Sep

30

The Importance of Functional Anatomy

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In a recent newsletter I talked about how important it is to understand functional anatomy and human movement.

I gave the example of a D1 hockey player I worked with over the summer that “tweaked his hamstring”.

After he answered a barrage of my questions and I analyzed his movement a bit, I was able to determine that it was the short head (SH) of his biceps femoris (one of the 4 “hamstring” muscles).

Who cares?

This is actually really important because the SH is the only hamstring muscle that isn’t a hip extensor.  This means I could still have him load a hip extension pattern (think stiff-legged deadlift) without further aggravating his “tweak”.

The outcome?

Continued progress despite a minor injury.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have my athletes continue to develop despite having a minor injury than have them sit out completely or just push through it and delay healing.

-Kevin Neeld


Sep

25

Kim McCullough’s Hockey Training Resource

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The other day I mentioned a list of great resources.

I’m embarrassed to say I left one out that would greatly benefit my hockey audience.

Those of you that have been long-time readers know I’ve spoken highly of Kim McCullough before.

She’s the ONLY resource I can rely on to consistently put out great hockey-specific information.

I regularly read her blogs and subscribed to her newsletter so I can stay current on everything.

If you’re involved with the game of ice hockey at all, click here to visit Kim’s site.  Get all the free information from her you can and definitely sign up for her newsletter.

I promise you’ll benefit from her material. I know I have.

-Kevin Neeld

Click here to take the first step toward fulfilling your ice hockey potential!


Sep

21

Stronger, Faster, Smarter…Guaranteed!

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I recently got an awesome email from an old student of mine at UMass Amherst, thanking me for recommending Cressey Performance as a place to intern.

It was great to hear how much he learned there and how it ignited his passion for strength and conditioning.

I think finding the right resources (whether they’re books, seminars, videos, or people) is essential to being successful.  I know my life has changed significantly since I went out and bought all the books that Michael Boyle recommended in his 10-DVD set “Functional Strength Coach”.

With that said, I want to forward along a few internet resources that continue to have a positive impact on my training and coaching.

All of these are INCREDIBLE investments.  I’ve learned more applied training information from these resources than I have in 6 years of undergraduate and graduate studies (which makes me wonder why these sites are so cheap and college is so expensive!)

In no particular order:

StrengthCoach.com: Still the best training site on the internet. In addition to the cutting-edge articles and constant video updates, some of the greatest minds in the training and rehabilitation industry are available to answer your questions in multiple open forums.

StrengthandConditioningWebinars.com: Presentations from the best in the performance training industry, available to you without leaving your home. It’s a brilliant site and the presentations are incredible. This site eats up more of my free time than I’m comfortable admitting.

Precision Nutrition.com: Still the best nutrition resource (EVER!) for athletes and non-athletes alike.  I recommend this to EVERY single person I talk to about nutrition. At the risk of offending many of you, you’d have to be stupid not to own this.

SportsRehabExpert.com: The best site on the internet for injury prevention and rehabilitation information. I go to here to learn more about how to prevent injuries.

MyFitTube.com: Thousands of exercise videos from some of the most creative experts in the industry. It’s like YouTube for people with unhealthy fascinations with human movement and performance (e.g. me…and hopefully you).

Regardless of whether you’re a player or a coach, if you’re truly committed to fulfilling your potential, you truly owe it to yourself to check out these sites.

They’ve changed my life. I’m confident they’ll change yours too.

-Kevin Neeld

Sep

16

Bike Ride for Multiple Sclerosis. A Chance to Give Back

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As I’ve spoken about before, I’m big on giving back to the community in any way possible.

Being a science nerd, I’m especially interested in helping the science community shed light on various disease states.  This was one of the main reasons I volunteered hundreds of hours at the University of Delaware assisting with research on individuals with cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Last weekend my Dad told me about a bike ride he’s doing in October to help raise money for MS.  I was really excited to hear that he was doing the ride, and impressed that he’d volunteer his weekend for two 75-mile bike rides

In an effort to support my Dad’s fund raising, I have a bribe for you.

Bribe Below!

If you donate anything over $25, I will send you a copy of my “Off-Ice Performance Training Course”, which includes over 100 exercises with detailed descriptions, more than 200 exercise pictures, and over a dozen sample training programs.  I’ll also throw in all the bonuses (“Complete Hockey Nutrition and Supplementation”, “The Secret to Team Success Guide”, and “ 1-Week Pre-Season Training Guide”.

If you donate over $50, I’ll throw in 3 3-month training programs.

Lastly, if you donate over $100, I’ll design a 4-week customized training program to meet your individual training needs (Value: $200).

All you need to do to donate is click the link below and it should take you right to my Dad’s website.  If it doesn’t, you just need to enter his name (Ken Neeld) to get there

Click here to Donate Money for Multiple Sclerosis Research!

Remember that donations for causes like this are tax deductable too!

Click here to Donate Money for Multiple Sclerosis Research!

Thanks in advance for supporting this great cause!

-Kevin Neeld


Sep

10

A Fun Strategy to Keep you on Track

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A great post from John Berardi on how pictures/photoshoots can help keep you motivated and on-track.
If you’re skeptical, read the article to see how this strategy was effective for Precision Nutrition’s Amanda Graydon!

Click here to read the article now!

- Kevin Neeld

Sep

9

Unstable Surface Training for Hockey with Eric Cressey

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This is an excerpt from a post Eric Cressey put on his site a while back that I thought you’d be interested in.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so please comment below.
“In a blog last week, I discussed how important it is to differentiate between unstable surfaces and destabilizing torques applied further up the kinetic chain, as they comprise different kinds of instability training.

I received a great question in response to the blog:”

“Eric, what do you think about unstable surface training for hockey? I’ve been using half-dome stability balls for a long time now in many settings (high school through college) with my trainers. I can’t tell if the effect wouldn’t be the same if I were doing something else but skates do wobble under weak players when pivoting and stopping quickly under loads up to 2-3 times body weight, and ankles do adjust to become more stable after training like this. What’s your experience? Thanks, Boris”

It’s an interesting case, as the blade of a hockey skate is certainly different than regular flat surface.

Even more interestingly, though, is that Boris – through his question and also his personal experience – has directly highlighted some important research that was done in this regard.

In 2005, Behm et al. (1) examined the correlation between hockey skating speed and performance on a 30-second wobble board test. Interestingly, they found a significant correlation in players under the age of 19. However, no such correlation existed with players age 19 and older. So, how does this occur?

Here’s an analogy: go to a little league park, and find the kids who have the best fastball velocity. Chances are that they are also the kids who run the fastest, jump the highest, do the most chin-ups – or any other physical test that you throw at them. Very simply, this difference can easily be attributed to different levels of motor development in young skaters.  Heck, with just a quick Google search for “youth hockey,” I came across this picture.

You’ll notice that the physical development is markedly different across the board.  In fact, the 6-4, 230-pound goalie drove all the other 11-year-olds to the game, taught them how to shave, and then hit on all the hockey moms after the game at the local bar.

Moving back to the aforementioned Behm et al. study, the researchers noted, “The complex skills associated with skating would necessitate a more refined balance that would improve with maturity and perhaps training. Since skating is performed on a very small surface area (blade) in contact with a low friction surface, younger individuals with greater stability may have an advantage in executing the specific skating skills” (1).

So, in reality, we’re comparing physical development and not necessarily performance on a specific test – until we level the playing field and physical maturity is roughly equal for everyone (after the age of 18). At that point, you don’t see a correlation, so I’d be very reluctant to endorse lower-body unstable surface training as a useful training implement for hockey outside of specific rehabilitation situations.

Also, to take this a step further, I need to make a clarification with respect to this statement from the original question: “ankles do adjust to become more stable after training like this.”  This should actually be rephrased as “previously injured ankles do adjust to become more stability after training like this.”  The truth is that nobody has really verified the incremental benefit of such training in healthy ankles (read: no previous history of injury) with a truly functional outcome measure.

The long-term studies examining the issue have been poorly controlled in the sense that they’ve looked at ankle sprains over the course of an extended period of time with an unstable surface training intervention, but haven’t taken into account previous history of injury.  So, the athletes engaged in the unstable surface training group may simply have been rehabilitating previous ankle injuries with longstanding functional deficits rather than “fortifying” already healthy ankles to prevent injuries.  Interestingly, in one study of elite female soccer players, balance board training did not decrease the rate of traumatic lower extremity injuries.  The frequency of major injuries – including four of five anterior cruciate ligament tears – was actually higher in the intervention (unstable surface training) group than the control group (2).

For more information, check out my new e-book “The Truth About Unstable Surface Training”

References:

1. Behm, DG, Wahl, MJ, Button, DC, Power, KE, and Anderson, KG. Relationship between hockey skating speed and selected performance measures. J Strength Cond Res. 19(2):326-31. 2005.
2. Soderman, K, Werner, S, Pietila, K, Engstrong, B, and Andredson, H. Balance board training: prevention of traumatic injuries of the lower extremities in female soccer players: a prospective randomized intervention study.  Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 8(6):356-63. 2000.”

Sep

4

Guarantee Your Success

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Several years ago I came across a recommendation to read Million Dollar Habits by Brian Tracy. Brian is a self-made multi-millionaire. He also never went to college.

One of the fundamental habits of his success was goal setting.
Setting long-term goals, then breaking them down into smaller chunks.

As an example, you might say I want to lose 30 pounds by August, 2010. 30 pounds in 52 weeks is about 2.5 pounds a month, a little over ½ pound a week.

Not only does goal setting help hold you accountable, but it also makes big goals seem more attainable.

Losing 30 pounds sounds awful. Losing ½ pound doesn’t seem so bad.

It’s amazing how simple this is, and how few people do it.

It’s amazing how many people say “I don’t need to do that.”

Maybe some people can get away with not writing out their goals, but why risk it.

The most successful people in EVERY industry have clearly written out goals.

If you’re not reaching your goals try writing them down.

Write them every morning.

You’ll be amazed at how much this helps.

- Kevin Neeld

Sep

2

A Valuable Coaching Lesson Part 2

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The other day I mentioned that coaches should lead by example.  I wrote a short paragraph about what this means in my Off-Ice Performance Training Course that I wanted to share with you:

“A word of advice for coaches: It would be best to not prescribe any exercise that you can’t do yourself.  Ideally, you should be in great shape.  Athletic coaches should live what they preach and look the part.  However, if you work in a profession that demands 20 hour work days and you use one of your remaining 4 hours to coach a hockey team, you should AT LEAST practice a few of the exercises until you feel comfortable demonstrating them.  Practice in the office if you have to.  Not only will this keep you awake, but it will make a sometimes mundane office day a bit more exciting!  You may want to consider going through the off-ice practices with your athletes.  Leading by example will be a great way to earn and maintain their respect.”

-Kevin Neeld