Dallas Ice Jets

The off-season is the best time for players to work on improving their skills, more specifically, improving their individual skills. After about nine months of playing together as a team in practices and games, the off-season allows athletes to truly focus on their personal areas of improvement. This time allows for strategic and focused individual skill development.

High performance hockey players are those who utilize this time period to grow and develop; they simply don’t stop training when the season is over. IJA understands this importance of off-season training for its players and offers all who become part of the Academy the opportunity to train at the conclusion of each season. Players are given a couple weeks of active-recovery to unwind and have some fun before preparing for their off-season phase of development.

Training in the off-season makes sense for any athlete, but can seem overwhelming if not given direction. IJA tests players at the end of competition season to assess strengths and weaknesses and  builds each player a personalized training program. The majority of players lacks this direction and must figure out how to train on their own and guide themselves. In contrast, the coaching staff of IJA continues to train and work with players.

After a full season, IJA coaches know each player’s game and skills, strengths and weaknesses. Coaches have evaluated players on and off the ice and know what areas of their game need improvement. At the end of each season, coaches sit down with athletes and break their game down after much review and give them a blueprint of what needs to be improved to take their game to next level.

A blueprint for success
We give each athlete a personalized, specific, off-season blueprint for his areas in need of improvement. Players can most improve when they know exactly what, and more importantly, how to make those improvements. This is most effectively done under the guidance of IJA coaches and amongst other teammates who are also working on their own skill development.

The off-season is all about the individual and not the team. But during this off-season, players practice, develop and train with other like-minded athletes in a group setting. This fosters encouragement, feedback and camaraderie, rather than being isolated and training alone. Consistent training helps players preparing for TAC and RMD tryouts and Junior camps to be ready and perform at a high level. The off-season is not one to be taken lightly simply because there are no games. This is the time to utilize what is available to athletes. Take advantage of what the off-season can offer and improve your skills with IJA.