Athlete Nutrition
My youngest is a goalie, and a tied regional game with her Squirt boys' team, [...]
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Athlete Nutrition
My oldest was never a morning person, so a 6:00 am ice time and "I'm [...]
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Athlete Nutrition
My varsity daughter's WHOOP shows terrible recovery all hockey season: ice before school, practice after, [...]
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Athlete Nutrition Parent Resources
Carbs get a bad rap, and for an adult at a desk all day that's [...]
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Athlete Nutrition Parent Resources
Protein timing for young hockey players trips up a lot of families, and it tripped [...]
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Carbs get a bad rap, and for an adult at a desk all day that’s partly fair. For a growing athlete it isn’t. Why carbs are a young hockey player’s main fuel, the difference between high- and low-glycemic carbs, when each one belongs, and a game-day rice bowl kids can make in ten minutes.
Protein timing for young hockey players trips up a lot of families, and it tripped up ours too: more protein always felt like the safe answer, until timing turned out to matter just as much as amount. Part 2 of 9 in the Athlete Nutrition series, built from the weekly nutrition tips in the Hockey […]
If you’re looking for hydration tips for young hockey players, here’s what changed for us. Part 3 of 9 in the Athlete Nutrition series, built from the weekly nutrition tips in the Hockey IQ book. New here? Start with the Nutrition Basics intro. Pretty much all through her elementary school years, the water bottle I […]
A Squirt tournament in Providence and a team lunch of chicken fingers taught me more about pre-game fuel than any article. What to eat 2–3 hours before puck drop, from the Hockey IQ book, and the sandwich my kids learned to make themselves.
We’ve all done it. Pretended to be our favorite athlete—driving to the hoop, scoring the goal, making the big save. For most of us, it stayed a game. But sometimes, it becomes something more. Lately, we’ve also seen youth sports become more intense. Bigger goals, earlier pressure. The issue isn’t ambition. It’s when the goal […]
Why Small Intentional Decisions Matter. We’ve all been there. A tournament 45 minutes outside a third-tier city. Three-star hotel. Rink. Lobby. Repeat. Vacation days disappearing faster than expected. The parent playdate goes a little too long. The next morning…the idea of the gym, reading, or anything beyond breathing and blinking feels like a stretch. A […]
In a world of constant comparison, identity is under pressure, and grit is what holds it together. We’ve all heard it: “Kids these days aren’t built like we were.” And honestly… that’s true. But not for the reason people think. It’s not that kids are softer. It’s that they’re growing up in a completely different […]
As participants in the hockey community, there are moments where we, as coaches, observe parental behavior and try to reconcile it with our own sense of reality. This week felt like a live experiment. Daryl Jones — a.k.a. Jonesy, a.k.a. the real most interesting man in the world, a.k.a. The Gold Coast’s Most Eligible Bachelor […]
Every season we try to anchor our team with a theme—something that captures how we want to play and who we want to be. A few years ago, that word was grit. It fit the game perfectly. Hockey is a little grimy. A little chaotic. It rewards the player who keeps going when things aren’t […]
Youth hockey tryouts in Fairfield County reveal something fascinating every year. Parents become anxious, conversations become tense, and behaviors sometimes emerge that seem… out of character. Which raises a strange question. Why are parents so emotionally invested in something they are not actually participating in? The players are the ones trying out. Not the parents. […]