All-Star for JULY

It gives me great pleasure to introduce your HockeyTrainingPro.com All-Star for July – ladies and gentlemen, meet Lauren!  Lauren has been with HockeyTrainingPro.com for years and it has been cool to see her transition from asking the occasional question here and there to one of the dominant members of the community.

What I admire about Lauren is the way she is always looking for solutions, not focusing on problems.  So if she is going to be playing in a tournament, she is thinking ahead and asking ahead of time what she will need to do in terms of her training to help maximize her performance in the competition.  She does not make excuses and she does not whine.  Love it.

What tipped the scales this month to make Lauren the all-star this month (the other candidate I was considering is a pro player) is the way she supports other athletes on Team HockeyTrainingPro.com.  Lauren is a VIP member of the Ultimate Goalie Training program and she is always active on the forum asking and answering questions, but also offering support and encouragement to other members.  She puts herself out there and makes it happen – that is why she is your all-star for July – awesome work Lauren!

You will see from Lauren’s interview below that she does not wait for it to happen, she goes out and makes it happen.  She gets out of her comfort zone and goes after her goals.

M: How long have you been playing goal Lauren?

L: I started playing in 2006, at the ripe old age of 31. Other than a failed field hockey experiment in high school, I never played any other sports. In fact I had been a dancer for several years. But I always loved hockey and watching goalies in particular, so I strapped on the pads and jumped in head-first into the roller hockey games my husband and his friends were playing. About a year later I switched to ice, and never looked back. I joined a local “beer league” and eventually started playing with a women’s team, and we travel all over for our games. In-season it’s just a few states near us, but in the off-season we do tournaments as far away as Vermont and Florida.

M:What gear do you wear?
Helmet: Bauer NME 7
Glove: Bauer
Blocker: Vaughn
Pads: Vaughn <3
Skates: RBK

M: Who is your favourite NHL Goalie?
L: There’s no way I can pick just one, so I have to go with Lundqvist and Rask. Lunqvist is solid (understatement of the year?) but Rask is just really exciting to watch.

M: I know you have a busy life, like many other players out there, how do you balance training, work and games?
L: It’s not easy, that’s for sure. I have a full time job with a horrendous commute, so working out after work is just out of the question, I get home late enough as it is. Fortunately I’m a morning person, so I get up super early (5 a.m.) and drag myself to the gym. It’s actually a great way to start the day. On days I don’t work out, I notice a difference.

During the season it’s very difficult because I have practice one weeknight a week at 10pm. Obviously after an intense practice (which they usually are), and only a few hours’ sleep, I’m not getting up early the next day to train. I try to make sure I get my workout in on the morning of practice- our ice time is so late, it gives me plenty of time to recover from the workout. Our games are usually on weekends, and not ridiculously late at night, so I don’t usually have a problem working around them. However it’s not unusual to have a game on both Saturday and Sunday, and if that’s the case I take Monday off from training to give my body a rest, and then get back to it on Tuesday.