player tips

The 4th of July has come and gone and the youth hockey season will be here before we know it!

As youth hockey players gear up for the season, it’s important to reflect on what was accomplished during your summer hockey training. What are your plans to use the development to be a huge contributor and leader on your team this season?

A good way for young hockey players to start this season, is to reflect back to last season.

What areas of your game needed work? What goals did you set for the summer and did you accomplish them?

Hopefully your summer hockey training allowed you to refocus, work on new skills, get rid of any bad habits and position yourself for a great season.

The areas that you identified as needing work in your post season evaluation were hopefully the key areas of focus for you over the summer. Now is the time to apply everything that you learned, as well as show off those skills that you mastered. Maybe you needed to increase your speed, develop a better shot or improve your stick handling skills. Make sure you take what you learned and apply it to every practice, every game and every shift this season!

Hockey is a game that requires many skills, and putting forth the time and effort in the off-season to work hard on your development is part of the equation, but what you do on the ice this season is the true test. Are you prepared to apply your development to your everyday hockey experience?

Everyone has heard the slogan that ‘practice makes perfect’ and this is especially true when it comes to using the tools that you learned over the summer to improvement your skills each and every day this season.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the summer, we look forward to seeing you at the rink soon!

Our 29th summer of hockey camps begin this week! We can’t wait to hit the ice in Eagle River, Alaska and Northbrook, Illinois. The excitement we feel lacing up the skates each and every week of summer hockey camp is a big part of why we do what we do! We love to train youth hockey players!

Our team this summer is once again filled with talent, knowledge and personality! Our coaches are ready to help young hockey players develop fundamental skills and reach their full potential.

Whether you are skating with us this week, next month or during our last camps of the summer in New York or Connecticut, we are ready to go! We spent the winter making sure we are prepared to continue training with the time-tested CARTER method. Nearly three decades of successful training and also still bringing new knowledge and techniques to the camp!

If you are looking to improve your skills this summer but are still an ‘unsigned free agent’ you are in luck! We have limited spots left in select camps including Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia!

For a complete summer hockey school listing including availability, CLICK HERE.

We hope you have set your goals for the summer and are planning to work hard to achieve them. As we have said in past posts, the only time success comes before work is in the dictionary!

Thanks for reading and make it a successful summer!

Each and every player we train over the summer has a common goal: to get better! The pressing question for each player is, how will you become a better player? While there is no simple, single answer to that question that would apply to every player, what we know is that it start with hockey SKILLS.

While this might seem super obvious, it is also something that can get lost in the many considerations players face each summer about how to become a better hockey player. Skill development should define your goals for your summer hockey training. Just as a professional in any trade or business needs to continually hone their specific skills in order to master their craft, hockey players need to continually work on very specific skill sets.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s a great idea to make a list of areas of your game that need improvement. Skating is something that every player should spend time working on. Shooting, passing and stickhandling are critical skills. Improving speed and quickness gets more important with each passing season as you advance through the ranks of youth hockey.

Look no further than the players who advance on and play at the highest levels of the game from the junior, collegiate and professional levels. The separation between good and great players is often times the smallest of margins. Skill is a huge factor in that equation.  In past blogs we have talked about the rule of 10,000 and other attributes that define high skill players, and it all starts with not just a general plan to play some hockey this summer, but instead a very specific plan to improve individual skills!

If you haven’t already made plans to attend one of our camps located in 12 states this summer please check out our dates and locations. We are excited to celebrate our 29th summer of hockey school and invite you to join us!

This season the NHL has treated us to some great play both individually and as a team.

The Boston Bruins recently set a new NHL single-season record with 63 wins. In the record-clinching game, Bruins forward David Pastrnak netted a hat trick, which gave him 60 goals on the season. Only Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers has more, with 64.

The 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning both had 62 win seasons. With the win, Boston has 131 points so far on the season, second only to the  Montreal Canadiens who had 132 points in 1976-77. Another record soon to be broken.

When Pastrnak joined McDavid at the 60-goal mark, it is the first time since 1995-96 that two players did so in the same year. Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr both hit 60 during that 1995-95 season.

So when it comes to these amazing accomplishments, what does it take to reach a record, and better yet, to break one?

“Staying focused” is something Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery talked about after the record setting win. And staying focused is also something that youth hockey players need to remember as they pursue their own development, and even perhaps a record one day.

We’ve talked in past articles about youth hockey development being a marathon rather than a sprint. Setting goals and staying focused on long terms goals is a key ingredient to this success.

As you gear up for your summer hockey training, take the time to write down your goals. Evaluate areas of your game that need improvement. Once you have that list and skills identified, take to the ice to get better and work hard in these very specific areas.

And if you do, maybe one day you too will be part of a record setting team!

Thanks for reading and we hope to see you at the rink this summer. Our Summer Hockey Schools have limited availability at select locations, for dates and details, click here!

As we prepare for our 29th summer of training youth hockey players across the U.S., we’d like to introduce five people your player will meet at summer hockey school!

Players and coaches from all over the country will come together for a special week of training and part of the fun is the experience of skating, talking and learning from others!

So who will you meet at hockey camp this summer? Here are 5 people you are sure to have fun with and create lasting memories.

The Coach. We all have a coach who makes an impression on us, and some of the best coaches are those who teach you new things, in a way you have never been instructed. Each summer at camp our students create a bond with a coach that extends long after the week of camp is over. Many keep in touch throughout the season, and we are very proud of our knowledgeable and personable coaching staff.

The New Buddy. Going to a hockey camp can be intimidating, especially when doing it for the first time or going alone. Over the years we have watched kids show up the first day and hardly say a word to anyone, and end up being the kid we can’t keep quiet by the end of the week. Everyone finds a buddy at hockey camp and like the coach, those relationships often last beyond the last day of camp.

The Skillmaster. This one is kind of difficult to explain, but think the top scorer, mixed with a gift of gab and a healthy dose of confidence. Every camp has the player that has worked their tail off and has become just a step faster and a goal better than everyone else. We like these kids at camp because they motivate and inspire – one way or another- for the rest of the players to be just as good as they are.

The Most Improved. The first day at camp is always exciting for everyone, including the staff. We really enjoy getting to know the kids, assessing their talents and identifying their areas for improvements. What we really look forward to on the last day of camp is deciding which player has worked the hardest and developed the most during camp. We have a motto at camp: “get better every day”.  And we push players to do just that.

The Class Clown. This is the kid everyone at camp instantly connects with, keeps the group bonding and always has something funny to say. Oftentimes the class clown is also the hardest worker and most respectful. But one thing is for certain, he/she is always funny.

There are no shortages of stories, lessons and learning that takes place at summer hockey school, and we hope you choose to improve your game and make your memories at our hockey camps this summer.

Space is filling up fast so claim your spot in the starting lineup before it’s gone! For a complete list of dates & locations click HERE.