It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and I’m busy helping Team Ontario’s Under-18 teams with their final tune-up camp before they play in the National Championships in November. The teams have just one exhibition game and three on-ice practice sessions to get all of their systems and strategies in place before competing on the national stage.

It definitely isn’t ideal to have only a few practices to get everyone on the same page. But the toughest part is that all 3 of those prep practices are on the SAME DAY!

What can these coaches and players do to stay energized and focused for all three on-ice sessions?

When you have three ice sessions in one day, whether it’s at a training camp or at a tournament, you have to make sure that you do a warm-up before every session and cool-down after each session.

Typically I recommend a 10-15 minute warm-up to get players optimally prepared to hit the ice and a 10 minute cool-down afterwards to help get the recovery process started. But when you are on the ice three times in one day, that extra 30 minutes of training time really eats into your “down time” between sessions.

To keep players interested and energized for a long day on the ice, you can shorten up the off-ice warm-up and cool-down sessions considerably – but you can’t take them out entirely.

Even doing just a one-minute warm-up will go a long way to making sure players are physically prepared once they hit the ice. And taking a few minutes to go for a light jog afterwards and to do a few hockey-specific stretches afterwards will help players to recover in time for the next session.

Never underestimate the power of the warm-up and cool-down in helping you play and feel your best throughout a training camp or tournament. These might just big the two most important keys to having your best hockey season ever.

~ Coach Kim