From the 1999 Open Ice Hockey Summit in Toronto, the leading hockey experts in the country agreed that Canadian hockey players need to improve their technical skills in order to compete successfully in the future.

It was determined that especially young Canadian hockey players are not being taught, and therefore not learning - the offensive skills and creativity of developing European hockey players.

"It is impossible to underestimate the importance of the coach in the development of an athlete. From the youngest PeeWee player to the elite athlete, the coach is a pivotal character in the moral as well as the physical development of his or her charges.

The more intensive the training, the greater the opportunity for moulding the
athlete’s character  and personal philosophy as it pertains to his or her athletic career. Elite athletes appear to cleave  to their coaches as mentors, guardians, and, in some cases, almost as surrogate parents.  They are fortunate indeed if their coach is concerned with their moral and intellectual  development as well as their athletic training".

(Report of the Dubin Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and banned practices intended to increase athletic performance, 1990).

On the first night he ever played, the 46-year-old man got ready for hockey, just as his kids always had. He got dressed in full equipment at home.

"What did I know?" said Norm Burns, retelling the story five years later.

"My only exposure to hockey was through my kids.  I thought if you play hockey that's what you do."

That's what he did when his friends showed up late on a Sunday night to pick him up, him standing at the door in full hockey garb, some of them still laughing years later as they relate the story.

He had never worn equipment before, never owned a pair of skates, never really shot a puck, when a friend asked the quintessential Canadian question: "Do you wanna play with us on Sunday nights?"

"I went into the change room for the first time feeling kind of small, and when the guy beside me took out his teeth, I thought: 'Maybe I shouldn't be here.'  You know, I couldn't even do up my skates, I needed help, because of all the equipment I had on," Burns said.

"And then I went on to the ice and didn't know there was a step down and right away lost my balance, I thought I was going to break my neck.  I'm barely skating around, holding on to the boards and this guy, Larry the cop, starts firing slapshots and it scares the crap out of me."

"If I hadn't paid 380 bucks for the year and bought all this new equipment, I would have quit right there."

But Burns went home and did the opposite.  Instead of quitting, he picked up the phone and started looking around for power skating lessons and beginner hockey organizations.  He tool lessons and somehow once-a-week hockey has turned into twice-a-week hockey,  and winter hockey has turned into summer hockey.  And he discovered something about himself, about the game, about a part of his childhood being reinvented as an adult.

This is something adults all over the country, many of them over the age of 40, are discovering rather late for the very first time.  The business of oldtimer beginner hockey is booming in Canada.

"A lot of people ask 'Why are you doing this?'  It's a cliche but I'm sort of living a childhood now that I didn't have the first time," said Burns.

"We didn't have a lot of play time as kids.  I'm playing now."

"The good thing is, when you stink at something you can only get better.  The guys who have played their whole lives, they don't get better.  I don't care what anyone thinks about how I play.  I'm playing for me because it's something I want to do.  And every week I get a little better."

Source: Calgary Sun

Whether young or old, a beginner, intermediate or advanced/elite hockey player, anyone can improve on various aspects of his or her game.

A game we love to play and be involved in!!

Tucker Hockey Programs are customized to help, especially minor hockey players and adult recreational players to improve on their hockey skills.

A willingness to learn and improve is essential!

Attitude and activity are everything!

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