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 Tips & Advice
POWER PLUS'S "MY BEST PERFORMANCE TIP" CONTEST - Dec 2011
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Power Plus "My Best Performance Tip" Contest. We had a tie! The top two entries focused on two different-but equally important-ideas for success. Our first winner, Josh Heck of the Wembley Wildcats, wrote:
"I started to play hockey 4 years ago. Since then I need to drink lots of water. I do stretches before I get on the ice and after so my muscles don't get stiff. I like to make sure my equipment is dried after each time I use it. I eat lots when I'm at home when it's time to leave to hockey."
What Josh seems to be saying here is that success in hockey can be the result of doing a lot of different things right in your preparation. Day by day, you take care of all the pieces, and it adds up to a better game.
Our second winner, Cody Sorochan of the Grande Prairie PeeWee B Knights, wrote:
"The main way that I get ready for a hockey game is through mental preparation. Before I go on the ice I think about what I am going to do and how I am going to do it. I try to focus on two or three key components at a time or I have too many thoughts in my head. Usually I think about working hard, keeping a good gap and accelerating as I back away from the blue line. Most of the time, mental preparation helps me to do on the ice what I pictured in my head before the game. I start to visualize around 10-15 minutes before game time. If I lose focus, then I try to re-picture my goals in my head."
Cody is talking here about another important idea: when it's game time, you focus in on two or three important things. Instead of trying to think about too many different things, you set up two or three clear goals and go for those.
So from these two players, we see how two different strategies come together. In your off-ice preparation, you get benefits by thinking about a lot of different things, but when it's time to play, you want to focus in on one or two key goals.
Congratulations to both our winners! Each receives his choice of a one-on-one Fast Start session or an 8-session Power Hour package. Congratulations, Josh and Cody!
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Skater... or Skate?
Tina Speaks...
"As part of our training, we also do skate diagnostics. If someone comes to me and says, 'My son was much faster last year, can you look at him on the ice and see what might be happening?' we'll do that. Or maybe a child signs up with me, and after three sessions, I'm thinking, 'we've practised stops for 20 minutes every day, we've reviewed them, how come this child is not stopping right?' So I may take that child aside and look at the equipment.
Sometimes, the kids walk on the ice and it's obvious the skates are a problem. So I have a conversation with the parents and say, in my professional opinion, we really have to think about you taking your child to a professional to have them properly fitted, or the blades aligned, or whatever. Whatever it happens to be. We are trained for this. I can sit in the stands at a hockey game and say, 'that's not the skater—that's the skates.' Skates are your vehicle. If they're not working properly, you are very limited."
Tina Caron
Head Trainer
Power Plus Hockey Skating Inc.
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