Month: July 2016

29 Lessons on Hockey Development

Last week I had an opportunity to speak at a youth hockey camp in Toms River, NJ that Jack Walchessen was running.

Jack has been a long-time training client who, after a successful OHL career (Captain of the Peterborough Petes and recipient of the Dan Snyder Memorial Trophy for Humanitarian of the Year), decided to transition his training from preparing for another hockey season to preparing for PSTs and BUDs in pursuit of becoming a Navy Seal, which was an interesting challenge for both of us.

When Jack first asked me to come speak, I agreed immediately. Then he dropped this on me (I’m paraphrasing): “I’d like you to cover training, nutrition, and recovery…I’ll have players under 10 up through the U-18 level, and their parents. You’ll have one hour.”

Pretty straight forward, right?

As usual, I got fired up on Starbucks and talked fast, so we were able to cover a lot. With that in mind, I wanted to share 29 of the messages that I discussed in the presentation with you. This a quick read, but should leave you with a few tips on areas you can improve upon.

29 Lessons on Hockey Development

1) Being an athlete is a 24-hour/day commitment. The older you get, the more important it is to view everything you do away from the rink as part of your preparation. You can’t just show up and expect to be great.

2) Physical preparation, nutrition, and recovery will ALL have a significant effect on your performance. If you’re doing really well in one or two of these areas, focus your energy on making improvements in the other(s).

3) Training allows players to execute their skill sets at the highest level, and can often make up for mediocre abilities. It doesn’t matter if you have the best shot in the world if you don’t have the speed/quickness (and hockey sense) to create the time and space you need to release it.

4) Eating real food, consistently, will not only make sure you’re properly fueled for games, you’ll also be able to train harder, recover faster, and generally adapt better, so EVERYTHING you do will lead to you making faster progress.

5) Sleep is arguably the most important part of recovery that every player at every age and level can make significant improvements on. Mild sleep deprivation (e.g. think 6 hours per night), consistently, can have the same detrimental effect on performance as not sleeping at all for an entire night. Think about that.

6) Simply, you can’t develop as a player if you’re hurt. Improving your durability should be a goal of every hockey training program.

7) The injury risk associated with the training process should be as close to zero as possible. Any training method, or coach, that has a reputation for injuring people should be avoided at all costs.

8) Weightlifting has a lower incidence of injury than playing soccer. As adults, we need to stop perpetuating this myth that lifting weights is not safe for kids. No parent in their right mind would not allow their kid to play youth soccer because of fear of injury.

Tempo Goblet Squats are a great way to teach kids proper technique, while also improving lower body strength and low position endurance. And…they’re incredibly safe.

9) I’ve said this a million times…maybe not a million…but at least 12, quick feet training is NOT speed training.

Just a few more seconds…THEN you’ll be faster10) Ladder drills are more specific to tap dancing than they are to skating.

Step 1: Watch this. And when you finish laughing at the Knight Rider, Elevator Music and Missy Elliot mash-up they decided was most appropriate for this video, look at his body position (he goes no where), hand movement (short choppy arcs coming only from moving at the elbow, not the shoulder), and eye position (buried into the ground).Step 2: Watch this. Enjoy the impressive rhythmicity as you note the similarities in speed of foot movement, but completely absence of the body going anywhere.Step 3: Watch this, read the next section below, and then consider which two of these videos look the most similar?11) Look at the cadence of his foot turnover during the starts, turns and when he opens up in the straight away. Even when his feet are moving fast, it’s still a much slower cadence than “quick feet drills”. This is a crucial distinction between speed training drills that transfer to skating and those that transfer to running. The longer the skate blade is in contact with the ice, the larger the propulsive force that can be produced with each stride.

12) Even tap dancers can keep their eyes straight ahead while they move their feet. Among the many negatives of using ladders for speed development, the athletes bury their eyes into the ground to make sure they don’t step on the ladder. There is no ladder on the ice. The ladder doesn’t matter.

Note the eye position.

13) Speed training doesn’t need to look like speed training to improve speed. In other words, just running more sprints is rarely the best solution. Most kids can’t go faster because of strength and technique limitations. Overlooking these is like optimizing the fuel injection into a 2-cylinder engine with crooked alignment. In other words, it’s like my car. Don’t be like my car.

For most youth players, THIS is speed training.

14) This is one of my favorite videos from my 7 years at Endeavor. A lot of lessons to be learned here. A cast over his wrist didn’t cause him to miss a single week of training. “Big legs” and “strong legs” aren’t always the same thing. Most hockey players I hear say “I don’t lift lower body because my legs are big enough” are really saying “my legs are fat, and I’m lazy.” Despite being considered small, Kyle’s incredibly strong. There’s a reason he was the first two-time Captain at Harvard since 1923. World-class work ethic.

15) Understanding what is limiting you from achieving your goal is arguably the most important part of the development process. Most people skip the “diagnostic” step, and just throw a bunch of training at someone and hope it works. Would you be comfortable doing this with your car? “Yea, we uh, went ahead and changed your oil, put in new windshield wipers, and rotated your tires.” “Is that what was wrong with my AC?” “We didn’t check, but most cars need those things so we just did that. Good luck.”

16) We drastically over-complicate nutrition. Eat REAL food as often as you can. If you do this, most other problems take care of themselves. There are a few real food rules I recommend using as guidelines: 1) Real food can be hunted or grown; 2) Real food was real food 10,000 years ago; 3) Real food has one ingredient. I asked a young girl at the talk to list all of the ingredients in broccoli. She covered her face with her hands, got super red, peeked out from behind her hands, and said, broccoli? NAILED IT! You don’t need to be a dietician to get this part right.

17) When you eat real food, food shopping is a breeze. Work the perimeter of the store (produce, meat, eggs), duck into an aisle to pick up some spices, and if you’re eating beans with every meal like I’ve been for the last 3 weeks…toilet paper, and you’re done.

Real Food: Eggs, black beans, spinach, cherry tomatoes, onions and roasted garlic.

18) If you’ve struggled to master reading food labels, I have a solution: If it has a food label, don’t buy it. Problem solved.

Real Pop Tart Label. Don’t you just love how the sodium acid pyrophosphate compliments the thiamin hydrochloride?

19) Most kids skip breakfast or eat cereal, eat a sandwich and chips for lunch, and eat whatever their parents make them for dinner. This means for the overwhelming majority of the day, they don’t consume any actual REAL nutrition.

20) It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you are capable of picking something up, putting it in a bag, and then putting that bag into another bag, you have all of the requisite skill sets to pack your own lunch. Don’t rely on your parents to do this for you; take responsibility for your own eating.

21) Mild dehydration can significantly impair mental and physical performance. Don’t worry about counting how much water you drink every day. Your pee should be clear ALL day long. If it’s not, you’re not drinking enough water.

22) Juice is not good for you. We need to stop hiding behind the “vitamin” content in juice as a justification for it being good. EVERYONE reading this knows someone affected by Type II Diabetes and/or obesity. NO ONE reading this knows a single person affected by scurvy. We have a bigger problem with sugar intake than we do with vitamin C deficiency.

Sugar content in common drinks (Image from: littlebitsweet.wordpress.com)

23) “Sitting is the new smoking.” The body adapts to the positions it spends the most time in. We need to make a conscious effort to get up regularly to interrupt the body literally molding itself to better fit in your couch.

24) One of the primary strategies your body uses to stabilize itself is vision. This is why you can stand on one leg so much easier with your eyes open than with your eyes closed. Components of vision are trainable. If you stare at a cell phone for hours each day, you’re training your vision to fixate on something a few inches in front of your face. This impairs your ability to use your vision more dynamically (e.g. to absorb and process all of the movement around you while you’re on the ice) and teaches your body to over-rely on visually fixating on a single point for stability. Usually these people stare at the floor while they walk to feel “grounded” and fall apart on a single-leg stance test when they close their eyes.

25) Being “ready” to perform is a balancing act between stress and recovery resources. If you aren’t making the progress you want or feel like you’re constantly worn down, try to tease out if it’s because you’re doing too much (e.g. playing on 2 teams, practicing 5 times per week than playing 4+ games on weekends) or not providing enough recovery resources (e.g. CONSISTENT real food, hydration, quality sleep, etc.).

26) One of the most powerful ways to improve sleep is to keep your room cold, dark, and quiet. Make sure your cell phone is on “do not disturb” mode and face down, as this will allow all of your messages/calls to come in, but the sound and light from the phone won’t impair your sleep.

When all else fails, take a cue from my wife and sneak a quick nap in during the day. If you nap for a full 90 minutes, you’ll actually get some “deep sleep” in, which is the type characterized by hormone release associated with tissue growth and repair, and such a deep state of unconsciousness that you won’t notice if your dog climbs on top of you and wedges into the awkward spoon position.

27) Three things every player can start doing TODAY to improve their development are to: 1) Find a quality hockey training program; 2) Start eating a vegetable with every meal; and 3) Carry a water bottle with you all day long.

28) Commit to excellence in everything you do. Be the best athlete you can. Be the best student you can. Be the best friend you can. Be the best son/daughter/brother/sister you can. Take pride in who you are as a person.

29) Everyone that told Johnny Gaudreau he was too small to succeed at the Midget, Junior, College, and Pro levels was right. He was. He is. But he succeeds anyway. Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t achieve. No one knows what you’re capable of.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team

“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University

Elite Athletic Development: Mike Robertson Q&A

Today I’m excited to share a Q&A that I did with Mike Robertson, co-creator of the Elite Athletic Development series. Building off his guest post from the other day, one of the 4 jump training mistakes he mentioned was only training bilateral jumps.

This is an important topic because the degree to which training transfers to improved sport performance can depend on how specific the qualities or movements are to what takes place in your sport. In other words, and tying things back to the the lateral bound post from a couple weeks ago, jumping vertically off two legs won’t transfer to skating as much as jumping diagonally off of one.

This idea sets the stage for today’s Q&A, where Mike discusses a few key concepts that transfer more to rotational power development, which has applications in every team sport, but is especially relevant for hockey, baseball, golf, and soccer.

Q&A With Mike Robertson

KN: A couple weeks ago, you had a great post on thorax rotation. Knowing that most of my audience is from the hockey world, can you talk about what thorax rotation is, and why it’s so important for rotational athletes?

MR: I think thorax rotation is a critical component for every rotational athlete.

But far too often we just think “thoracic spine,” and not the thorax – i.e. the spine, ribs, sternum, etc.

While I hate to be reductionist in my thinking, here are a few prerequisites for good movement:

Mobile yet stable hips,
Tri-planar core stability,
A thorax that can rotate on top of those stable abs.

However, here’s what we see a ton of at our gym:

An anteriorly tilted pelvis, which limits rotation at the hip,
An extended/deep lower back, which puts the abs in a very poor position to control and position the spine, pelvis and ribcage, and
An extended thorax that limits rotation.

So there’s not just one issue that limits the ability of an athlete to rotate well, but a multitude of factors.

Another big take home point is that we’ve driven this concept to t-spine extension into the ground. Sure if the t-spine is too flexed that limits rotation, but too much extension limits rotation as well.

And we won’t even broach the topic of how proper airflow can fix BOTH issues… 🙂

KN: That’s a great point about about their being a “sweet spot” of thoracic positioning that allows for optimal rotation. It’s another great example of ideas in training not being black and white, and also highlights the importance of having a good assessment process. Doing more t-spine extension work may be extremely helpful for one person, yet completely inappropriate for another.

In a similar context, you recently wrote a great article on “alternating function.” What is alternating function, why is it important, and what are a few examples of how you integrate these concepts into training?

MR: Well if we take that “well moving” athlete I described above, alternating function is the ability to properly position, and coordinate, the hips, core and thorax to create seamless, integrated movement.

Thorax rotation is a critical component of alternating function, but it’s not the whole show.

Take a slap shot in hockey for example (I was going to say golf, but in writing they always say to “know your audience!”). When a right handed player goes into his backswing, he is going through the following motions:

Externally rotating the right shoulder and left hip,
Internally rotating the right hip and left shoulder, and
Creating right trunk rotation which is anchored by a tri-planar left ab wall.

And then when you’re talking about the follow through, just take that whole list above and flip-flop it.

Slapshot

The follow through of what we can all assume was a highlight reel goal

But here’s the thing – the first step is being able to achieve the positions first. Many people are doing the right things, but don’t have the biomechanics “prerequisites” to do them with compensation.

Once you can achieve the right positions, it’s all about patterning and coordination to tie it all back together.

KN: This is one of the areas I think sports performance coaches can really help sport coaches. When athlete’s don’t possess the range of motion, strength, or control to get into the positions or perform the motions the coaches want, they’re set up for failure right away. A good assessment and training program can help identify those barriers so the coaches have a more “moldable” athlete to teach.

Switching gears, a few months back you and I spoke about the misconceptions regarding energy system development for hockey players. Can you talk about how your approach to conditioning has evolved over the last few years, and what some of the major factors are in designing a conditioning program for an athlete?

MR: Well I’m the first to admit I did everything wrong early-on.

I fell into the trap of “glycolytics fix everything,” with no real understanding of the physiological demands of most team sports.

Nowadays, I’m very focused on building that aerobic base first. I’m also a big believer in using low-intensity work early-on in an off-season even if an athlete is well-conditioned, just to make a smoother transition into high-intensity work.

But once you get past the methods of training, I think we can all prepare an athlete physiologically for their sport.

The next big step is merging the physiology with the demands of the sport from a loading perspective.

Let’s take your standard aerobic power running protocol, where you have an athlete running 2 minutes on and taking 1 minute off.

That’s a great program physiology wise, and it may work well at a certain point in your program, but I don’t think that’s where you need to leave guys off.

When you get into high intensity aerobic work (15 seconds on, 15 seconds off) and start to pair that with decelerations and change of direction, now I think you’re really on to something.

At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to see how fit we can make our athletes. That looks nice during pre-season testing, but the ultimate goal is to create an athlete who can meet both the physiological and biomechnical demands of their sport.

Mike Robertson-Joe Kenn-Elite Athletic Development Series

Click here for more information >> Elite Athletic Development 3.0

KN: Making the transition from off-season to pre-season as seamless as possible is definitely a key component to a good training program. Wrapping up, for someone new to your EADS series, can you talk about how this event came to be and what someone thinking of investing in the videos can expect to get?

MR: The original EADS seminar came about because of a dinner Joe Kenn and I had back in 2013. He and I always try to get together when he’s in town for the combine, and somehow we got on the topic of speaking at seminars.

We were both lamenting the fact that at most seminars, you get maybe 45-50 minutes to speak. By the time you do your intro and your close, you probably only have 25-30 minutes to actually talk training!

We decided that night that we were going to do a course, and in 2014 we hosted our first EAD seminar.

Every year since, we’ve hosted an Elite Athletic Development seminar, because we’re incredibly passionate about sharing what we do with other coaches.

I think what most people enjoy about these seminars is that they are very real and transparent. Joe and I are very open about what we’re doing, what’s working, and where we’ve failed.

At this year’s event, we both started off with our keystone talks – for me it was the R7 Approach to Training, where I discuss how we structure our programming at IFAST.

Joe started with his Tier System talk, which outlines how he uses the tier system to build all of his athletic development programs.

From there, my focus on the weekend was bridging the gap between philosophy and application. I did a talk on breathing and core training, and another on single-leg training.

The goal was to not only give you the reasoning behind my approach, but to then go in the gym and show you how to coach it.

House’s other big talk was his Block Zero programming, which is what he uses not only with his young athletes, but to help on-board new athletes.

We’ve all had a new kid come in our gym who has trained for X number of years, but they haven’t trained in our system. Or used our training techniques.

All in all I think this is a fantastic resource, and one I’m really excited to get out there.

KN: Thanks Mike. Appreciate you sharing your time and expertise!

As a friendly reminder, Mike and Joe’s new Elite Athletic Development 3.0 series is on sale for $100 for the next few days only!

Click here for more information >> Elite Athletic Development 3.0

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. For more information on how to design PROVEN training programs to improve your athletes speed, power, strength, and conditioning, check out Elite Athletic Development 3.0 today!

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

Elite Athletic Development: 4 Jump Training Mistakes

Last week I mentioned that Mike Robertson and Joe Kenn were about to release the newest segment in their Elite Athletic Development series. Well, EADS 3.0 is officially available for purchase today. There’s a ton of quality information packed into these videos, including some good hands-on sessions so you can see not only how two of the top experts in the field design programs, but also how they coach.

Click here for more information >> Elite Athletic Development 3.0

As part of the launch, they shared a 3-part video series from Adam Feit and Bobby Smith on Jump Training for power development.

Today we’re going to continue on with the theme of jump training with a special guest post from Mike Robertson on the four top mistakes athletes make with their jump training. This is a quick read, but has a lot of great tips in it for athletes and coaches alike. Enjoy!

4 Jump Training Mistakes from Mike Robertson

I don’t know one single athlete who wouldn’t like to be more explosive.

They could be sporting a 40-inch vert, or an 11-foot broad jump, and they’d still want more!

Over the years, however, jump training has lost some of its luster.

This happens in part because strength is easy to chase and measure.

But at the same time, if your athletes want to be explosive, there’s nothing better than upgrading your jump training.

With that being said, here are four mistakes I see coaches make with regards to their jump training.

Mistake #1 – Only Training Standard, Bilateral Jumps

Everyone loves to talk about the vertical jump.

But when you think about sport, how often do you take off in standard two-legged jump?

Probably not all that often.

Sometimes you get an approach.

Sometimes you don’t.

Sometimes you take off on one leg.

Sometimes it’s both.

Sometimes it’s both, but in an offset or staggered position.

Can you see where I’m going with this?

If you want to build a complete athlete, train them to jump and land from various postures and positions.

They’ll not only be more resilient, but better prepared for the inevitable chaos of sports.

Mistake #2 – Only Training the Vertical Jump

Much like strength, it’s easy to fall in love with the vertical jump.

The biggest reason for this is two-fold:

It’s easy to test, and
It’s fun to train.

But the vertical jump is just one piece of the puzzle.

When we talk vertical jump training, we’re talking about vertical power.

But in many sports, horizontal power is equally (if not more) important.

Instead of focusing solely on the vertical jump, include more broad jumping into your programming.

Or really take it to the next level and start incorporating lateral single-leg jumps.

When you expose your athletes to all these various movements, you’ll find they not only become more athletic, but more resilient as well.

Mistake #3 – Not Training the Landing

While this is technically the third mistake, I should have put it first.

The analogy that I always use is this:

Everyone wants to drive a Ferrari.

They’re super fast, and there would be nothing cooler than taking one out on the open road and seeing what it can do.

But how hard would you want to push that Ferrari if you found out the brakes weren’t working?

Jump training is no different.

Too often, we spend all our time building a bigger vertical, but spend little (or no time) improving our landing!

When it comes to the landing, here are a few things I’m looking for:

Weight shifted slightly forward, but still able to feel the whole foot (including the heels).
Ankles dorsiflexed/quads loaded.
Hips back.
The foot, knee and hip in alignment.

One mistake I made in the past was focusing too much on how the landing sounded.

The cue “Ninja Landings” worked great for my athletes, because they immediately understood that I wanted them to land softly.

But unfortunately, that’s not how it works in sport.

Instead, I want them to land in that athletic posture, but to land normally.

It’s not a quiet landing, but it’s not a loud landing, either.

The goal is to have them land as they naturally would, so that they can take advantage of the stiffness this landing creates.

If they land normally and in good alignment, you’re going to have one heckuva athlete on your hands.

Click here for more information >> Elite Athletic Development 3.0

Mistake #4 – Only Training Jumping When You’re Fresh

If your goal is to increase the jumping ability of your athletes, then you must to train power when you’re fresh.

However, you have to realize that in sport, you don’t only jump when you’re fresh.

In fact, what’s even more important is being able to be explosive when you’re gassed!

Once you’ve built a solid foundation of strength and power, make it a goal to train power and explosiveness when you’re fatigued.

One of my favorite tools to do this is with kettlebell jumps. We’ll work for short periods of time (6-8 seconds) and then take a full recovery period.

As you get closer to the season, gradually reduce the rest period. This will challenge the aerobic system, and make it more efficient.

Summary

Far too often, jump training is an afterthought in our programs.

But if your goal is to make your athletes faster and more explosive, smart jump training is a surefire way to help.

Avoid these four mistakes when you’re writing your training programs, and I guarantee your athletes will be better off as a result!

-Mike Robertson
Elite Athletic Development 3.0

P.S. For more information on how to design PROVEN training programs to improve your athletes speed, power, strength, and conditioning, check out Elite Athletic Development 3.0 today!

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

Get Ultimate Hockey Transformation Now!

Year-round age-specific hockey training programs complete with a comprehensive instructional video database!

Get access to your game-changing program now >> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team

“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University

Jump Training for Power Development

I hope you’re having a great week. My article last week on lateral bound norms sparked a few great discussions on the value (and limitations) of the test, and how that test may be a more, or at least equally, suitable power test for hockey players.

Speaking of power training, my friend Mike Robertson is about to release the 3rd edition of the Elite Athletic Development series he’s been filming with Carolina Panthers S&C Coach Joe Kenn.

As with every good product launch, Mike and Joe are kicking things off by releasing some AWESOME, and completely free, information that I know you’ll enjoy.

As part of the EADS 3.0 seminar, they had Bobby Smith and Adam Feit, two guys that have developed a great reputation in my neck of the woods in Jersey, give a presentation on “all things jump training.” In this first segment, you’ll learn:

Jump training progressions to maximize power development
The most effective set and rep schemes
Specific keys to help maximize an athletes potential

Check it out here >> Maximize my power development

There’s no hard sell here. This is great information that builds off the topic of power development I discussed last week and it’s available to you for FREE.

I’d strongly encourage you to check out the videos, even if you’re just an athlete and want to few simple cues to perform your plyometric/jumping exercises more effectively!

Check it out here >> Maximize my power development

This is the first of a 3-part video series, so once you watch the first, you’ll automatically be notified of when the next two are released. Enjoy!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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

Get Ultimate Hockey Transformation Now!

Year-round age-specific hockey training programs complete with a comprehensive instructional video database!

Get access to your game-changing program now >> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.”
– Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team

“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with”
– Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University

Hockey Power Testing: Where do you rank?

A couple weeks ago I was at the Catapult Hockey Workshop in Denver with a few dozen strength and conditioning coaches from the NHL and NCAA. While there, someone asked me about the Lateral Bound test, one of many “hockey power tests” I really like.

I’ve written about the Lateral Bound Test in the past, but if you missed those articles, you can check them out here:

In short, I think the Lateral Bound Test is more hockey-specific, and provides different (if not better) information than a Vertical Jump.

One of the biggest problems with testing is that most people don’t actually do anything with the information. This is likely the result of people not knowing what a “good” score is for many tests, and the difficulty in assessing one’s true genetic ceiling (e.g. if I’m better than everyone else, is that still as good as I can get?).

With these things in mind, I wanted to share some normative data from the hundreds of hockey players I’ve tested over the last few years. Hopefully this provides a basic target for you to measure your own status, as well as your progress moving forward.

The above table shows the average and standard deviations for different age groups for Vertical Jump, Vertical Jump Power (using Sayer’s Formula to estimate the power based on vertical jump height and body weight), Split Distance, Lateral Bound Distance, and Normalized Lateral Bound Distance (Lateral Bound/Split Distance).

As a quick reminder, the split distance (discussed more in the Testing Power in Team Sport Athletes article) provides different information than simply a leg length test. In the 95 athletes I have leg length AND split distance data for, the two variables shared a correlation of only .163. That number should seem low, but to put it in perspective, leg length had a .103 correlation with percentage body fat.

The table also shows the number of athletes in each age group for each cluster of tests. I actually have A LOT more VJ and Lateral Bound data than this, but I included included VJ data where I also had VJ Power (we haven’t always assessed body weight in certain circumstances) and lateral bound data where I had split distance (this wasn’t part of the early testing procedures).

As a quick refresher, the standard deviation gives a general idea of the distribution of test scores. In a normalized distribution (as these scores were), ~68% of the population will fall within one standard deviation around the average, 95% will fall within 2 standard deviations (i.e. 34.1+34.1+13.6+13.6=95.4), and 99% will fall within 3 standard deviations (i.e. 95.4+2.1+2.1=99.6).

This same data can be used to estimate what percentile you fall in relative to the population. For example, if you’re 18 years old and your average lateral bound distance is 88 inches, you can use the standard deviations to write out these percentages:

50% = 83.6
~84% = 88.6
~97.5% = 93.6
~99.9% = 98.6

So your score of 88 inches would fall roughly in the 84th percentile.

Vertical Jump (left axis) and Vertical Jump Power (right axis) normative data (presented as average +/- 1 standard deviation)

Lateral Bound (left axis) and Normalized Lateral Bound (right axis) normative data (presented as average +/- 1 standard deviation)

As I mentioned in a previous article, one of the benefits of using the lateral bound test is that it provides insight into side to side discrepancies that are otherwise hidden by a vertical jump (in the absence of a dual force plate). While you may think the differences between legs are relatively negligible, of the 446 lateral bound tests I have data on, 88 (19.7%) show a side-to-side discrepancy of 4 or more inches.

This is important because it could be indicative of a power and/or range of motion deficit on one side that may increase injury risk. At the very least, there’s no reason to believe this discrepancy is “optimal” and therefore it may warrant taking steps to normalize balance.

The last thing I wanted to look at is how these tests vary by position. For those of you that like to look at raw numbers, I’ve included the sample sizes, averages, and standard deviations in the table below.

For the rest of you, let’s just take a look at a few line graphs that simplify the message.

Vertical Jump by position. Note that goalies lag behind forwards and defensemen until ~18 years old.

Lateral Bound by position. No notable differences between positions at any age group.

Lateral Bound Distance normalized to Split Distance. Once again, goalies are considerably lower than position players, but now it’s consistent across all ages.

There are several different ways to look at this position-specific data. Starting with Vertical Jump, it appears that goalies lag behind everyone else until Juniors/College. From personal experience, I think there are two major reasons for this: A) Goalies tend to over-emphasize flexibility training and under-emphasize…well, any other form of training, and B) At younger ages, it’s pretty common for the fattest and/or least athletic kid to get throw in net. I think most goalies would do better to put a great emphasis on training for speed, power, and strength IN ADDITION to their flexibility work at younger ages.

When we look at Lateral Bound distance, the raw numbers are difficult to interpret because we don’t know if differences are the result of leg length (unlikely), hip structure (possible), and/or flexibility (likely) differences between positions, or true power output differences. This is clarified by the normalized lateral bound graph. Here, the goalies are again significantly behind the other positions. In fact, at younger ages, their normalized values are barely over 1.0, which is the “I can jump as far as I can fall” threshold.

Again, I would argue that most goalies would benefit from improving the focus on their speed/power training in conjunction with their flexibility training. However, I also think it’s important to appreciate the nature of the position, and recognize that the goal isn’t necessarily to make all of the positions identical. The optimal ratio for most goalies is likely still below position players; however, goalies may feel more reactive on the ice if this gap is narrowed.

Wrap Up

The most important part of testing is to provide yourself with a baseline measure so you can track progress over time. Simply, if you beat your last test, you’re headed in the right direction. However, many players are interested in how they compare to others in their age group, and understandably so. After all, if you improve from worst to slightly better than worst (I call this “less bad”), it’s not nearly as meaningful as climbing into the “above average” category. With this in mind, the above normative values can be used as a guide to assess where you rank in terms of power production. Hopefully you can use this information as motivation to not just train harder, but also train smarter.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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