A couple days back I posted an article discussing important recovery strategies that every athlete should focus on regularly. If you missed that, I’d encourage you to check it out here: 3 Powerful Recovery Strategies for Athletes

The suggestions in that article aren’t things that most kids aren’t already aware of. That said, they also aren’t things most kids adhere to regularly and making a few simple lifestyle changes can have a profound impact on performance and recovery. Today’s article will build on those strategies and dig a little deeper into what recovery really means and how we can individualize strategies based on the “symptoms” players present with.

Understanding Overtraining and Recovery
In reading Biochemical Monitoring of Sport Training, there was a quote from a Lehmann et al. (1999) paper that stated:

“overtraining can be defined as stress > recovery (regeneration) imbalance, that is too much stress combined with too little time for regeneration.”

This concept is fairly intuitive, but it highlights the importance of finding balance between stressors and recovery/regeneration resources. Recovery is often thought of as a passive process, but the reality is that it’s much more complex than just needing “rest”, as its also dependent upon having sufficient available resources to elicit the adaptations to muscles/soft tissue, hormones, enzymes, etc.  In other words, it’s important to think of recovery holistically and within the context of the quality AND quantity of the imposed stress, as the body undergoes both a general and specific stress response depending upon the stressor. For example, the nutrition/supplementation strategies for weight lifting are different than endurance running because of differences in the target energy systems and the required output of the neuromuscular system. Likewise, lifting a heavy weight for a single is much different than lifting it for 20 singles; running one mile is different than running 50. Simply, the nature of the stressor AND the environment that the stressor is placed in will dictate the required recovery strategy.

Sympathetic vs. Parasympathetic Overtraining
Most people intuitively understand that athletes handle stress (physical and psychological, which also influence one another) differently. There are a lot of reasons for this, include genetic makeup, state of readiness, fitness, hormonal levels, and nutrition. As a result of all of these factors, as well as the type of stressors placed on the individual, athletes can drift in one of two overtraining states: a sympathetic or “Basedow” overtraining, or a parasympathic or “Addison” overtraining. Joel Jamieson has a great video explaining this concept and also provides suggestions on how to approach each from a recovery strand point (See: Recovery Strategies).

A couple months back, I was fortunate to sit in on a one day presentation from Patrick Ward, where he dove into this topic in detail. In his slides, Patrick mentioned that the symptoms of each of these states look like this:

Sympathetic Overtraining

  1. Increased resting heart rate and blood pressure
  2. Decreased appetite
  3. Loss of body mass
  4. irritable
  5. Decreased sleep
  6. Decreased performance
  7. Increased fatigue

Parasympathetic Overtraining

  1. Low resting heart rate and blood pressure
  2. Lots of sleep, but never well rested
  3. Signs of depression
  4. Decreased sex drive
  5. Decreased competitive desire
  6. Decreased performance
  7. Increased fatigue

In general, the remedy for sympathetic overtraining is to minimize excitement and training stimulii and maximize rest, whereas in parasympathetic overtraining the goal is more to maintain some high intensity work/stimuli, but decrease the overall volume to allow an opportunity for the body to use its limited resources to appropriately respond/adapt to the stimulus. To help illustrate the difference, long duration stretches may be more appropriate for a sympathetic overtraining state because of a greater emphasis on relaxation, whereas more “mobility” type movements may be more appropriate for a parasympathetic overtraining state because of the greater level of stimulation. As another example, using strategies like sitting in a hot tub or napping (preferably not in the hot tub) would be appropriate for sympathetic overtraining, whereas contrast therapy involving alternating between hot and cold water would be more appropriate for a parasympathetic overtraining state. Joel provides some other examples in the video, and wrote a provided a sauna protocol here: Recovery Methods: The Sauna

Infrared Sauna

Some day, this will be my living room.

A Look at Supplements
Most people at this point are familiar with the importance of post-workout nutrition, and while there is some debate as to when the optimal time is to take in certain nutrients, I think the bigger picture is that you get something in during or immediately after your workout. As a quick aside, it’s important to remember that “workout” in this context also refers to practices and games. The general idea here is that following activity, the body is primed to replenish energy stores and shuttle nutrients to the most desirable places. In other words, nutrition can be used to jumpstart the recovery/adaptation process by providing the appropriate nutrients to replenish diminished supplies, as well as the resources for remodeling/rebuilding the structures damaged in the training process.

Post workout nutrition recommendations differ depending upon the things I alluded to above (e.g. the nature of the stressor), but in general it’s appropriate to take in protein and carbohydrates, preferably something quickly digested/absorbed (e.g. liquid), in roughly a 1:2 ratio with 20+ grams of protein. Biosteel’s Advanced Recovery is a great option that has gained a lot of recognition throughout pro sports, especially in the hockey world.

Biosteel Advanced Recovery

This is one of the best tasting supplements I’ve ever had.

While I’m still in full support of supplements (or food for that matter) that provide resources for recovering from a training session, practice or competition, I’ve been rethinking the use of supplements designed to enhance performance in the off-season. Notably, Beta Alanine and Citrulline Malate are two supplements that I’ve recommended to a lot of hockey players because of their ability to delay fatigue and reduce soreness. While these supplements are both effective, I think they’re more appropriate for in-season purposes when fatigue accumulation is greater, it’s even more important to minimize soreness, and the emphasis is as much, if not more, on performance than development (at the higher levels). In contrast, the off-season is a time to place specific stressors on the body to drive specific adaptations, and, somewhat paradoxically, supplementing to delay fatigue may limit the very stress that causes the body to adapt in the first place. This is certainly a controversial idea, but in general I think there is a sort of “law of diminishing returns” with performance-based supplements, meaning the more they’re used, the less effective they are. In that context, I generally don’t think high school kids should take supplements like Beta Alanine and Citrulline Malate because they have so much room to develop through training and the emphasis at that level SHOULD be more on development than performance anyway. In a yearly cycle, the emphasis on performance is higher in-season than off-season, so it seems more logical to save these types of supplements for the season.

As you can tell, there is a lot that goes into maximizing adaptation, which is the true goal of recovery strategies. To wrap up, follow these three steps:

  1. Relentlessly follow the three strategies suggested here: 3 Powerful Recovery Strategies for Athletes
  2. Be diligent about post-workout/practice/game nutrition by using a supplement like Biosteel’s Advanced Recovery Formula and/or eating a quality meal comprised of REAL food (see article above)
  3. Closely monitor how you feel (or use BioForce HRV to track your readiness every day), and adjust your training and recovery strategies based on which type of overtraining symptoms you’re exhibiting

BioforceHRV

A great tool for athletes to use to monitor fatigue accumulation and overall readiness to train/compete

That’s a wrap for today. Feel free to post any questions you have or other recovery protocol suggestions below! If you enjoyed the last two posts, please share them with your friends, family, and teammates!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

P.S. The first step toward driving physical adaptation is making sure you’re following a quality training program. If you don’t have a written training program that tells you EXACTLY what to do, then check out Ultimate Hockey Training‘s Insider Section!

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I hope you had a great weekend. I had a busy few days as I spent Friday and Saturday with the US Women’s Olympic Team, then headed a little north to watch UMass Lowell’s home opener with my friend Devan McConnell. As always, it was great to work with all the girls and the coaching, medical and support staff with the US Team. Such a great group of people. It was also nice to finally get to watch some hockey!

As you may know, I spend the better part of my non-coaching time attending courses or reading research/books on a variety of topics within the fields of sports training, manual therapy, and physical therapy. The underlying scientific explanations and interactions are of particular interest to me, because these create the foundation for the way the body adapts to everything we throw at it, from a therapy or training standpoint. In the realm of recovery, there is A LOT to consider. With the advances in technology and the efforts of private companies to simplify taking your health into your own hands, it’s now easier than ever to measure things like heart rate variability, nutrient status, food sensitivities, and hormone levels, all of which can have a profound impact on an athlete’s ability to adapt to further training stresses, and therefore are worth monitoring. A couple weeks ago, I finished reading Biochemical Monitoring of Sport Training by Atko Viru and Mehis Viru that dives into these topics in further detail. It’s a little outdated at this point, but still has a lot of interesting information.

Biochemical Monitoring of Sport Training

That said, the reality is that only a small portion of the athletic population are even aware of these factors, let alone the importance of monitoring them. Those that get this far still may not know HOW to monitor these things and/or be able to afford the available options. Furthermore, it seems silly to track a lot of these things when most athletes have sporadic sleep patterns and horrific diets. As is often the case, recovery efforts, and therefore maximizing your ability to adapt, starts with mastering the basics.

This was a main part of the 2-hour talk I gave to the Flyers Junior Team at the beginning of the season. The goal is to simplify powerful strategies that you almost always have control over, so that you can be CONSISTENT in adhering to these basic concepts. Below are 3 powerful strategies to maximize recovery.

1) Stay Hydrated
Even mild dehydration can significantly impair physical and mental performance. This is one of those things that everyone knows, but few athletes are diligent about adhering to. Keep a water bottle with you sip water throughout the day. There are lots of water recommendations, but the easiest way to assess how you’re doing here is by checking your urine color. Clear, consistently, is the goal. Naturally, the more active you are and the more you sweat, the more fluid you’ll need to replenish. If you’re a heavy sweater and/or prone to cramping, it may be worth looking into picking up some Gatorlytes, which are just packets of electrolytes to give you a little extra sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. When you sweat, you lose water AND electrolytes. Your body likes to keep a specific concentration of electrolytes based on the amount of circulating fluid to optimize a number of processes (like muscle contraction). If you only replace the water, you’re missing a big piece. A lot of people do fine with this simply from eating food or from taking a quality sports drink like Biosteel or Generation UCAN, but some athletes benefit from getting in a little extra. Gatorlytes are easy to transport and take in a hurry, so there a good option. You can get them at a lot of places, but I tend to buy a lot of my supplements from a site called Vitacost.com because you can get quality brands at discounted prices.

Glass of Water

The most powerful supplement there is…

Anecdotally, I can tell you that a lot of times when players come to be complaining about early fatigue in practices or games, and a variety of other symptoms like not being able to concentrate or getting headaches, poor hydration is an underlying factor.

2) Get Quality Sleep
When it comes to minimizing the damage of accumulated stress (e.g. that from training, practices, school/work, relationships, nutrition excesses or insufficiencies, and the environment), nothing is more powerful than quality sleep. Simply, it’s time for your body to rest, repair, and regenerate. We are very poor “resters” in our country. From a practice and training standpoint, there is often an overemphasis on “doing” and an underemphasis on “adapting”, which takes a more holistic look at the stimulus-recovery relationship. That said, even those that try to sleep long enough may not be getting quality sleep. Here are a few tips to help get you started on the right path:

-Track the number of hours you sleep every night. The goal is to be above 8 every week. Factor in that it probably takes 30 minutes for you to fall asleep, meaning you’ll need to set aside closer to 9 hours to get 8 of sleep each night.
-Go to bed and wake up within an hour of the same times every night THAT YOU CAN. In short, get off of Twitter and Facebook  and stop texting in bed. -Remember the phrase “An hour before midnight is worth two after”
-Keep the room COLD, DARK, and QUIET! Use blinds to block outside lights, turn alarm clocks away from you, place cell phones face down (so you can’t see the light), and turn off your ring or vibration. It can wait until the morning.

All of these things can go a long way toward improving your sleep quality. If you have trouble falling asleep, I’d look into picking up an Earthing Sheet (Read more about this here: Recovery Week: Earthing Products) and/or a magnesium supplement like Poliquin’s Uber Mag Px or TopicalMag, both of which are great at quickly quieting your mind and helping you transition into a deep sleep.

Poliquin's TopicalMag

Rub a few squirts of this on your feet for the best sleep ever…

3) Eat REAL Food, Almost Always
Simply, real food can be hunted or grown. The overwhelming majority of the kids I talk to eat very little, if any, real food throughout the day. Most eat something along the lines of cereal, sandwich with chips, and whatever my parents cook me (typically pasta or chicken…and pasta). Everyone can do better. The overwhelming majority of food that enters your body should be meats, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and various oils (e.g. Extra Virgin Olive Oil). The food you eat literally provides the building blocks for every structure within your body. If you build your body with garbage, you will feel and perform like garbage. This may express itself in different forms. Some people get fat, some are moody, some have frequent gastrointestinal distress (cramping, bloating, farting, etc.), some have poor energy or attention spans, some have a difficult time putting on muscle mass, and some are more injury prone (among others). NO ONE is unaffected. Think about the meals you have over the last week and how many of them have been comprised of real food. Start by changing breakfast and move on from there. There are TONS of quality meal ideas in Ultimate Hockey Nutrition so check that out if you’re not sure where to start.

I tell our players that there are times when you don’t have control (or you have less control) over what foods you can eat (e.g. on the road), so it’s important to eat as well as you possibly can during the times when you DO have control (e.g. during the week and during weekends with home games). The goal is to spend as much time eating “right” as possible, so maximizing controllable opportunities is a big piece of the puzzle.

As you can see, there is nothing overwhelmingly advanced about any of these strategies. Every athlete has almost complete control of these at all times. Although none of these are very “sexy”, they are extremely powerful. In a couple days, I’ll be back with a few more recovery considerations, but until then, stick to the above and start gaining some momentum toward optimal health, recovery, and performance.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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I’ll get right to the point, eating is one of my favorite things to do. In fact, I like it so much that I try to do it every day, most days more than once. In general, I have fairly simple taste; meat, vegetables, and copious amounts of spices are all I need (or want). Every now and then, however, I branch out and make something worthy of Rachael Ray’s recognition.

Several years ago I did a search for low carb pumpkin bread recipes. To be clear, I’m aware that pumpkin has carbohydrates. The goal was to minimize (or entirely remove) added flours and sugar. Somewhat to my surprise, I came up pretty short in that search, so I took a couple regular pumpkin bread recipes and swapped out ingredients until I got what I was looking for.

The short story is that almond meal can be used to substitute for flour, and stevia can be used to substitute for sugar. While it’s not completely sugar free, I’m fairly confident that it’s gluten-free (fact check me here before you eat it if you have Celiac’s or a known gluten sensitivity).

Without further adieu…

Kevin’s Kind of Low Carb, Almost Sugar Free, Probably Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread Recipe

  1. 1 Cup Canned Pumpkin
  2. 5 Eggs
  3. 12 packets of Stevia In The Raw
  4. 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  5. 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
  6. 1/2 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
  7. 1/8 Teaspoon Salt
  8. 2 Cups Almond Meal/Flour
  9. 2 Teaspoons cinnamon
  10. 1 Teaspoon nutmeg
  11. 1 Cup chocolate chips
  12. 1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

Coat the inside of a standard bread pan with a very light layer of butter from grass fed cows (e.g. Irish or European Butter; I use Kerrygold). Mix ingredients together, then pour into the bread pan. If you’re feeling artistic, sprinkle some extra walnuts or chocolate chips on top. Bake at 300 degrees (That’s Fahrenheit, just in case David Lasnier is reading this) for 60-75 minutes, or until delicious.

Kevin Neeld's Pumpkin Bread

It tastes better than it looks…

Because of the carbohydrate and sugar content (from the chocolate chips, which you could always do without), this is a meal best served post workout when your body is best able to process and utilize carbohydrates. I’ve made a few loaves in the last couple of weeks and they’ve gotten rave reviews (from me, twice, but also other people).

Matt Siniscalchi's First Pumpkin Bread

Look at him. He loves it.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! If you’re a hockey player or parent and you’re looking for meal and snack ideas, especially for pre- and post-game or while you’re on the road, you’ll definitely want to check out Brian St. Pierre’s Ultimate Hockey Nutrition, which is PACKED with this type of information!

Ultimate Hockey Nutrition
To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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This was my 5th Summer at Endeavor. Reflecting back over the last 5 years, it’s been a lot of fun to see many of the kids that have been with me that whole time progress from youth hockey to juniors to college and some to pro levels. From the first Summer, I think we’ve done a good job of creating a fun environment for our kids to train in. While loud music has always been a part of that, each Summer has had a distinctly different feel from a “DJ” perspective, from the early days of Metallica and Rage Against the Machine to Bad Meets Evil and Rise Against to a smooth blend of techno, country, and rap.

This past Summer we definitely took a big turn away from the hard rock and heavy metal that characterized our past. Below are the Top 10 Lifting Songs from this past Summer!

10) Calvin Harris ft/ Florence Welch: Sweet Nothing

9) Ace Hood ft/ Wiz Khalifa, T.I., Meek Mill, French Montana, 2 Chainz, Future, Birdman: Bugatti Remix

8) 2 Chainz ft/ Drake: No Lie

7) Pitbull ft/ Christina Aguilera: Feel This Moment

6) Wale ft/ Kid Cudi: Focused

5) Luke Bryan: That’s My Kind of Night

4) Jay-Z ft/ Rick Ross: F*ckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt

3) Imagine Dragons: Radioactive

2) B.O.B ft/ 2 Chainz: HeadBand

T-1) Darius Rucker: Wagon Wheel

T-1) Avicii: Wake Me Up

T-1) Martin Garrix: Animals

Tough call between the Top 3 (tied for first). I’ve never heard two songs that were more universally enjoyed and appreciated than Wagon Wheel and Wake Me Up, but Animals could wake a corpse. I still get chills when the base kicks in (see 1:25).

All of these aren’t for everyone, but hopefully there’s a new one in here you haven’t heard before that makes its way onto your playlist.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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A few days back, I posted an article discussing several things that need to be considered when designing an in-season hockey training program. While this was really framed within the context of hockey, the reality is that these same principles are relevant for every sport, and for every time of year. If you missed that post, I’d encourage you to check it out here: 5 In-Season Hockey Training Considerations

Today I wanted to follow up on the topic of in-season hockey training by sharing the intro phase we’re using for our youth midget-aged players. This is just one of several programs posted to the Ultimate Hockey Training Insider’s Section each month, which along with the 800+ video database, is a great resource for those of you looking for a little more structure to your programs and some new exercise ideas.

Ultimate Hockey Training-Membership Card Insider Small
The goal of sharing this program isn’t necessarily to give you something to print and use, but to help refer back to some of the topics covered in the previous article and provide some real life examples of how we’re implementing those concepts in our setting.

Phase 1: Day 1

A1) Hang Clean Technique: 3×5
A2) Glute Bridge: 3x(3x10s)
B1) Front Squat: (2-0-2 Tempo): 3×6
B2) 1-Arm DB Row: (2-0-2 Tempo): 3×6/side
C1) Slideboard Hamstring Curl: 3×8
C2) DB Chest Press: 3×8
D1) Split Squat IsoHold: 3x30s/side
D2) Front Plank: 3x25s
D3) Side Plank: 3x20s/side

Phase 1: Day 2

A1) Hang Clean Technique: 3×5
A2) MiniBand Knees Out: 3x(6x5s)
B1) Stiff-Legged Deadlift (2-0-2 Tempo): 3×6
B2) Loaded Push-Up (2-0-2 Tempo): 3×6
C1) DB Reverse Lunge: 3×8/side
C2) Chin-Up: 3×6
D1) 2-Way Skater: 3×12/side
D2) Front Plank: 3x25s
D3) Side Plank: 3x20s

This is “Week 2” of this program. Week 1 started out with one less set for the B-D blocks and a little less time for the planks and IsoHold. Every training session is preceded by foam rolling and a dynamic warm-up. Being an “Intro” phase, the primary goals of this program are to:

  1. Familiarize every player with the PROCESS of proper training. Simply, I want players to internalize the daily process of foam rolling, warming up, training under a structured program with a coach, and then stretching.
  2. Have all of the player learn how to perform all of the primary exercises properly. Many will be familiar with some of these movements already. Some will pick up the new ones quickly; others will not. Exercise technique, like any skill, requires practice. My philosophy is that hockey players (and athletes…and everyone else) need to learn to move well before they move faster, under load, or more often. As a result, Phase 1 puts a primary emphasis on motor learning, which helps create a foundation of quality movement and exercise proficiency that we can build on in the future.
  3. Allow players to acclimate to practicing 2-3 days per week, playing 2-4 games on the weekends and training 2 days per week on top of it. With the increased on-ice load that comes from the start of the season, it’s important to remember that we can’t just keep adding more and more training stress to the athletes and expect them to recover. This drastic increase in on-ice work also comes with increased travel demands, and coincides with starting school, which means extremely long days (up at 6am, home from practice at 10pm, off of Twitter by 12, up at 6 again). In-season training in general, but especially the first phase, should be kept fairly low volume to account for this and ensure that the training isn’t pushing them past the threshold of stress they’re able to recover from.

Returning back to the previous article, we can break down this program in light of the 5 recommendations I made.

1) Age of the Player/Stage of Development
Midget-aged players are in the tail end of the “Speed 2” and “Stamina” window and entering the “Strength” window. This first phase, as mentioned above, is more motor learning (one of the goals of the 2-0-2 tempo is to slow the motion down and allow the players to feel their way through the full range) than strength oriented, but this phase is laying the foundation for the strength work to come. The next phase uses an almost identical exercise list, but the loads, sets, reps, and tempos are altered in a way that still emphasizes the motor learning component, but puts a greater emphasis on strength. There is a clear component of local muscular endurance (one form of stamina) for the lower body/hip musculature with split squat isohold and high-rep 2-way skater exercises, but because both of them are fairly isometric in nature, they won’t result in a lot of soreness. Improved focus on strength in the future will support the speed work that players are getting on the ice.

2) On-Ice Demands
Players at this age group train at our facility 3-4 days per week in the off-season (U-16s tend to be 3, U-18s are 4). Training sessions tend to be 75-90 minutes. When the season starts, the kids are only training 2 days per week for 60 minutes, with about 15-20 of those minutes spent on low stress things like foam rolling, warming up, stretching, etc. In short, the training volume is drastically reduced. Also, you’ll note that sprints, plyometrics, slideboarding, shuttle runs, etc. are all missing from this program. While I think there is a place for some of this work in in-season programs, in general players at this age group are getting the majority of their speed, power, and interval-based conditioning work on the ice. We return to some of these qualities in one form or another in future phases, but definitely not the first one.

3) Practice Plan/Game Schedule/Travel Demands
This part can get a little trickier depending on how much the hockey coach communicates with our coaches. We aren’t always aware of the on-ice practice plan, which isn’t ideal, but is understandable at this level. That said, we almost always know when teams have a big weekend (important games and/or 3-4 games), and can adjust the program accordingly. There are lots of different strategies to alter training stresses before or after a big game, but some of the ones we use most frequently are:

  1. Doing one less set of all the exercises
  2. Cutting loads down so all sets are completed easily, putting an emphasis on perfect form and moving through the lift quickly to create more of an aerobic effect
  3. Only performing the explosive movement and core work (the A and D blocks above, but without isoholds or 2-way skaters)
  4. Bailing on the lift altogether and simply spend extra time rolling, warming up, and stretching

Periodically, the coach will just cancel off-ice, which isn’t always a bad thing. For example, we had one team play 10 games in the last two weekends and cancel a few off-ice training sessions during that stretch. While I don’t necessarily think anyone (especially not players at this age) should play 1/4 of a college hockey season in two weekends, I do think given the ridiculous fatigue accumulated in ONE weekend like this, let alone two, makes canceling training the right call.

4) Soft-Tissue/Muscle Stresses
All of the players foam roll, warm up, and stretch every day they’re with us. The stretching puts a very lopsided emphasis on stretching the glutes/posterior hip region, which I’ve found to be an effective strategy in helping players recover from and minimize risk for groin and hip flexor strains. We also steer clear of any focused work from a training standpoint for these areas during the first phase because of the on-ice load put on these muscle groups.

5) Logistical Considerations
Over the last year, we were able to acquire a larger space at the rink to train the youth players that play there, and we also moved more equipment over so space and equipment constraints aren’t as bad as they used to be. It’s certainly come a long way from doing all body weight work in the winter in the parking lot or rink lobby! I remember teaching 20 U-16 players with minimal lifting experience how to hang clean in an old party room that could be more than 700 sq ft. While far from ideal, I believe strongly that those situations are where you can really learn how to coach, and the kids learn to stay focused because there simply isn’t enough space to screw around. All of that said, part of the simplicity of these programs is to account for the ~16-20:1 Athlete:Coach ratio we’re working with. Again, a program is only as effective as the athletes’ ability to perform it correctly. As a result, there shouldn’t be anything in the program that we don’t feel comfortable coaching. In the past, we used more “Tri-Sets” (e.g. A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, etc.), but have backed away from that this year in an effort to keep things simpler and a little more organized from a traffic flow standpoint.

Hopefully that gives you an idea of the rationale for how I’ve designed our in-season programs and provides a few real life examples of how to implement the information mentioned here: 5 In-Season Hockey Training Considerations

If you want access to more training programs and the largest hockey training exercise database out there, be sure to check out the Ultimate Hockey Training Insider’s Section! As always, if you have any questions, please post them below!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld
OptimizingMovement.com
UltimateHockeyTraining.com

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

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