Welcome to Total Female Hockey Club!
Check out the video below to find out what it’s all about.

I’d love to hear what you think about the new site. Check out the articles, videos and tips and then share your comments below!

~ Coach Kim

I have been trying to avoid writing about the most famous hockey mom in the world, Sarah Palin, for a whole month now. I want to focus on “talking hockey”, not “talking politics”.

But after seeing this movie trailer on the web yesterday, I just couldn’t hold back any longer.

(more…)

But it ain’t much different.

Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed watching Olympic Field Hockey. The TV coverage here in Canada has mostly been of the men’s game (since our women’s team didn’t qualify for Beijing) and I have been amazed at the speed and athleticism that these great athletes displayed in the few games that I have watched.

Judging by the big increase in hits on this site, as well as my other women’s hockey website over the past 3 weeks, there are a ton of people looking for information on field hockey training. I am just assuming that the 68 hits I received from India in the last month are probably not people looking for ice hockey information (I could be wrong).

While I am by no means a field hockey expert, the truth is…
Ice hockey training isn’t much different from field hockey training.

Both sports require a tremendous amount of speed, stamina, strength and skill. There is also a ton of physical contact - although I assume, much like women’s ice hockey, full body contact isn’t allowed in female version of field hockey either.

So if your version of female hockey is played on the grass instead of the ice, I don’t really expect you to spend a ton of time on websites with articles about how to improve your skating stride or your snap shot. But I don’t really say much about the development of on-ice hockey skills anyways.

I would encourage you to stick around to learn more about how young female “hockey” players can get stronger, faster, fitter and more confident through proper off-ice training.

It ain’t field hockey, but the training principles are the same:

Build a foundation of strength, speed, stamina and skill and watch your hockey performance soar.

Your female “hockey” coach,

Kim

I played hockey today for the first time since February.

I crashed into all of the other players.

I ran feet first into the boards - twice.

I couldn’t even raise the puck off the ice.

It wasn’t that I lost all of my hockey skills over the last four months - it was just that I was experiencing the game from a whole new angle.

Today I played sledge hockey for the first time - and it gave me a whole new appreciation of the game of hockey, with all of its different disciplines and players.

The main difference between sledge hockey and able-body hockey is the equipment and the manoeuvering. Sledge hockey is played on a low-lying metal sledge (sled) and athletes use two short hockey sticks with spikes attached at the end to propel themselves around the ice surface.

This different equipment definitely adds a new dimension to the game with athletes being able to hit each other and peg opposing players into the boards with their sledges (much like what I was doing today - except that I was actually trying to avoid hitting other players and myself into the boards).

Since I was moving around the ice using my arms instead of my legs, I am sure that I will experience soreness in a whole new set of hockey-specific muscles tomorrow morning.

But as tired as my arms might be tomorrow, I will feed off the enthusiasm and energy of the amazing athletes I met today and will be inspired by their tremendous talent and ability for years to come.

Until next time,

Kim