Tag: hockey training course

My New Favorite Exercise

Single-leg high force reduction followed by an explosive lateral or diagonal bound, followed by another single-leg high force reduction. I love it. You can progress this exercise by adding a high knee before the forward lunge (so you’ll be decelerating from a higher height, adding to the amount of force you’ll need to reduce) or by adding a weight vest.
I’ve always wanted to name an exercise after myself, so I changed these from: Lunge to Lateral Bound to: Neeld Bounds. Not nearly as descriptive and I’m sure someone else has thought of it, but I’m running with the fantasy that I made it up.

[quicktime]http://www.kevinneeld.com/videos/Eagle-Lunge%20to%20Lateral%20Bound%204.mov[/quicktime]

– Kevin Neeld

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Movie Appreciation Series: 1

I have two weeks to finish up my research on motor unit synchronization and get ready to present it. Free time is at an all time low, which means it’s a perfect time for Movie Appreciation Week. It may not be what you think. Each video will have a theme that somehow relates to performance training or ice hockey. Also, it’s playoff hockey time; you should all be growing out your playoff beards…no exceptions.

Day 1:
Technique…Every couple days I’ll come back to my apartment to the faint sound of heavy metal or someone yelling in Russian. My friend Mike spends about half of his time reading about neuroendocrinology, and the other half watching squat videos on youtube. Regardless of his social problems, this video is impressive. If only we all had this hip mobility.

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Hockey Conditioning For Goalies

I think work capacity and alternating periods of static holds and explosive movements are essential training strategies for goalies.

I do some traditional interval training on a bike with goalies, like I do with all hockey players, but I have a greater emphasis on iso-holds. I usually use a squat iso-hold, or a split squat iso-hold with toe pull (raising the heal slightly on the lead leg and pulling the ball of the foot into the ground to activate the hamstrings to a greater extent).

Another idea I stole from Brijesh Patel is to alternate static holds with explosive movements. For instance, hold a squat position for 10s, then perform 3 max effort vertical jumps. Land and hold the squat position for another 10s, then perform 3 more jumps. Go through this cycle three times, for a total of 30s of holds and 9 jumps. This must be done with caution and your athletes must have a good understanding of proper and safe movement. A safer variation is to do it on a slideboard. Maintain a squat position on one side for 10s, then perform 3-5 rapid “back and forths” then stop and hold the squat position, etc. If done correctly, this is about as goalie-specific as it gets.

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Hockey-Specific Jump Training

I think jump training is an effective way to improve lower body power development, and the ability to decelerate. Jump training gets a lot of emphasis because of the importance of maximizing force output while transitioning from a deceleration- to acceleration-based movement, or eccentric (muscle lengthening) to concentric (muscle shortening) contraction. This happens anytime you precede a jump with a quick dip: you’re eccentrically contracting your quads and glutes while decelerating your fall, then transitioning into an upward acceleration by concentrically contracting your quads and glutes.

While this comes into place during changes of direction on the ice, it isn’t a big factor in the regular skating stride. Also, because many of the changes of direction are done at such a high speed, a greater amount of force reduction is needed than in a common vertical or broad jump. In other words, it takes more force and more time to complete the direction change than a normal vertical jump.

This leads me into my new favorite jumping exercise. Stay tuned…

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The Ultimate Off-Season Training Manual

Hockey Goalie-Specific Training

The needs of an ice hockey goalie are very specific. They need to:

· Be exceptionally powerful through the hips, especially in lateral and diagonal movements

· Be quick through the upper body, notably in independent arm actions

· Maintain a large amount of joint range of motion

· Be able to maintain a squat-like position for extended periods of time

On the surface, many of these qualities seem similar to other players. However, relatively speaking, the demands of players are more continuous. Goalies are usually required to move explosively, then rest, move explosively, then rest. Even when they’re extremely active, they aren’t usually required to repetitively move explosively in continuous actions. In other words, explosive lateral movements are usually followed by periods of maintaining a squat position or by a whistle (complete rest).

In the next couple days, I’ll go into more detail on hockey-specific jump training and goalie-specific conditioning.

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