ADM Kids

Q: As we head into the spring and summer, is there anything my 10U hockey player can do at home to enhance athleticism and improve hockey skills in a cost-effective manner?

A: This is a great question, and one that is especially top-of-mind for those families who are juggling multiple kids’ summer schedules of sports, camps, vacations and downtime.

First and foremost, USA Hockey recommends playing multiple sports to enhance athleticism, and many of those complementary sports also enhance hockey skills. Spring and summer is the perfect time to encourage your 10U children to play different sports.

There are many benefits to having your child participate in other sports. For example, gymnastics and swimming improve rhythm and coordination while working both sides of the body. Tennis develops quickness and improves hand-eye coordination. Golf improves hand-eye coordination. Soccer enhances agility, quickness and the attacking mentality. Lacrosse is great for agility, hand-eye, attacking and quickness. Basketball develops hand-eye coordination, attacking, all-around coordination and explosiveness. Baseball improves hand-eye coordination. These are all great complimentary sports, particularly high-transfer games like lacrosse, soccer and basketball, which employ many of the same attacking and defending concepts used in hockey. These sports encourage athleticism, rhythm and decision-making skills. These skills will transfer to the ice in the fall.

Moving beyond complementary sports, if your child also has a strong desire to work on their hockey game outside the rink this summer, there are plenty of activities that can be done in your garage. I encourage some of the following categories for your 10U player.

Strength

These exercises should be done with body-weight only. No weights or machines are needed. Simple push-ups, pull-ups and body squats will improve overall strength and confidence as these large muscle areas strengthen. Once your child masters these classic exercises, they can advance to single-leg strengthening moves such as one-foot hops (forward, backward, side to side) and two-foot jumps. A nice progression for the body squat is the farmer’s throw. Have your player squat down, pick up a medicine ball and toss it over their shoulder at the top of the squat (alternating the toss from one shoulder to the other).

Core Strength and Stability

Core strength is vital for any activity. Classic planks will help stabilize the athlete’s midsection. Have your athlete perform a plank for a specific amount of time and increase gradually over the summer. You can also toss a medicine ball to your player while standing on two feet, one foot or an unstable surface.  Another great activity to try at home is tumbling. Challenge your athlete to perform cartwheels, somersaults and opposite-arm somersaults. You will be amazed how many young athletes struggle with these simple tumbling moves.

Speed and Agility

Quickness of the feet will help stimulate brain activity and coordination for your athlete. Simple ladder drills will allow your athlete to challenge themselves at a speed commensurate to their ability. You can find many patterns for the ladders on the internet.

Reaction drills are also highly useful to hockey players. These drills stimulate the brain. Not only do these drills help quickness, but they promote quick decision-making skills as well. 

Be creative.  Sprint races and five-yard cones drills are effective and fun.

Shooting and Stickhandling

There is no substitute for shooting a puck. Shooting is very sport-specific. If you can set up a shooting area, let your player have at it. Shooting pucks builds endurance in the core, forearms, back and hands. They can also shoot different shots and create games involving accuracy. 

Stickhandling is easy in the garage as well. Use different pucks and balls to create a challenging stickhandling environment. Stickhandling balls are good. Street-hockey pucks are good. Golf balls are good, too, because they’re sensitive, so they develop soft hands. You can use many items found in a garage as stickhandling obstacles. Feel free to use anything from a 2x4, to a bike to cones. 

Endurance

Teach your player how to box. Simple boxing techniques of right-left combinations (coordination), ducking and kicking can challenge your player. This is hard work but very rewarding. Once they get into the boxing groove, their confidence will soar. 

Closing Thoughts

You definitely don’t need to join a gym or buy special equipment to provide your 10U player a great offseason of training and development. The ideas I’ve covered here are just a small slice of the many convenient and affordable things that can help your player improve this summer. A 30- or 40-minute session of these kinds of activities performed two or three times each week will pay great dividends this fall. Just remember to keep it lighthearted and fun.