I hope this finds you well, and that you’re as excited as I am for the start of the hockey season.
Over the last few years, balancing my work responsibilities with family time and wrapping up my PhD has not left a lot of extra time for writing.
When I started this site back in 2008, my main goal was simply to share information that could benefit athletes and coaches looking for an edge, and pass along things I was learning to my colleagues in strength and conditioning.
One of the many things I’ve learned over the last 13 years is that the writing process really helps me to clarify my thinking, particularly as I work to integrate new information into an evolving training system.
I’ve missed this over the last few years, and while I still don’t have the time to write long articles, I’ve recently started to share quick posts and videos on my instagram account (@KevinNeeld), which I’ll also post here.
As always, feel free to re-share anything that you think will benefit your friends, teammates, colleagues, etc, and please post any questions comments you have.
Hockey Speed Training Pyramid
In ideal circumstances, the training process should follow this process:
We often hear that different things work for different people.
There are many reasons why this is true, one being that most athletes are not exposed to Step 2.
There is no goal-driven diagnostic process to identify specific areas that are most likely to help the athlete achieve the desired outcome.
This picture is a general overview of my model of speed development for ice hockey players, taken from a presentation I gave recently for the Strength and Conditioning Association of Professional Hockey (SCAPH).
The key takeaway here is that athletes, particularly those with several years of training experience, shouldn’t identify a goal and start applying exercises without first diving into which areas of the pyramid are most limiting to their success.
To your success,
Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com
P.S. If you’re interested in learning more, check out my new book Speed Training for Hockey.
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