill game. The best players have the best skills: skating, shooting, stickhandling and best of all, scoring. We love teaching fundamental skills and helping players take their game to the next level.

So what is the forecast for your summer? Sunny days are ahead and we encourage you to take advantage of every opportunity to make the most of it, and take your own game to the next level . . . to let the sunshine, shine!

Thanks for reading and if you are still looking for a summer hockey training program, we do have limited space still available at select locations. Check out dates and availability here. We look forward to seeing you at the rink soon!

The 2025 NHL Playoffs have been nothing short of a big shot of inspiration to aspiring hockey players. Action, intensity and incredible talent.

Thomas Edison once said: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent inspiration.” While Thomas Edison was not a hockey player, he was indeed a brilliant man and his philosophy can easily be translated to sports.

As summer begins and the NHL season winds down with the Stanley Cup on the line, youth hockey players will be watching and dreaming of one day playing on such a grand stage.

There is that old saying that dreams are just dreams without goals. The best hockey players set goals for their summer hockey training, defining areas of their game that need improvement, and then they go out and make it happen.

This is where perspiration meets inspiration. 

We hope that you do dream big and more importantly, we hope that you do something about it. There are many great skills, drills and even thrills that can be accomplished during the summer months. If you are still undecided about how to align your inspiration with perspiration, we invite you to train with us this summer!

We dropped the puck on our 2025 Greg Carter European Summer Hockey Schools and will be training youth hockey players all summer long across 13 states. While many of our camps are sold out with waiting lists, we do have limited space in select camps. Please check out our website for details by clicking here.

Thanks for reading and see you at the rink!

Youth hockey players always start the summer with the best of intentions when it comes to off-season training. Developing a better shot, a better stride and a better all-around game might be on your list. But how can you make sure that when the sun sets this Labor Day that you will have better skills than Memorial Day?

Make a plan. And make a list. Think back to last season and the areas of your game that you needed to improve on. Prioritize the skills that you are going to focus on and then commit to a regular schedule. Post your plan and your list in an area that you will see it every day, and let it be a motivator to get started, and more importantly, to keep going!

Fun Factor. Summer should be about having fun, and there is no reason that your training can’t be fun – along with some sweat and hard work. Turn on some music, dump out a bucket of pucks and start stick handling and shooting. Before you know it, 10 songs will have gone by and your shot will be better for it!

Try Something Different.

At our hockey camp we like to talk about training the CARTER Method: C=Control, A=Agility, R=Reflex, T=Technique, E=Edge, R=Retention. Including a new routine or training method into your schedule will help keep things fresh and motivating.

Everyone loves winter hockey, but here at Greg Carter Hockey Schools we especially love summer hockey and all of the training and growth opportunities that come with it. We have watched so many young athletes blossom over the summer months as they push and challenge themselves to get out of their comfort zone and take their game to the next level.

We invite you to take advantage of the outstanding high performance training opportunities we have available this summer of 2025! For more than three decades our experienced team of coaches has been focused on player development and summer hockey training. We hope to see you at one of our camps and look forward to helping you reach your goals!