Hockey Core Training Exercises
A couple weeks ago, my colleague Dr. Jeff Cubos told me to check out a relatively new assessment protocol called the Bunkie Test. I had never heard of it before so I took a look and found some interesting stuff. We haven’t integrated these “tests” into our assessment protcol at Endeavor, but I am integrating a few of the concepts into our hockey training programs.
The whole idea behind the Bunkie Tests is to assess the performance of different functional lines within the body. As an example, there is a well established connection between the external obliques and contralateral (opposite side) hip adductors (“groin” muscles). They frequently serve integrated functions in athletic movements. If you look at this picture of me taking a slap shot while at Delaware, you’ll see that my upper body is turning to the left, while my right leg extends and external rotates. This means that my left external oblique and right hip adductors are decelerating the movement. On the opposite side of things, my right external oblique and left hip adductors are both shortening.
This is just one illustration of this connection between the trunk and hip “core” musculature. Below is a video of an advanced core training exercise we’ve been using with a lot of our athletes recently.
There is also a lateral connection between the obliques and same side hip abductors. A great core training exercise to strengthen this functional path is:
To your continued success,
Kevin Neeld
Ice Hockey Training
Hockey Strength and Conditioning
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Kevin,
The Bunkie Tests are interesting, are you actually utilizing them as testing protocols as per the recommendations in de Witt’s papers?
Regards,
14.05.2010, 11:51 amCarson Boddicker
We haven’t incorporated them into our testing/assessment protocol at this point. I’m not sure that we will. Nonetheless, I think de Witt’s rationale behind the tests shouldn’t be overlooked. For now, I’m just incorporating the two exercises in the videos toward the end of our core training progressions. 100% of Endeavor athletes recently polled agree that these new exercises are their least favorite…ever.
14.05.2010, 12:16 pm[...] Often times I will use the Bunkie Testing method to assess the various lines throughout the body. I wrote a piece about the Bunkie Test late last year and it can be viewed here. Kevin Neeled also wrote a piece and shot some video on how and why this testing method may play an important role in kinetic linking for hockey players. You can read that here. [...]
11.06.2010, 12:56 pm[...] as I love (and all of our players loathe) Bunkie Side Planks (I talk about this in a previous post: Hockey Core Training Exercises), players with elbow or shoulder problems have a hard time getting into this position. In an effort [...]
01.09.2010, 6:03 am[...] a year ago, I posted a couple core training videos (Hockey Core Training Exercises) based on a protocol referred to as the “Bunkie Test”. The Bunkie Tests are used to [...]
01.06.2011, 6:05 am