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Athletes Making Great Strides in Hockey Program
Athletes Making Great Strides in Hockey Program
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
When asked what were some of the notable things about the student athletes from Holden Rural Academy who were on the ice Feb. 11, Instructor Josh Hagel quickly responded by saying, “The first thing I noticed about this group is that they are here because they love it.
It’s minus 21 and they’re willing to come out and work hard. It’s cold in this rink today, and if you don’t love it, you might not grind it out today. So, they obviously love it and they love coming out here. They do a pretty good job of pushing themselves and trying to better themselves too. It has to come from within. No one can want it more than what you own it.”
Hagel coaches Triple A hockey in Leduc, as well as operating his own hockey and skill development business out of Camrose. He offers on-ice sessions, camps, strength training and conditioning; utilizing cutting edge techniques to enhance game performance and build individual skill sets.
“It’s good to work in small groups. With my business, I work in groups of six so they have the opportunity to build relationships with the athletes as well as have good quality instruction. I get to see every rep, make corrections and tweak things to help them reach their potential.
A big part of it is just getting to know the kids. Getting to know what they want out of hockey and try to figure out their why, and from there use it as a motivational tool and pare that with a little bit of knowledge and what we can tweak during sessions and have improvement in your next game or for your next season. So, just being around the game lots, you kind of see what it takes to move on to the next level. You get to see a wider variety of skill and skill level.”
Hagel places a big emphasis on skating. “This game is getting faster and faster, and the better skater you are the more opportunities will come along with that. So, that’s always a priority for me with any group I skate with. Here in Holden, we work on our edge work, our stride. And what I find separates the players at the next level is getting your eyes up; being able to handle the puck while seeing what’s coming at you or what options are available to you; not just in front, but behind you.
Confidence is a big thing, knowing that you can go into an area and come out with the puck or knowing you have a really good chance to come out with the puck is definitely encouraging. Skate patterns, reps with no pressure and then pressure and build it up until extreme pressure. I’m a big believer in progression and reps, then translate it in a game.”
The players, the coaches on their respective teams, along with Nicole Suchy, who oversees the program have seen a big improvement from the first year to this year. Additionally, Suchy says, “This year we moved from one to two days a week of instruction.”
Currently, there are nine students, (Grades 7-12) in the hockey program. “This year they started skating Nov 18 and it will go to the end of February. Students are getting 25 seasons which is a total of 37.5 hours on the ice, and is used toward the junior high students’ gym grade, and our senior high students can use this for senior gym credits.
The program is to help with individual skill development to improve their skating, puck handling, shooting, edge work, increase hockey IQ and overall game awareness This program also has a high- energy environment that focuses on skill development, and conditioning to help our athletes reach their full potential.
As of right now this program has only had students in the school participate but is open to home school students if they wanted to take part. These students have learned that hard work, determination, accountability for showing up and putting in their best effort each day, teamwork and encouraging others to keep pushing on when it may seem impossible.
The cost of the program is based on the number of students that sign up, we like to have at least 12 students on the ice and this year the rate was about $465 which covers the cost of our instructor, we are also lucky to have Holden Minor Hockey cover the ice rental to keep the fees lower.
This program is open to both senior and junior high students. The big thing we want to stress is that we want to develop more skills into our hockey players, so they are skating hard each and every time they are on the ice, some days they finish off the skate with a five-minute game or a shooting challenge.”
It is Reece Suchy’s second year in the program. The 14-year-old defenseman said, “You get to learn more, you get a lot more reps and more feedback. You improve more quickly.” Overall, Suchy remarked, “It’s a great program. It’s fun. You get to go out on the ice and do stuff you love.”
