Month: February 2022

Goalie-Specific Power Training: Lateral Pushing

Lateral and rotational jumps can help goalies improve the speed at which they get across the crease.

One piece of feedback I’ve heard from goalies over the years is that after going through a training phase to improve speed/power, they OVER push, and end up past the position they need to be in.

A couple years ago, I had a conversation with my friend @goalietraining about this issue and she mentioned integrating more “short amplitude” lateral pushes. With these, the goal is to cover a shorter distance as fast as possible, instead of attempting to cover as much ground as possible. This better replicates the patterns goalies go through most commonly.

This video (Click here to see video: Goalie-Specific Power Training) from Maria is of a short-amplitude lateral push resisted by the @ancoretraining cable (which has been an awesome addition to both our training facility and my home gym).

Any significant off-ice changes will take some practice time to transition those improved qualities to the ice, but integrating both maximum effort jumps AND short-amplitude lateral pushes provides goalies with a more versatile movement skillset that better transitions to the ice.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For comprehensive hockey training programs to improve your speed AND repeat sprint ability, check out: Speed Training for Hockey

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Goalie-Specific Power Training

Goalies need to generate power in lateral and rotational patterns.

The Lateral Bound with Rotational Rebound is an example of a jump progression that emphasizes both patterns along with body control through the transition.

The goal is to cover as much ground as possible in each jump, while controlling the transition and the landing. We’ll start from a low position (opposed to tall), and cue the player to move “eyes first”, a strategy that helps reinforce the goalie finding the puck with their eyes as quickly as possible.

Typically performed for 3-4 sets of 3-5 reps per side.

There are clear benefits to this type of exercise, but there’s a short-term issue that arises when goalies improve their power that I’ll discuss more tomorrow.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For comprehensive hockey training programs to improve your speed AND repeat sprint ability, check out: Speed Training for Hockey

Enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Sports Performance and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Hockey Conditioning: Off-Season Goalie Training Progression

In viewing the game demands for hockey goalies, it’s apparent they do not need the same focus on anaerobic capacity that is often essential for forwards and defensemen to integrate into their training programs.

This picture is adapted from the “Performance Profiling as a Platform for Program Design” presentation I gave at our Optimizing Adaptation & Performance seminar, and shows examples of off-season training progressions for players with 3 different training goals.

As a general rule, goalies should follow the progression outlined in the Speed column. There are several unique features to this off-season progression, but the most notable is that when players transition to anaerobic capacity work (typically the last 2-3 weeks of the off-season), the goalies transition back into another speed phase.

Typically during the late off-season phases, goalies are also starting to spend more time on the ice, so the overall volume of off-ice work AND the emphasis on lateral movement should decrease.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For comprehensive hockey training programs to improve your speed AND repeat sprint ability, check out: Speed Training for Hockey

Enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Sports Performance and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Hockey Conditioning: Goalie Considerations

The goalie position has unique physical demands compared to forwards and defensemen that should factor into the training process.

This image shows heart rate data (courtesy of @dmcconnell29) from a goalie in a game and a practice. Clearly there are differences in the conditioning demands in how goalies are being utilized in practices compared to games, but there’s another key takeaway:

Goalies are required to move at high intensities in short bursts, but generally not for sustained periods long enough to drive heart rate up, and then have LONG breaks to recover.

While there are some considerations for preparing goalies for “worst case scenarios”, goalies should really be trained more like sprinters – major focus on raising the ceiling for their speed/power, with supporting aerobic work to help with recovery and consistency.

Feel free to post any other comments/questions you have below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For comprehensive hockey training programs to improve your speed AND repeat sprint ability, check out: Speed Training for Hockey

Enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Sports Performance and Hockey Training Newsletter!