Month: June 2022

Multi-Planar Approach to Ankle Mobility

Great post on taking a broader view on ankle mobility from @timlebbossiere.

Give these 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.

From TIm:

One of the things I’ve strived to get better at over the years is finding meaningful ways to improve ankle mobility because I think it is the hardest joint to get meaningful changes in

I think too often we just tell athletes to throw their toes on the wall and do a couple of reps of ankle dorsiflexion. That’s better than nothing, but we have to remember that the ankle dorsiflexes, plantarflexes, inverts, everts, and rotates.

Some of my favorite “different” ankle mobility variations:

1. Staggered Stance Squat – dorsiflexion on back leg
2. Lateral Lunge to Cross Behind Lunge – inversion/eversion of stable leg
3. Lateral Leg Swings – rotation of stable leg (if you keep your foot pointing straight ahead)
4. Anterior Ankle Stretch – plantarflexion in both ankles

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kevin Neeld, PhD (@kevinneeld)

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!

Alternating MiniBand Elvis

The Alternating MiniBand Elvis is another exercise we integrate into our prep work.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kevin Neeld, PhD (@kevinneeld)

There are a couple things this exercise can help accomplish:

1️⃣ Help athletes learn to dissociate between hip and lumbar range of motion.

Keeping the pelvis stable while moving from the hip can help athletes create more power, while generally reducing unnecessary stress on the low back/lower ab areas.

2️⃣ Improve strength/control of the hip external rotators from an internally rotated position.

Many exercises designed to strengthen the hip rotators start with the hip in a neutral position of rotation and work into external rotation from here, so they miss ~1/2 the arc, which is particularly important since this is where most injuries occur.

A few quick coaching cues:

✅ Keep your hips level and facing forward throughout the exercise. Put your hands on your hips as a reference.
✅ Allow one knee to “fall” in as far as possible, pause, and then pull the knee out as far as possible to stretch the band.
✅ You can allow your feet to roll in and out as you move from the hip, but your foot should stay on the ground throughout.

Typically performed for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps/side. Can progress by moving to thicker bands.

Give this a shot, and feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, tag a friend in the comments section below, and 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!

Aerobic Training to Support Repeat Sprint Ability

Over the last 10 years, there’s been a wide-spread emphasis on “high intensity interval training” to improve conditioning in team sport athletes.

Recently, there’s been more attention paid to the importance of repeat sprint ability (i.e. clustered maximum efforts with incomplete rest before longer periods of lower intensity activity or complete rest), either as the predominant characteristic of sport or as a key characteristic during critical moments of competition.

Unfortunately, a byproduct of these trends is that the benefits of aerobic training have been either largely overlooked or actively dismissed.

Short sprints rely heavily on the PCr (Phosphocreatine) system as an energy source. One of the major limiting factors to repeat sprint ability is the resynthesis of PCr, which is depleted from max efforts lasting more than few seconds (or short efforts repeated within condensed time periods…like a typical hockey shift).

Aerobic training is one of the primary methods of improving PCr resynthesis rates.

Below is a quote from a paper I reference often:

“High-intensity interval training (6–12·[2 minutes at ~100% VO2max:1minute rest]), can significantly improve PCr resynthesis during the first 60 seconds following high-intensity exercise. In contrast, no changes in the rate of PCr resynthesis have been reported following interval (8·[30 seconds at ~130% VO2max:90seconds rest]), or intermittent-sprint training (15·[6-second sprint: 1-minute jog recovery]), or training involving repeated, 30-second, all-out efforts (4–7·[30 seconds ‘all-out’: 3–4 minutes rest]).“

While the authors use “high-intensity interval training” to describe the 6-12 x 2:00/1:00 interval, this is not a method commonly used by those relying on high intensity conditioning (the later examples in the quote are more representative).

The point here is that even if your goal is SOLELY to support maximum speed efforts, aerobic training plays a KEY role in allowing the athlete to repeat those outputs.

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!

90-Degree MiniBand Step-Out

The 90-Degree MiniBand Step-Out is an exercise we’ll integrate into our prep work both in the off-season and during the year.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kevin Neeld, PhD (@kevinneeld)

The goal here is to teach the player to “hold strong” on the front side knee as they open-up in the opposite direction.

It’s fairly common for players to take some form of contact while in these positions, and a failure to keep the knee posted outward can lead to injury. This helps reinforce a stronger base that may reduce injury risk, but will also help athletes maintain space/position while taking contact through a transitional pattern.

Keeping the band around the knees provides the most direct feedback to the player about their knee position (which is largely driven by hip control).

A few quick cues:

✅ Aggressively pull the front knee out to “stretch the band” while stepping back and around 90-degrees

✅ Keep hips centered between both feet at all times

✅ Head and shoulders should stay stacked over the hips throughout the motion

If the athlete is having a hard time grasping the pattern, I’ll set up next to them with my shin parallel to theirs and lightly push my knee into theirs, so they can feel the contact while resisting the pressure during the movement.

Typically performed for 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps/side.

Give this a shot, and feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, tag a friend in the comments section below, and 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