Non-Profit programs for all ages teaching the 'Winning Edge' skills needed for all levels of hockey, ringette or recreational skating. ON ICE PROGRAMS:
FALL, WINTER and SPRING POWER SKATING PROGRAMS
HOCKEY DEVELOPMENT CLINICS
TEAM SKILLS PRACTICES
OFF ICE PROGRAMS: (Comming Soon)
OUR SUCCESS
Our founder, Larry Gazdig and his instructors, have taught skating to thousands of successful hockey
players, some are part of the NHL; Nazem Khadri, Darryl Sittler, Keith & Brent Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Joe Thornton, Brad Marsh, and Brian Smith. As well as these former Junior players, Trevor Allman (former Harvard University Captain) and Matt Weir (London Knights, assistant coach of the Strathroy Stars Junior B team). Clarissa Tipping while on scholarship to Liberty University in the US was the top Defence for 4 years and has 3 National Championship Cups. The speed skating gold medalist Chrisine Nesbitt was also a graduate of the Gazdig Power Plus Skating School. OUR PHILOSOPHY
Skating is a sport, and like all sports it is intended to provide fun and enjoyment. In order to enjoy skating the basic skills must be learned and they can learn best by taking instruction from a qualified instructor. Once the basic skills have been achieved, students then have gained the confidence needed to either skate professionally or to simply skate for their own enjoyment. To understand the importance of learning the basics one only needs to look at the over-zealous parents yelling at their children to realize the problems that can occur when children are rushed. Children should be able to:
Pay attention
Follow instruction
Be disciplined
Have the desire to succeed
Each child develops at his or her own pace, while some children may be able to execute the skills with confidence, others may feel frustrated because they have not developed the discipline needed to master the maneuvers. If this is the case perhaps the child is not physically or mentally old enough to participate in this type of program at this time. Our goal is to encourage all individuals to challenge themselves to excel to their highest potential, to learn what their strengths are and then use these acquired talents as a stepping stone to reach their goals in life with confidence and self-esteem. The choice is yours. Enjoy the journey. At this skating school, we believe that children should be able to skate before playing hockey. The reason is that there are so many different skills that a child must learn to play the game of hockey. If a child has not learned how to skate and is playing hockey, this child will form bad habits such as leaning on the stick, hockey stops only one way, turns from forward to backward only one way, etc. These bad habits prevent the child from becoming a better hockey player. Larry Gazdig created a program that works, from a philosophy that he realized while he himself played hockey. As a self taught skater, he saw the need for proper instruction to be a better hockey player. Unfortunately, shortly before he was to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks farm team, he shattered his wrist in an accident at a free skate and was not allowed to sign, bringing his NHL career to an end. Larry went on to teach children the proper method to learn all the skills needed to be successful hockey players, through trial and error of his own skating school starting in 1963.
