A problem with youth hockey developpment

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temporary pencil

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Aug 10, 2003
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I've always been appalled at how too many young hockey players spend way too much time developping their skill and too little developping their bodies.

What good is being able to pass the puck between your legs and score a Mike Legg goal if you're not able to bench 100 pounds and can't spend 30 straight minutes on a stationary bike? You can be the most skilled player in the world but you're useless in a game if you can't keep up the pace. Even in the CHL many players seem to neglect this facet of the game and never train regularly off the ice.

In my opinion, young hockey players should spend a lot more time working out physically while they're in the minors. Too many talented young players have weak cardio and laughable upper body strength.

In a way, you can draw a parallel with martial arts. Two acquaintances of mine have practiced karate all their lives and recently got their asses handed to them by thugs in a street brawl without even being able to punch back. I mean, both of them were black belt experts who trained for hours almost every day... only problem is, they only practiced skill and never really worked out seriously. If they would have spent more time lifting weights and riding their bike rather than practicing fancy martial arts positions, they would never have been beaten by nameless thugs. I think the same goes for hockey.

Thoughts?
 

Stidi

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???

The physical as well as tactical aspects of the game should start to be considered when the player reaches the age of 14-15. Its extremely important to develop your skill before that. Id between 5-13 is the most vital stage of developing skill and hockey sense. I dont know what aged players you were talking about because i dont know the term of the north-american junior hockey but in most cases 14 or 15 is the age young players should consider starting to do proper physical training.
 
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SkateLikeTheWind

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Jun 16, 2004
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I don't really agree with your point. When you say youth hockey I would assume age 13 and under mainly. Kids this age really should not be training with weights, as it is medically proven it is not healthy for their physical development to do so. So I don't see anything wrong with kids developing their hockey skill and sense and not hitting the gym three times a week.
 

reptilian humanoids

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Aug 25, 2005
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SkateLikeTheWind said:
I don't really agree with your point. When you say youth hockey I would assume age 13 and under mainly. Kids this age really should not be training with weights, as it is medically proven it is not healthy for their physical development to do so. So I don't see anything wrong with kids developing their hockey skill and sense and not hitting the gym three times a week.

I don't know, I don't think there are many 13 years old in the CHL...
 

SkateLikeTheWind

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reptilian humanoids said:
I don't know, I don't think there are many 13 years old in the CHL...

I'm not sure what you mean here.

I didn't say anything about the original posters comments on kids in the CHL. I was commenting on youth hockey players in general, not CHL players.

I also find it hard to believe that there are many CHL players who do not train off ice. I'd be willing to bet each team has a strength and conditioning coach, so that almost guarantee's off ice training right there. Plus it would be quite obvious on the ice who is not training off the ice, and if that was the case that player wouldn't last long.
 

CoupeStanley

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Dec 1, 2003
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You should start by owning your skill. This is a fun game to play, just play it, love it, and that should be OK.

Developping your body will come in time.

You got it all wrong, IMO. Football fans? You need to learn to skate before anything else.
 

Kritter471

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Feb 17, 2005
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Just a note. Youth hockey generally refers to kids... 15ish and under. Junior hockey is the 15-20/21 set. Minor-league hockey/semi-pro hockey/adult league hockey is the older guys. You appear to be talking about minor-leaguers (who definitely should be weight training) rather than youth hockey players (who should do cardio but not serious weights).
 

mattihp

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Aug 2, 2004
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I agree fully. You can develop technique almost just as well after an age of 16 or so.

Conditioning and strength should be the early emphasis. But I bet the NHL draft has to do with it.
 

futurcorerock

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Nov 15, 2003
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One bad point about body development, is that if you start training with a child at a young age, they can have serious medical reprocussions as they grow older.

Best time for a kid to be training his body is in the late teens.... 16+
 

Kritter471

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I think the general medical consensus (and I could be wrong here) is that until a kid basically finishes puberty, he shouldn't weight train with anything other than his own body for resistance. So sit ups, pull ups, push ups, lunges and all that stuff (without serious weights) are okay, but using free weights and machines should be saved until they finish growing. Otherwise, I think they risk stunting their growth, screwing up their growth plates and all the fun stuff like that.
 

sniper94

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Aug 2, 2005
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Another problem is that the few people who do work on there bodies for hockey 70-80% do not work the right muscles. Example when was the last time you saw 3 midgets come into your gym and work legs for a whole hour????
They tend to work muscles like Bicepts and shoulders which do little to nothing to improve your hockey skills. Howmany have you seen work their wrists???!!

Sniper94
 

Pensfan86

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From my personal experience, this could be a problem for a few reasons.

When I played minor hockey, i played travel (AAA) as well as highschool. I was on the ice 9 times a week including games and practices. Figure that in with school work and such, quite frankly, guys just do not always have enough time. In the US especially, I think that travel hockey has to find some common ground with highschool just like with basketball. I realize this is almost impossible because of junior teams and such, but hey its a thought i guess. Also, I think teams should all consider in having a team trainer to have workouts before practices and such. It would help considerably.
 
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