Blogs

Here’s another sample in-season off-ice training program for youth hockey players from ~15-18 years old (Bantams and Midgets). A few notes: ✅ This is Phase 2 of the in-season program, so the main exercises have been progressed to over the course of the previous few weeks. The program is designed so the whole team goes […]

Breathing patterns can have a significant effect on many aspects of an individual’s physical and mental performance, recovery, and overall well-being. As a result, “optimal” breathing has received a lot of attention in recent years, and there are several courses and certifications centered around teaching people how to breathe better. While teaching strategies to improve […]

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of questions about training phase length and sequencing for youth hockey players. This image is of the periodization template I put together for a youth organization I worked with in the past. For that organization, we divided the teams into 3 groups by age: Group A: […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

When first introducing strength training to youth athletes (and everyone else for that matter), it’s important to teach the fundamentals. Basic movements, performed correctly. One strategy to help speed up the learning process is to slow down the movement. This gives the athlete more time to feel different positions throughout the exercise and the coach […]

This is a core exercise I’ve used for years to help reinforce proper centering/alignment of the rib cage over the pelvis, and breathing through a braced core. The goal here is to rotate as a unit, so the knees, hips, and shoulders all move together. Another way to think of it is that the nose, […]