“Imagine youth sports was a room. On one end of the room, there is a door where everyone enters. At the other end, there is another door where everyone leaves.” So began a long conversation I had with Peter Hugg, the Head of Football (soccer) for Football New South Wales in Australia, on my recent trip to Sydney. Peter has a long history in the sport, having been involved in three World Cups, three Olympic games, as well as head of Football for Western Australia and high-performance manager for Soccer Australia. “We spend a lot of time finding ways to get kids to come through the entry door, but we don’t pay nearly enough attention to the burn rate when they get into the room. So many kids just pass right through, out the back door and onto the next thing. We have to put our focus on the kids in the room!”

Looking for a fun way to sharpen your skills and develop your hockey IQ this summer? MB Ice arena is offering a 3v3 league for Squirt and PeeWee A and AA level players this summer. Full size cross-ice boards will be set-up every game for an exciting day of 3-on-3 cross-ice hockey games. Teams will play back to back games once a week on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evenings. Small area 3v3 forces players to create more time and space for themselves while making quicker reads on the ice. This league will allow players to have more “touches of the puck” and present more offensive/defensive situations than a full ice game. Sign up as a team with your friends or register as a free agent to be placed on a team and experience the action this summer!

By Greg Bates ~ Having been part of SCORE Boston Hockey for half of the organization’s 22 years, Wendell Taylor has witnessed the ups and downs of the program. Right now, SCORE Boston is on an upswing. Taylor, the organization’s president, is striving to keep it that way. The program is attracting underprivileged inner-city youth who are interested in giving hockey a try.

By Greg Bates ~ Every Monday night during the winter months, the Carolina Hurricanes’ training facility at the Raleigh Ice Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a popular place. Wake County Boys & Girls Club participants who take part in the Capital City Crew program are on the ice receiving instruction. The kids, who are mostly brand new to hockey, sometimes earn a special treat. Hurricanes players Trevor van Riemsdyk and Haydn Fleury were at practice in early February teaching the sport to the young skaters.

USA Hockey's new Goalie Coach Development Program works in conjunction with its Coaching Education Program (CEP) to give coaches at every level the opportunity to hone their goalie-teaching skills. “We’ve created a Goalie Coach Development Program that has three levels,” said Phil Osaer, USA Hockey’s American Development Model manager for goaltending. “It's sort of like an elective system within the CEP, with the goal that every team in the United States has at least one coach on the staff having gone through some goalie coach development.”

By Christie Casciano Burns ~ Thinking about a hockey camp for your young athlete? Take my advice, look at everything the camp entails, from drills to ice time to how coaches interact with kids. We didn't, and we learned the hard way. We signed our daughter up for what we thought was the perfect camp experience, challenging yet fun. We found out she was spending most of her time outside, flipping tractor tires, running up and down steep hills. And when she did finally get on the ice, it was only for rigorous drills. That's fine if you signed up for The Herb Brooks Experience for Dummies, but the brochure we read through emphasized a fun experience.

Purpose: This is a competitive way to start practice using a drill that doesn’t require a goaltender. The purpose is to win puck battles, pass the puck, control the puck and offensively support the puck. Defensively, the purpose is to defend your player and steal the puck, either during a 1v1 battle or by intercepting a pass.

By Steve Mann - Summer is a great time for hockey players of any age to build strength, sharpen their skills and improve overall athleticism. For young skaters, it’s also important to mix things up and have fun. A young athlete doesn’t have to play more hockey to get better at hockey, says Matt Cunningham, former Minnesota State Maverick and USA Hockey Level 4-certified coach and instructor.