Play the Underdog

This is an exciting time for hockey players. Hockey development has come a long way over the last decade, and as hockey-specific skill and hockey training systems develop, it improves both the peak level of the game in general, and the ability of players that follow these systems to compete at the most elite levels. In other words, for the players that are willing to consistently put the energy into their development, elite status is possible. This is a foundational concept in one of my favorite books of all time: Bounce by Mathew Syed.

Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success

The underlying theme of the book is that EVERYONE can fulfill their dreams if they just keep at it, and find people to help them in the right direction. This is the case even in elite level performers that are considered “prodigies” in their sport or field. It always comes down to consistent, focused practice with the guidance of an experience mentor.

“Purposeful practice is about striving for what is just out of reach and not quite making it; it is about grappling with tasks beyond current limitations and falling short again and again. Excellence is about stepping outside the comfort zone, training with a spirit of endeavor, and accepting the inevitability of trials and tribulations. Progress is built, in effect, upon the foundations of necessary failure. That is the essential paradox of expert performance.” -Matt Syed, Author of Bounce

“I wasn’t naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for. The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I worked hard every day….That’s how I came to know where the puck was going before it even got there.” -Wayne Gretzky (he played hockey)

When discussing the potential opportunity for any given player to compete at the most elite levels (NHL or National Team) the limitation of genetic make-up always arises. In reality, genetics will play an important role in determining an athlete’s true peak performance in any given sport. This is, in part, because genetics determine the functional make-up of the musculoskeletal system. Things like bony make-up, muscle fiber type distribution, and tendinous insertion locations will all play a role in the athlete’s ability to develop comparatively high levels of force production/speed or endurance capacity. With that said, it is an OVERWHELMING MINORITY of athletes that actually approach their true genetic limitation.

While genetics will absolutely determine the upper limits of an athlete’s performance, the truth is that most athletes never work hard or smart enough to reach this limitation. The idea of “making it” means different things to different people. In other words, different players have different goals, which inevitably evolve over time. For example, one player’s dream may be to play Division 1 hockey; another player’s dream may be to play in the NHL. Regardless of the endpoint, there are always steps along the way, more short-term goals that lead to the eventual attainment of the end goal. A player that wants to play at the NCAA D1 level may need to work his way up to playing Tier I youth hockey, then make a USHL team before finally committing to a D1 school. The NHL hopeful will likely need to play Tier I youth hockey, and then either go the USHL -> NCAA D1 -> AHL -> NHL route or the OHL -> AHL -> NHL route. These are far from the only options, but will suffice for our purposes today.

Through my work at Endeavor Sports Performance, I see hockey players at literally EVERY level, both in terms of age and ability, that express a desire to pursue some goal of higher level playing. When I meet them, typically their enthusiasm and willingness to make sacrifices to achieve their goal are at an all time high. The most unfortunate, yet most common situation involves a player achieving an intermediary goal (e.g. making a Tier I youth or USHL team), and developing a sense of complacency. With complacency comes stalled progress, failed dreams, and inevitable self-excusing internal dialogue.

Where aspirational hockey players train to fulfill their dreams

Play the Underdog
An underdog is defined as a competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest. Everyone roots for the underdog. More important than fan support is an examination of the underdog’s mentality.

Be this guy.

Underdog’s tend to present with a quiet sense of confidence. Knowing they have nothing to lose removes some of the high performance pressure associated with the fear of failure. Just as importantly, underdogs know that they will NEVER be outworked. They may not have the best skills, and they may not have the most advantageous physical stature, but they know that they will outwork their competition, regardless of who it is. This is true both in terms of their preparation and during competitive events.

There are uncontrollable variables in hockey that cause some players to lose enthusiasm or development momentum. The one thing that every player ALWAYS has control over is their own work ethic. If every player viewed him/herself as and accepted the mentality of an underdog, it’s inevitable that the development plateaus associated with a sense of complacency or entitlement would dissipate and the opportunity to reach a true genetic limitation would present. My advice to hockey players everywhere: Play the role of the underdog. You’ll be happy with where you finish, and during your journey to elite performance.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

It’s been a great week at Endeavor. We had a about a half dozen extremely motivated hockey players join our off-season training groups, including Colby Cohen, who came with a bittersweet present.

Bruins Stanley Cup Champion T-Shirt (damn it)

As a Flyers fan, it’s tough to have a Bruins Stanley Cup Champion t-shirt in my office, but I’m happy that Colby got to be a part of their run (6th name from the top on the right hand column).

Speaking of hockey players looking to get better, we’ve added some great content to Hockey Strength and Conditioning that you’ll want to check out over the weekend.

My friend and long-time Carolina Hurricanes Athletic Trainer and Strength and Conditioning Coach Pete Friesen added a video interview with him on the fitness demands of hockey and highlights some of the things his athletes do in the off-season. Pete’s an awesome guy and has a ton of experience. This was a cool feature.

Check out the video here >> Training with the NHL Carolina Hurricanes from Pete Friesen

Darryl Nelson wrote an article on core training for hockey players. I think the major concepts in Darryl’s article are commonly accepted amongst well-educated hockey strength and conditioning coaches, I don’t think the concepts have trickled down to players, parents, and coaches yet. In other words, the information hasn’t yet reached the populations that need it most. Darryl’s article highlights an important function of the true core (not what most people define it as), and identifies why a few of the most common core exercises can actually be counterproductive. Quick read with powerful implications.

Check out the article here >> Core Training from Darryl Nelson

Sean Skahan added an awesome webinar on in-season training for professional players. Hopefully the title doesn’t mislead you. Sean outlines the importance of in-season training and discusses the goals of in-season training, the components of the program, how he assesses for common movement impairments that predispose players to injuries, and details his progressions for core training, strength work, and power training for hockey players. There is a ton of valuable information in here for hockey training programs at all levels.

Check out the webinar here >> In-Season Training from Sean Skahan

The forums have had some good discussions recently too. As I said last week, because of the quality and timeliness of the training programs we post online, we’re starting to get more semi-pro hockey players signing up as members, using the programs, and posting their questions on the forums. Basically they get access to high quality programs and can have professional hockey strength coaches answer all of their individual questions. Not bad for less than $10/month! I appreciate those of you that have helped spread the word about HockeySC.com. One of the reasons I like training hockey players so much is because they’re dedicated to doing whatever it takes to get better (something Sean pointed out in his webinar…with the help of the Hanson brothers). Unfortunately, most players, parents, and coaches still aren’t aware of the resources available to them, so it’s great to have your support in spreading the word about our site.

As always, if you aren’t a member yet, I recommend trying out the site for $1 Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent , I’ll personally refund you!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Just a friendly reminder that you only have a couple days left until the price jumps up significantly on Maria Mountain’s Ultimate Goalie Training 2.0. If you’re looking for a complete off-ice goalie training program, this is it!

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Goalie-Specific Hockey Training

Every now and then I’ll get a question from a colleague about what goalie-specific training I’m doing. A more fundamental question is, “what, if any, special considerations does the goalie position warrant?”

This question spawns a continuum with two different extremes:

Extreme 1: Goalies do not need any specific work and should just do everything with their teammates
Extreme 2: Goalies need COMPLETELY specific work and shouldn’t train like players at all

As with all extreme arguments, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. If a hockey training program is well-designed, it will be geared toward improving fundamental aspects of athleticism such as:

Mobility of relevant joints as dictated by the “Joint by Joint Approach to Training“
Linear and transitional acceleration and speed
Vertical, horizontal and rotational power
Full body strength
Multi-directional core strength and endurance
Work capacity/conditioning

A birds eye view of this list demonstrates that all of these qualities apply to all positions in hockey. In other words, I think if you’re going to err toward one extreme, the “goalies should just do everything with their teammates” isn’t a bad option.

That said, goalies do warrant some special considerations that, when feasible, should be built into their programs.

Goalie-Specific Training
Instead of completely reinventing the wheel for goalie training programs, I think it’s a smarter idea to make adjustments to the team program to make a few things more goalie specific.

Hip Mobility
For starters, goalies depend on more hip mobility than players do. Hip range of motion is important for all hockey players, but is especially crucial for goalies. With that in mind, it’s worth taking goalies through a quick hip assessment (see Hip Assessment for Hockey Players for one example) to see what kind of structural deviations may limit their ROM. Goalies that present with CAM impingement are almost guaranteed labral surgeries unless the bony overgrowth is minor and caught early. Structural limitations may dictate the style of play as well (or at least the build of the pads). Butterfly goalies with extremely retroverted hips may have a hard time shutting down their five hole.

He needs a lot of hip internal rotation to close that gap

Speed Training
In general, the speed training we do for our goalies and that we do for our players is pretty similar. The primary difference is that our players will use crossover strides with an emphasis on a strong push-under, whereas our goalies will always open when changing direction. You could really make an argument for both sides (goalies don’t crossover in games, but the crossover pattern trains rapid internal rotation of the back side leg, which goalies do need).

Power Training
We make slight modifications to our power training to make the exercises a bit more goalie specific. With goalies, we progress them from lateral bounds to diagonal bounds in a postero-lateral direction. In other words, instead of jumping straight to the side, they’ll jump back and to the side. This forces them to open up their hips more and more closely resembles the motion they go through when moving from the top of the crease to either pole.

With med ball throws, we use most of the same patterns, will progress to a lighter implement with a greater focus on ball velocity. As with speed training, when we get into more dynamic movements leading into the throw, we’ll still favor lateral pushes instead of crossover patterns.

Strength Training
Our strength training is EXACTLY the same for players and goalies. The idea that goalies getting strong will limit their ability to move quickly is just as moronic as the idea that lifting extremely light weights for high reps will get you ripped/toned.

If more people lifted like football players and conditioned like hockey players, I don’t think we’d be hearing so much about the ~~I’m too apathetic to get my ass off the couch~~ obesity epidemic

The bottom line is that strength is the foundation for speed and power. If a goalie lacks the ABILITY to produce force, they CANNOT move more quickly. This isn’t an opinion. It’s physics.

As with players, strength training programs should emphasize, or at least incorporate, single-leg and dissociated upper body exercises. Exercises like reverse lunges, back leg raised split squats, alternate arm dumbbell chest press, standing 1-arm cable rows frequent our programs.

Conditioning
Conditioning for goalies needs to incorporate positional holds and predominately alactic/aerobic work, as the demand on the lactic system typically isn’t as high on goalies as it is in players, especially goalies of really good teams. That said, other than minimizing crossover transitions during shuttle runs, our goalies condition with our players. Conditioning builds camaraderie more than any other aspect of the training program, and the metabolic and body position demands of a goalie are more similar to a player than different. Because of the progression methods we use, our goalies are still able to develop all of the qualities they need to feel great going into the pre-season.

Goalie-Specific Exercises
I understand that a lot of hockey training situations are very different from the environment we have at Endeavor, and it’s helpful to have a list of exercises that they can perform with minimal equipment use. If you’re in this camp, check out the list of exercises below for some ideas on where to get started:

Hip Mobility Exercises
Lying knee to knee
Unilateral lying knee to knee (one at a time)
Lateral kneeling quadruped rock
Lateral Glute Rock
Diagonal Hip Rock -> Step
Rectus Femoris Mobilization

Hip Stability Exercises
Lateral MiniBand Walks
Backward MiniBand Monster Walks
Bowler Squats
Bowler Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Single-Leg Half Squat w/ Opposite Leg Lateral Reach
Single-Leg Half Squat w/ Opposite Leg Rotational Reach (reach posterolateral with “up” leg, allowing external rotation on stance leg, think of pulling back to the starting position using stance leg, not momentum of up leg)

LB Power Exercises
Lateral Bound
Rotational Bound (same idea as lateral bound but the movement is posterolateral instead of lateral. Think top of crease driving to pole of net).
Shuffle-Bound (Shuffle once to the right or left and then bound in the same direction)
Walking Lunge Into Vertical Jump w/ 2 leg landing (Not goalie specific, but great for training decelerative ability and explosive LB power, especially for less advanced kids that may not be proficient in split squat jumps and other related movements)

Rotational Power Exercises
Side Standing Med Ball Scoops
Side Standing Med Ball Shotput
Forward Shuffle into Side Standing Med Ball Scoop or Shotput
Backward Shuffle into Side Standing Med Ball Scoop or Shotput

This is far from a comprehensive look at training ice hockey goalies, but it should shed some light on what qualities warrant special considerations in comparison to the programs of other players. If you’re looking for a more in-depth goalie training solution, I highly encourage you to check out Maria Mountain’s Ultimate Goalie Training 2.0. I’ve been following Maria’s work for several years and when it comes to training goalies, she’s the best there is. She’s having an “early bird” special on it until July 5th so if you’re on the fence, click the image below to check out more information on it before the price jumps.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

David and I made the trek out to Chicago (just a quick 14-hour road trip) for Perform Better today. This is the first full Perform Better Summit I’ve ever been to, so I’m really looking forward to hearing all the speakers. It’ll also be great to catch up with people like Mike Boyle, Darryl Nelson, Maria Mountain, Kyle Bangen, Josh Bonhotal, and Charlie Weingroff (among others). If you’re in the area, shoot me a quick note and we can meet up for a ~~beer~~ protein shake.

I hope you’ve appreciated the value in this week’s posts. Hip assessments are really of paramount importance for hockey players. This week we had a new player start with us from Northwood Prep that I had never met before. Within 15 minutes of meeting him I was able to establish that he had CAM impingement in his right hip (and likely a more mild case in his left hip), instruct him on what “full” range of motion was for him, what feelings to avoid, how to move, and a focused soft-tissue/long duration stretching/breathing program for him to ensure that his CAM impingement doesn’t progress to a same-side sports hernia like they frequently do. Catching this early is huge. This player is now in a better position to avoid surgery secondary to a sports hernia and/or labral tear, and has an understanding of his mechanics that will help delay the development of osteorarthritis in that hip (which almost always follows CAM impingement). If handled correctly, this means improved performance levels and a longer, healthier career.

Unfortunately, the majority of the older players we see have some sort of anatomical “abnormality” that warrants consideration in their training programs. This week’s posts shed light on some of the anatomical asymmetries that predispose athletes to certain, somewhat predictable injuries. If you missed them, I encourage you to check them out here:

We added a bunch of new content over at Hockey Strength and Conditioning this week.

Darryl Nelson added a video from USA Hockey’s American Development Model (ADM) conference a while back of him running a younger group of athletes through some off-ice training exercises that are more fun than regimented training in nature. The cool thing about the way Darryl runs this is that the kids probably don’t interpret it as a chore. It feels like playing to them, which is something a lot of kids miss out on the way that sports society has drifted over the last decade. For the youth programs that are looking to add an off-ice training component to their U-12 teams, this is a great place to start.

Check out the video here >> Off-Ice Games from Darryl Nelson

I posted the 2nd Phase of our 4-Day Off-Season Training Program at Endeavor Sports Performance. Many of our players will be entering this phase next week. This phase ramps up the amount of speed training work considerably, especially that geared toward improving transitional speed. We also increase the emphasis on conditioning. The resistance training aspect of the program is designed to improve maximal strength levels before we transition into more of a power-driven phase leading into pre-season camps.

Check out the program here >> 4-Day Off-Season Training Program: Phase 2 from me

Mike Potenza added a 4-day off-season training program with an emphasis on speed strength. This was cool to look through because there were a few things I was completely unfamiliar with, which will inevitably stimulate some good forum discussions in the near future. Mike writes his programs a little differently than I do in that he uses 3-week cycles instead of 4 and the speed, core, and conditioning work are pulled out. He has separate progressions for those things, so they aren’t included on his training sheets. Great learning opportunity for other hockey strength and conditioning coaches out there.

Check out the program here >> Speed Strength Phase of Training from Mike Potenza

Lastly, Cristi Landrigan, who is one of the most dedicated parents I’ve ever met, recently forwarded me a link to a great audio interview with Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock, which I added to our site. I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone in the hockey community to hear from the head coach of one of the top hockey organizations in the world and get an idea of his mentality. Despite all of his success, he’s still constantly looking for ways to improve as an individual and as a team. I think everyone would benefit from adopting that “never satisfied” mentality.

Listen to the interview here >> Mike Babcock Interview

As a parting message, I’ve talked with a handful of players that compete at the semi-pro level recently that strongly recommended that we make a stronger effort to let players at that level know about our site. Their feeling was that many players at those levels have trained in an organized hockey training setting before, but don’t have anyone to provide quality programs for them to use. Because we constantly post 4-day off-season programs and 2-day in-season programs throughout the year, a membership to our site would be a great option for players that would benefit from professional strength and conditioning instruction, but don’t have the resources (money, time, qualified professional) to hire someone locally. If you know of anyone currently playing at the OHL, ECHL, IHL, CHL, AHL, or any of the professional leagues overseas that you think would benefit from following a professionally designed hockey training program and from having forum access to high caliber coaches, please forward this along to them.

And if YOU aren’t a member yet, fork out the $1 to test drive Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent , I’ll ~~have David Lasnier~~ personally refund you!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hip Assessment for Hockey Players

A couple day’s back, I proposed the idea that the underlying assumption that hockey players (and athletes in general) are structurally and neurologically symmetrical was grossly misguided. In fact, structural asymmetries in conjunction with asymmetrical movement tendencies can be an underlying factor in a lot of the dysfunction our players present with and in common hockey injuries. This is true even of traumatic injuries; when a joint is in suboptimal alignment, stability is compromised. If you missed that post, I encourage you to check it out here: The Myth of Symmetry.

It’s no mystery to the hockey community that hip injuries are an epidemic. CAM impingement and sports hernias have been getting a lot of press over the last 5 years and adductor (“groin”) and hip flexor strains have become accepted as a necessary evil. I strongly believe that these injuries result because of a general lack of awareness of the predisposing factors that contribute to them and the necessary off-ice training strategies to prevent them. This belief isn’t at all theoretical; over the last two years we have completely eliminated adductor and hip flexor strains in our hockey players through off-season training alone. In other words, we have 2.5-4 months to “injury-proof” a player at Endeavor Sports Performance during the Summer, and then the player returns to his team and we don’t hear back from them until the next off-season. All of our players from last year have returned and we had ONE player sustain an injury to his hip flexors. It was a bilateral strain that resulted from an unexpected high speed collision to the back of his legs, which resulted in a rapid hip hyperextension and slight bilateral tear. It was a freak occurrence. This player will get struck by lightning on his way to cash in his winning lottery ticket before that happens again. Other than that, not a single game missed for hip-related injuries at all.

The overwhelming majority of hip injuries and nagging pains are completely unnecessary. Listen to one of our players describe his experience:

“Over the past few summers I have trained with Kevin in order to prepare my body for the rigors of professional ice hockey. Kevin was always organized and ready to lead our small group of elite athletes through intense, result-oriented workouts. Kevin’s ability to creatively and expertly create programs made training with Kevin at Endeavor Sports Performance a no brainer.

This past summer Kevin was also able to develop a program designed specifically for me to treat a sports hernia that prohibited me from doing most activities. Kevin was able to target the problematic area and not only strengthen it but got my body ready to perform at 100% and was the first season in a while that I was completely pain free.” – Jamie Carroll

When Jamie says “that prohibited me from doing most activities”, he means things like walking. He was generally able to lay in a bed pain free, but that was about the level of movement he could tolerate without pain, and getting out of bed was an unpleasant experience for him.

One of the keys in preventing unnecessary hip injuries is to have an in-depth understanding of the player’s anatomical/structural composition. In this regard, CAM impingement has received a lot of attention recently and rightfully so. Another frequent structural deviation that hasn’t received as much attention is femoral “version”. Femoral version is a measure of the angle of the femoral neck relative to a horizontal line through the two femoral condyles.

Demonstration of calculation of the angle of femoral version

While I think the above cartoon schematic is instructive for understanding how femoral version is calculated, I think this picture from my friend Bill Hartman’s post (Hip Mobility: Femoral Anteversion) better illustrates the contrast between “normal” and excessive anteversion.

Can you imagine how the orientation of the knee, lower leg, and foot would change if the femur on the right was re-oriented so that the femoral neck was the same as the one on the left?

Excessive femoral version, in either direction, will have a significant effect on the performance of the entire body and a failure to recognize the presence of such a structural deviation may result in off-ice training exercises that appear “correct” externally to be damaging internally. As a result, it is worth the time to assess for femoral version angles in hockey players. Check out the video below for a quick walk through on how you can assess for excessive hip ante- or retro-version in just a few minutes.

An idea that didn’t come through sufficiently in the video is that EVERY femur has properties of ante- or retro-version. 8-15° is considered within normal limits and “excess” is generally considered anteversion > 30° and retroversion less than 5°. That said, any deviation outside of normal limits is going to have an effect on the availability of rotational movement. When I mentioned that I was thinking Matt’s left femur was retroverted and the right was anteverted (outside of the normal limits in those directions specifically), I probably should have said that left femur was more retroverted than right, or that his right was more anteverted than his left. Following Craig’s Test, it was apparent that his left femur was in fact “normal” (version within normal limits), but the right femur was anteverted.

An important take home from this assessment is that the total rotation ROM is the true indicator of unilateral limitations. Matt had more expressed external rotation ROM on the left than right, and more internal on the right than left, but the total rotation ROM between the two sides was relatively equivocal. This indicates that differences in either internal or external rotation ROM from one side to the other are either:

An ossessous adaptation that should be recognized and appreciated, but cannot be corrected; or
A positional change in the pelvic structures that causes a change in the expression of rotational ROM direction tendencies

In the case of the latter, Craig’s Test rules out that the findings of a tendency of a hip to have more internal or external rotation ROM in comparison to the other hip is a result of a change in the orientation of the pelvis because Craig’s Test is strictly a measure of femoral bony orientation relative to other femoral landmarks (pelvis is taken out of it altogether).

The assumption that all hips are created equally and that ROM norms can be blindly imposed on all hockey players is dangerously misguided. Of the first 30 elite level hockey players (primarily USHL, OHL, NCAA D1, and professional players) I’ve assessed at Endeavor Sports Performance over the last few weeks, 10 (33%) have either a unilateral or bilateral femoral version angle outside of the norm. Spotting these structural deviations early will help prevent unnecessary damage directly to the femoroacetabular joint structures and indirectly to adjacent structures affected by rotational limitations at the hip. This is true during both on- and off-ice activities. By providing the player with an understanding of what corrective exercises they can do to maintain joint integrity and what positions/movements they should avoid, the player can stay within his/her individual limits, optimizing performance and minimizing injury risk.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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