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

This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I hope you had a great week. We’re wrapping up another busy week at Endeavor. The hip assessments have spawned some interesting results that you’ll be interested to hear about in the future. Of the 20 guys I’ve tested, 1/4 have a structural abnormality that will absolutely need to be accounted for in their training, and the test is really easy to perform.

If you’re looking for an informative way to spend a few hours this weekend, we’ve posted a ton of stuff at Hockey Strength and Conditioning over the last few days. Check out what you’ve been missing!

Sean Skahan posted Phase 3 of his ACL rehab program. As Sean continues to post these progressions, it’s interesting to note that these don’t look like rehab prescriptions for a broken player. They look like a quality training program with some small pieces missing to account for the player’s injury. Hopefully this will continue to shed some light on the physical and mental efficacy of training around a player’s injury, and not just shutting the player down completely for the skeptics out there. Check out the program at the link below:

Click Here to Read >> ACL Rehab Phase 3 from Sean Skahan

My favorite Canadian David Lasnier had another terrific article posted on off-season hockey training. David has been on fire over the last month, as he’s had articles featured at StrengthCoach.com, SportsRehabExpert.com, and HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com (not bad for a guy who speaks English as a second language). All he needs now is to do a webinar for Anthony Renna’s LesWebinarsDeStrengthandConditioning.com and he’ll have officially “made it”! This article breaks down the complexities of off-season periodization into an easy to understand format that can be applied easily. This is the exact model we use to train our hockey players in the off-season at Endeavor Sports Performance.

Click Here for David’s Autograph>> Hockey Off-Season Periodization from David Lasnier

Mike Potenza posted an article outlining his philosophy on training throughout the playoffs. Whether you’re inclined to agree to disagree with his philosophy, I think he does a great job of pointing out that the NHL playoffs are far from short-lived. Those preaching to pack-in the training and basically do nothing at all may lose sight of the fact that, ideally, the team would be in the playoffs for about 3 months. Three-months of no training is sure to exacerbate hockey-related imbalances and detrain important physical capacities. Certain qualities (e.g. speed, conditioning) can be maintained well through on-ice work if it’s of sufficient intensity and duration. Other qualities will surely degrade (e.g. strength, power, structural balance). For some players, their confidence and overall durability are tied to certain physical qualities (e.g. strength), so it’s important not to overlook this when making decisions about late season and playoff training strategies.

Click Here to Read >> Playoff Training Model from Mike Potenza

Mike also added two videos on foam rolling and static stretching pairs, one for the upper body and one for the lower body (4 each). If you only have 5-10 minutes to get this work in, these series are good ones to follow.

Click Here to Watch >> Roller/Static Stretch Combos from Mike Potenza

Lastly, that Neeld guy slipped one past the guards and added an article on rotator cuff training for hockey players. This article highlights the most overlooked function of the rotator cuff and presents a few exercises to train it that you may not be expecting. In the interest of “prehab”, these exercises have extra value in that they aren’t isolative in training focus. In other words, they aren’t just “rotator cuff” exercises; they create a training effect for multi-directional core strength and stability, posture/movement pattern reinforcement and lower body strength (one of them).

Click Here to Read >> A New Look at Rotator Cuff Training

As always, the forums has been packed with some great discussions over the last couple days. When you sign into the site, be sure to check that out. Even in short threads, guys are posting videos and links to other resources that you won’t want to miss.  If you aren’t a member yet, shell out the $1 to test drive Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent, I’ll personally refund you!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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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.