SUCCESSFUL WEEKEND OF WORK & IMPROVEMENT

A  GREAT START TO THE SUMMER

We couldn't be happier with the outcome of the GRIT June 1-3 Body Contact Intensive! We had a total of 21 skaters out for the weekend and saw lots of smiles and hard working kids. Our athletes saw some familiar training as well as new ideas and exercises.
I wanted to write about what we did during the camp, and why we did it. This should illuminate what we are about, and how we want to keep building better hockey in our community.

so what did we do anyway?

Slow and controlled edge work

getting down to business.

Coach vs player drill repetitions

We got to the technical work of teaching our athletes how to protect themselves while competing hard in our Saturday sessions.  ON THE ICE we mixed in edge work and skill with our skating, but the majority of ice time was spent in putting our athletes through the skill acquisition of physicality.

• Initially, a GRIT coach did the skill alongside our athletes. The athlete was checking OR being checked by their coach. This allowed the athletes to learn from more experienced players that know how it feels to do it correctly. This way our athletes download effective and safe movement patterns into their bodies.
• Next, they drilled the same skills with each other, peer-to-peer. Gaining familiarity with applying their skill set to real-time game situations.
• Each session our athletes were challenged with small area games & competition to apply their skills at game speed in a decision-making environment. Simultaneously solidifying their skills and having fun with the game!

Our main mantra was simple:

Sharpening skills though battle drills!

It's YOUR responsibility to make sure you are in a position to choose how body contact will be made. Compete hard within the rules and remember;

1. Protect your head

2. Protect your spine

3. Protect your knees

Protect yourself and compete intelligently and respectfully toward your opponents.

We believe this will help athletes to contribute to their team's successes and keep them safer while competing and enjoying the game!

A different kind of dry land training. Our GRIT camp was almost entirely comprised of slow and methodical "skill work" and mobility training for joints and ranges of motion. The main take away from this work three-fold;

Jefferson Curls. Look them up. A pain & benefit that must be felt to be appreciated.

1.  We can't build amazing athletes in 3 days so we introduced them  to tools they can use over time for fundamental strength and ability to move well. It's highest value we can give them in such a compressed time frame.
2. We wanted to keep our athletes as fresh as possible to train with 100% effort on the ice, so we did not focus on cardio or explosive exercises.
3. It is the gritty and unglamorous details that make the biggest differences in the end. The programming was designed to help the athlete over the long term. It may be difficult, painful, boring, and slow but the athletes who apply these tools consistently over time will be the most robust against injury and the most receptive to additional strength training and skill acquisition. 

Al athletes showed excellent attitude and willingness in all our training! It was a great environment to see them letting personality show and being receptive to coaching feedback. I think the coaches had every bit as much fun as the players! 

BIG PICTURE

With this as our first GRIT Hockey camp, we wanted to bring a new and different approach to training than you may have seen in the COS area before.

1. SPECIFIC SKILL FOCUS
   With a time frame like a weekend camp, there is no way we can address a wide breadth of hockey skills AND provide any lasting value.  GRIT Hockey is all about relentlessly chasing excellence. In order to make meaningful progress in any skill set, we must be laser-focused on the technical details of a specific skill. In this case, it was body contact and while we also worked on skating (as will always be a staple of GRIT Hockey) we created an environment where our athletes could be immersed and focused on gaining real skill in body contact.
2. REALISTIC SKILL APPLICATION
   We put our athletes in an environment with their peers AND our GRIT Coaches that fostered game-like learning and applications of our skill focus. This allows them to download a skill in a way that will translate to their gameplay seamlessly. From there we used small area games that required our athletes to directly integrate our drill work into real game decision making and creativity processes. This is how we want to deliver our value; help our athletes become better hockey players in the biggest game time moments.
3. TRAINING THE WHOLE ATHLETE
   On-ice drills and skills, and off-ice training were well integrated. Our approach to all of this training as a whole is meant to emphasize and develop the athlete's mind as well as their motor skills. This is because you can have all the best tips, drills, and programming but if the athletes themselves do not fully engage their mind with what they are doing then there will be no lasting impact. 
   
   A) Our On-ice work had athletes work directly with coaches who know the game, which addresses the massive coaching gap that exists in so much youth coaching today. We strapped on our gear and drilled with the athletes!  This completely changes the learning platform for the better.
   
   B) Our off-ice work has foundations in gymnastics/bodyweight strength training. It's beyond the scope of this blog alone to address all of this, but here's the nutshell version; This type of 'skill work' training helps the athlete build great fundamentals in body strength, full body mobility, and body awareness. This translates directly to future strength training and athletic movement patterns and coordination. This is one of our core values at GRIT Hockey, to develop our athletes as a whole entity, and this means helping them learn to be aware of their bodies & needs which requires their mind to be as engaged and trained up as their body is! This will be more powerful for them than any drill we can draw up.

IN CONCLUSION

Thank you to all of you, parents and athlete alike! Share your thoughts in the comments and stay tuned for the next thing from GRIT Hockey. Your highest compliment to us is to share with us and with your friends, so let's keep this conversation going and keep moving forward to improve hockey in our community!

Let's get to work.