I was fortunate to be featured in a new article that just went up on The Athletic. The article shares some insight into: ✅ The rigors of the NHL season and how it impacts recovery✅ A typical practice day for our staff✅ In-season monitoring strategies✅ How the performance field will evolve as a result of… Read more
Once athletes reach a certain training age, improving maximal strength requires using near-maximal loads. Loads above ~85% will maximize recruitment of the involved motor units (nerve and connected muscle fibers), and also lead to positive adaptations in rate coding (i.e. the firing frequency of the nerves), both of which lead to improvements in force output…. Read more
Rotational power is an essential physical quality to train in most team sports. There are a few key layers to improving rotational power: Does the athlete have the foundational capacity to effectively perform rotational patterns (i.e., do they have optimal hip and thoracic spine rotation)? Can the athlete separate/dissociate lower/upper body rotation? Can the athlete… Read more
Creating environments for an athlete to “self-organize” (e.g. try, fail, recognize failure, try a different way…) can be a powerful motor learning strategy. Particularly in group settings, having strategies that allow the coach to teach without speaking frees up the coach to work with individuals/exercises that require a more hands on approach. This is an… Read more
One of the big mistakes that the most committed youth athletes make is training the same way in-season that they do in the off-season. These graphs are from a talk I gave at the @nscaofficial Training for Hockey Clinic several years ago and provide an overview of how the emphases on specific physical qualities should… Read more
Kevin has rapidly established himself as a leader in the field of physical preparation and sports science for ice hockey. He is currently the Head Performance Coach for the Boston Bruins, where he oversees all aspects of designing and implementing the team’s performance training program, as well as monitoring the players’ performance, workload and recovery. Prior to Boston, Kevin spent 2 years as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the San Jose Sharks after serving as the Director of Performance at Endeavor Sports Performance in Pitman, NJ. He also spent 5 years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with USA Hockey’s Women’s Olympic Hockey Team, and has been an invited speaker at conferences hosted by the NHL, NSCA, and USA Hockey.
“There is a reason I made the four hour roundtrip drive to train with Kevin during my off-season. His innovative and scientifically-backed training programs helped bring my on-ice performance to the next level.”
Jack Walchessen, Peterborough Petes, OHL