Breakfast Club Fall 2025

Is your hockey player looking for a way to gear up for the season and yet also enjoy his/her other fall activities? Our Breakfast Club Skates are a great way to hone skills while not cutting into precious time at night, often filled with other fun activities. We will hit the ice in the mornings before school and get our day off to an excellent start.

These sessions are open to both 8U/Mites and 10U/Squirts. We will split players into different groups as needed to account for their age and skill levels.

During these sessions we will work on a variety of skills, such as skating/edge work, shooting, stickhandling, and positioning/team play. We will also have fun along the way.

Overview

Goaltender-specific training - "Goalie Time" - will take place for approximately half of each Hockey Time session, (35-40 minutes per 75-minute ice time...adjusted appropriately for 60 minute sessions) typically starting about five minutes in. After Goalie Time is finished, goaltenders will take part in shooting drills and small-area games with the rest of the athletes in the program for the second half of the practice. The goalie coach will continue to watch and teach the goalies during these drills.

Philosophy

Goaltender training will be built upon the "Three Rs" principle: Ready, React, Recover. The young athletes will focus on concepts such as stance, positioning, reading plays, save selection, body control, and puck tracking. Everything that is done will be built off of a foundation of strong skating and crease movement - with an emphasis on full-body positioning (being square to the puck, hands in correct position, etc.) and good balance while moving.

What to Expect During Goalie Time

The first 5-10 minutes of each Goalie Time session will focus on goalie-specific skating, using movement drills that came directly from an NHL goalie coach. After that, goalies will face 5-10 minutes of warmup shots, to get their eyes calibrated to tracking pucks. From there, 20-25 minutes of shooting drills will emulate in-game situations/scenarios.

Goalie Mentality

In addition to working on the physical skills of the position, the young athletes will also be taught mental skills to help them succeed as goaltenders, as it's arguably the most mentally-challenging job in sports. Confidence and resilience techniques will be explored, as well as other mental tools - such as visualization and "training by watching".

How will the practices be structured?

We will spend 3/4 of our time focused on skill development and 1/4 of our time scrimmaging, doing battle drills, and/or playing short sided games. Skating/edge work will be a key focus, as we layer on other crucial skills. Having fun will be layered throughout.