I can’t imagine the emotional turmoil this kid was going through when he stepped on the ice for this game. It was great to see him bury the game winner, and all of the support he’s gotten from the hockey community at large. It really is a big family.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of the Players Tribune articles and videos. This one is obviously of particular interest because of my work with John. This is a very well-articulated vantage point of what it takes to succeed as an under-sized or otherwise disadvantaged athlete. The key, I believe, to John’s success is that he took every “set back” as a challenge, which fueled him to work even harder to get better. This is highlighted by the quote:
“I was going to force people to ignore my size because of my production.” – Johnny Gaudreau
Image from Mark Zaleski/AP at http://www.calgarysun.com
Sometimes people tell you that you can’t accomplish something because they’ve never seen it before. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
This is a quick read, but a great display of character from Daniel Sedin. The support staff as a whole arrives before and leaves after the players. The job requires exceptionally long selfless hours, and despite what you may think, many are severely underpaid. Great gesture here.
“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.” – Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team
“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with” – Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University
3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Goalie Training
Goalies are weird.
Anyone that voluntarily chooses to make a living blocking hard rubber being shot at them as hard as possible is…different.
Yes, the equipment is cool. This is why most kids, including me for about 10 days when I was younger, want to be a goalie. But eventually, the reality of the position sets in.
It’s hard. It hurts. And you’re the only player that can really win or lose a game for your team.
From a personality and psychological perspective, goalies are different.
Image from http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3p6rr3
The demands of the position are also very different from other players.
This isn’t to say there aren’t ANY commonalities, but there are some distinct differences that can and should be considered when preparing goalies for the position.
Here are 3 simple ways to improve your goalie training:
1) STOP doing lactic work
Goalies need to be positionally sound, very explosive, and have the ability to repeat that explosiveness.
With this in mind, goalies are best served by focusing on alactic power (the ability to produce power as quickly as possible), alactic capacity (the ability to sustain high power outputs and repeat them consistently), and aerobic power (the ability to meet medium power output demands using primarily aerobic energy pathways).
Lactic work (think 20-45s intervals) leads to physical changes that directly compete with the qualities listed above. This is a necessary evil for forwards, and defenseman to a lesser extent, but completely non-specific for goalies.
If a goalie is working as hard as they can for 45-seconds consecutively, something has gone horribly wrong with the game plan. Odds are, they’ll never reach this length of work before a goal is scored or a puck is cleared or covered (e.g. a stoppage).
For the last few years, when we transition many of our skaters into a lactic phase to transition from off-season to the pre-season, we circle our goalies back into another phase intended to develop the ability to produce and repeat maximal power outputs. They NEVER do lactic work.
2) Bias your power work to lateral and single-leg movements
Players at all positions move laterally, but goalies move almost exclusively in lateral and diagonal (forward and backward) directions. Vertical jumping will have transfer, but lateral bounding, diagonal bounding, and rotational bounding are much more position-specific.
Quick deceleration and rotational power. The most goalie-specific exercise you can have without shooting a puck at him while he does it (don’t do that)
Single-leg patterns like split squat jumps and step-up jumps are also suitable alternatives for double leg options, as these positions are helpful in developing a quicker return to stance or lateral push from a kneeling position.
As a related thought, forwards and defenseman will both benefit tremendously from using sprint starts and transitional sprint mechanics that involve a strong push-off through the inside foot. This inside foot pushing is used during all crossover and many change-of-direction patterns.
Lateral Wall March is a great exercise to teach inside leg drive
In stark contrast, if a goalie finds themselves with their feet crossed, something has gone horribly wrong.
3) Rotate goalies more frequently through drills
I’ve shown this graph before, but check out the heart rate responses below from a goalie in a game and in practice:
You don’t need a Doctorate in Sport Science to recognize that these things don’t look anything like one another. Practices aren’t designed for goalies, and this is a strong representation of how wrong it is.
Drills could be better catered to the needs of goalies by interspersing short periods of rapid flurries of shots with breaks (e.g. 30-60s). Some drills lend themselves to this interrupted tempo better than others.
An alternative is to rotate through goalies more regularly during high-tempo drills. In other words, if a drill is going to involve a continuous flow of shots, have goalies rotate in and out every 30-60s seconds depending on how many shots they can get during that time period.
If you’re a higher level team that carries 3 goalies, you can invite a 4th goalie to help with practice so you can still rotate goalies in and out quickly if you’re running a drill at both ends. If this isn’t an option, set up the two starters at one end, and the 3rd string goalie at the other, so the players most likely to start the games are being prepared most specifically for in-game demands.
The goal in all of these strategies is to emphasize quick, explosive movements while avoiding the required slowing down associated with longer duration work bouts.
Wrap Up
The goalie position could very well be the most important position on the team. Interestingly, it’s also the most neglected. The suggestions above will help make your goalie training more specific to the demands of the position. They’ll also help with buy-in, as the players will work harder when they know that efforts are being made to cater their program to their needs specifically.
Better prepared goalies competing harder. This is what I’d want back-stopping my team. These steps will help get you there.
“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.” – Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team
“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with” – Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University
3 not-so-secrets to effective in-season recovery
Today I want to share another post from my friend Devan McConnell. I asked Devan to write a post on the 3 most important recovery strategies his team uses in-season, as his team consistently performs well coming down the home stretch of the season.
These are not glamorous, but they work.
3 Not-So Secrets to Effective In-Season Recovery by Devan McConnell
Recovery is a hot topic in sports performance.
Smart coaches understand that the goal of training is to improve performance, and that without sufficient recovery, improvement is unlikely at best and impossible at worst.
Thankfully, the idea of structured recovery work has become a much more widespread piece of the training process than it used to be.
However, where does one start? What is useful and what isn’t? Is it worth investing in gadgets and gimmicks, or are there more basic, tried-and-true strategies that work just as well? What really matters when games are on the line late in the season?
To be sure, there are tons of recovery “tools” and “technologies” on the market these days. And many of them work. Things like cryotherapy chambers, sensory deprivation tanks, hyperbaric chambers, and sequential compression garments are all fantastic tools that really can make a difference in high level athletics.
But do you have to break the bank to reap the benefits of recovery and regeneration? What if these just aren’t feasible? Is there no hope?
Well actually, these types of recovery tools should be thought of as the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
You see, even if you are an elite athlete competing on the highest stage, if you don’t take care of business with the basics, these fancy tools won’t make much of a difference. Just like athletic development, fundamentals are key. And the truth is, the fundamentals of recovery and regeneration will make a bigger impact than any technology when it comes to combating fatigue late in the season.
So what are the basics?
Here are my big 3 recovery strategies:
1) Sleep
Yes, sleep. Do you get 8 hours of sleep every night? No, you don’t. Do you really? Great, it’s still probably not enough.
You see, sleep is when your body goes through all of its restorative functions. Your brain, nervous system, muscular system, etc. all “heal” while you sleep.
More accurately, when you go through cycles of deep sleep or “REM” sleep, your hormonal system secretes Growth Hormone, and this is crucial in the recovery process. Sleep is the least fancy and most important “tool” in the recovery tool box. Just like we say about weight gain/loss, “you cant out train a bad diet”, you can’t “out recover bad sleep.”
At UMass Lowell, we encourage our athletes to strive for more than 8 hours of sleep per night, and set goals to sleep more than 10 during the late season/playoffs. We utilize sleep trackers to help inform our players of exactly how much sleep they are actually getting, and reinforce how important this is.
2) Post Workout Nutrition
If you aren’t taking care of this basic, easy to accomplish recovery tool, you really have no business worrying about anything else. There are a million products which are designed to fulfill the requirements of post workout nutrition (key: a mix of carbs and protein).
Even though current research is pointing more toward the importance of 24-hour nutrition over the immediate post-workout window, the reality is that the time immediately after activity is an easy one to influence and the easiest to control.
In fact, this can be as simple as downing a cup or two of chocolate milk right after training and practice. There really is no excuse not to get this simple recovery technique done. After every high intensity training session, you should be downing a post workout drink within 30 minutes. This means after strength and conditioning work, practice, and games.
Again…basics, basics, basics.
3) Foam Roll and Static Stretching
Once again, we are in the “not too sexy” category of recovery and regeneration techniques. But you have to be dedicated enough to spend 5 minutes getting your muscle tissue back to “neutral” everyday after training, practice, and games. A little goes a long way here too…its much better to consistently spend a few minutes every day doing this, then skipping it all week and then spending 45min after you are sore and tired trying to make up lost ground.
The idea is to both facilitate circulation to process the metabolic byproducts of activity, as well as address any areas where your nervous system may be holding unnecessary tension.
Wrap Up
So there you have it. The 3 fundamentals of recovery and regeneration. These are the basics that matter most. They are so important to our hockey program at UMass Lowell, our athletes don’t leave the rink each day without rolling, stretching, and having a chocolate milk. And they keep track of and report their sleep habits every morning. Once these fundamentals are all in place, we can begin to add in other tools to further enhance recovery. But until we are great at the basics, nothing else matters.
“Kevin Neeld is one of the top 5-6 strength and conditioning coaches in the ice hockey world.” – Mike Boyle, Head S&C Coach, US Women’s Olympic Team
“…if you want to be the best, Kevin is the one you have to train with” – Brijesh Patel, Head S&C Coach, Quinnipiac University
A New Perspective on Energy Systems
A couple days ago, I mentioned that we’re hosting Joel Jamieson’s new Certified Conditioning Coach course at our facility on April 2nd and 3rd. In response to that post I received a bunch of notes from people either expressing an interest in taking the course, or telling me how great it was when they took it previously.
If you’re interested in taking the course, register ASAP. We’re limiting the course to ~40 attendees and have already sold over half the seats. You can get more information and register at the link below.
Given the interest in energy system development my last post sparked, I thought it would be an opportune time to repost a video I’ve shown a few times of a presentation Joel gave on the topic. This is a GREAT presentation, and one of the best free resources available. Check it out below!
A few years ago when I first came across this presentation from Joel Jamieson, it caused me to rethink a lot of what I thought I knew about “conditioning”. Since that time, I’ve read (and re-read) his two books, seen him speak a few times, and even spoke alongside him when the two of us did a one day seminar (where Optimizing Movement was filmed).
Needless to say, I think this information is incredibly valuable; it’s had a profound impact on the way that I write my programs.
Even in rereading my comments about the video below, I know that my perspective on energy systems work has changed considerably over the last 4 years, especially as it pertains to redeveloping aerobic qualities in hockey players (and all athletes in general) in the early off-season. We’re using methods now that I would have never thought to use in 2011, and the foundation for a lot of that change was built on this video.
Enjoy! And if you want to share any of the conditioning methods you’re using or have any questions, please post them in the comments section below.
A New Perspective on Energy Systems
I hope you’re all enjoying your day off (if you got one). Endeavor Sports Performance typically shuts down for Memorial Day, but Matt, David, and I are leaving Thursday night to head up to Boston for the Hockey Symposium, so we have to open up today to make sure all of our athletes can get their sessions in before we go. Just another day in the office! (I’m pretending that today isn’t the first day that it hasn’t precipitated since last November).
Rather than spending the day outside enjoying the sun and BBQing, I thought you’d be more interested in watching a great presentation on energy systems development from Joel Jamieson, who’s a really bright guy. Joel primarily trains MMA fighters out of his facility in Seattle, WA, but he also has experience with football and soccer players. More importantly, and you’ll get this quickly from watching his presentation, his training philosophy is science-based. While I don’t think that every line on a training program needs to have a citation next to it, I think using quality research as a backing for your training philosophies ensures that you understand the underlying principles of athletic development, which can be effectively applied to any sport (in a sport- and athlete-relevant manner).
This video is from a presentation Joel gave at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar at the University of Richmond in Virginia, and he includes a download link for the power point slides so you can follow along. Click the link below and watch the video now (it’s completely free and doesn’t require registering for anything):
I finished watching the video late last week and left with a few good research resources to look into and an augmented understanding of energy metabolism and physiology. I can’t help but feel that some of his words will be grossly misinterpreted though.
One thing that stood out to me as extremely hockey conditioning relevant is the large degree to which the aerobic system contributes to repeat sprint performance with incomplete recovery. Using running as a model, Joel presented that the energy delivery for 200m (~22s) and 400m(~49s) sprints were 29% and 43% aerobic, respectively. In other words, in the time equivalent of an average hockey shift, roughly 1/3-1/2 of the energy provided is aerobic, and this is likely to increase with incomplete recovery between bouts (e.g. as shifts progress within a period).
In my opinion, Joel’s presentation offers more accurate explanatory power than it does a drastic change in the way we condition for hockey. The major take home message is that you need to understand the demands of the sport and prepare accordingly. I think people see something like “50% of energy is from anaerobic sources and 50% is from aerobic sources” and think “50% of my training should be sprint repeats and 50% should be continuous aerobic work.” In reality, all this is saying is that the sprint repeats will eventually be developing aerobic systems in addition to the know anaerobic benefits.
Primarily Aerobic? Anaerobic? Does it matter?
This is one of the reasons why I think it’s more important to have an in-depth understanding of the work:rest ratios and overall work intensities of the game than it is to understand the underlying physiological mechanisms driving them. As an overly simplified example, if hockey includes, on average, about a 40s shift of which about 20s is spent at all out intensities every 3 minutes, and we use some similar work intervals and work to rest ratios to create a slight overload on the involved metabolic systems, does us realizing that more of the on-ice energy AND off-ice training energy is coming from aerobic metabolism than we previously thought change the way we train? I’m not sure it does. I’m certainly not implying that I disagree with anything Joel said in his presentation, and I agree that certain athletes will need a greater emphasis on certain qualities based on their athletic profiles, but I think some people over-emphasize the physiological explanations and under-emphasize the much more obvious and intuitive game demands. What do you think? Check out the video and post your comments below!
7 Considerations when Designing a Sports Conditioning Program
On April 2nd-3rd, we’ll be hosting Joel Jamieson’s Certified Conditioning Coach course at Endeavor. I’m incredibly excited to take the course, as Joel has had a significant impact on the way I view sports conditioning.
In fact, being introduced to Joel’s work ~3 years ago has led to more changes in the way I design programs than any of the other courses I’ve taken or books I’ve read.
Keeping with the conditioning focus, here are 7 things to consider when designing a sports conditioning program:
1) The Athlete’s Position
Most people think of energy systems work in terms of the sport. I would argue that the sport is irrelevant if individual positions aren’t considered. The energy system demands of a football punter are drastically different from an offensive lineman, as they are for a pitcher in a 5-day rotation vs. an outfielder playing everyday, and goalies in every sport compared to other positions. Conditioning programs should be written based on the most relevant needs of that athlete, which will certainly be influenced by their position.
I wrote down a quote while listening to a lecture from Charlie Francis a few years ago that says, “Watch the player, not the game.” I refer back to this often.
From a position standpoint, work to rest ratios simply don’t provide an accurate portrayal of the demands on the athlete. This is especially problematic in hockey, as many conditioning programs are designed around the fact that a typical shift may last ~45 seconds and many teams rotate 3-4 d-pairs or forward lines. Using this logic, the goalie plays 3 20-minute shifts with a 15-minute rest in between. If you actually watch the goalie, you’ll get a much different perspective.
2) The Athlete’s Role
In addition to the athlete’s position, the athlete’s role will determine their specific conditioning needs. For example, a 4th line player that only logs ~10 minutes per night will benefit from spending more time focusing on alactic power and capacity to maximize their speed and power, which will help make their shifts more impactful.
This is different from a defenseman that logs 25 minutes per night or a top-6 forward that is playing 20 minutes and getting special teams opportunities. These are simplified examples, but understanding the role a specific athlete plays (or needs to play) will allow for a deeper level of program individualization.
If you’re riding the bench, your conditioning needs are much different than someone logging big minutes (Image from: http://quotesgram.com/riding-the-bench-quotes/)
3) The Athlete’s Individual Barrier to Success
Once you have an understanding of the specific demands the athlete needs to be prepared for, it’s important to assess what is most limiting the athlete from being successful at the level they’re competing at or hoping to compete at.
For example, consider a high school soccer midfielder who plays the entire game. An analysis of the demands of this player’s role and position will strongly point to the importance of a well-developed aerobic system. However, if the athlete’s speed is the primary barrier to his or her success, the program should be designed with this focus in mind. From an application standpoint, this may mean allocating an extra block of the off-season to a speed/power phase and/or using aerobic training methods that support high threshold motor unit output.
4) The Coach’s Philosophy
From a team perspective, the systems that the coaches implement and the tempo they want the team to play at can have a significant impact on the energy system demands for the players.
Living in South Jersey, a convenient illustration of this concept lies in how Chip Kelly’s “up-tempo” offense changed the conditioning needs of the Philadelphia Eagles offense, who needed to be prepared for short, high-intensity efforts with minimal rest for several minutes at a time, and the defense, who spent drastically more time on the field when the up-tempo offense couldn’t convert on 3rd downs.
In training, as in construction, the larger the foundation, the higher the potential peak. One of the biggest mistakes many novices make is over-focusing on work that “looks” like the intended goal.
As one example, performing sprints looks like speed training, so if the primary goal is to get faster, the athlete should run sprints all off-season, right? Not exactly.
Speed may be better developed by spending early phases emphasizing strength and high-load, low velocity power development first. Similarly, an early emphasis on aerobic training methods will allow an athlete to reach a higher peak in alactic capacity work later in the program by improving their ability to recover from high intensity efforts. Knowing how to appropriately sequence training blocks will lead to more progress than simply hammering the same quality repetitively.
This is speed training, and may be the best form of speed training for many youth athletes.
Just as importantly, it’s important to clearly define the goal of a given training phase. Attempting to simultaneously develop high levels of speed, strength, and aerobic power will lead to poor improvements in all areas.
Training is a stimulus that leads to a cascade of events within the body leading to some form of adaptation. When athletes train several different qualities simultaneously, the processes of adaptation directly conflict with one another so the body can’t adapt strongly to anything. For example, when you perform alactic power work, you’re telling your body that you need to be able to produce high amounts of power, repetitively, as quickly as possible. If you also perform lactic work, like 30-second intervals, you’re telling your body that it needs to be able to sustain lower levels of power for prolonged periods of time. These two stimuli lead to different changes in enzyme production/activity, and the rate at which the nervous system will activate the working musculature, among other things.
6) Movement Demands
Making sure athletes are prepared for the specific movement demands of their position is paramount to maximizing both performance and durability. There are a lot of different ways to analyze movement, but a few basic considerations are whether the athletes are running or skating, the degree to which the athlete moves in lateral or rotational patterns, and the importance of vertical jumping. To build on these considerations with applied examples, athletes that skate and/or move in lateral directions will benefit from including slideboarding or lateral shuffling into their conditioning programs; rotational athletes will benefit from rotational med ball throws; athletes like basketball and volleyball players will benefit from activities like jumping rope that help improve stiffness and repeat jumping ability.
Low position strength and lateral movement are essential in ice hockey, along with many other team sports.
7) Time of Season/Competing Demands
The focus of a conditioning program should be heavily influenced by the time of the season. When athletes are in-season, the overwhelming majority of their training stresses will come from practices and games. Any additional work should be designed to support in-sport development by focusing on physical qualities that aren’t targeted through the sport and/or to facilitate recovery to allow for more purposeful practice.
For example, if a baseball player has batting practice for an hour, he probably doesn’t need more low load, high velocity power work in their in-season training program. He would benefit more from strength work to support their power output, mobility/motor control work to maintain optimal health and function, and some conditioning work to support their recovery.
I tend to think of in-season training as “anti-sport-specific training”. The training should support, but not mimic the demands of the sport. This is in contrast to the off-season where in-sport demands are much lower, and the focus transitions to preparing for these demands.
Wrap Up
There is a lot to consider when designing a sport conditioning program. While this is not a comprehensive list, it provides a few key considerations that will significantly impact the transfer of your training efforts into sport performance. The most important thing to realize is that EVERYTHING impacts conditioning. Every component of your program is tapping into some energy system and providing a stimulus for that energy system to either adapt, or not. As a result, it’s essential to program your speed/power, strength, and conditioning work in a way that best supports the targeted adaptation.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to do this, I’d strongly encourage you to join me and the rest of the Endeavor staff at Joel Jamieson’s new Certified Conditioning Coach course in April.
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