I originally developed the All-N-Stride training curriculum 12 years ago, and I have revised it several times in an ongoing attempt to better meet the needs of the players. With each passing year, my staff and I have come to understand that there are parts of the curriculum that work really well for certain players, but not for others. And we have also come to understand that there are parts of the curriculum that needed to be emphasized more, and parts that can be downplayed or even completely omitted. The original training curriculum that I designed only had 5 Phases, our curriculum now has 17 Phases!!!!

As a professional coach, I feel very strongly that one of my responsibilities to my athletes is making sure that I am providing high quality top-notch training for everyone. Although this is a tall order with players ranging in age from 5 years to NHL adults, the 17 Phase curriculum provides appropriate starting points and progressive programming for all ages/levels. Starting points are determined for each player on their first visit. The starting point is based on several factors:

1. Current skating ability
2. Age/level
3. Overall athleticism
4. Attention span/coachability

We tend to err on the safe side and start players where they will feel as though they can easily handle the workout. The elevations and speeds are kept low enough to allow them time to become accustom to the skating treadmill. Since our emphasis is on form and technique, these slower speeds and lower elevations also allow the players to make good corrections in their first few visits.

Many players and parents do not understand this. They want their child to “go fast” and they want their child to completely exhausted after 10 minutes! The LAST thing we want to do is put the players in a situation where their time on the treadmill is spent reinforcing bad habits. This is what happens when the elevations and the speeds are too much for the player, and they are forced into “survival mode” just to maintain their ability to keep up with the treadmill. Their stride mechanics begin to break down (short choppy strides and flailing arms return!), and worse, their ability to listen to the coach’s directions and make adjustments becomes impossible. The skating treadmill is just a tool, like any other piece of athletic training equipment. Used incorrectly, it actually has the potential to make a player WORSE. Long story short, FORM AND TECHNIQUE ARE THE KEYS TO BECOMING A GREAT SKATER. Testosterone fueled, “let’s crank it up and see how fast he/she can go”, or, having to use the puke bucket as a training goal, is NOT the way to become a better skater.

Fortunately, most parents/players understand that learning to skate correctly takes a long time. One of our biggest challenges is making sure that young players who attend All-N-Stride training sessions frequently aren’t put into high elevations and fast speeds too quickly. We are thrilled that we have players age 8-12 years who come 1-2 times/week ALL YEAR ROUND! But this means that they will advance through the curriculum very quickly and often times find themselves at a training level that is too demanding for what their size, age, and leg strength can handle. How do we continue to help these younger players improve?

The answer to this question is the additional training Phases that we have added to the original 5. The original 5 Phases were really meant for players who were around 13 years or older, and typically playing at the AAA or High School levels or above. It became obvious very quickly that we needed to design additional lower-level workouts to the curriculum to accommodate the 5-12 year-old age ranges. Thus the Foundational Training series, Phases 1-5.

The Foundational Training (FT) series is truly the backbone of the program. Almost 99% of our first-time players start somewhere in the FT series, even high school players usually start in FT 4 or FT 5. The workouts are progressive in nature, and each Phase adds other new skill sets (like backwards skating or resistance cord training, etc.) to the training. Keeping the training “fresh” and interesting for the player is also very important. We recognize that we are working with young athletes, and if the skating treadmill training is just hard and not fun, they will lose interest quickly. As coaches, we have actually discovered that by providing players with an opportunity to try other skills, we are using the skating treadmill in a more robust and comprehensive way! The players NEED to work on their core strength, ankle/knee/hip flexion, backwards skating technique, crossover technique, pivoting, etc., and they find these types of exercises to be fun. It’s a WIN-WIN!

Each Phase has 10 workouts for a total of 50 workouts, so if a player comes 1x/week for a year, they would complete the FT series in 1 year. In the case of a 7, 8, 9, or 10 year old player we still had the same problem-progressing through the curriculum at a pace that was too fast. FT Phases 1 and 2 are meant for the very young or beginning level player, and it is a big jump up to Phase 3, and an impossible jump to Phases 4 or 5. Again, I went back to the drawing board and made the second big revision to the curriculum by adding 3 more “bridge” Phases-FT 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. These .5 Phases are WONDERFUL because they allow the younger players to continue to keep advancing (no child likes to be told they have to repeat or stay on a level). Since I was writing 3 brand new levels, it also allowed me to get really creative and put new exercises and skills into the .5 Phases that are not found anywhere else in the curriculum. It has turned out to be another win-win in that the players LOVE the new challenges found in the .5 levels, and we are able to continue to offer age/level appropriate training to our most loyal athletes. Making sure that we are providing training programs that improve and enhance a player’s skating ability is ALWAYS OUR #1 OBJECTIVE!!!!

It has been 3 years since I updated the curriculum with the .5 bridge Phases. Right before the COVID-19 shut down situation occurred, I was actually in the process of revamping the entire curriculum again. Many of my staff had been making good suggestions (I am really proud to say that I have a staff of young coaches who are observant, caring and invested in being a part of the player’s success), and we agreed on several key items:

1. The need for a Phase 2.5 to bridge the difficulty gap between Phases 2 and 3.
2. The need for MORE core strengthening exercises on the treadmill
3. The need for LESS resistance cord exercises at the lower levels
4. The need for more player involvement is selecting exercises

With our daily operations temporarily suspended, we were able to finalize the new curriculum, and when we re-open after this crisis we will be using our new curriculum. We’re so excited!!!

Food for thought-it seems to me that if you are implementing the same program that you were offering over 10 years ago, well, something’s wrong. All programs, curriculums, business models, companies, even governments need to continually upgrade and change and adapt. That’s why we have review processes in place at most reputable organizations. There needs to be discussion about what is working and what isn’t, and new programming put in place that addresses the deficiencies of the older models. We are very happy with the updates that we have made, and we hope that all of you find the revised All-N-Stride curriculum to better than ever!!!

Stay safe and be well!!

I’ve been following the development of the COVID-19 crisis pretty closely, and I have to admit that I have found the news surrounding the pandemic to very depressing on many levels. BUT, I THINK THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE CAN DO TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION. Really! As someone who has devoted their entire working life to helping others achieve their goals, I thought that this might be an opportune time to throw a little “positivity” everyone’s way.

With the kids out of school, and so many of you parents unable to go to work, maybe you have more time on your hands than you’ve ever had. I know I have already caught up on all of the things I never have time to do, including some cleaning, painting and organizing. So now what? What if this goes on for another month, or two? Here’s my proposal:

LET’S USE THIS TIME TO EFFECT POSITIVE LIFESTYLE HABITS.

What does that mean? Well, everyone is saying they’ve been watching a lot of movies, or playing a lot of video games, and of course sitting around munching on yummy snack foods because, well, there’s nothing else to do! While that might be fun for a few days, those are not healthy lifestyle habits that we want to reinforce right now. Bad habits are hard to break, and you know what? SO ARE GOOD HABITS! So maybe we should use this “free time” to get on track to a new positive healthy lifestyle, and lay down some hard-to-break GOOD HABITS.

There is tons of research that strongly suggests that habits are habits. We tend to only understand the meaning of the word “habit” when it has negative connotations. But GOOD HABITS are equally strong. The definition of habit is: “A settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Another way to say that is: “a habit is something you repeatedly do, AND something that has addictive qualities.” If you start a few GOOD HABITS now, while you have the time, come May 1st or June 1st those habits will have become strong addictive tendencies that will be hard to give up.

Here are some suggestions to try over the next 6-8 weeks:

1) Exercise MORE! It can be as simple as taking a 15-20 minute walk through the neighborhood. Try doing this EVERY DAY. Maybe when you first wake-up, or maybe after dinner.

2) Boost your well-being by taking a walk through the woods where you can hear the birds and see the trees. It is well documented that spending as little as 1 hour/day in a nature setting has strong positive effects on one’s mental and emotional well-being. Seems to me we could use a little more of that in times like these!

3) EAT BETTER FOOD! If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you know that some foods are completely wiped-out like frozen foods, rice, beans, flour, canned soups, etc., foods that most people think of essential to survival. HUH? And why are the fresh vegetables and meats, chicken, and fish readily available??? Yes, they are perishable, so people tend not to stock up on them, but these are the foods we should be eating!!!!! You have time to regularly visit the grocery store now, so buy FRESH foods and get healthy!

4) Do things with your kids. Cash in on this unprecedented amount of free-time where all of your family is actually together. Try:

a. Cooking together. Take all those FRESH foods you bought and cook FROM SCRATCH. Kids really should learn about boiling, steaming, frying, sautéing, baking, roasting, broiling, marinating, grilling, ETC. These should be considered basic survival skills. Let them pick out some recipes, or plan a meal. Stop eating out of a box!

b. Play board games/do puzzles. Board games are great ways to invoke fun social interaction, and puzzles are incredible brain strengthening exercises.

c. Exercise together. Walk, jog, ride bikes with your kids. As travel athletes, family exercise time is never a priority. Kids LIKE doing things with you, find some cool local trails and get some fresh air together!

Yes, we are on “lockdown”, yes it is very hard to stay home, and yes, these are fearful and uncertain times for sure. But maybe there is a silver-lining in this time of government mandated quarantine, maybe we can clean up our bodies, our lives, and mark this 2020 year as “the year I started taking care of myself!”

Recommended Reading
The Power Of Habit, Why We Do What We Do by Charles Duhigg
Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement by Katy Bowman
Go Wild: Eat Fat, Run Free, Be Social, and Follow Evolotion;s Other Rules for Total Health and Well-being by John Ratey
Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

The answer is very simple and kind of obvious if you think about it. Compared to other sports where the athlete uses walking and running motor patterns, skating requires an advanced and unique set of athletic skills-balance, anatomical alignment, leg strength, and coordination. The “weird” exercises that you see professional skating coaches teaching are specifically designed to enhance these biomechanisms. Let’s go over a few of these exercises in detail:

1. One leg skating. Learning to move and create speed while skating on only 1 leg is exceptionally difficult. It requires that the player be able to generate power out of the inside and outside edges of the skate blade, rather than generating power by changing from one leg to the other. To generate speed out of the edges on the blade, the player must master exceptional balance on the edges. This “cat-like” balance comes from having correct anatomical alignment. The torso should be centered over the hips, and the hips should be centered over the knees, ankles, and feet. By coaching a player to master these super-human skills, not only does the player begin to possess the ability to skate on one leg, but they also acquire the elite sense of balance and alignment required to produce quick explosive movements with little or no effort. One leg skating reinforces the necessary skills to be able to balance on a ¼ inch piece of steel on ice, and more importantly, reinforces and teaches the hockey player to have a 6th sense of how to balance and move quickly in a controlled fashion. Skating on one leg also builds leg strength and coordination by requiring that both the right leg and the left leg can perform the work equally. Long story short, these skills are what separates players like Connor McDavid from the rest of the pack!

2. Explosive jumping drills. We often have the players jumping over hockey sticks, ropes, or the black pads on the ice. We have drills where the player performs these jumps forwards, backwards, or laterally. Jumping is an explosive movement where the athlete must use leg strength to forcefully straighten a bent knee. In order to jump on the ice, the player must learn to bend (load) and then fully extend to leave the ice. This is an exaggerated form of the power production mechanics in a forward stride, and has direct applications to burst speed mechanics as well (think first 3 steps). In addition, to successfully “land” these jumps, the player must have good leg strength, balance, and a favorable anatomical alignment. These attributes can be enhanced further in more advanced players by having them perform the jumps on one leg at a time.

3. Deep knee and hip flexion drills. Having players perform full squats, one-leg squats, lateral squats, spider squats, etc. is a method of helping the player gain an understanding of his/her full range of movement. Anyone who has ever attempted to teach a beginner how to skate knows how difficult it is to get them to bend their knees! Coaches are always telling the players to “GET LOW” or “BEND YOUR KNEES” but the player only bends a little bit. By teaching the player to bend maximally, the player starts to get a better idea of the full range of knee flexion angles. Ideally, the best knee angle for skating is around 90 degrees, and unfortunately most beginning skaters think that 20 degrees IS 90 degrees! Players who can stand up straight (0 degrees) AND squat all the way down (180 degrees) will have a much easier time figuring out where the 90 degree angle is.

Skating proficiency-speed, control, power, and quick changes of direction are the foundations of ice hockey. Sometimes it is necessary to “come in through the back door”, so to speak, to help athletes learn the intricate details involved in these movements. So, the next time your child is having a power skating lesson where they are being asked to try “weird” looking drills, know that there is a method to the madness, and in the long-run they will become much better skaters for having practiced these drills.

There have been a couple of great books written on this subject. The first one that really resonated with everyone was the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, a.k.a. the “10,000 hour rule” book. In this book, the author proposed the idea that in fact, if you really look closely at top athletes and musicians, and carefully trace their humble beginnings, by the time they are famous all of them have put in around 10,000 hours practicing their craft. One of his strongest examples was the musical history of the Beatles. Long before their television debut that catapulted the band into star status x 10, the Beatles were playing small night club gigs all over Europe 24/7, 52 weeks/year. Gladwell accurately traces the bands early appearances, and lo and behold! it adds up to 10,000 hours!!! Of course, this same idea applies to all endeavors-business, research, politics, you name it.

A second excellent book, Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, came along to expand on this theory. In another intense scrutiny of the world’s best athletes and musicians, Colvin makes a strong case to suggest that it’s not the NUMBER of hours that matters as much as the QUALITY and PASSION with which the person practices. In the book, Colvin studies and interviews top professionals and compares them to other almost top professionals. He tries to find out what makes the difference between being the BEST or the GREATEST, and just being really good. What his research seems to show is that the people who practice with dedication and passion not only end up practicing more, but their practice is WORTH MORE in terms of improving and gaining positive results. While it seems that this might be common knowledge, I’ve come across a lot of athletes who think that just showing up is good enough. Worse yet, I’ve met a lot of parents who push their kids or make them do extra practices in a constant effort to have them play at the highest levels. The moral of the story here is that if you don’t love what you do, there are always going to be people better at it than you. You can’t “instill” passion for something in someone other than yourself, passion comes from within.

Some other knowledgeable folks started arguing that while dedicated practice is always good, over-specializing in one area (one sport) might actually be detrimental. Particularly in the sports world where overall athleticism has its advantages. If you followed the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl, we need look no further than the young 23-year-old phenom Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. If you’re a professional football fan like myself, you know how freakishly amazing this kid is. He can do things that only seasoned veterans are usually capable of, and actually he is WAY MORE SKILLED than the seasoned veterans. Not only is he compared to the likes of Tom Brady, but to be honest, he can do things even Tom never did. His father was a professional baseball player, so the easy assumption is that he is genetically predisposed to this line of work. But if you look a little deeper into Patrick’s upbringing, the picture gets a lot clearer. Patrick was OBSESSED with sports as a young child, in particular anything that involved throwing and reacting quickly. He loved football, but he was also an excellent baseball player and tenacious short stop. If you study some of his side arm throws, across his body, with both feet off the ground (that he routinely makes in the NFL), you can’t help but see his training as a short stop coming into play. If I had a nickel for every College D1 hockey coach who has told me point blank that they look for athletes who successfully played multiple sports in high school I’d be rich! Take away lesson-if your child enjoys multiple sports, let him or her PLAY THEM. It will serve to develop their overall athletic development, it will prevent overuse injuries, it will allow them to explore what their true love might be, it will give them the opportunity to meet more people, and it will keep them passionate about their other sports if they take a break once in a while.

So where am I going with this??? Well, as we all know, skating is a very specialized form of athletic movement. I’ll make a bet that Tom Brady, LeBron James, Mookie Betts, or Patrick Mahomes would be a riot to watch at an open skate! That means that athleticism alone isn’t enough, you have to practice your skating a lot to become good at it. So, while it’s an excellent idea to play multiple sports, one needs to recognize that skating is a skill that needs year-round attention.

The great news is that hockey players can continue to work on their skating skills without actually engaging in hockey. Rather than enrolling in Spring hockey, and summer hockey camps, my recommendation is to use the off-season for increasing your efforts in the area of power skating. Kill two birds with one stone-take a break from hockey, and, get better at your skating at the same time!!! Enroll in power skating camps, try some private lessons, and/or make a consistent commitment to engaging in skating treadmill training at All-N-Stride (yes, that’s a shameless plug!). The summer is the best time to really sink your teeth into some intensive 2-3 days/week skating training. There’s no school, plenty of time to refuel and rest, and no formal hockey practices to fatigue your legs.

As the 2018-19 begins to wind down, this may be a great time to start a constructive discussion with your son or daughter about what their hockey goals are, and what they think they would be willing do over the spring/summer to achieve those goals. Goal setting/planning are key to a productive and successful athletic career. Our role as parents is to guide and provide. Stay informed, read relevant material on training, and shop around for your best local opportunities. Last but not least, LISTEN to your child and support their passions!

If your son or daughter is around the age of 13 or older and has expressed an interest in dry-land strength training, I would highly recommend this book. For obvious safety reasons, I still feel it is necessary to hire a certified strength coach to oversee your child’s training. But I think this is a great book to keep on hand to help understand the exercises you’re doing and why you’re doing them.

As a parent of 3 elite competitive children myself, I fully understand the difficulty of getting kids to eat well, and the complicated logistics of meal prep and meal planning. Especially for travel athletes who are always on the road, good food isn’t always readily available. I think the best way to tackle the problem is to try and stick to my GOLDEN RULES for high quality nutrition.

COACH CARRIE’s GOLDEN RULES:

Only eat foods that:

1) Used to walk, run, swim, or fly
2) Grows up out of the ground
3) Grows on trees or bushes
4) Drink LOTS, & LOTS, & LOTS of water

Whuuuuuuut??? Yes!

Think about it, Golden Rule #1 included all meats, poultry, fish, fowl, and eggs, as well as dairy products like milk and cheeses. Golden Rule #2 includes all vegetables, herbs, grains, rice, and some fruits. Golden Rule #3 includes all the fruits and nuts. Basically, we just listed all of the REAL FOODS. All other “foods” are FAKE foods (processed foods). That means bagels, cereal, lunchmeat, pasta, crackers, candy, etc. are NOT real food and should be avoided whenever possible! I can’t overstate Golden Rule #4 enough, everyone should be drinking 1-2 gallons of water every day. Really. Your body is 70% water and it requires constant replenishing. And hey-it’s FREE!

But wait a minute you say, what’s wrong with a bagel?
Well, do you pick your bagels off of a bagel tree?
No, you don’t.
Bagels are a processed food made with flour, which comes from wheat but is a processed carbohydrate (sugar). They also have added sugar in them, as well as a ton of preservatives and chemicals. Especially if you buy the less expensive brands. Read the ingredient labels and you’ll see what I mean.

And what’s wrong with a turkey sandwich?
Sliced lunchmeats are processed with TONS of sodium, chemicals, and sometimes even sugar. Sliced turkey is not the same thing as the turkey you eat at Thanksgiving! The same goes for ham, bologna, pepperoni, salami, and so on.

Remember the Golden Rules. EAT REAL FOOD!

As we approach the Holiday Season it becomes even more difficult to make healthy food choices with all of the goodies and desserts around. But if you’re eating really well as a daily habit, a piece of pie or some chocolate won’t kill you.

So I challenge you to see if you and your family can stick to the Golden Rules for just 1 month!

I am not going to lie, this will be hard, and it will be more expensive. The up-side is that your kids will sleep better, focus better in school, and perform better in their sports.

Oh, and FYI, YOU will feel better too! You will have more energy, feel less overwhelmed, and you can take a lot of pride in knowing that you have made a change for the betterment of your family. (And your hair and skin will thank you too!)

This means you need to go grocery shopping and buy:

• Whole Chickens (a very economical way to feed an entire family)
• Fish, Steak, Hamburger, Pork chops, Bacon (yes bacon-it comes from a pig!!!!)
• FRESH vegetables and fruits, NOT frozen, NOT canned, NOT dehydrated. FRESH.
• Potatoes, brown or wild rice, beans, lentils, etc.

You need to throw away:

Pre-packaged chips, cookies, puddings, jello, pretzels, crackers, CEREAL, canned soups, frozen dinners, macaroni/cheese, all sodas, ETC.

Holy Moly but that’s everything we eat!!!!!!!

Exactly why this country has seen a 70% increase in childhood-onset diabetes, and why America as a country has just fallen to 69th in the world for expected longevity. Our average expected lifespan is 70.6 years now, compared with China and Denmark with an average expected life-span of 85.

Here are some easy meal changes to make in your daily diet:

EXCELLENT Breakfast

Eggs
Bacon
Milk
Berries (any kind)

EXCELLENT Lunch

Leftover Chicken
Salad
Apple
Milk or Water

EXCELLENT Dinner

Chicken/Fish
Wild Rice
Vegatable
Fruit

So, if your child eats a BAD breakfast at 7:30 am, around 9:30-10:00 am he/she will be STARVING, unable to focus or pay attention, and generally miserable. And if he/she follows through at 11:30 am with a BAD lunch, the cycle starts all over again. Then they arrive home from school hungry and go right for the goodies in the pantry. And then, off to athletic practice!!!!!! Uh oh……

P.S. For adults, it’s nice to know that coffee and tea come from plants! Even beer and wine are better choices than soda, just remember to limit your alcoholic intake as alcohol is a SUGAR. A glass of red wine with dinner is a much better choice than a diet coke!

Take the Challenge

Follow Coach Carrie’s Golden Rules for High-Quality Nutrition for 1 Month and tell us how it goes! We would love to hear how it helps you and your young hockey player.

The easiest way to understand this is to use strength training as an example. I think most people understand that putting a 6-year old in the weight room is absurdly inappropriate. Partly because a 6-year old does not have the mental capacity to properly engage in strength training, but also, I think most people have a common sense gut feeling that strength training will not produce the desired effects in a 6-year old. Why is this? The answer is simple human physiology. A 6-year old’s brain, muscle tissue, bones, hormones, etc. are not ready for the physical and chemical changes that need to occur to build strength and muscle mass. There is an optimal window of time for these changes to occur.

Yet every few weeks, I have a parent asking me if the skating treadmill (or other skating related training) will make their 8-year old or 10-year old faster. The answer is yes, and NO! The answer is yes, because skating training will help develop the correct form and technique piece of the puzzle necessary for speed development. But the answer is NO because the optimal window of time for speed development is age 15-25 years. Really.

What are the pieces of the puzzle necessary for speed development? Speed is a function of power, and in terms of human movement, power comes from one’s ability to apply force into the ground. So, the 3 foundational pieces necessary for speed development are:

3) Physical Maturity

As an example of this, one only needs to think of sports like gymnastics or figure skating. In these sports, correct form and technique is the foundation for success. Children as young as 5 and 6 years old are trained to perform incredibly complex movements involving balance and multi-planar rotational skills. To watch a young competitive gymnast or figure skater is almost mind-boggling. Strength and physical maturity are not required, only an innate understanding of form and technique.

How does that apply to ice hockey? If you have thought about what you just read, the answer is obvious. For players under the age of 13-14 (or pre-pubescent), the only foundational piece of the puzzle that can be addressed is the attainment of good skating form and technique. When your child engages in the All-N-Stride skating treadmill training curriculum, they are studying and practicing through multiple repetitions how to skate correctly. They may be starting to pick up a little leg strength, and the interval-based training is providing the basis for adaptation in later years, but the number one objective is to lay down a strong biomechanical foundation. Sometimes we see high school, junior, or even collegiate players who never developed correct form when they were young. This is always such a tragedy because the window for form and technique development rapidly declines after age 16-18. So now these mature young adult athletes are physically ready for speed development, but they are missing the form and technique piece and there is no making up for lost time.

To summarize, know and understand that there are certain age periods that are optimal for certain kinds of development.

My Identity as an Elite Hockey Player

by Drew Brown #7 July 2011

Ever since I was five years old, I told everyone I wanted to play hockey in the NHL. As a five-year-old, you do not recognize the early mornings, late nights and long days it takes to become an elite hockey player. When younger, the one hour practice and the two games a week is all your care in the world. You are good and you think nothing can stop you. Then you get older, people start growing taller and getting bigger. The only thing you start to worry about is size and strength. What began as a three hour a week hobby has now turned into a twenty hour a week job. Don’t get me wrong when I say ‘job’. You still play because you love it, but if you truly want to be good, it takes the extra effort. Hockey is different than many other sports in the aspect that most hockey teams travel all over the U.S. and may players much move away before they are out of high school to play at the next level. I had no idea of the responsibility, sacrifice and hard work it would take to become an elite hockey player.

Most kids move away before they are out of high school in order to get the best opportunities to go to the next level. With this comes responsibility. I had to move from Michigan to Connecticut after my junior year of high school in order to move closer to my goal of becoming a Division I hockey player. I had to become mature quicker than most of my friends, in order to be away from my family and friends at age sixteen. When you move away you have no one looking over your shoulder making sure you do the right things. I had to train, clean and make sure my homework got done without my mom or dad telling me to do something until I caved and got them done. I learned very quickly to get stuff done and not to procrastinate. When I would procrastinate, the next thing I knew it was the next day and I was one day behind training, homework, and laundry. OK, yeah homework I could make up or do quickly. Being a day late on laundry was no big deal, but when everyone around you is fighting for the same spot on the team and they are working out and getting better, there is no workout that is not important.

Growing up as a hockey player you do not realize how much you have to give up in order to be an elite player. Unlike most sports, hockey is a sport that is played all year round. You start in the fall and play until you hit spring. Spring season starts and that will run you back into your fall season again. The sacrifice is great to become an elite player. Many good players have to travel all over the United States and Canada in order to be recognized by College and junior programs. When you travel this makes you miss a lot of events you really wanted to go to but you can’t. I had to miss my junior prom and graduating with kids I grew up with because I had to move away in order to get to where I wanted to be.

To become an elite hockey player you must work hard everytime you step in the gym or on the ice. You cannot tell yourself that you will do something tomorrow because someone else looking for the same spot on a college team is working hard today and tomorrow. Every extra rep or drill will pay off in the long run. If you work hard the rewards will come and if you work hard you will play hard. The player with the best skill set when younger will be caught by the other players if he does not work hard. I have seen the most skilled players when at age twelve go nowhere because they did not put in the extra time and simply just did not work hard enough.

In conclusion, hockey is a sport filled with responsibility, sacrifice and hard work as a young player. Growing up in the hockey world is difficult because of the travel and having to move away from your friends. When your friends want you to go to an amusement park sometimes you have to say no in order to train. I would not change anything I have done because I love to play and it was worth all the hard work, sacrifice, and responsibility to me, to become a Division I hockey player. The game is so fun. When you are younger, that’s all that matters. When you grow older it becomes a lifestyle choice.

About Drew Brown

On May 1st, 2014 Drew was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, Ewing Sarcoma.

Drew was a junior at Providence College when he suffered a hit to his left leg during a playoff hockey game. After a few weeks of ongoing pain in his leg, Drew was notified that the results of an MRI showed a suspicious tumor. Drew’s coach arranged for him to be sent home to receive care at the University of Michigan Hospital. The shocking diagnosis was Ewing Sarcoma Cancer, which was a 1 in a million chance and just…. unbelievable.

Over the next year, Drew received chemo and surgery on his femur to remove the tumor. That year had many ups and downs for Drew. Drew put his hockey career on hold, while his Friar teammates, inspired by Drew, went on to win the National Championship in 2015. Drew went back to Providence College to finish his college career as an assistant student coach for the hockey team and received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in 2016.

Drew was one of our Hockey U and skating treadmill instructors and tragically lost his battle with the disease Saturday, November 11, 2017

I know for a fact that Drew touched the lives of many of the Hockey U players and families, as well as all of the kids he trained on the skating treadmill and on the ice. Drew’s passion for hockey and sharing what he knew with others was unparalleled, his positive and upbeat demeanor was contagious. Drew will be sorely missed in the Michigan hockey community.

In the months after his passing, his parents found this essay Drew wrote in July 2011 as part of a school English identity assignment. It speaks to the heart of hockey players everywhere on the desire, sacrifice and hard work to become an elite hockey player.