Ask Dan Question & Answer

(An index of subjects covered on the Q & A page of the web site,

 the Newsletters, and Dan and Jay's books  can be found on the

 Index of Subjects page)

Question #128:
Dear Dan: I have a question. Do your trainers with the Mighty Ducks have you use the PowerSkater (or something similar) that is advertised in the American Hockey Magazine? It is shaped like a big V and used for dry land skating. Is this something you might use in the summer time? I am nine and play hockey on a Squirt A team. D.D.

Dan Replies:
Dear D.D.: Regarding the device you write about, you are the second person to ask me about it and I've not seen it. I'll let you in on a little secret. When the season is over, I don't put my skates on or do any ice hockey training until the middle of August. I do extensive cardio-vascular and weight training but I (hockey) train so much during the season, my mind and body need time to recover. And in the NHL we can skate as much as we want (or more) so there is no need to use a dry land training device.

Another secret: I never "trained" for hockey until I was in college. I just played it. That's because my father thought that sports were for "playing" - children's pastimes (and a way to get me to eat my peas and clean my room - I couldn't play until my responsibilities were completed). I wouldn't have thought about training for hockey any more than I would have thought of training for "Kick the Can" or "Ennie Innie Over" - those are other games that children play - other children's pastimes. To be sure, we played games that amounted to methods of improving our skills. My brothers and I used to tape dimes to the basement wall and bet imaginary money about who could shoot pucks and hit the dime most often. But they were only games. And two of my brothers played college hockey and my other brother could have but decided to try to become a doctor instead and I made it to the NHL. But none of us ever "trained" when we were nine years old.

What I'm going to say next may sound strange to you but I think you may become a better hockey player if you play baseball or soccer this summer instead of training for hockey. It will be a lot more fun, you will save your parents a lot of money, and you will increase your athleticism. And it's the good athletes that advance in the sport, not necessarily the good hockey players. You develop your athleticism by playing all the sports. Plus, I think a nine year old should be about having fun and studying hard, not about "training".

If you do decide to get the training device, it would be important that a skating instructor assist you so that you are not just repeating bad habits and incorrect fundamentals as you train.

I've attached a manuscript copy of a chapter in our second book that addresses this issue. It will explain what I've said a about increasing your athleticism through the use of other sports little more thoroughly.

I hope this helps.

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