Summer Programs

joehockey · Post by **joehockey** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:00 pm

If you have a U12 player who loves the game and is preparing for HS or U14 you may want to be looking at summer training options now. Here are three choices and some thoughts looking backwards -

HS STP - you may want to connect with your local HS coach and ask to participate in their summer program. Many coaches like to work with young players and it gives players a chance to learn about the coach and the speed of the game. Some run through June and July others are only a couple of weeks during that period. If your local HS does not have a program check others close by I know Hill Murray runs an excellent program for about $450 that serves the eastside my daughter is at HM and really likes the program.

CODP www.codpmn.com - the program that may work you the hardest is the CODP program. Tryouts are the weekend of March 8. If you look at the MS. Hockey finalist I think 8 of the 10 trained hard with CODP a number of years. The program is $900 - my daughter has done it for 5 years and I can highly recommend. This is not a warm and fuzzy camp more of a boot camp but for those who stick with it they love it - players learn to move at a very high pace both physically and mentally - which is the biggest adjustment of playing in HS. Your player will also get significantly stronger and quicker.

OS www.oshockey.org/09 - Winny Brodt and Ronda Curtain run this program and the coaches are former D1 Woman. They do many of the same things as CODP but there is a different approach so some groups may not work as hard. OS though usual works on a few more aspects such as shooting and puck skills - I goes from May through August cost is $650. Take a look at the site they do a number of programs.

Before you spend to much money on AAA programs look at some of these program that will be both fun and significantly improve her game - looking back the girls who only played summer showcase hockey are now not playing HS - they didn't improve their speed, skating or shots - might have had fun but by not developing skills they ended up not improving and the game then was not fun because they couldn't compete.