Lakeville Hockey Training Facility Develops Skills For All Ages

You may have driven by it and not even realized it’s there, but —located just off of Holyoke Avenue in downtown Lakeville—is a rare gem when it comes to hockey training.

It’s been around for years, but for those in the area who are not involved with hockey, it’s easy to be confused.

“Not many people know we are here,” Total Hockey Minnesota Business Manager Cindy Sorvari said. “A lady came up to me the other day thinking that the grocery store was still here.”

Total Hockey Minnesota moved into the Holyoke Plaza in April 2007, taking the spot once held by locally owned Enggren’s Market, which closed its doors in 2006 after 100 years in the grocery business.

Since then, the hockey development center has been training players from mites to some of the NHL’s elite. The 24,000 square foot facility offers a two-thirds size ice rink and a dry-land training space built for year round skill development.

“It’s a brand of on-ice training as well as off-ice training,” the training center’s Specialty Programs Coach and New Jersey Devils Defenseman Bryce Salvador said. “We try to encompass all the skills and provide a good environment for kids to improve those skills.”

Learning to skate the right way, how to shoot a hockey puck and stick handling are some of the abilities that players work on throughout the day at the facility.

Total Hockey Minnesota General Manager Kirk Olson came on board in 2009. Before running the Lakeville facility, he was employed as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Minnesota Wild. Olson has been an important asset in creating training programs and motivating those who come through the facility.

“Things have really gone well since Kirk Olson came on board,” Salvador said. “He has created an atmosphere of expecting the best from everyone.”

Olson said he loved working with professional athletes, but felt that there was something missing. Being the general manager of a hockey development center has given him the chance to make a difference in young person’s lives.

“It’s more than just hockey here. It’s also about life lessons,” Olson said. “Now I have the opportunity to impact young kids.”

For this coming hockey season Olson will be working again as the strength and conditioning coach for the Minnesota Wild but will keep his position at Total Hockey Minnesota.

The Total Hockey Training facility may also be expanding in the future to accommodate the rising number of players wanting to train at the facility. Not only has the facility become more popular, but the competition of the sport has increased at every level. Players have realized that it takes more effort to climb the ladder to reach the next level of competition.

“There are multiple facets required for a kid to get to the next level,” Salvador said. “You used to be able to get away with just on-ice training, but today you need to be developing skills off the ice as well.”

These off-ice skills involve improving agility and quickness, strength conditioning and working on speed and explosion. These skills have become more important in today’s sports landscape.

Now, during the hockey offseason, Total Hockey Minnesota is open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from 8 a.m.to 10 p.m.

During the winter, the center is open during after school hours from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. and around 600 kids a week will come in to work on their game. The facility mainly sees Lakeville residents, but reaches out to neighboring communities as well.