Podcast: Speed training, transitioning to the NHL, and more!

Last week I was a guest on the Strength Coach Podcast with Anthony Renna. During our conversation, we talked about:

Speed training misconceptions
Key differences between running speed and skating speed
The importance of transitional speed work (not just running straight)
Strategies to monitor rest to maximize speed development, on and off the ice
Transitioning from the private sector to the NHL, then from an Assistant to a Head role
A behind the scenes look at our new video series Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

Listen here >> Strength Coach Podcast: Boston Bruins Strength Coach Kevin Neeld- Speed on the Ice and Optimizing Adaptation

A lack of speed is one of the most common limiting factors holding back athletes in all sports.

As a result, speed training is one of the most essential elements of a training program, but still one of the most poorly understood, particularly in hockey.

Identifying the athlete’s limiting factor to speed development is important.

Exercise selection is important.

Programming appropriate rest is important.

Integrating all of these factors, among others, is essential to optimizing speed development and transfer from off-ice training to on-ice speed. We dive into all of this in the podcast!

Listen here >> Strength Coach Podcast: Boston Bruins Strength Coach Kevin Neeld- Speed on the Ice and Optimizing Adaptation

If you want to learn more about how to use assessments to identify limiting factors in your athletes’ performance, check out our new Optimizing Adaptation & Performance video series, which is available at a huge discount until Friday!

Click here to grab your copy and save $$$ >> Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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

Hear from NHL S&C Coach Mike Potenza

Mike Potenza, who is in his 14th year as Director of S&C for the San Jose Sharks, recently did an interview for Robbie Bourke’s ‘All Things Strength & Wellness’ podcast.

Check out the interview here >> Mike Potenza – Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

In the interview, they covered a lot of great information, including:

Mike’s background
Why Mike, Jim and myself produced “Optimizing Adaptation and Performance”
How many times a year Mike is looking at his athletes blood chemistry
How has Jim LaValles work influenced Mike’s programming
Nutritional protocols for concussion rehabilitation
How Jim LaValle objectifies his nutritional interventions
How Mike tries to regulate his players biological rhythms and exposure to proper light spectrum’s
Mike’s top and current book recommendations
How Mike learns
How Mike decides what information he can trust
Who Mike would invite to dinner, and why, if he could invite any 5 people, dead or alive

Check out the interview here >> Mike Potenza – Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

Want to learn more?

Optimizing Adaptation & Performance, the new health and sport performance video series I did with Mike Potenza and Jim LaValle features over 7.5 hours of content tying together the most effective strategies in assessments, program design, sports science, and nutrition/supplementation.

Until this Friday (11/1) at midnight EST, you can save $50 off your access to the entire Optimizing Adaptation & Performance package!

Get your copy and save $50 here >> Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to post them below!

Get your copy and save $50 >> Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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

Optimizing Adaptation & Performance is Live!

I’m extremely excited to share that today Optimizing Adaptation & Performance is officially live!

Optimizing Adaptation & Performance features over 7.5 hours of video and PDFs from all of the presentations from a a seminar I did last Summer with James LaValle and Mike Potenza at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning.

There’s more health and performance information available now than ever before, and it’s become increasingly difficult to sift through all of the marketing hype to find the most effective solutions.

When Mike, James and I originally talked about putting this seminar together, our goal was simple – share our most effective research- and experience-supported solutions to help optimize an athletes health, training adaptation, and game-day performance.

With that in mind, the presentations cover a wide array of topics, including:

In-season program design
Multi-stage reconditioning of injured athletes
Workload monitoring and developing effective reports for coaches
The most effective recovery strategies for different types of training/sport stress
Using testing as a diagnostic process to design more effective programs
Hormonal implications of overtraining/under recovery
Training, nutrition, and supplementation strategies to optimize mitochondrial development, and muscular hypertrophy/strength
How health of the gut, brain, and immune system influence each other, and nutrition and supplementation strategies to optimize all three

Proven Strategies for Better Results

On a personal note, I’m really excited to share this information for a couple reasons.

First, this information is powerful – it can have a profound impact on the health, performance, consistency, and durability of athletes in every sport.

Mike, James and I have worked in every setting – professional and collegiate sports, private sports training facilities, general fitness clients, etc. – and there are strategies shared in the OAP videos that can be applied in all of these environments.

Increase your “Range”

Second, I strongly believe in the importance of having a range of solutions for different problems.

Athletes and training clients don’t always respond to the same strategies in the same way, and between individual preferences and logistical constraints, if you only have one tool – it’s likely you’ll run into situations where you can’t use it.

By spanning assessment, sports science, recovery interventions, program design, and nutrition/supplementation, OAP provides complimentary solutions to help facilitate the optimal response, despite different situational constraints.

For example, athletes at all levels suffer from depleted energy at some point throughout the season. This can result from:

Insufficient or inappropriate preparation
Detraining throughout the season
Excessive workload
Misguided dietary strategy
Suboptimal sleep
Inadequate or poor use of recovery strategies

Depending on the situation, some of these areas may be more realistic to improve than others, so having a process to identify what is contributing to the athlete’s lack of energy and solutions to address each limiting factor will allow you to always make an impact.

Optimizing Adaptation & Performance discusses each of the above points in detail, and provides different strategies to address the same problem.

Save $50

The videos of each presentation, along with PDFs of the slides, are now available through a protected “member” section of the OAP website.

Until this Friday (11/1) at midnight EST, you can save $50 off your access to the entire Optimizing Adaptation & Performance package!

Get your copy and save $50 here >> Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to post them below!

Get your copy and save $50 >> Optimizing Adaptation & Performance

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com\

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

Training Around Hip Pain for Hockey

Hip pain is exceedingly common in hockey players.

Due to the repetitive nature of the skating motion, every player – even the “healthy” ones – flirts with some sort of overuse or under-recovery of their hip musculature over the course of a season.

Click here to read: How To Train Around Hip Pain for Hockey

Travis Pollen and I recently wrote an article for Dean Somerset’s site that discusses:

Several of the most common contributors to hip pain
How unique hip structure changes will influence your movement
A simple screen to assess your hip range of motion in a pattern relevant to skating and off-ice training
Specific exercises to maximize training progress while minimizing the risk of exacerbating hip pain

Click here to read: How To Train Around Hip Pain for Hockey

As a friendly reminder, our new book Speed Training for Hockey is available at a 39% discount until this Sunday (5/26) at midnight EST. If you’re interested in learning the most effective speed training methods for hockey players and getting access to age-specific off-season training programs, this is a perfect resource for you.

Grab your copy here: Speed Training for Hockey

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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

Diagnosing Limiting Factors to Speed Development

Last week, my friend Tony Gentilcore published an article I wrote on the importance of identifying the limiting factors to speed development in ice hockey players.

Click here to read: Diagnosing Limiting Factors to Speed Development

The article discusses the 4 major physical qualities that influence speed development, and also shares several of the exact tests I’ve used in the past to help identify whether a player needs to emphasize a specific quality in their training.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I think one of the biggest mistakes made in sport preparation is overlooking individual needs.

Simply, individuals respond to the same training stimulus differently.

As a result, having a diagnostic system to identify areas of particular need, and monitor the effectiveness of any training program is essential. This article outlines several strategies that apply directly to speed training for hockey.

Click here to read: Diagnosing Limiting Factors to Speed Development

Feel free to post any questions you have in the comments section below.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
HockeyTransformation.com
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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