Limiting Factors to Repeat Sprint Ability

One of the most common questions I get is “what’s the best way to condition for hockey?” Often times, people are looking for one prescription (e.g. “Do 12 sets of 15s of work with 45s of rest”).

This review paper from Girard et al. (2010) details the factors that contribute to fatigue in repeat sprint efforts (must read for anyone working in strength and conditioning or sports science roles).

In order to have repeat sprint ability, you need to first have sprint ability. Training to improve maximal output and rate of energy production will positively impact single effort bursts.

In order to sustain output, training maximum effort, longer duration efforts (e.g. 20-60s) will help improve buffering.

Lastly, sustained outputs AND recovery from maximal effort bursts, including replenishing depleted energy stores, are reliant on the aerobic system, so aerobic training can have a profound effect on within-shift, within-gam, and within-season sustainability.

The key take home here is that conditioning for hockey, like most team sports, is going to require developing all of the energy systems.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. Get your off-ice training programs here >> Hockey Conditioning Programs

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Physiological Demands of Ice Hockey

There are many ways to analyze the physiological demands of a sport, but tracking heart rate (HR) is the most commonly used.

When looking at the HR response during shifts of male Canadian university players, forwards had higher peak and average HRs compared to defensemen. This is consistent with my experience, and speaks to the faster playing speeds and greater number of high intensity efforts forwards accumulate during a typical shift (mentioned in previous posts).

Hockey is often described as a “lactic” sport. When analyzing post-shift levels, Noonan (2010) found that players’ blood lactate ranged from 4.4-13.7 mmol/L. 4 mmol/L is traditionally referenced as the “lactate threshold”, which means thinking of hockey as a lactic sport isn’t wrong, but the wide range of values highlights the individual, positional, and game-demand variability.

Further, it raises questions about whether we should be training players to more heavily rely on lactic metabolism or maximize aerobic power to minimize the amount of work that crosses that threshold.

Feel free to post any comments/questions below. If you found this helpful, please share/re-post it so others can benefit.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. Get your off-ice training programs here >> Hockey Conditioning Programs

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Analyzing Game Demands of Ice Hockey: Positional Differences

Four separate studies looking at different levels of competition across different time periods share common findings.

Defensemen log more minutes, but their shifts are characterized by significantly less high intensity work and sprinting compared to forwards.

The natural question that arises here is “should defensemen spend more time doing longer aerobic work?”

Short answer – no.

Just because defensemen accumulate less sprinting throughout a game does not make their speed less important.

This information does, however, mean that the energy system contributions to their work will differ from forwards.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For in-season and off-season hockey conditioning programs, click here >> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

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Analyzing Game Demands of Ice Hockey: Sprinting Emphasis

In a professional hockey game, players perform around 7 high intensity skating efforts per shift, including 1-2 sprints around 20-30m, accumulating over 2000m in high intensity skating throughout a game.

These sprinting efforts often have an impact on possession, scoring opportunities, and ultimately the outcome of the game.

Ice hockey is a repeat sprint sport, and as a result, hockey conditioning programs should be built around an understanding of the limiting factors to repeat sprint ability.

There are two other important considerations:

Positional differences
The impact of body position and contact during “slow to moderate speed” skating

Analyzing Game Demands of Ice Hockey

In an international hockey game, the average shift length was ~86s, which was split in half between playing and stoppage time. Players spent ~18% of their playing time in high intensity skating.

The big take home here is that the ice hockey requires bursts of high intensity skating interspersed by periods of lower intensity skating and stoppages.

Shifts are followed by LONG recovery periods on the bench.

This is significantly different from the 40s of work, 1:3 work to rest ratio commonly used to describe game demands.

The longer you go, the slower you go.

So recognizing that the game is comprised of peaks and valleys in movement speed/intensity (higher highs and lower lows), opposed to 40s of continuous work, should have a significant impact on how players condition.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
SpeedTrainingforHockey.com
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingAdaptation.com

P.S. For in-season and off-season hockey conditioning programs, click here >> Ultimate Hockey Transformation

Enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Sports Performance and Hockey Training Newsletter!