Blogs

One of the major training goals I hear from hockey players and coaches is to improve conditioning. After all, being better conditioned than your competition will give you the advantage coming down the home stretch of the game. My coach at Delaware always said, “Men are judged by how they finish!”. While I’ll make the […]

On Monday I got a nice present in the mail. My mentor, colleague, and friend Chris Boyko (Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at UMass Amherst) mailed me back my Building the Efficient Athlete DVD set by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson. It was like Christmas morning when I opened that. It’s still by far my […]

After spending last week showing examples of rotational core exercises and how to fit them into part of a progression, I thought it would be a logical time to mention a big change that should occur in-season for hockey players, baseball players, and golfers. Remember that in all three of these sports, athletes are taking […]

Phase 4 of our Rotational Core Power Training progression for hockey players, baseball players, and golfers includes exercises involving a strong rotational hip movement, energy transfer through the core, and follow through with thoracic spine rotation.  The “Standing Cable Rotational Pull-to-Push” is a great example. [quicktime]http://www.kevinneeld.com/videos/Standing%20Cable%20Pull-%3EPush.mov[/quicktime] Please enter your first name and email below to […]

Phase 3 of our Rotational Core Power Training progression for hockey players, baseball players, and golfers involves exercises with simultaneous hip and shoulder movement. The emphasis on the “Standing Cable Rotation” is to use your core to help transfer energy between your hips and shoulders. [quicktime]http://www.kevinneeld.com/videos/Standing%20Cable%20Rotation%20(Jamie%20Carroll).mov[/quicktime] Please enter your first name and email below to […]

A more dynamic version of the “Belly Press IsoHold” is a normal “Belly Press IsoHold with Perturbation”.  You can also make this exercise more challenging by repeatedly bringing your hands into your sternum than straightening them back out.   A great exercise for “Phase 2” of our Rotational Core Power Training progression for hockey players, baseball […]

This exercise is called the “Belly Press IsoHold” or “Pallof Press IsoHold”, depending on whether or not John Pallof (the PT from Eastern Mass that developed this exercise) is in the room! This is a great exercise for “Phase 1” of our Rotational Core Power Training progression for hockey players, baseball players, and golfers. [quicktime]http://kevinneeld.com/videos/Tall%20Kneeling%20Belly%20Press%20(Tangradi%20&%20Carroll).mov[/quicktime] […]

As our hockey guys have left for their respective teams, I’ve spent more time at Endeavor Fitness developing our Baseball and Golf training programs.  As I’ve worked on these things, I’ve noticed that baseball and golf training has one major similarity to ice hockey training: the need for a significant amount of rotational core power […]

Regardless of what sport you’re involved in (track being the exception), it’s unlikely that you sprint in a straight line for more than 10-15 yards very frequently. Athletic speed really depends heavily on three things: 1) Rate of acceleration 2) Rate of deceleration 3) Ability to change directions rapidly Of these, rate of acceleration is […]

At Endeavor, most of our hockey guys have been getting a lot more ice time over the last few weeks than they had been all Summer. I think it’s important for hockey players to take a few months away from skating on the ice (at least vigorous skating; some technique work is still okay), to […]