THE PUCK STOPS HERE
Marlborough franchise offers hockey training on synthetic ice.
March 1, 2004
The following article, written by Bob Tremblay, News Business Writer, appeared in the MetroWest Daily News in the business section on March 1, 2004. The photo is courtesy of the Item Extra/ Coulter Press.
MARLBOROUGH -- Think hockey and you think ice.
To play, you either need the real McCoy that Mother Nature provides or the man-made version rinks provide. The former surface costs the hockey enthusiast nothing but is undependable in the winter months and nonexistent the rest of the year. The latter surface is dependable but costly for instruction purposes.
There is another option: synthetic ice, the kind offered year-round at Puckmasters Hockey Training Center in Marlborough. The facility is the first synthetic ice hockey training center in MetroWest.
From a training perspective, synthetic ice has a number of advantages, according to Pat Nugent, Puckmasters general manager and hockey director. "It's a lot more cost-effective to run this building than a rink," he says. For example, no compressors are needed to cool the ice and no Zambonis are needed to maintain it. "Therefore we can give one-on-one instruction at a much more affordable rate."
Case in point, for an individual to rent an hour of ice time at a rink costs between $150 and $160, says Nugent. The cost for one-on-one instruction, meanwhile, ranges from $50 to $100, he says. Add up the costs and you have a total price tag exceeding $200 for one hour of instruction. Few people are willing to spend that kind of money, says Nugent. Instead, they rely on hockey clinics or hockey camps where one-on-one instruction is not part of the package and the player-to-coach ratio is 5-to-1 at best, he says.
Puckmasters, on the other hand, offers one-on-one instruction with the player getting a personal coach whose only focus is to improve the player's game. The cost ranges from $25 to $45 per session with each session either 30 or 45 minutes long. The final price depends on the program a player signs up for and the number of sessions a player chooses.
Puckmasters also offers programs for small groups, including one for adults. In addition, teams and associations can use its facility for their own practices and instruction.
Plus, each of its three rinks can be rented on an hourly basis. The main rink is 68 feet long and 38 feet wide, the shooting rink is 25 feet long and 30 feet wide and the goalie rink is 30 feet long and 35 feet wide.
Synthetic ice comes with other training benefits, Nugent continues. "It's 15 to 30 percent slower than regular ice so you have to work harder on it than regular ice," he says. "There's an inherent resistance training element to it. The idea is when you finish training on our ice, you're that much quicker and faster when you get on real ice."
For the record, Puckmasters' synthetic ice is made out of a composite plastic material to which a silicone spray is applied once a week to increase the glide factor. Regular hockey skates are used on it.
Puckmasters offers three primary programs:
Learn to Play, a beginner course recommended for ages 4 and up that covers skating concepts and begins teaching shooting and stickhandling.
Skills Plus, an intermediate course for ages 5 and up that offers a more intense workout and covers power skating, stickhandling, shooting and advanced movements on the ice.
Competitive Travel, an advanced course for ages 8 and up that emphasizes a high-intensity workout, refined shooting and stickhandling skills, body contact and advanced tactical concepts.
In addition to one-on-one instruction, members can receive personalized video analysis and take part in off-ice speed and strength conditioning. Access to the facility's speed and strength conditioning center is unlimited. Members can also schedule their training sessions at their convenience. Finding conventional ice time at a convenient hour is a major challenge, Nugent points out.
The Puckmasters concept is the brainchild of Pete Fry, a former professional hockey player who saw a need for year-round training and personal instruction, according to Nugent. "He didn't feel anyone offered that," he says.
Fry started the first Puckmasters in 1993 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the first player he trained was Robbie Tallas, a former Boston Bruin who now plays in Finland. "(Fry) built the facility himself by hand. It's since evolved and exploded into a much larger venture for him."
Today, there are 15 Puckmaster franchises in Canada and the United States with two in Massachusetts -- Marlborough and Norwood. Both Bay State facilities have different owners.
Since the Marlborough center opened in September, membership has grown to about 70.
"Location was the key," says Nugent, in explaining why Marlborough was chosen as a Puckmasters site. "We're within five miles of seven sheets of ice with the New England Sports Center, the Navin Rink (both in Marlborough) and (NorthStar Youth Forum) in Westborough. We're in a hotbed for hockey and no one really offers the personalized, one-on-one training we offer. It was an untapped market."
Overall, the teaching goal of Puckmasters centers around "breaking each skill down to its most basic, fundamental elements so that the kids can grasp it," says Nugent. "We try not to leave anything vague, so when a kid walks out of here they know exactly how to execute the particular skill that that session focused on.
"Equally as important for us is we want to build self-esteem and self-confidence in every kid who walks in the door so their experience here should be like no other hockey training experience. We focus on positive enforcement. We place an emphasis on such power words as awesome, outstanding, super, superb and terrific."
All the center's coaches have junior, college or professional hockey experience. Its head coach, Joe Heydenburg, is an assistant hockey coach of the men's team at Harvard University.
Nugent says the reaction to Puckmasters has been positive. "People like the personalized attention," says the Bellingham resident. "Depending on how this facility does over the next year, we'd like to expand west to Worcester and north along (I-495)."
One satisfied customer is Joe McNealy, president of the Starhawks Youth Hockey Association. The association, which consists of 17 teams with players from Hudson, Milford and Northborough, just finished a contract with Puckmasters and a renewal is in the works.
"Puckmasters is hockey's equivalent to the batting cage," says McNealy on the center's Web site. "We get expert coaching and a skating facility scaled down to accommodate small groups at a reasonable price. This frees up expensive ice time to allow our coaches to focus on conditioning and game strategies."
PUCKMASTERS HOCKEY TRAINING CENTER
General manager: Pat Nugent
Employees: 2 full-time, 8 part-time coaches
Industry: Hockey training
Company background: Puckmasters is a hockey training center that operates on synthetic ice. Its Web site is www.puckmastersma.com.
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