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Kim McCullough - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Kim McCullough, M.Sc., YCS is a highly sought-after expert in the development of aspiring girls' hockey players and has played at the highest level of women's hockey in the world for the last decade. Kim's player development website gives coaches and parents of aspiring young players access to programs, articles and advice on how to help their players take their game to the next level.
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- 5 Critical Mistakes Girl Hockey Players Make
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] When I first started training off the ice as a young player to get an edge on the competition, but I had no idea that the training I was doing was completely inappropriate for me. There are the 5 critical mistakes I made as a young athlete and that girls' hockey players need to avoid on their way to the elite levels of women's hockey.
- #1 Weapon in Women's Hockey
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Getting to the elite levels of the female game is all about being first. You have to be first to the puck, make the first save and be first in on the forecheck. And in order to be first, you have to be fast.
- #1 Exercise For Girls Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] My favorite exercise to use with my girls hockey teams and training groups plays a huge role in improving players' hockey-specific strength and preventing all kinds of injuries. It works equally as well for every player from 10 year old goalies and 17 year old forwards, and most importantly, it is fun.
- Best Girls Hockey Speed Exercise
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Being a fast player in female hockey has very little to do with how fast you can skate in a straight line. Speed is about being fast in every direction you move and being fast with every decision you make. So how do girls hockey players develop the speed they need to stand out on the ice?
- The 10,000 Hour Rule For Elite Female Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] How young is too young for players to start getting serious about playing at the elite level of women's hockey? Is 15 too young? How about 10? 7 years old is definitely too young, isn't it? If an aspiring player's goal is to play in the Olympics, it might not be.
- 7 Secrets of Hockey Playoff Success
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Playoffs are here and you want to make sure that you do everything you can to perform your best. After a long season of playing, practicing and traveling, players, parents and coaches alike run the risk of getting worn-out and stressed-out. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can get through the playoffs safely and successfully if you have a plan. Here are 7 simple secrets you can use throughout the post-season to have a successful playoff run.
- 3 Hockey Workout Secrets For Increasing Your On-Ice Strength
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Remember - Rome wasn't built in a day. No one can do 10 pull ups the first time time out. But if you put in the work and dedicate yourself to getting better everyday, you will achieve your hockey training goals faster than you ever thought possible and take your hockey performance to the next level.
- #1 Food to AVOID Before a Hockey Game
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Hockey nutrition can be a challenge, especially when at the rink between tournament games or have to hit the drive-thru on the way to an early morning practice. No matter how hard it might be to eat well during hockey season, there is one thing that all young hockey players absolutely have to avoid eating at all costs before hitting the ice. Staying away from this one food is easier said than done, but trust me when I tell you that this is the worst possible fuel you can put in your tank before hitting the ice.
- 1 Minute Hockey Warm-Up
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Most hockey players and teams know that they should warm-up before they hit the ice. But sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough time and space to get it done.
- Hockey Workouts - In-Season Strength Training For Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Aspiring young hockey players work hard to get stronger, faster and fitter in the off-season. And all of that hard-work definitely pays off early in the season. While dominating in training camp and being at the top of the standings from September to December is great, hockey players really need to be their best at the end of the season in time for the big tournaments and the playoff run. In order to maintain that lead you've built in the standings through December, players have to continue to build on the strength advantage they gained during the summer throughout the season.
- #1 Food to Eat Before a Hockey Game
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] It's 7 o'clock in the morning, you're on your way to a hockey tournament game, and you haven't eaten anything yet. You've got two options - eat nothing or go through the drive-thru. Is it better to go out on the ice with no fuel in your tank or are there healthy choices you can make at the drive-thru that will give you the energy you need to perform your best on the ice?
- Are You Willing to Fail to Become a Great Hockey Player?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] In order to be the next great hockey player, you have to be willing to work hard. But it is even more important that you are willing to fail. And I'm not just talking about making the occasional mistake. I am talking about the "fall down flat on your face" type of failure.
- #1 Recovery Drink to Increase Hockey Performance
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] What's the best thing for you to drink after your hockey game to speed up recovery and make sure that you are feeling your best the next time you hit the ice? The answer might surprise you.
- Why Girl Hockey Players Can't Do Push-Ups
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] To say that most girls' hockey players hate push-ups is an understatement. Not only do they hate them, but they are notoriously bad at them too. Despite the fact that most girls' hockey players are horrible at push-ups, the truth is that it's not their fault. When it comes to being able to do perfect push-ups, the odds are stacked against young female hockey players. But once you know what you are up against, I am going to show you how to beat those odds.
- Hockey Tournament Success Plan - 4 Simple Steps
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] When you are playing 4-6 games in a 2-3 day period, hockey tournaments can be just plain tiring. With so much high-intensity hockey in such a short period of time, players need to make sure that they are doing everything they can to feel and perform their best all weekend long.
- Girls Hockey - Body Checking Battle
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] The issue of body-checking in girls hockey always sparks a heated debate. Those who support putting full checking back in the women's game believe that this will teach girls to play with their heads up and prevent a lot of the serious injuries that are happening out on the ice from both accidental and intentional contact. But would adding body checking back into female hockey make it safer for players or would it do more harm than good?
- NHL Hockey Players In-Season Workout Secrets
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] NHL players do off-ice workouts at least two days per week in order to play and feel their best throughout the season. On the other hand, the majority of youth hockey players do not workout off the ice at all during the season and focus only on the on-ice side of their game. This is a huge mistake to make for players who need to increase their strength, speed and stamina. Youth hockey players looking to take their game to the next level should follow the lead of the pros they idolize and do two quick and effective off-ice workouts per week.
- Hockey Workouts - 3 Critical Abdominal Exercises For Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] When hockey players think about training their abdominals, they usually think of doing endless crunches and sit-ups at the gym. These exercises will build up some strength in your upper abdominals, but they are not going to do much to make you a better hockey player. There are three abdominal exercises that are absolutely critical for hockey players to do - and there are no sit-ups involved.
- Hockey Playoffs Start in September
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Although the start of the NHL season is still a few weeks away, the regular season is now fully underway for young hockey players across North America. Training camps are over, pre-season tournaments are finished and regular routine of practices and games has set in. Now is also the time for coaches, parents and players to think about how they're going to prepare themselves for the playoff run. By putting a proper player development plan in place, you can start get started on having your best hockey season ever.
- 5 Questions Every Young Hockey Player Must Ask Themselves
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] There are 5 questions that every young hockey player looking to reach the highest level of their sport must ask themselves. The answers to these questions will reveal whether a player has what it takes to be great or if they are just satisfied with being good. If you are the coach or parent of an aspiring young hockey player, pass these questions along to your players. Their answers will tell both you and them a lot and help you focus your efforts and energy appropriately.
- #1 Stretch For Youth Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Groin "pulls" are extremely common in youth hockey players, especially at the beginning of the season. The truth is that what players think is a "pull" is usually just a case of their groin muscles being sore and tired. Spending two minutes stretching the groin after every ice session could be the key to an injury-free season for hockey players.
- 3 Recovery Keys That Will Allow You to Play Your Best Hockey All Season
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Off-ice recovery has a significant effect on on-ice performance, but most hockey players neglect it completely. The first 30 minutes after you get off the ice are critical to starting the recovery process and preventing injuries and burn-out this season. There are 3 key components to proper recovery that hockey players must address if they want to feel and play their best day after day.
- How Off-Ice Training Will Set Your Team Apart This Hockey Season
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] It is great to be the most prepared hockey team on the ice in September, but how do you make sure that you are miles ahead of your competition in December? Developing your team's skills, strategies and fitness on the ice will only take you so far. Every team you play against will be making a similar commitment to on-ice improvement. To get to, and stay at, the top of the standings, your team must continue to get stronger, fitter and faster off the ice as the season continues.
- How Skating For the Last 10 Minutes of Practice Leads to Playoff Success
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] The truth is that "bag skating" isn't going to cut it if you want to ensure that your players are as energetic and explosive in the 2nd overtime period as they were in the 2nd period and they are ready to peak in time for the playoffs. It is important for players to learn to push themselves when they are already fatigued, but there needs to be a plan. Your on-ice conditioning sessions must be as well planned as your skill sessions if you want your players to perform their best.
- How Off-Ice Warm-Ups Will Dramatically Increase Your On-Ice Performance
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Many players and teams are starting to get the message that off-ice warm-ups are never optional. Players must prepare the muscles they use to skate, shoot and save before every ice session if they want to guarantee that they feel and perform their best. While most players do some kind of off-ice warm-up, many of them are not getting the maximum benefit from their pre-ice routine. Most start the warm-up with a few minutes of jogging and then finish with some quick stretches. The whole routine is usually over in less than 5 minutes - and that just isn't enough time to get ready to perform your best.
- 3 Mental Skills That Will Take Your Hockey Performance to the Next Level
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Hockey experts agree that 80% of hockey performance is mental and 20% is physical. We often focus all of our efforts towards building the physical side of the game, instead of taking the time to develop the mental game. And it is this lack of attention to the mental game that is preventing so many teams and players from taking their performance to the next level.
- 3 Game-Winning Nutrition Tips That Will Boost Your Hockey Performance
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Think of hockey players as high-performance automobiles and food as the fuel that drives their performance. Far too often, players run out of gas during a game after having lunch at a fast-food restaurant or forgetting to eat breakfast. This would be like putting diesel fuel in your tank instead of regular gas or trying to drive on empty. You can be the most skilled player in the world, but if you aren't putting the right fuel into your tank, you won't have the energy to compete at the highest level.
- 6 Secrets of In-Season Success That Will Take Your Game to the Next Level
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Hockey performance is more than just learning how to skate, shoot and score. While every coach has their own plans for on-ice skill development in place, there are six other critical pieces of the performance puzzle that you must fit into your hockey training program if you want to guarantee that you have your best season ever.
- Hockey Workouts That Will Get You in Shape - FAST
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Ideally, players would be involved in an off-ice hockey workout program all summer long. But life and leisure get in the way, and all of a sudden, you find yourself a few weeks away from the start of the season and you are not in hockey shape. With training camp and the start of the season just a few short weeks away, do players still have time to develop the fitness they need to boost their on-ice hockey performance?
- The #1 Injury in Girls Hockey
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] The most common injury to girls hockey players is not knee, shoulder or back injuries. Concussions are by far the most common injury in women's hockey and they can have the most devastating effects of all.
- How to Avoid the "Coordination Curse" in Young Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Your child has always been one of the best players on every hockey team they have played on. You marvel at how effortlessly they move around the ice and how easily they master new skills and drills. All of a sudden, they grow six inches in a few short weeks and are instantly transformed from "Crosby" to "Bambi" on skates. What your player has gained in size and height, they have lost in co-ordination and skill. How can you help them get through the growth spurt and continue developing into the best young player possible?
- Youth Hockey Training Should Never Be Machine-Based
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Machine-based hockey training facilities that focus on specific muscles, instead of general movement patterns, will do more harm than good to young hockey players. In order to take their on-ice performance to the next level, young hockey players must be taught fundamental off-ice movement skills by trained professionals who would never dream of restricting an athlete's movement and imagination to a computer screen.
- Off-Ice Conditioning - Ride Bikes Or Run Sprints?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] If you watched the post-game routine of most elite men's or women's hockey teams, you would see players riding the bike. Most elite male and female hockey players do their conditioning on the bike both in and out of season. But when it comes to summer training, should young players "train like the pros" by riding the bike or should they be out running sprints?
- How Hockey Players Can Stand Out at Camp & Make the Team
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] The majority of young hockey players will be participating in skill-based training camps this summer. However, a select number will be heading off to high-performance tryout camps over the course of the next few months. These players will be trying to impress scouts and coaches in order to make their regional, provincial or national all-star team. The stakes are high and the competition is fierce. How can you stand out from the crowd and make the team?
- 4 Reasons Your Stretching Routine is Making You Worse
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] In order for a hockey-specific stretching routine to be effective, the right muscles must be stretched in the right way at the right time. Girls' hockey players typically fall short in one of four ways when it comes to their stretching routines. While they may have the best intentions in mind when performing their stretches, in most cases they are making themselves tighter and more injury prone.
- 5 Keys to Becoming Female Hockey's Next Great Player
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] When you think of the five skills that players must excel at on the ice if they want to reach the highest levels of performance, you probably think of skating, shooting, passing, stick-handling and checking. But these are NOT the things that are going to make you a great player. Players with great on-ice skills are "a dime a dozen". It is your level of commitment to 5 key areas OFF the ice that is going to set you apart from the competition and take your performance to the next level.
- Female Hockey's Next Great Player?
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] As young female hockey players reach their mid-teens, the influence of popular culture may lead them to question whether they want to stay involved in a sport that is not only traditionally 'male', but also requires them to be physically strong. Can players be the best on the ice and still fit into the "skinny size zero" ideal?"
- Women's Hockey Belongs in the Hall of Fame
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] The selection committee at the Hockey Hall of Fame seems oblivious to the fact that girls' and women's hockey is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Not only are there no women enshrined in the Hall, but we aren't even represented on the selection committee that decides the fate of all its potential inductees. How are we going to get on the wall, if we can't even get a seat at the table?
- 4 Mistakes Summer Hockey Training Programs Make
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Off-ice off-season training programs for hockey are much easier to find than ever before. However, becoming more mainstream does not mean that these programs are any more effective for developing young hockey players. Most summer hockey training programs fall victim to the same four problems and players, parents and coaches should do everything they can to avoid programs that have any of these fundamental flaws.
- Why the Best Female Hockey Players Are Also the Best All-Around Athletes
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] If you look at any girls hockey team, the best players are typically the best all-around athletes. The girls that excel on the ice are usually the ones who dominate the soccer field, basketball court and baseball diamond. But what makes these athletes so dominant in every sport they play?
- Girls Hockey Training - What to Avoid This Summer - Part 3
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Girls hockey players should NOT be spending hours and hours cooped up in a training facility this summer. There is a misconception that you have to go to the latest training facility with all the fancy expensive equipment in order to train effectively during the off-season. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE! A properly designed off-season training program for aspiring female hockey players is not only easy-to-understand and easy-to-use, but will also be highly effective - without requiring any expensive gym memberships or complicated workout machines.
- Girls Hockey Training - What to Avoid This Summer - Part 2
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] One of the biggest problems I see when I look at the off-season training programs of young female hockey players is that they involve entirely too much aerobic training. The game of hockey is characterized by short, explosive, high-intensity efforts interspersed with periods of complete rest. The best hockey players in the world are the ones who are strong, fast, agile and powerful - not those who can run at 10 miles in the fastest time. Hockey is simply not an endurance sport - and training that way will lead to players becoming slower (instead of faster) this off-season.
- Girls Hockey Training - What to Avoid This Summer - Part 1
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] I recently reviewed the off-season training program of a varsity women's hockey team from a major Canadian university. The off-season training programs available to female hockey players have come a long way since I was a 16 year old reading women's fitness magazines to find tips and advice on how to take my game to the next level. But reading this program was like getting transported back in time. I could probably write a critique of the program that is nearly as long as the 76 page program. But instead I will show you the 3 biggest problems I saw with the program and how making these same mistakes can actually decrease your performance and increase your chance of injuries this off-season. This article will discuss the 1st problem: the exercises were NOT functional.
- Fitness Testing For Young Female Hockey Players
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Young female hockey players that are looking to take their game to the next level of performance are often looking for 'the edge' that will allow them to stand out from their competition. While their performance in off-ice testing is certainly not the only indicator of their ability to excel on the ice, it is an objective way for players to determine where they stand relative to their peers, as well as to their own past performances on the tests.
- The 3 Biggest Reasons Girls Hockey Players Don't Strength Train
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] There are many reasons why young female hockey players do not participate in strength training programs. However, there are 3 reasons that are the most common - and those reasons may surprise you.
- Girls Hockey Players Need More Than Strength
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] All female hockey players, irrespective of age and ability level must be strong. However, the development of strength alone does not guarantee increased performance. In order to use their increased strength effectively, players must also develop increased stability.
- Girls Hockey Players Must Train Like 'Pros'
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Girls' hockey players dream of playing like the 'pros' they idolize. They spend hours practice the same moves and ask their parents to buy them the same equipment. If they are emulating their heros on the ice, should they try to do the same off the ice? If a young female hockey player wants to 'play like a pro', should she 'train like a pro' as well?
- Hockey-Specific Speed Separates Best Female Hockey Players From Rest
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Women's hockey is a game of speed. Speed is what separates the best female hockey players in the world from the rest. Young female hockey players must work on developing the 3 key components of speed through hockey-specific training in order to have the breakaway speed that is necessary to compete at the highest levels of the sport.
- Girls Hockey Training Programs Must Build Strength
[Recreation-and-Sports:Hockey] Girls hockey players MUST get stronger, faster and fitter this off-season if they want to take their game to the next level. If players address these 3 key components in their hockey workouts this summer, they will be a better player once September rolls around. However, hockey-specific strength training is the most fundamental component of off-ice player development and must be built before speed and conditioning. Body-weight strength training is the most fundamental component to enhancing on-ice performance this off-season.
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