Month: April 2012

Youth Hockey Training Blueprint: Part 2

Part 1 of the “Youth Hockey Training Blueprint” series presented a real-world example of the environment and philosophy by which a youth hockey organization off-ice training program was designed. Part 2 picks up with age-specific training principles and guidelines, and provides examples of the exact dynamic warm-ups we use for these teams. Enjoy!

Age-Specific Breakdown

In general, age-specific recommendations follow the progressions outlined in the athletic development pyramid below. The goal is to create a solid foundation of proper movement patterns and sound training habits, upon which elite level athleticism can be built.

 

 Athletic Development Pyramid

The Athletic Development Pyramid can be expanded to include the following long-term development recommendations:
U12

  1. Participate in 2-3 different sports with distinct off-seasons
  2. Emphasis should be on having fun with friends
  3. Incorporate other outdoor activities (e.g. riding a bike, rollerblading, hiking, playing tag, run to bases, capture the flag, etc.)
  4. Begin teaching basic athletic and exercise movements and education on the importance of posture

13-16

  1. Participate in 2 different sports with distinct off-seasons
  2. Emphasis should be on developing overall athleticism and sport-specific skills
  3. Begin athletic development training program (1-2x/week in-season, 2-4x/week off-season), emphasis on learning efficient movement patterns and proper lifting technique

17+

  1. Specialization in one sport is okay at this point
  2. Emphasis on maximizing sport-specific skill
  3. Participate in athletic development training program (2x/week in-season, 4x/week off-season) with increased emphasis on maximizing strength, power, and conditioning

These age groups are simply general guidelines based on average physical and psychosocial development rates. To paraphrase my mentor Mike Boyle, it’s important that we don’t apply adult values to youth sports programs. The importance of having fun should not be overlooked in the development process.

In accordance with these guidelines, teams within the organization can be segmented into different groups with distinct, but inter-related training goals. In this case, divisions were made as follows:

  1. Group A: ‘02’s-‘00’s (~Ages 9-12)
  2. Group B: ‘99’s-‘97’s (~Ages 12-15)
  3. Group C: U-16-U-18 (~Ages 15-18)

Based on the included ages and the respective training backgrounds of the players in each group, the purpose or goal of each group’s program can be determined, which will dictate the design of their program:

GROUP A (’02’00)

Purpose

  1. Develop proper training habits
  2. Multi-directional movement
  3. Short-distance sprints
  4. Proper jump technique
  5. Reactive skills
  6. Basic movement patterns: squat, lunge
  7. Basic core: glute bridge, front plank, side plank, miniband walks

GROUP B (’99-’97)

Purpose

  1. Develop proper training habits
  2. Learn proper exercise technique with basic movements
    1. Squat, stiff-legged deadlift, slideboard hamstring curl, reverse lunge, dumbbell chest press, push-up, chin-up, 1-arm dumbbell row
    2. Progress to Olympic lifts if proficiency is developed in basics
  3. Basic core: glute bridge, front plank, side plank, miniband walks and variations

GROUP C (16U-18U)

Purpose

  1. Develop proper training habits
  2. Learn proper exercise technique with basic movements
    1. Squat, stiff-legged deadlift, slideboard hamstring curl, reverse lunge, dumbbell chest press, push-up, chin-up, 1-arm dumbbell row
    2. Progress to more advanced exercises: single-leg variations, dissociated upper body movements, etc
    3. Teach Olympic lifts
  3. Basic core: glute bridge, front plank, side plank, miniband walks and variations
    1. Progress to more advanced

These divisions are also ideal from a scheduling standpoint. In this organization, teams around the same age group have similar practice days and times, which caused time slots on specific days with multiple teams having the exact same off-ice training time slot. Because these overlapping teams fall in the same “Group”, it’s possible to combine them into one larger group for training purposes.

Developing Proper Training Habits

A common theme in the program of each group is to develop proper training habits. While this may differ slightly among groups, in general this refers to:

  1. Eating a decent pre-training meal
  2. Arriving on time and focused
  3. Following instructions from a coach
  4. Performing soft-tissue work
  5. Performance flexibility work
  6. Warming up
  7. Putting an appropriate effort into each exercise
  8. Supporting teammates

While some of these qualities should develop organically via the training process, many of the players don’t have a sufficient understanding of the importance of soft-tissue and flexibility work, and warming up. As a result, we place a lot of attention on these things early on so that players begin to internalize these practices as beneficial and necessary, not as a hassle easily bypassed.

With the two older groups (B & C), our warm-up is as follows:

Foam Roll

  1. Front Quad: 30s/side
  2. Lateral Quad: 30s/side
  3. Hamstrings: 30s/side
  4. Inner Thigh: 30s/side
  5. Glutes: 30s/side
  6. Upper Back: 60s
  7. Lats: 30s/side

Static Stretch

  1. ½ Kneeling Hip Flexor w/ Internal Rotation: 30s/side
  2. Lying Knee to Knee: 60s
  3. Lying Glute: 30s/side
  4. Straight Leg Adductor w/ Hips Extended: 60s
  5. Straight Leg Adductor w/ Hips Flexed: 60s
  6. 3-Way Hamstring: (3x10s)/side
  7. 90° Pec Stretch: 30s/side

Dynamic Warm-Up

  1. Wall Ankle Mobility (3×5)/side
  2. Walking Knee Hug: 8/side
  3. Walking Quad Stretch: 8/side
  4. Reverse Lunge w/ Hamstring Stretch: 8/side
  5. Spiderman Lunge w/ Rotation: 8/side
  6. Backward Inverted Reach Walk: 8/side
  7. Inverted Reach Walk w/ Quad Stretch: 8/side
  8. Lateral Lunge Walk: 8/side
  9. Butt Kickers: 25 yards
  10. High Knee Skips: 25 yards
  11. Side Shuffle: 25 yards/side
  12. Carioca: 25 yards/side
  13. Back Pedal: 25 yards
  14. ¾ Speed Jog: 25 yards
  15. Backward Run: 25 yards
  16. ¾ Speed Jog: 25 Yards

When captains are named at each team, they are notified that after the first month they will be expected to run their team’s warm-up. This gives them the knowledge and confidence to implement the warm-up before practices and games when a member of our staff is not present.

For the younger teams (Group A), we use a slightly modified version of this warm-up:

Dynamic Warm-Up

  1. Walking Knee Hug: 8/side
  2. Walking Quad Stretch: 8/side
  3. Reverse Lunge w/ Rotation: 8/side
  4. Backward Inverted Reach Walk: 8/side
  5. Lateral Lunge Walk: 8/side
  6. Butt Kickers: 25 yards
  7. High Knee Skips: 25 yards
  8. Side Shuffle: 25 yards/side
  9. Long-Stride Carioca: 25 yards/side
  10. Short-Stride Carioca: 25 yards/side
  11. Back Pedal: 25 yards
  12. ¾ Speed Jog: 25 yards
  13. Backward Run: 25 yards
  14. ¾ Speed Jog: 25 yards

The same static stretch circuit is used but performed at the conclusion of the off-ice session instead of the beginning. In our experience, younger kids tend to lose focus quickly if immediately put into a static environment. We prefer to get the kids in organized lines and moving immediately, and approach the flexibility work later in the session. From a myofascial standpoint, an argument can be made for the benefits of static flexibility work at the beginning and end of a training session; the timing of this work is less important than just ensuring that it gets done.

Stay tuned for Part 3 which will present training templates and our approach to periodization for each age group!

If you’re looking for other quality off-ice hockey training information (tips through articles, sample training programs used by NHL players, unique exercise videos, comprehensive webinars, and an open forum to have training experts answer your personal questions) from some of the world’s leaders in off-ice hockey development, check out HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com! You can get instant access to all of the information for 7-days for only $1!

Click here for more information: Hockey Strength and Conditioning

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Don’t forget to check out Hockey Strength and Conditioning for more great hockey training tips!

P.S.2. As always, I appreciate you forwarding this along to anyone you think will benefit from the info! You can use the social media dropdown menu at the top right hand corner to share it via Twitter and Facebook!

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Youth Hockey Training Blueprint: Part 1

Several months ago I wrote a 3-part article series on designing off-ice hockey training programs for youth hockey organizations for Hockey Strength and Conditioning. The series outlines the realities that many coaches face in these situations, which involves sub-optimal space, equipment, and coach:athlete ratio. The goal with this article is to dissect my thought process in how I went about developing the programs for the organization, in hopes that all of you working in similar situations may be able to pick up some helpful hints.

If you’re looking for other quality off-ice hockey training information (tips through articles, sample training programs used by NHL players, unique exercise videos, comprehensive webinars, and an open forum to have training experts answer your personal questions) from some of the world’s leaders in off-ice hockey development, check out HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com! You can get instant access to all of the information for 7-days for only $1!

Click here for more information: Hockey Strength and Conditioning

Youth Hockey Training Blueprint: Part 1

Training an entire youth hockey organization provides a unique opportunity to integrate long-term off-ice player development strategies into the program. From a hockey standpoint, the coaches will benefit from having more physical developed and structurally balanced players, ultimately leading to more successful seasons. From an off-ice standpoint, players are able to develop proficiencies in exercise technique and general off-ice training habits that will both improve their ability to smoothly transition to college or professional levels AND increase the probability that they’ll possess the athleticism and resiliency to compete at those levels.

For the last several years, we’ve had an organization-wide agreement with a local Tier I youth hockey club. In years past, the program was run like most typical off-ice training systems using “line drills” and body weight exercises almost exclusively. While this environment certainly does not preclude benefits in athleticism and injury resistance, it absolutely limits the freedom in training strategies in which to develop these qualities.  This is the first year that we’ve been able to designate and equip a training space within the rink, which led to a somewhat drastic overhaul in the design of the program. The purpose of this “Off-Ice Training Blueprint” is to provide a step-by-step illustration of the program design for this organization, from age-specific philosophies to periodization implementation to exercise selection. When appropriate, environment-specific limitations will be addressed with the hopes that differences in this regard between our setting and yours will not limit your ability to apply a similar thought-process to implementing your program.

Space and Equipment Availability

As I alluded to previously, the amount and nature of the available space and equipment will play an important role in designing the training program. We currently have access to:

  1. ~900 sq ft Designated Training Space
    1. 4 barbells
    2. ~12 each of 45, 25, 10, and 5 lb weight plates
    3. Dumbbell rack with one set from 5lbs through 50lbs
    4. 3 stability balls
    5. 1 chin-up bar
    6. Two suspended handles
    7. 4 8’ slideboards
    8. 1 flat benches
    9. 1 adjustable bench
    10. ~20 minibands
    11. ~12 med balls (3-4 kg)
  2. ~30 yard hallway directly outside of designated training space
  3. Snack bar area
  4. Enclosed room (~700 sq ft)

This is where all the magic happens!

 

 

The snack bar area, while large, is almost entirely unusable space. With the distraction of TVs, parents, view of two ice sheets, and general background noise, getting a team of youth kids to focus in this space is nearly impossible. Unfortunately, because of scheduling, it is not possible for every team to spend their time in the designated training space; nor is this space necessarily optimal for the development of certain qualities. The hallway is great for warming up and doing basic core work (e.g. planks, bridges, miniband exercises, etc.), but can become both wet and crowded so can’t be relied on. The enclosed area is not always available and is on a different floor from the designated training space (upstairs near the snack bar).

Player Profile

The organization currently has 9 teams divided by birth year from ‘02’s-‘97’s, with two U-16 teams and one U-18 team. Each team has between 14-20 players, with younger teams typically residing on the lower end of this range and older teams residing on the upper end. The organization, although young, boasts an impressive alumni of players that have moved on to the Division I level, especially given that it is located outside of Camden, NJ (not exactly a hockey hotbed!). The players are lucky to have a few former NHL players serving as coaches. The success of past players combined with the prowess of the coaching staff tends to attract more motivated players that are serious about competing at high levels and weeds out a lot (although not all) of the behavior problems associated with babysitting a team of players that aren’t interested in their own development.

Coaching Availability

On any given night, we have two coaches that are available to run the sessions. The hockey coaches are supportive, but not expected to be present during the sessions.

General Training Philosophy

From a long-term player development perspective, the two most important outcomes from our off-ice training program are:

  1. Develop proper training habits
  2. Become proficient at foundational exercises

From a more short-term perspective, it is reasonable for players to expect improvements in:

  1. Overall athleticism
  2. Injury-resistance

Despite the expected desires of players, parents, and coaches, the long-term perspective must be preserved in the pursuit of short-term goals. In other words, quality cannot be negated in the interest of quantity. Off-ice training is about improving a player’s speed, but it’s not JUST about improving a player’s speed. It’s about improving strength, but not JUST about improving strength. Players need to be taught how to position (read: posture) themselves and move properly before adding load or volume. Likewise, players need to internalize a proper training process before progressing to more advanced strategies for the development of any one physical quality. Dynamic warm-ups aren’t nearly as sexy as maximum strength work, but they’re just as important to a player’s development.

Part 2 will dive more into age-specific training principles and guidelines, and provide examples of the exact dynamic warm-ups we use for these teams. Stay tuned!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Don’t forget to check out Hockey Strength and Conditioning for more great hockey training tips!

P.S.2. As always, I appreciate you forwarding this along to anyone you think will benefit from the info! You can use the social media dropdown menu at the top right hand corner to share it via Twitter and Facebook!

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Weekend Hockey Highlights

Tomorrow I’m going to share a detailed article series on off-ice hockey training for youth hockey organizations that I wrote for Hockey Strength and Conditioning several months ago.

The best hockey training resource.
Before I get to that, I want to diverge from the normal hockey training content nature of this site and congratulate some of the players I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last few years.

In no particular order:

Jamie Hill, who I’ve worked with over the last 3 off-seasons at Endeavor Sports Performance was recently awarded USHL Offensive Player of the Week. He notched 1g and 6a in 3 games on consecutive nights to help lead the Waterloo Black Hawks to 3 consecutive victories. Jamie has put in a lot of hard work since I’ve known him and is one of the players that always reaches out to me with questions during the year. I’m proud to see how all of his hard work is paying off for him.

Read the story here: USHL Honors – Week 27

Johnny Gaudreau has been a superstar at Boston College this year. John has trained with me over the last two off-seasons and to say he was under-sized for the USHL last year and for Hockey East this year would be an understatement, but John is a special player. He basically grew up on the ice. In fact, I can remember watching him go inside outside on a defenseman during a 1-on-1 when he was 5 years old (I used to help at camps at the rink John’s dad works out of in South Jersey). He’s fast and very strong for his weight, it’s his hands and vision (arguably the best vision of anyone I’ve ever seen play the game!) that really set him apart from everyone else. He’s certainly an inspiration for other under-sized players and a great example of how players can succeed despite not fitting the stereotypical mold.

Last year, in his first year in the USHL, John won rookie of the year honors and lead his team in scoring in the playoffs, en route to a USHL Championship. This year, John was awarded the MVP of the Beanpot and Hockey East Tournaments, and helped clinch a National Championship for BC with a highlight reel goal. Not a bad resume for a 5’8″ 150lb freshman!

As you can imagine, he’s gotten some nice press recently. Well deserved!

Read the story here: In the Winning Habit

And here: Gaudreau’s Highlight-Reel Goal Clinches Boston College’s 5th National Championship

Interestingly, in the 59 picture slideshow accompanying the last article, there isn’t a single shot of John’s 1-on-2, goal, or following celebration…probably because the photographers were busy picking their jaws up off the floor.

Check out the highlights from the national championship game here: NCAA National Championship Highlights

Lastly, as you likely know by now, I left a week ago to head up to Lake Placid to help out with the strength and conditioning of the US Women’s National Team Pre-World’s Training Camp, and then traveled to Burlington, Vermont for the IIHF World Championship. There is still A LOT of hockey to be played and work to be done, but Saturday was a really special night as USA opened against their rivals in Canada. In a truly unique game, USA scored 5 goals in the first 5.5 minutes to take a 5-0 lead. The crowd was loud and the atmosphere was awesome. Several of the girls that have been around for a while commented that they’ve never played in front of such a one-sided (in favor of  USA) crowd before in their entire careers. USA finished the game with a staggering 9-2 win.

Off to a great start!

Read the Story Here: Team USA Routs Canada in Opener

It’s been a great experience working with the team and the staff here. More than anything else, I’m impressed with how the entire organization, from the goalie that doesn’t dress on a given night, to the “first line” players, to the athletic trainer, to the head coach, to the program director LIVES the team motto of “Team First”. EVERYONE willingly and without hesitation makes personal sacrifices for the betterment of the team. It’s truly an honor to have an opportunity to work in this environment and it’s something I wish every player and coach at every level could witness. It’s the way TEAM games should be played and organizations should be run.

That’s a wrap for today. Check back in a couple days for the article series on off-ice hockey training for youth organizations!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. As always, I appreciate you forwarding this along to anyone you think will benefit from the info! You can use the social media dropdown menu at the top right hand corner to share it via Twitter and Facebook!

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

It’s been a wild ride over the last week. Last Thursday I flew into Boston and spent a few days at a seminar with my friend Devan McConnell, and the guys at Northeastern. Sunday, when the seminar wrapped up, I immediately got a rental car and drove to Lake Placid to join the US Women’s National Team for the tail end of the Pre-World’s Camp, and yesterday we all relocated to Burlington, VT. It’s been a great experience so far, although I had to step up to film a scrimmage against Finland, so I’m a little worried about the quality of that as a resource for breaking down footage (“Why hasn’t the camera moved in the last 5 minutes?”).

Needless to say, I’ve been pretty busy and apologize for not putting up much in the way of new content over the last couple of weeks. I’m hoping to get back on track in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, check out some of the great stuff that we’ve been adding at Hockey Strength and Conditioning recently. Before we get to that, have you listened to these three interviews?

  1. Hockey Training Radio Week: Part 1
  2. Hockey Training Radio Week: Part 1
  3. Hockey Training Radio Week: Part 1

Also, if you’re a member of my “Ultimate Hockey Training Insider Section”, I added three new programs a few days ago: Early Off-Season 2-3 Day/Week Phase 1, Early Off-Season 5-Day/Week Phase 1 & 2 so make sure you check those out! The Insider section is available exclusively for those that have purchased Ultimate Hockey Training so check it out if you haven’t already!

Over the last couple weeks, there have been several great additions to the site. Check out everything via the links below:

Programs

  1. 4-Day Off-Season Conditioning from Mike Potenza
  2. Level 1 Training Program: Phase 1 from me

This is a 12-week 4-day/week conditioning progression from Mike, and what we’ve used at Endeavor as a basic introductory training program for athletes that are joining us for the first time. Our “Level 1” programs are very heavy on the basics. The goal is always to teach and reinforce proper movement and exercise technique, to build a large foundation to build from in the future.

Videos

  1. Ball Squeezes from Sean Skahan
  2. Stagger Stance Lateral Squat from Darryl Nelson

Sean posted two exercises that he uses in players returning from groin injuries and as part of his programs in the interest of minimizing groin injury risk. We’ve used these and several other similar variations for the same purpose. Great stuff. Darryl’s video shows a variation to the lateral squat that I’ve never seen before. This looks like a great option for helping the athlete to find the locked out back leg that we want. I’m definitely going to play with this one over the next few weeks.

Articles

  1. Goaltender Specific Strength and Conditioning from Darryl Nelson
  2. Stiffness Isn’t Always Bad from Eric Renaghan
  3. Training Overhaul: Making the Transition from Old School to Current Principles without Pissing off the Coach! (Part 1) from me

Darryl and Eric’s articles both address common “dogma” areas of hockey training. Darryl outlines the physical qualities that goalies need to be successful and addresses how he incorporates goaltender training into the overall team program. While we do things moderately different at Endeavor, our philosophies are extremely similar. The circus acts that are performed in the interest of making training goaltender-specific is laughable. They still need to be strong, powerful, and well-conditioned. Eric highlights that stiffness isn’t always a bad thing (in fact, it’s often a desirable thing!) and suggests a few exercises to improve stiffness strategically.

Finally, I realize how difficult it can be to bring a lot of new ideas to a coach or training program that may have, well, aged roots. Transitioning an old school program to one with more current concepts isn’t easy, and a lot of your success will depend on both the openness of the program to change AND how you sell it. In my article, I’ve presented a progression for implementing new concepts for specific physical qualities and some of the language I’ve used to explain why a change may be necessary to the coach. Being able to speak the same language as the coaches is important in allowing them to understand the benefits of the program. For example, coaches may not care about thoracic mobility, but they will likely understand harder shots. Is the correlation 100% direct? Obviously not, but framing it in a way that helps them understand why something is important may gain you the green light you need.

Podcast

  1. Hockey Strength Podcast with Dan Boothby

Dan Boothby, who works with Northeastern’s hockey team, hops on the Hockey Strength Podcast to discuss the upcoming Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group Summer Seminar in May. This seminar features a hockey-specific track with a number of incredible speakers, including Sean Skahan. I haven’t missed this one in the 3 years it’s been up and running and it’s the first one I put on my calendar every year. If you train hockey players, I STRONGLY encourage you to go this year. Check out this link for more info: BSMPG

If you haven’t heard already, the membership cost at HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com jumps up to $14.95 on April 9th, but if you sign up for a membership today you can lock in the rate of $9.95/month for life!

That’s a wrap for today. 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!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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