When it was initially announced that young kids were to begin playing cross-ice hockey rather than utilizing the full ice, there was a lot of push back.
Concerns about changing the way the game was invented, not allowing kids to use open ice to their advantage, not learning hockey the way they would eventually come to play it, etc.
Parents were in a bit of an outrage, but since the new format was implemented, everything seems to have changed.
There are a ton of benefits to playing hockey on smaller ice for kids. The science states that with a smaller ice surface, kids receive more of ALL of the following:
- Shots
- Passes
- Direction changes
- Puck touches
- Battles
All of their shifts are more active, more fast-paced, and present them with more opportunities to work on all of the skills that go into being a great hockey player. They spend less time simply skating around in empty ice.
This ensures that by the time they go up to full ice, they just need to develop their full speed skating to go along with everything else they’ve picked up on the way.
Keep on eye on our drill vault, because advanced series of drills are coming your way soon with a focus on drills in a smaller area!
