Hockey Academy

Hockey Academy Contact Form 2026

Shadow Day Registration Form 2026

• Hockey Academy Fee Report 2025-2026 (High School)
• Hockey Academy Fee Report 2025-2026 (Junior High)
• Payment Plan Instructions
• United Sport & Cycle Discount Card
• Hockey Brochure - coming soon
• Hockey Academy Handbook - update coming soon

Welcome Letter

Dear Parents and Students, We would like to take the opportunity to welcome every student athlete to another exciting year with the Louis St. Laurent Hockey Barons Academy. This year’s ice sessions will focus on technical skill development along with tangible next level habits and details (hockey sense, situational awareness, puck pursuit skills, what the player does without the puck, support with and away from the puck, pressure with and without the puck, puck protection, time/space/positioning, gap control, reading pressure, offensive and defensive structure, transition, undetermined possession, read and respond awareness to situations with and without the puck as well as positional awareness in those situations) to compliment your current individual skill set. Along with Above the Crease Goaltending the ice sessions will include technical and tactical elements relating to goaltending, skating, puck handling, shooting, checking, passing, angling, stick emphasis and positioning.

The ice sessions will involve the concepts of pressure with the puck as well as pressure without the puck, both offensively and defensively. This will include structure relating to position specific details while reinforcing the defensive, offensive, and goaltending habits required for the next level, whatever that may be for all our student athletes.

At the end of every session, we will run small area games to promote decisions with and without the puck, the concept of time and space, intellectual and physical skills, and essential hockey skills where the game becomes the teacher. Anatoli Tarasov, the famous Russian Coach said that “the greatest gift you can give to your players is to teach them to coach themselves so that they can act independently of you, the coach.” We require an open mind from every one of you to be receptive towards improving yourself as a player.

Your coaches require every student athlete to be insistent on proper habits while at the same time task each of you with having an exceptional work ethic. Our coaches will be extremely prepared and our challenge to you is to approach each session with the mindset of doing everything better than you have ever done it before … every drill … every repetition … every save … that is how you win forever and that is how you can make the Louis St. Laurent Barons Hockey Academy an unbelievable opportunity for you towards preparing and achieving your goals in hockey and in life.

Sincerely,

The LSL Hockey Academy Coaching Staff

In the book called "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell reveals why some people achieve extraordinary things. One undeniable factor is the 10,000 hour rule.

Whether it's Mozart, the Beatles, or Bill Gates, all extraordinary achievers put in a minimum of 10,000 hours developing their skills. And there are no exceptions.

This doesn't mean that talent isn't a factor as you must have some innate skill. Assuming that one has a minimum base of talent, what takes you from good to great is how hard you work. Gladwell says, "The people at the top don't just work harder or much harder. They work much, much harder." Most people say that "I'd Never Do That Much Work"

To succeed in sport, you don't focus on making yourself rich or famous. You don't even focus on winning most of the time. You focus on becoming world class - an 'outlier' - at your sport.

In one study a Team Canada hockey player stated that "when I was 18, I wanted to become the best player in the world at my sport. I put together an elaborate binder that included:

· A 21 page essay on how I could improve my skills

· Monthly, weekly and daily fitness regimens

· Goals for shooting sessions and practices

· Mental toughness training strategies for each week

The binder was my 'Bible' until I was named captain of Team Canada ten years later. I kept my binder a secret until a talented young player asked me for help making the National Team. She studied it and finally confessed, "It looks great, but to be honest, I'd never do that much work."

There are two things about this story that are important.

· First, notice the dates. By 18, I had been already been practicing for ten years. By 28, when I reached my goal, I had another ten years under my belt. I had definitely reached the 10,000 hour mark (it often takes about ten years, but it took me twenty).

· Second, the commitment involved and required.

My young friend loved her sport. She just didn't love it as much as I did. That's why she experienced my binder as "work".

If I thought I was "working" in my 10,000 hours, I probably wouldn't have done it. Which is why her path was the right one for her. Instead I became a world class athlete with a huge list of accomplishments that made me happy.

Every goal is a personal choice. But you do need to excel at what matters most to YOU. And that means you need superior technique.

Making the "work" involved seem like play to you is the secret to the 10,000 hours.

We will constantly communicate the vision we develop along with the team identity over and over again…At Least Everyday…like a ‘broken record’

· Try to never communicate the mission / vision the same way

· Be painfully positive and painfully patient through the ‘process of development’

· Always be ‘fair’ by ‘coaching the 20’ – exclude no one!

Everyone should always feel valued for their contributions – players want to know that you are proud of them and that you appreciate their efforts – ‘you have to let them know’

Communicate honest actions to the players that are evidences of “successful executions.” In other words let them know what they need to do to get better and work with them so they can improve.

Everyone is greeted everyday on our team – the arena has to be a fun place to be and the dressing room has to be the best place for them to be (other than hockey – how was your day? – good to see you – “legend or myth?” – ice cream or cake?…). “Knuckle Up”

As coaches and teachers, we are supporters every minute of the day. That is how we strive to make a difference.

1. Open House- February 24, 2026
2. Hockey Academy Shadow Day: March 12, 2026
3. Registration deadline -  TBD

Click here for information about Hockey Academy