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Alexis is a young hockey player with big aspirations and a bright future. Her hockey playing father taught her to skate at a very early age, and she then picked up hockey at the age of 5. She describes the feeling of being part of a team and pushing herself as some of the reasons why she loves the sport. “Being on the ice gives me a feeling of freedom that nowhere else can mirror,” she adds.
Having so much passion and joy for something makes it easier to work hard at it, and Alexis has done just that. As a result, she has many career highlights, including winning the Alberta Winter Games, the Alberta Challenge Cup, and the Bantam AAA provincials. Most recently, Alexis has committed to The Ohio State University to play NCAA Division 1 hockey.
In the past couple years, to help her achieve such successes, Alexis joined the Athlete Factory and the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy. “The Athlete Factory pushes me to my limits in both speed and strength results. Other programs cannot compare to the precision in the one on one technical sessions and the intensity in the energy system sessions,” explains Alexis. “There is no question the Athlete Factory has been a huge part of my game.” As a hockey player, Alexis needs to have a presence on the ice, be physically very strong, while also needing to be quick, agile, and explosive. Performance Coach Jessica Leemans explains our approach to achieve these effective results, “the key to transferring Alexis’ strength in the squat rack to her ability to move quickly on the ice, is our focus on getting her to utilize her hip extensors and hamstrings in the strength work. This improves her ability to generate horizontal force, as well as her hip extension/knee extension coordination and hip extension/hip flexion coordination - all crucial elements to Alexis’ ability to be quick, dynamic and explosive on the ice.” Jessica goes on to explain that a big part of Alexis’ training has been spent on the track, “the ability to replicate the preferred coordination and improved strength and stability, and apply these in her plyometrics, track drills, acceleration work, agility training and technical speed sessions, is integral to ensuring favourable performance results in her sport now and for the long term”.
Next up, Alexis’ goal is to win a national title at the U18 National Championships with Team BC and receive a Top 60 to Top 40 Team Canada invite. Long term, Alexis looks to her NCAA future and hopes to be an impact player going into Ohio State in 2021. With these aspirations, Alexis reminds us that “at the end of the day the only person who can achieve your goals is you and you should enjoy every second of the work you put in.”
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