Stick movement exercises with different sizes and weight implements: small medicine balls, large marbles, smaller pucks, weighted pucks, etc. Jim Radcliffe was the strength and conditioning coach for the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team, and has more than 30 years of experience at the University of Oregon. He’s played a significant […]

Officials play a very important role and it really is critical that our on-ice officials enforce the USA Hockey standard of play in all areas of the game, including body contact and body checking. No one wants to see anyone get hurt on the ice. As officials, it’s our job to make sure players, coaches […]

Many families wrestle with the time and money needed to play youth sports, but those challenges can be even more significant when it comes to hockey, with all of its equipment and rinks that are sometimes far away. For the less wealthy, having a child who dreams of hockey can look like a nightmare. Megan […]

Managing their emotions on a daily basis is really important. The skill level piece of teaching the game, how every kid is on a different level – every kid learns at a different pace and every kid is motivated by something a little bit different. Coaching Q-and-A: Northeastern’s Berman praises small-area games, warns against early […]

“If you’re leaning forward, you’ve taken some of what you weigh off of your hips and skates, so you’re already compromising how much speed you can generate.” Ice skating is a specialized form of movement compared to other sports. Hockey players need to learn the biomechanics involved in producing speed and power on skates, which […]

It’s not just happening in hockey. It’s happening in all youth sports. It’s happening at home, too – screen time is through the roof with iPads, phones, computers, Fortnite and so on. Can your kid do a right-handed cartwheel? A somersault? Can they throw a baseball or a football? Do they know how to skip? […]

Whether it’s offense, defense or goaltending, we’ll take them at all levels, but I do believe the development is there and our development path in our country with junior hockey is really growing. Perhaps even before a player takes the ice, USA Hockey is dedicated to developing boys and girls, able-bodied or disabled, to be […]

“Guys like that are out there possessing the puck,” Gosselin said. “That’s what we do today. That’s the way the game is played, and that’s what we’re promoting.” In 2011, USA Hockey rocked the youth hockey world by delaying legal body-checking from Peewees (ages 11-12) until Bantams (13-14) for boys. While most have accepted and […]

By playing multiple sports, kids will avoid burnout and overuse injuries, all while developing other skills and all-around athleticism that will ultimately translate into being a better hockey player. “I’ve never really been a one-sport kind of guy.” That’s been Hermantown native and New York Rangers blue-liner Neal Pionk’s stance on being more than just hockey […]

Playing hard and having fun is also a big part of USA Hockey’s American Development Model, which the Admirals have implemented over the past six years. The club officially became a model association in 2016, fully committing themselves to the highest standards of youth hockey development. Play hard. Have fun. Those are more than words […]