What a recruiter looks for in a hockey player

\Whether training future hockey players or recruiting for a professional hockey team, Lindsay Hofford recognizes the best traits of a player and what they need to improve. This knowledge can help a good player improve to become a great player, an understanding that helps them in their recruiting goals.
What do recruiters look for in a hockey player?
Whether you want to play for a college team or eventually go pro, you’ll need to exhibit the required athletic skills. That means you need more than fitness, though. Of course, you need to play your position on the ice well, but college recruiters put extra focus on skating prowess and speed.
College hockey uses a much faster-skating speed than high school. Hand-eye coordination and stick sense also serve well the player wanting a top recruiting position.
Agility and fast-twitch muscles can help a smaller player land a prime spot. Many college teams dropped their height and weight requirements as the game evolved. You can successfully land a spot as a smaller player as long as your skillset outshines the bruisers.
Define Stick Sense
The phrases stick sense and hockey sense refers to a player’s ability to read the ice and control the puck. If you can capably remain aware of everything going on around you and anticipate the moves of the other team’s players, you exhibit a superior hockey sense.
Getting Noticed
Hockey uses traditional methods of recruitment. It hasn’t modernized in the same way as college football or baseball. Hockey still uses a combination of scouting via camps, combines, and tournaments to put together its future teams.
You need to prepare a highlight video that showcases your skills as a player and shows off some of the best assists and goals you’ve scored. A good highlight reel shows your abilities on the ice and your ability to strategize.
Your Grades Matter
Regardless of your standout performances on the ice, the recruiters will pass on you if you earn bad grades. You need the good grades that could get you into college without a scholarship for sports. If you earned average or poorer high school grades, you could attend a community college or junior college for one or two years to improve your GPA. While the recruiters will also consider your SAT or ACT scores, you can boost your chances of attending an NCAA program by enhancing your GPA in junior college.
That doesn’t mean taking time off from hockey. Since few high schools offer hockey as a sport, US colleges also recruit from club teams. You can play for your local club while in community college. You’ll end up in front of more recruiters this way, too.
How Lindsay Hofford Can Help
Contact Lindsay Hofford today to learn more about how you can improve your chances of playing college or pro hockey. You can improve your grades and skillset to top the recruiters’ lists. Get started today improving your game.