We’ve had a lot of great additions this week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. In no particular order (don’t miss the last one!):
My friend Kevin Schaeffer (former National Championship winner with BU and current AHL/ECHL player) wrote an article on how he’s been able to apply some of the things he’s learned from his experience working with Michael Boyle and from our site into his personal training. This may come as a surprise to those involved in youth hockey, but other than the NHL (more on this in a bit), most other pro, junior, and prep levels of hockey don’t have anyone running their training programs. It’s a scary reality. Kevin’s article does a great job of outlining some of the far from ideal realities of playing minor league hockey and how he’s been able to help fill some voids in his own training and that of his teammates.
Check it out here >> A Minor League Hockey Player Aspiring to be a Strength Coach
Kevin also posted a link to an interview with former Oiler’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Chad Moreau. I don’t know Dr. Moreau personally, but after reading this article it seems like he really knows his stuff. Similar to Kevin’s articles, I think this interview illustrates many of the harsh realities of professional hockey and how the success of a strength and conditioning program really hinges upon the enthusiastic support of the coaching staff.
Another big take home is that there are STILL NHL programs that don’t fully buy into the importance of training, at least not as demonstrated by their actions. To some extent, this probably comes down to a “we’ve been successful doing it this way, why begin to incorporate something new that wasn’t necessary before.” I guess it all depends on what you consider “success.” Imagine if equipment manufacturers took the same approach: “players have scored goals with wooden sticks, why try something new?” In my opinion, this is a dangerous mentality that stunts innovation and growth. It’s one that many talented young players adopt; “I dominate and I don’t train at all. Why should I start?” For some players, it may be a matter of being able to continue to dominate at the next level. For the Sidney Crosby’s of the world, it’s a matter of expanding the capacities of the game. In other words, it’s about taking the game to the next level. Bottom line: If individuals and organizations adopted a more comprehensive development model, the game of hockey would benefit.
Read the article here (no membership required): Chad Moreau Interview
Darryl Nelson had a couple great additions this week. He wrote an article on the importance of youth sports and fitness that caused one of those “take a step back and see how we are influencing are youth through sports” moments. It’s more than winning and losing; it’s about instilling habits and mentalities that will allow our youth to grow up and lead healthy lifestyles. His article concluded with some STAGGERING statistics about the current state of “youth health”.
Check out the article here >> Youth Sports and Fitness
Darryl also added a Metabolic Conditioning Circuit program with videos that doesn’t require much equipment. In fact, it doesn’t require anything that can’t be MacGyver’d (e.g. make your own weight or just use a light object like a water bottle). This is the newest feature of our “Youth Training Program” addition to the site. The thing I like the most about this circuit is that it lends itself well to larger groups of people, which is perfect for youth programs, which are typically run by one coach. Although this was posted in the vein of “conditioning”, it will also likely have a strengthening effect, especially with younger or less-trained athletes.
Get the program here >> Metabolic Circuit
Without question, the greatest addition to the site this week was a video of a presentation Toronto Maple Leafs President and GM Brian Burke gave during a recent USA Hockey American Development Program (ADM) seminar. Burke outlines a lot of the common mistakes being made in youth hockey now and what we NEED to focus on to continue to develop the sports. For those of you that caught Mike Boyle’s presentation from the same seminar, this is the perfect on-ice compliment to what Boyle discussed. With the right information in front of us, it’s up to us, as a hockey community, to put it to good use. And we have a lot of bad habits to break!
YOU MUST WATCH THIS!! >> Youth Hockey Presentation
You can try out the site for $1 for 7 days. Now is as good of a time as ever to do it. Spend the buck to watch Brian Burke’s presentation. Hockey needs you to!
Click Here for the best in Hockey Strength and Conditioning
To your continued success,
Kevin Neeld
P.S. Try HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com for 7 days for only $1! It’ll be the best dollar you’ve ever spent.
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