Last week I was in Columbus for the NARCE (North American Rink Conference and Expo) to take the Hockey Certification course. The quality of the speakers and the information was top notch.
We started in the classroom each day at 8:30am and continued until approximately noon for a short lunch break. After lunch it was back to the classroom for more lectures before heading off to Nationwide Arena (home of the Columbus Blue Jackets) to participate and walk through different practice plans.
Age appropriate training was the theme of the week starting with 6 and 8U and working our way up to the midget and junior level.
Anyone looking to get into coaching or who is already coaching should take this course. For myself and Mountain High Hockey it was an extremely worthwhile experience. We deal with kids who are stepping on the ice for the first time, all the way up to adult recreation league players. To learn about the different stages of development will be extremely beneficially in how we train and practice plan for each one of our athletes.
To learn more about NARCE click here.