Our Kids Play Hockey
Our Kids Play Hockey is a podcast that focuses on youth hockey, offering insights, stories, and interviews from the hockey community. It provides valuable advice for parents, coaches, and players, covering various aspects of the game, including skill development, sportsmanship, teamwork, and creating a positive experience for young athletes. The show frequently features guests who share their expertise and personal experiences in youth hockey, both on and off the ice.
The show features three hockey parents, who all work in the game at high levels:
- Christie Casciano-Burns - USA Hockey Columnist, Author, and WSYR Anchor
- Mike Bonelli - USA Hockey Coach and Organizational Consultant
- Lee M.J. Elias - Hockey Entrepreneur, Author, and Team Strategist
In addition to the main podcast, there are several spin-off series that dive into specific aspects of youth hockey:
1.Our Girls Play Hockey – This series highlights the growing presence of girls in hockey, addressing the unique challenges they face while celebrating their accomplishments and contributions to the sport. Each episode of Our Girls Play Hockey is also hosted by Sheri Hudspeth who is the Director, Youth Hockey Programs and Fan Development for the Vegas Golden Knights.
2.The Ride to The Rink – A shorter, motivational series designed to be listened to on the way to the rink, offering quick, inspirational tips and advice to help players and parents get into the right mindset before a game or practice.
3.Our Kids Play Goalie – This series is dedicated to young goalies and the unique challenges they face. It provides advice for players, parents, and coaches on how to support and develop young goaltenders, focusing on the mental and physical demands of the position.
Together, these shows provide a comprehensive platform for parents, players, and coaches involved in youth hockey, offering insights for all aspects of the sport, from parenting, playing, or coaching to specialized positions like goaltending.
Our Kids Play Hockey
The Ride To The Rink - Maximizing Your Ice Time at Hockey Clinics
In this episode of The Ride to the Rink, Lee shares a step-by-step guide for skaters and goalies to get the most out of any skills clinic—whether you’re focused on skating, shooting, passing, or defense. His practical tips will help players, parents, and coaches turn every clinic into a lasting opportunity for growth.
👀 Inside the Episode:
📝 Why identifying your clinic’s focus is key to success
🤔 How asking the right questions can unlock new skills
📖 The simple post-clinic habit that will fast-track improvement
🎯 Why mindset matters: stay open, stay curious
🎉 The importance of having fun—because hockey should always bring joy
Whether you’re heading to your first clinic or your fiftieth, this episode will help you level up your game and make every session count.
💬 Got a takeaway from this episode? Email us anytime at team@ourkidsplayhockey.com
#TheRideToTheRink #HockeySkills #YouthHockey #HockeyDevelopment #SkillsClinic #OffIceTraining #PlayerMindset #YouthSports
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Speaker A [0:00 - 4:32]: Hello, hockey skaters and goalies around the world. And welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the Rink. It's Lee here with you today, and we're at the time of the year. There's a lot of skills clinic going on. Now, here's the thing. Skills clinics, they happen all year round. So whenever you listen to this, it's applicable. And I want to talk to you about how to approach a skills clinic. How to approach it to get the most out of a skills clinic. We talked on our big episode this week about how your parents can help identify what's a good skills clinic to go to. But now you're going. You're going to skills clinic. You're getting the jersey, getting on the ice. How can you approach it? So again, most skills clinic of value kids have some purpose to them. They're defensive clinics, offensive clinics, shooting clinics, skating clinics, passing clinics. Whatever it is, there's a reason you're there. So number one, kids, is identify what am I supposed to be learning about at this clinic? If it's a skating clinic, focus on skating and start to develop questions about your skating. Okay, I talked in our big episode about how when I was younger, I was a very good skater and I went to a skating clinic once, and I just assumed I was going to be great. They taught me so much, so much about skating that I still to this day remember the drills they had us go through, specifically the ones I wasn't great at because I was able to go home and work on those after or at least pay attention to them more when I was on the ice. Tremendous amount of value for me as a hockey player that I went to a skating clinic, learned about skating, learned about things I couldn't do. And then I was able to go home and think, these are the things I need to work on. Okay? So that's number one. Know why you're there. Okay. Know the skill sets that you're going to be working on. Number two is, and I alluded to this, have an open mind, never going into a clinic thinking, I'm the best at this or I'm great at this already. All right? Someone can always teach you something else. The learning in hockey, it never ends. It never stops. I've been. I played 30 years. I've been coaching for a long time. I can tell you right now, as a coach, I'm always learning, and I want to learn, right? That never stops. You never figure it out. You never master it completely. So go into it with a complete open mind and have some Great questions so that you can learn. And if they don't answer those questions on the ice, in the group setting, go up to the coaches afterwards and ask questions. Most coaches, not all of them want you to ask those questions. Especially if you're at a defensive clinic, they want the defensive questions. They want to give you that time. So again, identify it and then come with some great questions. Be very, very curious about what you can learn at these clinics. All right? The next step, and we talked about this too in a previous episode about private lessons. It's the same thing. Go home and document. Write down a piece of paper or in a journal or type it on your phone, whatever you have. The things you did well, the things you didn't do well, more importantly, and what you want to continue to work on. Don't just assume you'll remember, all right? We got a lot of stuff going on in our lives as kids. You got even more than us sometimes, okay? Write it down so you don't forget and you can work on it, all right? And then that's the key to the next thing. Work on it. You got to find ways to work on these skills at home or at practice, or if you can get to a public session or a stick and puck, you want to continue to work on it. There's no skill skills clinic that in a week or a five week program, you're just gonna master something. They're there to give you the introduction or give you the information. The value for you kids is to take that information and apply it through practice and through gameplay. All right? I always say you want to master a skill or get really good at a skill, you got to do it so much away from the game that you don't even think about doing it in the game. It just happens. That's called muscle memory, right? Skills clinics can give you a lot of great opportunities to learn things you need to work on. Last key is to make sure you have fun. Whether you're doing power skating and there's no pucks and you're on the ice for 60 minutes, working hard. Have fun. Have fun with your teammates. Meet new people, interact with new people. You got to enjoy it. If we're not having fun, we're missing the point. Now, I can tell you right now, if we're not having fun, you probably shouldn't be at a skills clinic, okay? Because it should not be a choreography to want to learn more about the game. It should be fun. All right? So that's going to do it for this edition of the ride to the rink. If you're going to some skills clinics, enjoy it. Get. Get the big takeaway. Write it down. Learn, learn, learn, my friends, okay? Learn as much as you can. That's a skill in itself. Remember, no matter where you're at on that hockey journey, we believe in you. You should, too. Enjoy your hockey. Enjoy your time. We'll see you on the next episode of the Ride the rink Everybody skate on.
