MIKE'S ICE ADVICE

For all the parents that have their kids enrolled in MINOR HOCKEY please get them taught on how to SKATE properly. Well, you say what does that mean? From a very young age we take our kids to LEARN TO SKATE programs , some are very good and some not. Most House Leagues allow kids to start from age 5, and usually group 5-6-7 all together.

When my kids were young they payed at VICTORIA VILLAGE arena in Toronto which was a good league at a good facility, but unfortunately they had everything mixed up. They were allowing 7 year old’s to play against 5’s, and I can tell you it didn’t go so well for all the younger kids.

Scores were very high, and the only kids that ever got to touch the puck were the older kids, and you can imagine how may parents were either ecstatic or losing their minds. Having played both Baseball and Hockey at a high level when I took my kids pleasure skating I used to put NUTS from Home depot on their skates. People would ask me why, and I said when the Nuts come off their feet will be able to move faster generating more speed.

Now, speed isn’t the most important thing in skating. It is understanding the STRIDE. We were fortunate enough to have former Canadian Olympian Tracy Wilson as one of the mothers on my sons team. She broke down the stride into 3 parts. The inner 1/3, middle 1/3 and outside 1/3. She said most players use 1/3, good skaters use 2/3’s, and very good skaters use the complete stride.

After just watching the Winter Olympics there a bevy of skating to watch. Figure Skating, Long Track -short Track Speedskating , and of course, Ice Hockey. Seeing athletes who are the best in the world playing for their country you could see how much being a good skater is important.

In my view, I would sign up kids into 2 different areas when they reached a level where they can skate pretty well and have their bodies under control. To learn backwards skating I would register them with a local FIGURE SKATING CLUB, and to learn forward skating I would register them in SPEED SKATING. Both teach skating techniques where the stride is actually more than 100%. What I mean by that is they both make the skater come inside of neutral which allows a flawless technique.

Once they master both styles, which of course doesn’t have to be at the same time as their hockey games because of time restraints then they can figure out how to introduce SPEED into their stride. As I mentioned earlier about the extra weight on skate training from which the idea came from the weighted bat in Baseball you will see their speed pick up.

I was doing this with my kids from when they were young, and finally after many years developed, patented, and manufactured weight attachments for any footwear that have eyelets. It took me 28 years to get them to market. I call them TURBO STRIPS which can be seen and bought on my web page trbostrips.com

Not only did I use them on their skates, but also on their running shoes. On my site you will read testimonials from athletes, trainers and of course DR’S. Please have a look and shoot me an email at trbostrips@mtanev24

Good Luck

Mike Tanev

mtanev24@gmail.com