There’s an old saying in sports about hitting home runs in baseball, scoring touchdowns in football or scoring goals in hockey: “Nobody asks how, they just ask how many.”

As you start your youth hockey season that will include ups and downs, it’s important to stay focused and keep your eye on the prize. 

In youth hockey, that prize should be development, improving fundamental skills and ending the season a better hockey. Of course championships are great as well, and typically if players are improving throughout the season, championships will follow!

And this is where they ask how many, not how. But the how is a key to how many. And the how is:
• The how is hard work.
• The how is the 10,000 pucks shot in the driveway, basement or training facility.
• The how is the extra strength training and powerskating.
• The how is teamwork, selflessness, discipline, character and focus.

As you start your own youth hockey season, work on the how, and ultimately it will lead to how many!

Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you at the rink soon! 

When it comes to applying your hard work from hockey camp this summer, what is your goal to make it matter?

Each summer at our hockey schools we teach a wide variety of hockey skills including shooting, passing, power skating, speed, agility and of course, scoring! We enjoy watching hockey players develop and improve fundamental skills, as well as helping them understand what it really takes to become a better hockey player.

There are no secrets in the ingredients for success, and it all  starts with a big helping of hard work. What the best players understand is that while the ingredients may be similar for any players path to achieving their goals, it’s the recipe that differs from player to player. And the top players understand that the recipe, just like a favorite food, requires discipline.

Summer hockey school is a great time to fine tune your game and work on developing your personal goals. Everything that you worked on this past summer will play an important role in your success this season. And to really make it matter this season, an emphasis needs to be placed on continuing to improve on the skills learned over the summer.

It’s easy to get lost in the excitement of the start of the season and get caught up in some early season success. By mid-season however, it’s not uncommon to fall back into bad habits or taking short cuts. Players need to take the instruction learned over the summer and apply it each and every practice. Think of this in terms of building the foundation to a home. Each layer of bricks will continue to support the structure of the house, and every layer must be as strong or stronger than the previous.

In the same way, hockey players must advance through their development consistently striving to improve skills, and adding to a strong foundation that will lead them to becoming a great hockey player and achieving their goals.

So with the hockey season upon us, and to really make it matter this season, write down your greatest strengths and also areas of your game that require improvement.  Think back to what you learned at summer hockey school and how you can apply that knowledge at every practice and every game.

Continue to work hard and tweak the ingredients in your recipe for success. When things are going great continue to stay focused, and when you find a challenging time, think back to your foundation and the skills that you have developed.

And most of all this season, make it matter!

A friend in Minnesota, the Great State of Hockey, loves fishing during the summer months. While early season fish are abundant, when the calendar turns to mid-July and August – the dog days of summer – fishing slows down. But these are the summer months when he gets the most excited!

Why? Because it’s the time of year when skill wins.

Many fisherman during these months don’t put in the time to try new presentations to catch fish. They are sort of stuck in the same old way of doing things, and the result is very few fish finding their way into the frying pan. However, if time is invested in skill development and in this case, exploring new ways to catch fish, the results speak for themselves.

For hockey players, this fish story is no different than the hockey season. There will be the ‘grind’, when you are physically and mentally tired. You have already played a lot of games and you still have a lot to go, plus playoffs!

The question is, what are you doing now, during the off-season, to prepare for the grind, or the dog days of the season. Are you preparing yourself so that when the team needs you most, you can answer the call and score that big goal.

Players who prepare now, trying new moves, perfecting their stride, shooting pucks on a regular basis, they are the players who will outperform the opponents during the season. It takes dedication and commitment during the off-season to not just hit the ice this fall in great shape, but perhaps more importantly, to carry your team through the tough stretches of the season.

Work hard this summer, train with a purpose and you will be ready for the mid-season grind when, like many fishermen, many hockey players go through a slump. Train hard and be ready to take advantage of the opportunity, because when everyone else slows down, the best players speed up.

Good luck and we look forward to seeing you at the rink soon!

Click here for a full list of our remaining summer hockey schools.

Our summer 2025 hockey schools are underway! As we are already heading into the 4th of July holiday, it’s a great time to look back on the past 30 days and forecast the rest of the summer.

Clear Skies & Sunny. June was full of action, energy and talent. From Alaska to Illinois, Vermont, New Jersey and Massachusetts, skills were on display at every level.

We are excited to hit the ice in July in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Virginia, among many great locations. If the talent we’ve seen on display so far this summer is any indication of what’s to come in July and August, the forecast has never been brighter.

Hockey is a a high energy, high skill game. The best players have the best skills: skating, shooting, stickhandling and best of all, scoring. We love teaching fundamental skills and helping players take their game to the next level.

So what is the forecast for your summer? Sunny days are ahead and we encourage you to take advantage of every opportunity to make the most of it, and take your own game to the next level . . . to let the sunshine, shine!

Thanks for reading and if you are still looking for a summer hockey training program, we do have limited space still available at select locations. Check out dates and availability here. We look forward to seeing you at the rink soon!

The 2025 NHL Playoffs have been nothing short of a big shot of inspiration to aspiring hockey players. Action, intensity and incredible talent.

Thomas Edison once said: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent inspiration.” While Thomas Edison was not a hockey player, he was indeed a brilliant man and his philosophy can easily be translated to sports.

As summer begins and the NHL season winds down with the Stanley Cup on the line, youth hockey players will be watching and dreaming of one day playing on such a grand stage.

There is that old saying that dreams are just dreams without goals. The best hockey players set goals for their summer hockey training, defining areas of their game that need improvement, and then they go out and make it happen.

This is where perspiration meets inspiration. 

We hope that you do dream big and more importantly, we hope that you do something about it. There are many great skills, drills and even thrills that can be accomplished during the summer months. If you are still undecided about how to align your inspiration with perspiration, we invite you to train with us this summer!

We dropped the puck on our 2025 Greg Carter European Summer Hockey Schools and will be training youth hockey players all summer long across 13 states. While many of our camps are sold out with waiting lists, we do have limited space in select camps. Please check out our website for details by clicking here.

Thanks for reading and see you at the rink!

Youth hockey players always start the summer with the best of intentions when it comes to off-season training. Developing a better shot, a better stride and a better all-around game might be on your list. But how can you make sure that when the sun sets this Labor Day that you will have better skills than Memorial Day?

Make a plan. And make a list. Think back to last season and the areas of your game that you needed to improve on. Prioritize the skills that you are going to focus on and then commit to a regular schedule. Post your plan and your list in an area that you will see it every day, and let it be a motivator to get started, and more importantly, to keep going!

Fun Factor. Summer should be about having fun, and there is no reason that your training can’t be fun – along with some sweat and hard work. Turn on some music, dump out a bucket of pucks and start stick handling and shooting. Before you know it, 10 songs will have gone by and your shot will be better for it!

Try Something Different.

At our hockey camp we like to talk about training the CARTER Method: C=Control, A=Agility, R=Reflex, T=Technique, E=Edge, R=Retention. Including a new routine or training method into your schedule will help keep things fresh and motivating.

Everyone loves winter hockey, but here at Greg Carter Hockey Schools we especially love summer hockey and all of the training and growth opportunities that come with it. We have watched so many young athletes blossom over the summer months as they push and challenge themselves to get out of their comfort zone and take their game to the next level.

We invite you to take advantage of the outstanding high performance training opportunities we have available this summer of 2025! For more than three decades our experienced team of coaches has been focused on player development and summer hockey training. We hope to see you at one of our camps and look forward to helping you reach your goals!

Watching the NHL Playoffs compared to the regular season, it’s very obvious that the players are competing at an entirely different level. The speed and quickness of the game is greater. The intensity is higher. It makes you wonder, how do the best players in the world take an ‘A game’ to a whole new level?

There is a quote about leadership and coaching that says if you can raise the level of effort and performance in those around you, you are officially a leader. When it comes to coaching hockey players, especially elite hockey players, finding a way to connect with each player and understanding how to get the most out of them is a key ingredient in the recipe for success.

But when it comes to finding that next level it begins and ends with the individual player. The great Vince Lombardi once said that if you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.

When you watch playoff hockey, these players are not settling for anything less than their best. They lay it on the line for every race to the puck, every shot on goal and every pass. The battles in front of the net and in the corners are their own individual cage matches.

When you break down the game and analyze the amazing individual talent level, it might be compared to an engine in a machine. If the engine is built properly – in the case of hockey players, developed and trained properly – and also cared for properly, there will be a time when you can run that engine at the highest RPM’s and push it to maximum performance.

Youth hockey players who spend the time training and working on skills are doing just that, they are preparing themselves – their engine – for the periods of time (the playoffs) when they are going to need to rely on optimizing their performance at the highest level.

As the run for the Stanley Cup continues, it should serve as inspiration to take your own game to the next level, to shift your engine into the next gear. There is great quote about commitment that says you’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.

We invite you to join us at one of our hockey schools this summer and with our training, find your very own next level!

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you at the rink!

Watching Alexander Ovechkin recently break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goal scoring record was history in the making. And epic.

Watching Rory McIlroy battle through years of self-doubt at the Masters, and then agonize through final round double bogeys was again, history in the making. And to watch him finally adorn the green jacket, epic.

During his winning remarks McIlroy turned to his daughter and said:

Never give up on your dreams. Never, ever give up on your dreams. Keep coming back, keep working hard, and if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.

Those sage words of advice are also, epic.

We’ve talked in previous articles about the importance of dedication, hard work and perseverance. Whether it’s Ovi or Rory, records and wins are earned far away from the spotlight during summer months training, being the first one at the rink and the last one to leave, and everything inbetween.

We are looking forward to an epic summer training hockey players at locations across 13 states. We invite you to claim a spot in the starting lineup. There is limited space remaining at select locations which you can view by clicking here.

Thanks for reading and this summer, be epic!