Neutral Zone, LLC has partnered with Mark Fitzgerald and Elite Training Systems and Sports Testing, Inc. to launch a series of Combing Testing Clinics for elite hockey players. The first event will be held on Dec. 29 at the University of Guelph.
“The concept of the combine is to provide the athlete with a snapshot of information about their athleticism as well as where they stand amongst their peers,” said Fitzgerald. “Participation in the combine should serve as a piece of athlete development and information that can be used to improve both on and off the ice. The on-ice tests were developed by consulting with numerous coaches, general managers, and scouts from the CHL and NHL in order to build a test battery that had significance to the hockey world. The off-ice testing is looking at athleticism and how it relates to the athlete’s position within hockey.”
Neutral Zone is the largest amateur hockey scouting platform in North American and services clients from the NHL, CHL, NCAA, Juniors coaches and scouts as well as agents and hockey professionals.
“We believe combine testing is the next step in the hockey evaluation process,” said Neutral Zone Founder Steve Wilk. “It’s become a major evaluation metric in other sports like baseball and football but hockey has lagged behind. Once we met Mark Fitzgerald and saw how his testing mirrors different elements of a player’s fitness and performance on the ice we saw the value for players, scouts, coaches and hockey professionals to test and track player performance throughout their amateur careers.”
Fitzgerald has been a strength and conditioning, as well as a performance coach, at all levels from OHL, AHL (Toronto Marlies), and NHL (Anaheim Ducks). He also has a great deal of experience running hockey-specific combine testing for Under Armour and the Canadian Hockey League. He will be working alongside Sports Testing Inc, the leader in sports-specific testing analytics and testing equipment to put together an unmatched hockey combine clinic.
What do players get out of this
- 1-Hour On Ice Testing
- 1-Hour Off-Ice Testing
- A complete breakdown of results and an explanation of what those results mean
- Analytics of where your results match up to other players
- Updated NZ Profile (Height, Weight, and Combine Results)
- NZ Swag
Players interested in registering for the combine can CLICK HERE to land on the registration page.
