his portion of the skating school has been specifically designed to address all 7 factors of explosive skating referred to in the On-Ice section. With the very young players the emphasis is on leg quickness and flexibility rather than strength. We use a number of pieces of equipment to help in the development of the player's leg power, which encompasses leg strength and quickness. We have the players do a lot of sprinting with tires and weighted sleds which provides a way of overloading the quad muscles but at the same time still allows the use of speed.

Except in the area of flexibility, we train players to do everything fast. Players have to remember that every time they train they are affecting two systems, the energy system, i.e. aerobic or anaerobic and the neuromuscular system. If we train for endurance slowly . for example, long distance running, we are at the same time training the neuromuscular system to be slow. There is no neutral. You either train yourself to be fast or you train yourself to be slow.

Therefore, even when we have players work on endurance we train with speed. The difference, for example, with tire sprinting would be shorter sprints with a lot of rest in between, when we are training anaerobically. When the focus is aerobic, players sprint longer distances with very little recovery time before the next sprint which enables the player to develop speed endurance.

We underload the quad muscles through the use of lightning cords which permits the player's legs to move much more quickly than they otherwise could. In this way, we try to improve the development of the fast twitch muscles fibres. We show the players methods by which they can continue this type of training after they leave the camp by doing such things as sprinting hills which have a slight decline of between 5 - 10 degrees.

The players also reinforce daily the technique they have been learning on-ice through what we call simulated skating. Part of the reason parents and players see such quick improvement in a short period of time is that the players each day, off-ice, are working on aspects of their skating. It might be the arm swing, the full extension, the knee bend, the foot position for quick starts, the upper body position on tight turns, etc. Once again, players are given a number of these drills to work on after they leave the camp so they continue ingraining those changes in their skating technique long after the skating school ends.

Trunk control is worked on in different ways but the main exercises involve the use of Swiss Balls. Many players have a lot of upper body movement when skating which dissipates the drive from the legs thus reducing speed and quickness. The lack of core stability in many players also reduces the effectiveness of the arm swing in thrusting the player forward. In other words, we want the players driving their legs and arms off a rock, not jelly.