Tag: hockey player

This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

This was a really cool week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. Last week I mentioned that the content slowed a bit, at least in the form of programs, articles, and videos, but that I really got a lot out of the forum discussions. This week was almost the exact opposite-TONS of new stuff added.

Webinar: Case Study-Pro Hockey Player from Jim Reeves
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Jim Reeves other than knowing that people I speak very highly of speak very highly of him. This webinar was a great introduction to his experience, philosophies and methodology. He presents Pre- and Post-FMS scores for the same player across two-consecutive off-seasons, details the player’s dysfunctions and impairments, and shows EXACTLY what he did to restore function and rebuild performance. This will be one of those resources that takes me a few viewings to truly let everything sink in. Great stuff!

Video: More Dryland Skating Exercises from Mike Potenza
This has been a popular topic on the site for the last several weeks, and one that I find especially interesting. From a training standpoint, I go back and forth on how important these exercises are. There is a large specificity component to training skating-like movement patterns off the ice; on the other hand, players should be spending time working on these things ON the ice. I don’t think an entire training program should be built around these, but including them as 5% of your program under the umbrella of hip stabilization or work capacity exercises (depending on the exercise and how you implement it) is a great idea. Getting athletes to buy-in to your programs ultimately decides the results they will get. Including exercises that hockey players will clearly see an on-ice translation will help with buy-in. That was a long-winded way to say that I think having a variety of “skating exercises” to pull from will keep things interesting for the players, and Coach Potenza presents a lot of great choices in this video series.

Program: Pre-Game Warm-Up from Sean Skahan
Great dynamic warm-up from Coach Skahan that players of all ages could use to best prepare for their game (or practice for that matter). This is very similar to warm-ups I’ve used in the past with my players. In the accompanying text Coach Skahan mentions that some players that have gone through this with him continue to use the exact same warm-up, despite having moved to a different team. In my opinion, that’s one of the greatest testaments to a quality warm-up (or program), when players continue to do it because they see the benefit, not just because they have to.

Article: RFE Progressions from Devan McConnell
Like we do at Endeavor, Devan uses the “Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat” as a foundational lower body lift for his athletes. This is a great six-step progression for athletes that have trouble mastering the “back squat” bar position right away.

Getting the Most Out of Your Hockey Strength and Conditioning Membership!

By now, you’ve likely experienced the huge benefit to getting access to the information at HockeySC.com every week. In addition, there are two other things you can do to improve your experience:

Network on the site by posting something on the “Introduction” thread on the forum, and by asking well-thought out questions on other forum threads. There are a lot of “big names” in strength and conditioning that check the site regularly. Whether your goals are hockey-specific or not, this is a great place to meet professionals that can help you advance your career.
Check out contributor’s youtube channels. I get a lot of great ideas from watching other coach’s exercise videos. The articles provide a great opportunity to hear the coach’s rational for using certain exercises and learn how they integrate them into their program. Because many of the coaches use youtube as their video hosting platform, you can get access to ALL of their public videos by clicking directly on the video while it’s playing. You’ll be redirected to their youtube channel, which you can then subscribe to. I actually have two youtube channels (“EndeavorPerformance” and “HockeyTrainingCoach”) that I post videos to pretty regularly. I recommend you subscribe to as many quality channels as you can to get new ideas on a regular basis!

Click the link below for more information about Hockey Strength and Conditioning!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE hockey training newsletter!

Hockey Development Coaching Program Q & A

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my Ultimate Hockey Development Coaching Program, but by far the most common question is: “Is this for me?”

As excited as I am about this program, the truth is that it may NOT be for you.

This program is really only for players or other people involved in the hockey development process (coaches, parents, strength and conditioning coaches, therapists, trainers, etc.) that are TRULY passionate and committed to getting the most out of themselves.

Some players just want to go out and have fun and don’t care if they progress at all. This program is not for them.

It’s really for those of you that are SERIOUS about fulfilling your potential and pursuing the highest level of hockey possible. Like anything worthwhile, this program requires some work on your part. I’ve compiled an EXTREMELY intelligent group of hockey development experts. It’s likely they’ll touch on something you’re unfamiliar with or disagree with. This means you’ll have to do some extra leg work to look up more information about what they’re talking about.

For the truly dedicated, this isn’t a barrier at all; it’s a natural part of pursuing excellence. For the lazy and weak-hearted, this may (rightfully so) deter you from joining the program.

If you think you have what it takes, click the link below and register for the Ultimate Hockey Development Coaching Program. It’s completely FREE and requires no risk on your part at all. If you’re serious about your development, you’ll join the rest of us on the inside:

=> Ultimate Hockey Development Coaching Program <=

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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

The Ultimate Hockey Strength and Conditioning Site!

If you play hockey, coach hockey, or train hockey players, this is for you!

If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you know that I recently launched Hockey Training Expert, a site that I knew would training hockey player development forever.I have great news!

In an effort to truly raise the bar for providing the hockey community with the best information in the world, I’ve recently teamed up with Michael Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks), and Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) to develop HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com!

We’ve literally put together the greatest collection of hockey strength and conditioning coaches in the world! Check out the incredible list of contributors:

-Michael Boyle (Boston University)
-Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks)
-Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks)
-Chris Pietrzak-Wegner (Minnesota Wild)
-Chuck Lobe (Tampa Bay Lightning)
-Jim Reeves (Mind to Muscle)
-Brijesh Patel (Quinnipiac)
-Cal Dietz (Univ. of Minnesota)
-Chris Boyko (UMass Amherst)
-Maria Mountain (Revolution Sport Conditioning)
-Tim Yuhas (Yuhas Performance)
-Matt Nichol (former Toronto Maple Leafs)
-Kim McCullough (Total Female Hockey)

I’m blown away by the amount of incredible information already on the site. There are articles on a variety of topics, including Strength and Conditioning, Programming, Youth Training, Injuries, Female Training and Coaching. There are webinars, audio interviews and videos up as well, all about hockey!

Each week, we’re going to add videos, articles, and programs. None of these coaches are shy about questioning the norm, so I know the Coaches Forum will be hopping right from day 1. We also have plans of adding hockey-specific webinars and audio interviews every month!

To let you test drive HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com we’re offering a $1 30-day membership, after which it’s only $9.95/month! This offer only lasts until March 31st and the $9.95 price may jump up soon, so don’t wait. Head over to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and sign up today. It’s only a buck!

I look forward to seeing you inside the site!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you have a Hockey Training Expert membership, check your email! I personally sent you an email letting you know the details about the change. As of Friday, March 19th, Hockey Training Expert will officially merge with Hockey Strength and Conditioning!

P.S.S. It’s only a buck! To get access to over a thousand years of collective hockey training experience, you only need to INVEST $1. Go to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and sign up now!

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

Hockey Conditioning: To Bike or Not to Bike!

In an interview I did with Maria Mountain, I told her that I never have my hockey players ride bikes.

If you missed the interview, you can listen here: Hockey Training Interview with Maria Mountain

Given traditional hockey training practices, this comes as a pretty big surprise to most players and coaches.

Let’s take a second to compare three commonly used hockey conditioning tools. Quick side note: All three of these modalities would be used in an interval training fashion only. I don’t think traditional steady-state aerobic training has any merit for hockey players at all. This includes “recovery rides”, which may have a mental benefit for hockey players, but probably lack any physiological benefit in light of the long known fact that nearly ALL lactic acid is processed within about an hour of ceasing activity (1,2,3). I realize this may offend some of my European Hockey Friends. I apologize in advance.

Exercise Bike

Pros:
Leads to similar “burning” feeling of the legs as a long shift. Improves local muscular endurance of thigh musculature.

Cons:
Biking involves MORE time in an unwanted hunched over posture (same as sitting in a desk or in a car). One of the main goals of our training programs is to REVERSE this terrible posture as it leads to range of motion limitations, undesired compensations, decreased performance and increased injury risk.

The upper body is relatively still while biking. Aside from the obvious fact that your arms move while playing hockey, because biking only uses your lower body it is more difficult to get your heart rate up to the near-max levels characteristic of a high intensity shift. Interval failure is more likely to result from localized muscular fatigue in the legs than from a more global energy delivery failure.

When players get tired on a bike, they begin to pull up on the foot straps, which puts more stress on their hip flexors. Sitting on a bike and pulling repetitively with your hip flexors reinforces the hip flexor tightness that too many hockey players already suffer from.

Biking involves putting force downward into floating pedals with a pre-determined range of motion. Skating involves putting force into the ice in a free range of motion. The force production and joint stabilization characteristics of biking and skating are completely different.

Should hockey players bike? I don’t think so. If you need a good leg burn, do split squat iso-holds. If you want good conditioning, use the modalities I’ll explain in my next post. Check back soon!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you want to use a PROVEN ice hockey training system this off-season to guarantee you enter tryouts and next season at your best, check out my Off-Ice Training course.

References:

1) Gollnick PD, Bayly WM, & Hodgson DR. (1986). Exercise intensity, training, diet, and lactate concentration in muscle and blood. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 18(3): 334-40

2) Hermansen L, & Stensvold I. (1972). Production and removal of lactate during exercise in man. Acta Physiol Scand,86(2): 191-201

3) Freund H, & Gendry P. (1978). Lactate kinetics after short strenuous exercise in man. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 39(2): 123-35

Kevin Neeld

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

3 Tips from Olympic Hockey Players

Sunday’s Olympic Gold Medal battle between the U.S. and Canada was one of the best hockey games I’ve ever seen. I was disappointed that the Americans couldn’t pull it out, but it’s hard to complain about a game like that. Hopefully the excitement will drive more deserved attention to the greatest sport on Earth (and most other planets too…).

I was fortunate to watch at least part of every hockey game during these Olympics. Hopefully hockey players and coaches around the world were just as fortunate because there were a TON of great hockey lessons to be learned.

1) Hunger Eats Talent. Two of the best games I saw during the Olympics were the Czech Republic vs. Latvia, and Slovakia vs. Norway. Both games had one thing in common, one team was DRASTICALLY outmatched by the other. Norway had 1 NHL player on its roster. Latvia had two. I’d be surprised if you’ve heard of any of them. Despite the lopsided rosters, Norway and Latvia battled to the end and almost pulled out INCREDIBLE upsets. They were hungry. They wanted to win more. To be more patriotic, this is the same reason that the U.S. beat Canada in the preliminaries AND the 1980 USSR team (the greatest sporting event ever). Never give up on a game. Be a “hungry” player every shift of every game. That type of attitude is contagious. Hungry teams win championships. You want that.

2) Throw everything on net. The announcers said early that Luongo didn’t look steady. He didn’t. Every shot had a rebound. The U.S. scored two suspect goals that resulted from just throwing pucks at the net. Of more interest to my Canadian friends, look at Crosby’s last goal! Ryan Miller was the Olympic MVP. He was almost unbeatable on first shots. Crosby threw a quick, but generally unimpressive shot on net and won a Gold Medal for his country. Too many players try to get too fancy around the net. Wayne Gretzky wisely pointed out that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Throw it on net, especially in big games and towards the end of the game. Nerves are high. Goalies are tired. A goal is a goal. Don’t miss an opportunity to score.

3) Speed dominates. Zach Parise stood out every shift he was on the ice. He wasn’t the biggest player. He didn’t have the hardest shot. He stood out because he was ridiculously fast. I don’t want to under-emphasize other skills like having good hands and being able to read the play, but if you’re too slow to create enough time to use your good hands, it won’t matter. To compete at the highest levels of hockey, you need to be fast. To dominate at those levels, you need to be faster.

Play fast. Play smart. Play hungry. Win.

-Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you want to follow a specific training program to help you develop game-changing speed, register for a membership with Hockey Training Expert. It’s only $9.95/month and has training programs you can start to follow immediately, straight through until next season.

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