by Justin Lewandowski, VP of Hockey Operations, 200 x 85
Bridgedale training gets it done
Over the course of a school year, each Bridgedale Academy student-athlete will engage in more than 2160 puck protection battles, above and beyond what he gets in during his team's practices and games, and at any camps and clinics he might attend.
Sessions dedicated to puck protection skills
A hockey player today must be able to protect the puck effectively.
And so at Bridgedale we use drills designed to improve a player's puck protection skills.
Most of these drills involve 20-second battles followed by 40-seconds of recovery time, with anywhere from 6 to 10 battles per drill.
We use:
- dot battles
- open-ice battles
- board battles
- circle battles
- puck-protection-begins-before-you-get-to-the-puck battles.
In addition to the obvious and valuable competitiveness aspects of these drills, there is a constant emphasis on developing good techniques.
The boys learn how to protect the puck not only their hips and core, but also with their legs, feet, hands and sticks.
And during the course of an average week, the boys will participate in 10 to 12 of these drills.
Sessions dedicated to other skills
Other Bridgedale on-ice training sessions are dedicated to shooting, to passing and pass receiving skills. Still others to skating skills, or to checking skills.
But as a rule these sessions too will include situation and battle drills.
And so these drills too will develop the puck protection skills.
Finally, every Bridgedale on-ice session ends with a competitive small area game. These too require puck protection skills if the boys hope to have success.
If you do the math, you can see that on average each boy will engage in at least 60 puck protection battles per week at Bridgedale.
And like most schools, Bridgedale has 36 weeks of school over the course of the school year.
Thus 2160 puck protection battles.
Conclusion
In today’s game, all hockey players must be able to protect the puck effectively.
In fact, the best players tend to be the best at puck protection. Look no further than the great Sidney Crosby to see how important and valuable it is to be great at protecting the puck.
The bottom line is: developing great puck protection skills is essential to a youth hockey player today, and as with all skill development, quality repetitions during purposeful training is the key.
And there's really nowhere else in Illinois to get this done other than Bridgedale Academy.
Justin Lewandowski appears by permission. He is VP of Hockey Operations with 200 x 85 LLC in which capacity he oversees the athletic training component for all Bridgedale Academy student-athletes.
Justin is a graduate of the Ferris State University where he played his D1 NCAA hockey as a four-year starter. Justin has coached youth hockey in the Chicago area for the last 12 years, including successful head coaching stints with the Chicago Mission and the Falcons Hockey Club.
Justin lives in Naperville with his wife Kourtney and their daughter Adelaide.
Bridgedale Academy limits its enrollment to 16 student-athletes at each grade level.
Our small class sizes guarantee:
- Every Bridgedale student receives the attention he needs
- Every Bridgedale student engages academically
- Every Bridgedale student develops academically
- Every Bridgedale student develops athletically
Your son can be one of the 16.
Bridgedale is now accepting applications for the 2018-19 school year. Limited openings remain at each grade level.
If this topic interests you and you would like to discuss it further, please click the button below so we can schedule a time to chat.
Bridgedale Academy is now accepting applications for the 2018-19 School Year.
Bridgedale Academy is an all-boys school for athletes, a prep school for serious youth hockey players. We will offer grades 5 through 8 in the 2018-19 school year. In addition to our winning combination of sports and academics, we focus on leadership training. We use a classical academic curriculum and our graduates go on to attend some of the most prestigious high schools in the midwest, including Lake Forest Academy, Culver Military Academy, Shattuck St. Mary’s, Northwood School, Benet Academy, Fenwick Prep, St. Ignatius Prep, Marmion Academy, Latin School and Providence Catholic. We pride ourselves on being the top youth hockey prep school in the nation. Thirteen (13) of our former or current students have already received their NCAA Division 1 college hockey commitments. Three (3) of our former students competed for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. Two (2) have begun their college playing careers in 2018-19 at Notre Dame. Several other Bridgedale grads are playing junior hockey, including in the OHL, the USHL and the NAHL.