The last 4 weeks have been a whirlwind. In mid May I started to get extremely busy at Endeavor as we started filling our morning groups with hockey players that were returning home from their junior teams (which means assessments, designing programs, and lots and lots of coaching). Simultaneously, we started up with our off-season […]
Blogs

Improving Athletic Performance Beyond Peak Strength: Part 2
Part 1 discusses the role strength plays in maximizing other physical qualities like speed and power, and lays the foundation for how players can improve their performance when they reach their genetic strength limits. Part 2, below, follows up with specific strategies on how to improve an athletes rate of force development, the secret to […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD Jun 11, 2012

Improving Athletic Performance Beyond Peak Strength: Part 1
It is fairly well accepted that strength, or the ability to produce force, lays the foundation for improvements in other important physical qualities such as speed and power. In other words, for any given strength level, an athlete has a limited ability to further improve speed and power. Once this relative ceiling is reached, improvements […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD Jun 6, 2012

Managing Structural and Functional Asymmetries in Ice Hockey: Part 2
Part 1 of this series described anatomical asymmetries that all humans have, and how they can lead to predictable patterns and functional asymmetries. Part 2, below, will dive into how these patterns directly affect hockey performance and how they may contribute to common hockey injuries. Influence on Hockey Performance These positions are not inherently harmful. […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 30, 2012

Managing Structural and Functional Asymmetries in Ice Hockey: Part 1
Ice hockey places a huge multiplanar demand on the structures of the hip and thorax. As such, it’s imperative that players achieve and maintain full range of motion (ROM) in these areas. Complete ROM necessitates that the involved joint starts in, or at least is able to achieve, a neutral or centrated position. Unfortunately, many […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 28, 2012

The Myth of Wrist Strength in Hockey
As long as I’ve been around the game, I’ve heard players and coaches preach about the importance of wrist strength. As a player, I bought in hard. I had an old skate lace wrapped around a broken stick, with a weight plate at the far end. I actually had a few, with different weights at […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 23, 2012
Strength and Conditioning Internships
Over the past several months, we’ve had more internship applications flood in for this Summer than we’ve had for any term in the 4 years that I’ve been at Endeavor. This, I believe, is a result of some of the networking we’ve done with local universities/colleges and the fact that Endeavor has become increasingly visible […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 20, 2012

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning
We’re wrapping up another busy week at Endeavor. I’m really excited for the weekend. Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading up to Boston with David Lasnier, Matt Siniscalchi, Anthony Vittese (a local PT that we’ve worked with a bit), and Ryan Podell (the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Flyers) for the Boston Sports Medicine […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 17, 2012

The Illusion of Invincibility
What percentage of performance is mental? I was first posed this question while taking a class at the University of Delaware on the mental aspects of peak performance. Every one of my classmates responded somewhere between 50-90%. Since that time, I’ve asked dozens of people the same question, and the responses almost invariably fall within […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 15, 2012

Limitations to Optimal Skating Performance
I wanted to kick this week off by following up on an article from last week on a few tips to help hockey players improve their skating technique. If you missed it, you can check it out here: 3 Keys to Developing Optimal Skating Technique In that article, I alluded to the fact that players […]
POSTED BY KEVIN NEELD May 13, 2012