Month: May 2022

Speed Training: Med Ball Chest Pass w/ Step

In a previous post, I mentioned that limitations in speed development can be identified by asking the below questions:

1️⃣ Can the player get into the right positions?
2️⃣ Can the player hold the right positions?
3️⃣ Can the player push out of the deep positions?
4️⃣ Can the player “explode” out of deep positions?
5️⃣ Can the player create separation?

Related to Question #4, early acceleration phases of skating rely on a more sagittal plane dominant strategy (pushing back), opposed to max speed skating that relies on a more frontal plane dominant strategy (pushing laterally).

This video is of a Med Ball Chest Pass w/ Step, and is an example of an exercise that can positively impact this early acceleration phase, which is often described as “first step quickness” by players and coaches.

The emphasis of the exercise is on an aggressive push through the front leg (see picture). With that in mind, it’s important to:

✅ Set up with an aggressive forward lean over the front foot.
✅ Think of “pushing the ground back” through the front foot to JUMP forward.
✅ As your foot leaves the ground, follow through by throwing the ball as hard as you can toward the wall.

Make sure to leave yourself plenty of room so you can catch the ball safely off the rebound.

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

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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Increasing Rate of Force Development

Maximizing intended contraction speed leads to decreased recruitment threshold of high force motor units, increased doublet firing, and increased rate of force development (ROFD).

This is true even with isometric contractions, so this strategy can be used in a variety of ways – from improving strength through sticking points to maximizing ROFD in specific ranges to preserving fast twitch muscle in load compromised athletes.

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 more information on in- and off-season program design, training and reconditioning for injured players, and integrating sports science into a comprehensive training process, check out Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

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

Sport Performance Model

This is an overview of factors contributing to performance from a presentation I gave to a group of youth hockey players a few years back.

The message here is that performance at any moment will be the result of how you’ve prepared yourself physically (how well-trained you are), how you’ve fueled yourself (not only the day of the performance, but also in the days, weeks and months leading up to it), and how diligent you’ve been with your recovery to help the body positively adapt to training/practice loads.

A few examples we spoke about:

1️⃣ If you’re a highly skilled player, but find you never quite have the time to use your skills, it may be that your speed isn’t adequate to allow you to demonstrate your skill sets. This would be a training fix. You can train to improve your speed and that will improve your performance.

2️⃣ If you’re training really hard and working hard on the ice, but you skip breakfast and then eat chips and skittles for lunch, this will impair your energy levels headed into every training session, so you won’t be able to train as hard as you could if you ate better, and you may be missing key resources like protein that your body uses to help build and repair muscle, so you won’t improve as much either. This would be a nutrition fix.

3️⃣ Lastly, if you do everything right from a training and nutrition standpoint, but you only get 6 hours of sleep because you stay up late on social media every night, your performance will suffer.

All three of these things are incredibly important, and if you’re doing really well in one area, the goal should be to identify opportunities to improve in the others.

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 more information on in- and off-season program design, training and reconditioning for injured players, and integrating sports science into a comprehensive training process, check out Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

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

Lateral Movement: Hip Stability & End Range Strength

One thing a lot of athletes struggle with is maintaining a stable pelvis while pushing laterally.

It’s common to see the torso bend back toward the pushing leg in exercises ranging from Lateral MiniBand Walks to Lateral Bounds and lateral cutting in transitional speed work.

While there’s a time and place for emphasizing this type of “bend”, more often than not it’s causing the athlete to lose time/speed by creating a lag between the push-off and the body moving laterally through space.

One simple way to start to address this is with the Lateral Wall Push exercise in this video.

The goal here is to keep the torso upright by maintaining wall contact with the hips and shoulders and to use the outside leg to “push the floor away” to generate maximum push-off force.

This set-up can be used in a couple different ways – either to: 1️⃣ emphasize push-off strength at different hip angles (more upright = less hip abduction) or to 2️⃣ focus on end-range strength, starting as deep as possible and shifting slightly deeper as range of motion opens up from rep to rep.

The feedback from the wall will help the athletes isolate motion at the hip while maintaining a level pelvis, which creates a foundation for them learning how to push laterally without folding over the back leg.

Typically performed for 4-8 reps of 5s holds.

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

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For more information on how to assess movement and integrate specific strategies to improve mobility and movement quality in training, check out Optimizing Movement. Don’t have a DVD player? Send me a note through the contact page after you checkout here Optimizing Movement and I’ll get you a digital copy of the videos!

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Winning Culture

The picture below is a throwback to (2012?) USA Hockey Women’s National Team Camp in Blaine, MN.

Great memories working with this group alongside @michael_boyle1959, @anthonydonskov, and @smcstrength.

Yesterday I shared a quote from the @hph_podcast discussing how testing can be used to both drive and assess a groups commitment and culture. You can check it out here >> Testing & Culture

The above picture is an excerpt from my book Speed Training for Hockey, and shows the progress one of the Women’s National Team players made through an Olympic cycle. Most notably – the player added 8″ to her vertical jump and substantially decreased her on-ice acceleration/sprint time.

Incremental gains made consistently over time leads to substantial, career-changing progress.

One of the key features of a winning culture is that the players are continuously pushing for the next level. When enough players adopt this mentality, it becomes the dominant voice in the room – the expectation for the group.

Performance testing certainly isn’t the only barometer for this type of commitment, but it is a simple, effective way of establishing standards, reinforcing expectations, and providing an opportunity for players to own an area of their performance that is COMPLETELY within their control.

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!