As the strength and conditioning coach of the Ottawa Senators, Schwarz helps keep world-class athletes such as Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris and Mark Stone finely tuned. It’s an epidemic.”Schwarz is talking about the lack of athleticism among our youth, even including some elite hockey players who didn’t play other sports or freelance in the playgrounds as children. Surprisingly, in this era of the professional who trains year round, some very good hockey players have come through the system, only to hit a wall at a certain point because their hockey aspirations lacked a foundation. And if a child is good at a game such as hockey or soccer, parents are often drawn into year-round programs that exclude other sports. Hockey players who didn’t learn to evade danger on the playground or football field lack sporting instincts when a player is skating at them.

Source: National Post March 21, 2017 18:45 UTC