Blogs

Coaching is a people business. Click here to share: Future of Sport Performance To your success, Kevin NeeldSpeedTrainingforHockey.comHockeyTransformation.comOptimizingAdaptation.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 […]

Stumbled upon this picture the other day of the “Commitment Continuum.” This was something Dr. Colleen Hacker shared with USA Hockey’s Women’s National Team, and serves as a powerful tool for all team sport athletes to self-evaluate their own commitment. The off-season is a time when players in all sports can completely re-invent themselves through […]

One of the primary goals of the early off-season is to re-establish full joint range of motion and control. A consistent (i.e. daily) focus on hip mobility work during the season can help players maintain their range of motion throughout the year; however, for players that are NOT consistently doing this work, it’s normal to […]

Hard to believe it’s been 3 years since Speed Training for Hockey was released. When @fitness_pollenator and I sat down to map out the book, our goal was to put together a comprehensive resource that details all of the factors that can improve a player’s speed, written specifically for youth players, parents, and coaches. We […]

The first question players ask after going through any form of performance testing is either “How’d I do?” or “Is that good?” Every player presents with unique physical characteristics that either help them perform at a desired level or prevent them from doing so. While there are a lot of individual considerations in interpreting testing […]

This is an exercise we integrate into our warm-ups to help reinforce a low skating position and strong push-off. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kevin Neeld, PhD (@kevinneeld) A common problem you see in less efficient skaters is that they adopt a wider stance and their stance leg collapses inward slightly, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]