WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY ABOUT ROB...

 

Rob consistently grades out as one of our top head instructors. He has great rapport with the students and has a real knack for teaching skills to players of all levels. His camps are well-organized and he brings the best out of his staff

.Serge "Bob" Turcotte,
Turcotte Stickhandling Hockey School

As a USA Hockey Master Coach and long-time College Hockey Advisor I regularly recommend Coach Rob Keegan..... I send players and their families to his camps for serious hockey training. Coach Keegan played very serious hockey at the college level and he has considerable experience coaching - teaching - developing players skills and confidence as they pursue their game...!!!

Steve Malley,
College & Prep School Counselor,
USA Hockey Master Coach
 

"Throughout his playing and coaching career, Rob has amassed a wealth of knowledge about the game of hockey and knows what it takes to develop individual and team skill in young hockey players. Rob's programs are the best."

Bill Ward,
Director of Admissions / Head Girls' Hockey Coach,
National Sports Academy

Rob Keegan...."Rob was one of the best players I've ever coached and he brings that same commitment to excellence to coaching and teaching the game. His experience and enthusiasm for all ages and skill levels sets him apart. He has a great demeanor with his students and inspires all his athletes to excel".

Joe Battista,
Executive Director, Nittany Lion Club,
Former Hockey Coach,
Pennsylvania State University

PROPOWER

Marianne Watkins,  a native of Peterborough, Ontario Canada,  is one of the most respected and sought after power skating coaches in hockey. Marianne received her start in coaching with the Peterborough Petes Major Jr. A OHL organization. The Petes have placed more players and coaches into the professional ranks than any other junior franchise in the world.  She was instrumental in developing players such as Chris Pronger, Mike Ricci, Tie Domi, Jamie Langenbrunner, Cory Stillman, to name a few. The Oshawa Generals, Windsor Spitfires, and Erie Otters also utilized her services over the 10 years she worked in the OHL.

NHL coaches Jacques Martin, and the legendary Roger Neilson were among the first to offer Marianne a coaching position with them at their prospects and elite hockey camps which she still instructs every summer. She was the exclusive power skating instructor for Wayne Gretzky at his Coca Cola Future Stars camps.

Currently she is the skating coach for the Columbus Blue Jacket organization working with prospects in the system. She has worked with the Anaheim Ducks, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leaf  NHL organizations in player development as well. Marianne has instructed many of the games top prospects in the CHL, WHL, AHL, ECHL, European and NCAA Division 1 . Some of these have included Rostislav Olesz, Steve Weiss, Gregory Campbell, Nathan Horton, Kamil Kreps, Jassen Cullimore & Anthony Stewart (Florida), and Rostislav Klesla, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen & Jarod Boll (Columbus) Corey Perry (Anaheim) and Dustin Penner (Edmonton). 

She was featured in "Skate Like a Pro" instructional video with Paul Coffey, and was a weekly feature on "Goals, the Hockey Show" seen on TSN and ESPN, Marianne is presently the Power Skating Director at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center in Pittsburgh, PA., a regional training center, where she conducts specialized hockey camps, clinics, team and player development at all levels beginner to Pro. She works with the Robert Morris University NCAA Division 1 Men's and Women's hockey teams.

Recognized as one of the top instructors in her field, Marianne participated in the International Hockey Skating Symposium in Detroit where she presented her updated and proven teaching methods to coaches throughout Canada and the United States.  She is currently in production of her "Hockey Survival Training" DVD which includes the most updated information on the physical and technical aspects of skating for today's game.  Her focus in teaching is based on a combination of North American and European techniques to improve a player's technical efficiency, first two step acceleration, quickness, agility, lateral movement, and much more. Known as a great communicator, Marianne shares tips, observations, positional and game related drills she's accumulated over the past 25 years in working with some of the best amateur and professional players and coaches in the game.

HOCKEY SKILLS BECOMING THE LOST ART IN NORTH AMERICA

If you were looking for a highly skilled hockey player with great offensive skills today, you would probably not start in North America. The United States and Canada continue to produce many excellent players, but if you want to find the next Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin, you better head to Europe. Most of today’s most exciting and skilled players in the National Hockey League are products of European hockey programs.

As long as US and Canadian youth programs continue to concentrate on games at the expense of practice time, the development of players with great offensive skills will continue to decline. As North American coaches concentrate on offensive and defensive systems at the expense of teaching individual skills, the most exciting players will continue to have names like Ovechkin and Jagr.

In the past, North American players had the summer to hone their individual skills on their own or in a skills camp situation. With four or five months away from the structured team environment, the typical player was able to attend a few weeks of hockey camp and concentrate on improving individual skills. Today, with the less restrictive requirements of USA Hockey and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, the summer has become a second season and tournament organizers are running select tournaments for all age levels.

Summer exposure tournaments for midgets can provide excellent exposure for the older player. However, mite, squirt, peewee and bantam summer tournaments provide no real exposure, extend the game season and further reduce the amount of time spent on skill improvement. Reliable studies show that in a one hour tournament game with two teams of fifteen skaters, the average amount of time that each player will actually touch the puck is about thirty seconds.

In a quality hockey skills school with an eight to one student/instructor ratio, every participant should have a puck in their control over thirty minutes per hour.

So, if you are considering participating on a team this summer to improve as a player and increase your chances of playing junior, college or even pro hockey, consider the alternative of our quality hockey skills school. With our concentrated instruction, you should expect to improve your individual skills in just one week this summer while improving your conditioning. You will be a better player at the end of the summer and ready for the 2007/2008 season.

Rob Keegan