Looking for the ultimate gift for the hockey player or coach in your family?

Hockey Canada’s ground-breaking DVD series, Skills of Gold, is it.

Hockey Canada has produced a cutting edge series of four DVDs designed to improve the skills of players of all age groups.

Say the person is your house is a coach and they’ve mentioned how they’d like to find some hints to get a player on his team to become a better skater. He’d just go to the chapter menu system and he’d find more helpful hints then he can imagine.

The DVD on skating, for example, breaks down backward skating like it has never been broken down before. The coach and player have three dozen segments to choose from, covering everything from the angle of the skate to the bending of the knee. Each segment has a 30-second clip explaining what is happening and if the coach and player were to view all of the clips, they would have an idea of not only what should be done but also how they should do it

The DVDs cover skating, puck control, shooting and scoring and checking.

Say you bought a DVD series on golf and the DVD takes you through every club and every situation the club can be used in. That’s what Hockey Canada’s DVDs do for you. It’s no wonder they are called ‘The Ultimate Technical Skills Series for Hockey’.

“It is an outstanding resource for all the Branches involved in minor hockey,” says Erin Thornton of B.C. Hockey. “Just having the virtual animation as well as the actual practice drills provide a great sort of visual resource for the coaches.”

The DVDs are far superior in both quality and depth than the VHS format. Say good-bye to working the rewind and fast-forward buttons and then have to look at a fuzzy screen. A second series of four DVDs are in the works and when production is finished, Hockey Canada will again be a world-leader in innovative cutting-edge teaching tools.

“The animation provides a great teaching resource for the coaches,” says Paul Carson, director of development for Hockey Canada. “It is a bigger toolbox on different skills. They’re something for everyone.”

The DVDs are laid out in a progressive manner from simple to difficult and also from one skill area to another. Because they are index-based and they come with a guide that tells you what is on the DVDs, you can access the skill area you want with ease.

“There’s a lot of information available to coaches and players,” says Carson. “Coaches will really like this and it will enhance their development.”

“It is one of those resources that until you see it, you can’t imagine it,” said Thornton. “It is quite something.”

The DVDs will appeal to coaches, parents and players and it is a bilingual product.

All eight Skills of Gold DVDs are available for $79.95. To order the Skills of Gold DVD, call toll free 1-800-667-2242, or visit Breakaway, Hockey Canada’s official store, at www.hockeycanada.ca.