I received a ton of great feedback about the two articles I posted this week. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, you can check them out here: Functional Training Fallacy and Become a Great COACH!
Mike Potenza was the star this week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. After wrapping up a busy week with their prospect camp, he somehow found time to put together an awesome article on movement training and a travel-friendly training program (sleep optional?).
Mike’s article on movement training was terrific. He outlined his philosophy on linear and lateral movement training, general progressions for this type of work, and specific exercise progressions for linear and lateral movements. He also wrote up a whole section on coaching cues to use to help get athletes to do things the right way. There is no benefit to training without proper movement, so hearing exactly what Mike looks for and how he cues his athletes is a great benefit. Check out the article at the link below:
Click here to read >> Linear and Lateral Movement Training from Mike Potenza
Mike also added a 2-day circuit based training program that doesn’t require any equipment. From what I gathered, this is something he’ll use for his guys that are traveling and don’t have access to much equipment. It’s great to have circuits like this as options because they aren’t overly technical (so you can be relatively confident that the athlete is doing everything the right way and they can be used by athletes that may be new to your system), and it keeps them relatively on track without sacrificing some of the niceties that the hockey off-season should allow.
Click here for Mike’s Program >> 2-Day Summer Travel Workouts from Mike Potenza
On this topic, I’ve come across some people in the hockey world that encourage players to finish the season, and then spend all of their time in camps, clinics, or in the weight room. Naturally, I think it’s extremely important that players make a commitment to their training in the off-season; I think it’s equally important that hockey development professionals recognize that hockey players also need time to recover and that mixing in a social engagement or vacation every now and then isn’t the worst thing. We actually schedule our 4-day programs to give our players 3-day weekends to head to the beach or just relax. Players should feel refreshed and ready to go at the end of the off-season, not beaten down. Too much time in the rink and gym with negligible opportunities to relax and enjoy life makes for a dismal entry into the season.
Do you really want to deprive your players of the…water…at the beach??
There have also been a couple great forum discussions over the last week. Darryl Nelson posted a link to a video of what appears to be the most comical and irrational implementation of science to date. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but I have a hard time buying that it’s the “future” of fitness. Although, the trend is for people to do less and expect more, so maybe this will catch on? There’s also a thread on on-ice conditioning progressions to enter the pre-season that is worth checking out. Some great minds weighing in with their advice.
As always, if you aren’t a member yet, I encourage you to try out Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. It’ll only cost $1, and if it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent, I’ll personally refund you!
Kevin Neeld