1. Eat Smores - The hot, sticky treat has been known to improve stick-handling abilities.
2. Jump into a cold body of water - This should be easy to find in these parts.  It is a proven method to increase your heart rate, and exiting the water will surely improve foot speed.
3. Laugh with a teammate - This will be sure to improve core strength and develop strong abs.
4. Catch a firefly - This will work on eye/hand coordination while teaching you to keep your head up.
5. Hug your mom - This does not have to be limited to Mother's Day, and the gesture will get a guaranteed lift to practice and maybe even a slushie on those hard days. 

Coaches Corner: Enjoy Summer!

In the last few weeks many of us have wrapped up our spring seasons and congratulations to all the teams that were able to compete on Championship Saturday! Now that summer has arrived, enjoy it! As many of us family feel like we live at the rink during the season, and now start to miss it, it is ok. USA Hockey literally shuts down over the summer and encourages this time off for all youth skaters. 

Skating is like riding a bike, as it will come back in the fall and your feet will be fresh. Summer is a great time to participate in other activities like baseball, swimming, or soccer. Playing different sports besides hockey will help develop your overall athleticism and competitive spirit. In fact many of the best athletes are multi-sport athletes while growing up. The strong majority of NFL 1st round draft picks were multi-sport athletes in high school. In fact, Urban Meyer of Ohio State, will only recruit multi-sport athletes as he strongly believes in this aspect. So don't feel like the summer is where you need to play hockey nonstop fearing that you may lose an edge.  Just keep active in something.

At the same time, summer is a great time to just enjoy playing hockey with your friends. Many play 3 on 3 pond hockey with friends from other fall and spring teams. Players can get on the ice once a week to just play and have fun with friends. Don't think that this is the time to over coach a team, just let them play. You may give positive feedback when players make good decisions on the ice, but otherwise just let them play. Sabres also offers Summer Skates once a week which allows skaters to visit the ice periodically and work on a bit of skill. These are again only once a week which don't overlap with other summer activities. Summer is also a great time to try a camp, perhaps a 3 day defensive camp or a once a week power skating camp. The idea is to visit the ice but not live on it. Enjoy summer!