Room to STRETCH

The Cause

The Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) is a movement to improve the quality of sport and physical activity in Canada. CS4L links sport, education, recreation and health and aligns community, provincial and national programming. CS4L Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) framework is a seven-stage training, competition and recovery pathway guiding an individual’s experience in sport and physical activity from infancy through all phases of adulthood
Hockey Canada Safety program embraces the LTAD model and suggests that the ideal is for players to warm up for 10-15 minutes before a game. Hockey requires a proper warm-up to help prepare the body for the increased demands and to help prevent injuries. The goal is to raise the body temperature to work up a light sweat to get the heart and lungs working, loosen up muscles and get the athlete’s body ready to play hockey. Due to a severe lack of space, warm-ups are prohibited within the Akinsdale and Kinex rinks to avoid injuries to spectators and players.
The hockey community as a whole recognizes there is a need for the players to have room to warm up and have tried to find space in cramped quarters. And where there is a will there will be a way. At the back of the Akinsdale rink, between the two arenas is a space currently used for equipment storage and a meeting room. With a few walls knocked down this could be changed into two dedicated warm up spaces, one for Kinex and one for Akinsdale.
Please help St. Albert Minor Hockey Association find room to stretch and grow.

Who Will it Benefit?

The warm up space will be open to all facility users. This will include – Ringette and Hockey teams in the Fall and winter, Lacrosse teams in the spring, Ball Hockey in the Summer. The proposed open space concept will allow younger players to observe how older players train and prepare for a game. Reinforcing the importance of a proper warmup and promoting and establishing good healthy habits for young players.