Kevin Neeld — Hockey Training, Sports Performance, & Sports Science

Hockey Strength and Conditioning Update

This is the first Hockey Strength and Conditioning update of 2011! As I mentioned in a previous post (2011 Hockey Strength and Conditioning), we have a few exciting things in store for our members this year. If you didn’t read about it yet, click the link above to check it out. The overall intention was to expand our content to provide more information that youth coaches and parents could use. If you weren’t sure if the site was right for you last year, it will be in 2011!

There’s been some great stuff over the last couple weeks:

My Road to the Top from Michael Boyle
Hopefully you’ve read this already, but this is a must-read for aspiring strength and conditioning professionals. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the underlying theme of Coach Boyle’s article really applies to anyone that aspiring to do anything. This hit home for me.

In-Season Core Training-Phase 3 from Sean Skahan
This is the third phase of Sean’s in-season core training program for the Ducks. It’s a great mini-circuit that would hit all the major movement patterns in a short amount of time. For youth coaches, this progression is something you could pull off the site and start using immediately. As long as your athletes demonstrate proficiency with the movements, it’s okay to progress to the next phase.

Video of the Week: 1-Leg DB Row from Darryl Nelson
Darryl shows a variation to a traditional 1-arm db row and provides some coaching cues to correct some common errors that the athlete in the video is demonstrating. It’s always interesting to see what other coaches look for while their athletes are lifting.

Table Stretching from Mike Potenza
Four partner-assisted stretches to loosen up the hips. Mike walks you step-by-step on how to perform the four stretches, what compensations to look for, and how to position your body to ensure the athlete is moving in the right places. I may just be lazier than Mike, but if I was working with older athletes that were mature enough to get it, I’d teach the team how to do this so I didn’t have to stretch everyone out personally. It’s all situation specific though.

By the weekend we’ll be posting an article I wrote on “Dissecting the 1-Leg Squat” (which dives into why I’ve abandoned the pistol variation altogether and exactly how I think the exercise should be performed to get the most bang for your buck) and a youth team dynamic warm-up with videos. This dynamic warm-up is the first part of our “youth training programs” addition to the site. In my opinion, establishing a dynamic warm-up should be the first priority of youth coaches because it’s something that can be done before EVERY practice and game. This warm-up is exactly what we use at Endeavor with all of our youth hockey teams and I’ve included videos of all the exercises so people unfamiliar with the names will know how to do them. Any questions, just hit up the forum.

Which leads me to…

The forum activity has been outstanding over the last week. Kevin Schaeffer asked a great question on how to improve sleep quality, especially for teams that are traveling a lot. Interesting responses there. Sean started a thread on the controversial topic of whether VO2 max testing is worthwhile for hockey players, and I added a video I stole from my friend Maria Mountain that redefines how we think of “strong.” The Hockey Strength and Conditioning forum is starting to turn me into one of those guys that just lurks around the internet all day waiting for an exciting update.

This guy knows what I’m talking about

If you aren’t a member, go check out what you’ve been missing by clicking the link below. If you are a member, go check out all the content I mentioned above and hop on the forums to comment on the threads!

Click Here for the best in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Remember, it’s only $1 to try HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com for the first week. You will never find more hockey training content anywhere for $1, and it’s only getting better.

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Kevin Neeld

Kevin Neeld Knows Hockey

Kevin has rapidly established himself as a leader in the field of physical preparation and sports science for ice hockey. He is currently the Head Performance Coach for the Boston Bruins, where he oversees all aspects of designing and implementing the team’s performance training program, as well as monitoring the players’ performance, workload and recovery. Prior to Boston, Kevin spent 2 years as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the San Jose Sharks after serving as the Director of Performance at Endeavor Sports Performance in Pitman, NJ. He also spent 5 years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with USA Hockey’s Women’s Olympic Hockey Team, and has been an invited speaker at conferences hosted by the NHL, NSCA, and USA Hockey.