Blogs

Single-leg high force reduction followed by an explosive lateral or diagonal bound, followed by another single-leg high force reduction.  I love it.  You can progress this exercise by adding a high knee before the forward lunge (so you’ll be decelerating from a higher height, adding to the amount of force you’ll need to reduce) or […]

I have two weeks to finish up my research on motor unit synchronization and get ready to present it.  Free time is at an all time low, which means it’s a perfect time for Movie Appreciation Week.  It may not be what you think.  Each video will have a theme that somehow relates to performance […]

I think work capacity and alternating periods of static holds and explosive movements are essential training strategies for goalies. I do some traditional interval training on a bike with goalies, like I do with all hockey players, but I have a greater emphasis on iso-holds. I usually use a squat iso-hold, or a split squat […]

I think jump training is an effective way to improve lower body power development, and the ability to decelerate. Jump training gets a lot of emphasis because of the importance of maximizing force output while transitioning from a deceleration- to acceleration-based movement, or eccentric (muscle lengthening) to concentric (muscle shortening) contraction. This happens anytime you […]

The needs of an ice hockey goalie are very specific. They need to: · Be exceptionally powerful through the hips, especially in lateral and diagonal movements · Be quick through the upper body, notably in independent arm actions · Maintain a large amount of joint range of motion · Be able to maintain a squat-like […]

I recently started training a very talented goalie, with high aspirations. Her goal is to prepare herself physically to tryout for the Olympics. With this in mind, I think I should point out that I, as an athletic development coach, do not have any illusions of off-ice training making anyone Olympic-worthy. On-ice talent is by […]

The main areas this program was meant to address are: 1) Improving soft-tissue quality of the muscles in the hip and thigh 2) Improving ankle range of motion 3) Strengthening the hip external rotators and abductors 4) Using isometrics (and one dynamic exercise-the reverse lunge) to strengthen the lower body Foam Roll Circuit: Anterolateral Hip, […]

Those of you that know me personally know that I hold physical therapists in a very high regard. I’m fascinated by the education they receive. They truly are the only profession that is taught how we move, and expected to be able to apply their knowledge in a way to manipulate human movement in the […]

One of the things that became painfully clear after a year working with a collegiate women’s hockey team is that females are plagued by knee injuries. The demands of the game and consequent injuries are considerably different between college men’s and women’s hockey. What I learned, though, is that many injuries that I heard about […]

Skating treadmills have become big business, hailed as the cure for slow hockey players. A look at the research shows that hockey players tend to increase their stride frequency on a skating treadmill compared to on-ice training, probably because of the increased friction of the skating treadmill surface. That makes sense. The take home is […]