MG1 Elite and Ozone launch exciting new partnership for Ice Hockey development here in the UK.
MG1 Elite Performance is excited to announce a new affiliation with Ozone Ice Rink that will see MG1 take up regular residence at the Ozone Bracknell site to run MG1 Brain Gym sessions, alongside numerous other planned development programs designed specifically by Danny Myers and myself.
Danny Meyers commented:
"Before speaking with Colin, I had heard nothing but amazing reviews about MG1 Elite Performance. We managed to find some time to meet up and discuss each other ideas and future plans and we quickly realised we were both aligned with how we can help players perform at a higher level.
I am extremely excited to be working with Colin and MG1 and all I will say is, stay tuned with the incredible announcements that we are about to make!”
After getting the call from Danny and talking through how we both viewed athlete development, it was clear that working together was the right thing to do. I really admire the way Danny has taken an innovative approach to Ice Hockey development in the UK and truly believe that, by working together, we can take the development of UK based Ice Hockey players to levels never seen before.
My goal has always been to help bridge the gap between UK based Ice Hockey players and their North American/Scandinavian counterparts. We know that here in the UK we don’t have the ice time available that younger players in those countries do, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t develop them to a similar level. What it does mean is that we have to approach the training and development of junior athletes in a different way to what has previously been done.
Ultimately, Ice Hockey is the fastest invasion game on the planet. Subsequently, to be able to compete we have to develop our cognitive and visual skills to a level that can receive and process information faster than those who have access to more ice time.
Having more ice time, and specifically, more unstructured ice time organically develops our visual and cognitive skills required for the game - Pattern recognition, decision making, problem solving etc are all developed through play. The more we play, the more these skills are developed, especially when that play is unstructured.
Here in the UK, the ice time we do get is extremely structured and drill based, meaning our young athletes miss the opportunities to develop their cognitive and visual skills at the rate their peers from other countries do. By adding in a specific off-ice training program, we can bridge this gap and, with sufficient training, even exceed those from other countries.
The facts are that elite athletes will continue to not be developed out of the UK without going to play abroad unless we think differently about how we approach the development program here in the UK. For many, playing abroad is a financial or lifestyle choice too many - does that mean the dream should be over then? Absolutely not.
In the MG1 Brain Gym, I work with athletes to develop those key skills required - decision making, reaction speed, processing speed, problem solving, information processing and acquisition…. Imagine a 1 hour session with me being the equivalent to 6 hours of pond hockey in North America. The skills that are acquired more organically in other countries just need to be harvested more purposefully here in the UK.
You can book sessions at both the MG1 Brain Gym in Nottingham, and at the MG1 Brain Gym at Ozone using the link below.
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MG1 Elite and Ozone launch exciting new partnership for Ice Hockey development here in the UK.