Cathy Andrade introduced Power Hour to the Bay Area in 1998, providing power skating for athletes of all ages and skill levels.

Some 20 years later, in 2018, she launched the Extra Hour Off-Ice Hockey Training Facility to provide off-ice training.

Along with her husband, Randy, Cathy traveled and toured the Midwest, East Coast, and Canada with the idea of offering comprehensive off-ice training to the Bay Area.

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She designed custom off-ice programs to directly influence on-ice performance by refining skating skills and developing motor patterns which are essential in today’s fast paced game. An additional point of interest with Extra Hour is Northern California’s only skating treadmill, something that has traditionally been a polarizing tool – until now with Cathy’s 35 years of skating experience.

“The skating treadmill is proving to be a powerful and effective training tool,” Cathy said. “Players receive instant, continuous verbal and visual feedback. I focus on a repetitive and progressive training style to ensure consistent skill development and aim to establish the biomechanics of proper muscle movement that translates to on-ice speed. We have been overwhelmed with the positive player feedback and immediate results in a short span.”

Extra Hour boasts California’s largest synthetic ice hockey skating and shooting lanes. Although their skateable surfaces are not real ice, they provide the closest feel to real ice by leveraging her husband’s background in protective coatings. Extra Hour has five skateable shooting lanes, goalie training and small space area, biomechanics, strength and conditioning, slide boards-stride training, power skater machines, stick handling tools, Boni puck machine, free stick demos, and the Bay Area’s top trainers and coaches.

“It’s been great to take development to a higher level with Cathy Andrade’s teaching and develop specific off-ice and on-ice training programs to help NHL players improve the skill of skating,” said San Jose Sharks director of strength and conditioning Mike Potenza. “Your off-ice training should complement what you do on the ice in the areas of speed, strength, balance, conditioning and coordination. Cathy provides the players that I work with in the offseason with specific drills that improve weaknesses and strength in single leg positions.”

Players that have utilized Extra Hour’s training include NHL Draft prospect and Bay Area youth player Sahil Panwar, a 2002 birth year who skates with the OHL’s London Knights but comes home during the summer to train.

“This was my biggest offseason training leading into my NHL draft year, so I wanted to make sure that I included Power Hour and Extra Hour to enhance my on-ice and off-ice training,” Panwar said. “Cathy put together a comprehensive and customized training plan for me this summer. The results of the training are very encouraging for the upcoming season with my team in London. There’s no doubt in my mind that I will be back next summer.”

Other specialized classes offered include a combination of skating treadmill-shooting-strength training and targeted custom stride-speed programming with a 1 to 4 coach-to-player ratio. Extra Hour is currently releasing their team training and drop-in programs as well.

“The importance of supplementing off-ice training with your on-ice training can’t be overstated,” said former Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan. “Growing up, I remember being in my backyard honing my skills by shooting thousands of pucks. The tools at Extra Hour allow you to practice and receive elite coaching. This is invaluable to any hockey player looking to take the next step.”

Golf has driving ranges, baseball has batting cages. Bay Area hockey now has Extra Hour.

For more information, visit www.extrahourtraining.com and www.cathyspowerskating.com.

— Matt Mackinder

(Oct. 9, 2019)