This goes for non-hockey players too. The best way to get the most bang for your training buck is to find a highly motivated partner and push each other.
You’ll be surprised how quickly you start to make progress when you’re paired up with a supportive AND competitive training partner.
Nothing creates on-ice success and friendship like a 150-Yard Shuttle Run.
– Kevin Neeld
This is what happens when you combine work ethic, raw strength, and a well-designed training program. The 1-Arm Dumbbell Hang Snatch is a great exercise to develop lower body explosiveness and force transfer through the core.
Endeavor will soon need to buy a new set of heavier dumbbells to accommodate Jamie’s dominance.
For the sport-specific fanatics out there that can’t see how this transfers on the ice, think of it this way. Any time you give or accept a check, you begin to produce force by pushing your skates into the ground, transfer the force through your core, and continue to transfer that force through your shoulder to an ill-prepared opponent. Any time you shoot you start to generate power through your hips, transfer it through your core, and follow through with your wrists.
Training isn’t about taking a pattern from the game (e.g. shooting with a weighted stick) and overloading it to death. In fact, that can lead to muscle imbalances that increase injury risk. Training is about teaching, reinforcing, and strengthening movement strategies, power generation/transfer and creating strength balance.
Train harder. Train smarter.
– Kevin Neeld
James Van Riemsdyk, the 2nd overall pick by the Philadelphia Flyer’s in the 2007 draft, is one of the many notable hockey players that has walked through our doors at Endeavor Fitness.
In this interview with ABC, James talks about how he’s preparing for his NHL debut.
*If the video does not appear below, click here to watch it directly from the ABC site.
Last week we had over 10 NHL draft picks, 15 Division 1 NCAA players, and 6 soon to be D1 players training here. If you play hockey anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic area and still aren’t training here, you’re missing out on a phenomenal opportunity to take your game to the next level.
As with all of my services, results are guaranteed.
If you don’t live anywhere near Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, but are still interested in making huge improvements this summer, shoot me an email at kneeld@endeavorfit.com. I have a few online training client spots left for DEDICATED athletes. With online training you’ll receive a comprehensive training program customized to fit your specific needs with instructions on how to perform the exercises and how to select the your loads/intensities. You’ll also receive nutrition consultation based on your needs.
Email me now. Training groups are filling up fast with players like this:
– Kevin Neeld
The other day I suggested that hockey players may be making a big training mistake, a balance training mistake. I’m referring to training that involves standing on medicine balls, stability balls, dynadisks, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I think unstable lower body training has a place in rehabilitation settings, especially for lateral ankle sprains. I DO NOT see a place for standing on these objects for healthy hockey players. Yes, hockey requires a lot of balance and stability, but NO it does not require these things while standing on a round object!
I can understand the appeal of mastering these circus acts, but they won’t make you a better hockey player. Balance is extremely movement and surface specific. This is evident by watching a team of talented youth hockey players go through a dynamic warm-up that requires single-leg stability (for details on how to design your own hockey-specific dynamic warm-ups using hockey-specific exercises, check out Hockey Training U’s Off-Ice Performance Training Course).
Despite their admirable skating ability on the limited surface area of a skate blade, many of them have trouble balancing on one foot off the ice, despite a much large surface area. Unstable surface training has been excessively misinterpreted and misused. Eric Cressey put together a phenomenal resource outlining the myths of unstable surface training. Of more interest to most people, he also includes a wide variety of awesome core training exercise progressions and the neurological rationale for why these exercises are beneficial. For only $39.99, I think this is a resource that every athlete (or coach that trains athletes) should invest in. I use it as a reference on a regular basis. STOP standing on stability balls, and START training smarter.
For more information on Eric Cressey’s Truth About Unstable Surface Training, click here.
– Kevin Neeld