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Portland Pirates (AHL) “Coaches Corner”
FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 9TH
Wendy Marco is a power skating instructor who spent two days with our players last week. This is the second time she has come to Portland to work with our guys. She knows them better after coming in December, so she was able to work on a few more specifics with each individual guy. Some guys weren’t here in December—Ivan Ciernik, Boyd Gordon, Mike Souza—but she could build on the work she did with those guys who she saw before and learned something about. The second time around, she could get more specific with those players and relate that to improving their games.
As when we went to the Wentworth School in Scarborough a couple of weeks ago, Wendy’s visit mixed things up a little. It’s a long year. We’re in the dog days now here in February, and this can be the hardest month because the holidays are over, you’re through January, it’s not Springtime, and winter is still here. I’ve always found that this is the toughest time for hockey teams. The power skating gave them a couple of days where they didn’t have to listen to me. It was refreshing, and I think it energized our group. Between the work they did with Wendy on the ice and the work they did in the weight room with Dana White, our strength and conditioning coach, it was a good skill-conditioning segment. When we have our year-end meetings, I want some of our guys to go to the Washington, DC area and work with Wendy on their power skating over the summer. That combined with the work Dana will have them doing as part of the summer conditioning program will have them ready to go when they head to Capitals’ training camp in September. It really should improve them as hockey players. These sessions with Wendy have allowed them to get to know one another and therefore make the summer sessions that much more productive. We wanted to introduce them to power skating and get them to realize how important it is for them as hockey players. It is so important, and sometimes it’s forgotten, to utilize this time and recognize how much they need to improve as skaters and ultimately, as hockey players.
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