Tag: hockey training

What would you do to succeed?

Last night I had an opportunity to give a nutrition talk to the Team Comcast U18 team. The talk went pretty well, as I know the kids pretty well since all but a couple spent their Summer with me over at Endeavor. During the talk, and interspersed Q&A, we touched on a lot of topics:

What Generation UCAN is and how their products are better alternatives to typical sports drinks
As part of #1-the relationship between foods, blood sugar, insulin, energy levels, and fat burning
When to eat a pre-game meal
What pre-game meals should be composed of (and what they SHOULDN’T be composed of)
What to eat for breakfast and how to prepare it without losing too much sleep
What to pack for lunch
The reality about the kids that say they eat a lot, but just can’t put on weight
How much water to drink everyday and how to get it in for non water drinkers
The easiest way to grocery shop and ensure you’re not buying garbage

Overall, I tried to keep the discussion as practical as possible. Kids aren’t nearly as interested in the science as I am. They want to know what to eat, when to eat it, and a brief explanation as to why it matters.

The best hockey nutrition resource I’ve ever come across

After discussing all of the above items, I felt the team had a pretty thorough understanding of how they should eat, and how they could make better choices a reality (implementation is a major road block). So I wrapped up by asking a relatively simple question:

“How many of you want to play college hockey?”

Every hand in the room went up. Perfect. I then suggested that if I approached each individual and asked what they would do to get there, that they’d probably all say some variation of “I’d do whatever it takes.”

In fact, I think you’d hear a similar response from any athlete that wishes to advance to a next level. Unfortunately, wishing won’t quite cut it, and what most of these athletes really mean is “I’ll do what’s most convenient and least invasive” and in many cases “and then bitch about how much better I am than the worst three players that made it over me.”

There is an optimal way to do everything-eat, hydrate, train, practice, facilitate recovery, etc. Naturally, there is a poor way to do everything as well. It’s a continuum from most ideal to least ideal. No one will be perfect 100% of the time. But if players are truly motivated, they should make a consistent focused effort to live their lives more toward optimal than not, and should quickly get back on track when things slip momentarily.

Everyone wants to take the dynamite approach to development. They want it all, now, and expect it yesterday. The truth is that development is more like erosion. In this analogy, every component I mentioned above can be signified as more water to stimulate erosion (development). Get your nutrition on track-more water. Learn proper recovery techniques (e.g. foam roll, stretch, perform breathing exercises after training, read before bed, go to bed and wake up within an hour of the same times every day, etc.)-more water. Follow a quality, progressive hockey training program-more water. And so on. This is how development works. If the athlete pursues optimal in all aspects of preparation and performance, they will continue to develop over time and eventually have an opportunity to compete at elite levels. If the process is rushed, and/or the little sacrifices aren’t made, development suffers.

Once athletes have the information, it’s up to them to use it. If you say you’ll do anything to achieve your goal, understand what everything means. Amongst other things, it means waking up a few minutes early to make a quality breakfast; it means packing your lunch the night before; it means doing the foam rolling, stretching, and dynamic warm-up routines your strength coach taught you, even when you’re sick of them; it means going to bed a little earlier on the weekends than you’d want and waking up WAY earlier than you want; it means watching the next level above you and studying the game; it means practicing specific skills repeatedly until you perfect them, and then practicing even more to cement them into automacity. These are just a few examples, but it should shed some light on my point. Develop your drive to succeed and then don’t let anything stop you, especially not your own apathy!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you’re looking for a great hockey-specific nutrition manual, I highly encourage you to invest in Ultimate Hockey Nutrition by Brian St. Pierre, which is only available to all Ultimate Hockey Training customers! Click here for more information: Ultimate Hockey Training

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What if Talent Doesn’t Exist?

A few weeks ago, after returning from USA Hockey’s ADM Symposium I ordered a half dozen books, many of which were recommended by the presenters. After wrapping up On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deady Conflict in War and in Peace by Lt. Col Dave Grossman and Loren W. Christensen (a really interesting insight into “warrior preparation”), I opened The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born, It’s Grown by Daniel Coyle. I knew I would have a hard time putting The Talent Code down, as Bounce by Matt Syed, which is written on a similar topic, is one of my favorite books of all time.

As you may have noticed, I’m on a bit of a long-term athletic development kick recently. That USA Hockey Symposium really “lit my lamp”. The symposium was largely responsible for sparking these posts, which I encourage you to read if you haven’t already:

There are clearly areas for improvement in our long-term hockey development programs, and I think USA Hockey is on the right track with their guidelines and recommendations. As I anticipated, components of their ADM are being criticized largely by people that haven’t taken the time to fully understand the intentions, guidelines, and progressions of the system. It’s a shame that the people with the loudest voices have a tendency to be the least well-informed.

Getting back to my reading endeavors, I thought Bounce was interesting because it systematically challenged the idea of “natural talent”. While this doesn’t quite do the book service, I think Bounce was a creative way of explaining the 10,000 Hour Rule, and how seemingly “natural” talents can always, regardless of the chosen field, be explained via dedicated practice. As Michaelangelo said,

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

What we consider, or should I say what we don’t consider practice may be the reason that people miss this. This topic could be a post in itself (it is. see The Truth About Practice above), I’ll point out that WATCHING higher level performance is one of the most overlooked and incredibly powerful forms of practice. Many of the “young geniuses” accumulated SUBSTANTIAL practice hours watching/listening to their parents or some other mentor at a young age.

Lesson 1: Quality mentors accelerate excellence.

The Talent Code uses similar examples of unexpected excellence, such as the international dominance of Russian female tennis players (from ONE club!), Curacao little league teams, and even the true story of the Renaissance artists to illustrate the same point. These stories are truly miraculous when you consider how few resources many of these outstanding achievers had. Natural talents? Hardly.

Simply, in every case, peak performers have put forth a RIDICULOUS amount of focused, progressive effort to achieve their excellence. They don’t just go through the motions; they attempt, refine, and attempt again until they get it right. Daniel Coyle does a great job of explaining the physiology behind how this eventually leads to automacity (consistent performance without conscious thought).

The secret lies in myelin. Myelin forms a sheath around the axon of neurons. Think of the neuron’s axon as a wire, and myelin as the casing around it. Myelin serves to “insulate” the axon, creating a smoother, faster signal. Because all active human movement (and thought for that matter) results from the coordinated firing of vast neuronal networks, myelin has a profound effect on our everyday lives.

Cartoon Neuron. Myelin in yellow.

Think about it. EVERYTHING you think or do involves the firing of a vast network of neurons. When you drink Generation UCAN after your practice, a specific network of neurons fires. When you celebrate after a great game, a specific network of neurons fires. When you get mad because you don’t like a coaching decision, a specific network of neurons fires. As a network fires more and more, more myelin is laid down to insulate the connecting axons (the cord connecting one neuron to another). In other words, that pathway is reinforced and becomes more efficient. As I’ve mentioned, this has tremendous physical AND psychological implications. Essentially, this explains “muscle memory”, why highly practiced skills can be replicated with decent proficiency even after a long hiatus. This also explains why it becomes increasingly easy to skip going to the gym to train.

Lesson 2: Every decision or indecision, action or inaction results in a physiological response that makes you more likely to do it the same way again in the future.

You may have heard the expression “It’s like riding a bike”, which eloquently illustrates the idea of muscle memory. Although, when I got on a bike while at grad school at UMass for the first time in over 10 years, I didn’t feel so balanced. I must have not laid down enough myelin.

The key to becoming a world-class athlete isn’t just to pick your parents right as is often said; it’s to develop highly myelinated high performance neuronal networks. This doesn’t mean that performing a movement incorrectly is undesirable. Quite the contrary. In fact, stumbling through practice is NECESSARY to find the right movement, which can be cemented with further practice. The idea isn’t to not make mistakes; it’s to not overlook mistakes. Mistakes are an important step in the skill development process. But what happens if an athlete, in practically any team sport, makes a mistake that results in a turnover? Instant negative feedback from the coach. A single failed attempt paired with negative feedback causes most athletes to abandon that strategy. Is it any wonder that athletic development experts are calling for more UNSTRUCTURED play amongst athletes at younger ages? These “pick-up” settings typically involve more movement, more “touches” with the ball/puck, and ultimately more opportunities to self-correct. In other words, they have more opportunities to identify effective neuronal networks and start laying down myelin.

Lesson 3: Unstructured play and uncoached small area games create outstanding environments for rapid skill development.

Take Home
At every level of sport, you hear athletes, parents, and coaches talking about how “talented” an athlete is, as if their abilities were developed passively. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that talent, or natural ability as we currently think of it, doesn’t exist. Or should I say, the neuronal network that creates the thought that talent may not exist is becoming increasingly myelinated. The trouble in accepting that talent doesn’t exist, is that we need to look at two athletes, the best and worst on any given team, and treat their potential for future excellence equally.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Ultimate Hockey Training

Ice hockey is one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports in the world. Competing at elite levels requires a unique combination of refined skill and overall athleticism. Without exception, truly maximal performance stems from comprehensive preparation.

In Ultimate Hockey Training, hockey development expert Kevin Neeld details exactly how you should design and progress your off-ice training to continually improve on-ice performance. Neeld’s system includes assessments, exercise progressions, and year-round training guidelines to help you realize your full potential. Specific injury prevention strategies are identified to not only make you a faster, stronger, and better conditioned player, but also more durable one.

Ultimate Hockey Training is the most complete hockey training system ever developed, a must-have resource for any player or coach.

Ultimate Hockey Training Q&A

I wanted to kick things off today by saying thank you to everyone that has invested in my new book Ultimate Hockey Training. I’m truly humbled by the level of interest the book has received from a worldwide audience (I even got a request from someone from Australia!). As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I wrote the book for you based on the questions I receive from you most often, and additional information that I felt was prudent for the hockey community to be aware of.

I also wanted to extend a sincere thank you to my colleagues, many of which I consider friends and/or mentors, in the strength and conditioning industry that have helped spread the word about the book launch. I’m honored that Mike Boyle, Charlie Weingroff, Maria Mountain, Tony Gentilcore, Jeff Cubos, Brian St. Pierre, David Lasnier, and Ben Bruno all took time to mention Ultimate Hockey Training on their sites and that people like Anthony Renna, Perry Nickelston, Joe Dowdell, and Jaime Rodriguez have all posted things on Facebook or Twitter. I appreciate the help guys!

In case you missed it yesterday, I also posted the link for you to watch the third (and final) video in the Ultimate Hockey Training series for absolutely free-no registration required at all. Click here to check it out: Complete Hockey Training System

For today’s Q&A, I want to address some of the other most common questions I’ve gotten over the last week. If you have questions that aren’t mentioned here, post them in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you ASAP!

1) Is Ultimate Hockey Training right for me?

Whenever a new product comes out, there are some people that are on the fence about whether or not it’s “right” for them. Yesterday’s post (which you can find here: Ultimate Hockey Training: The Story) exposed, if you will, the reason why I wrote the book in the first place and the justification for the price point of the product (I actually got an email from a potential buyer asking if he read something wrong! “Am I missing something? Is everything really only…”). My hope was that the post cleared up some of the “is it right for me” questions that you may have had.

To dig a little deeper, it’s fair to mention that the book does cover some pretty “scientific” topics that may catch readers coming from strictly a hockey background by surprise. If you’ve read my site regularly for the last couple years, you’ll already appreciate the importance of some of these topics. Ultimate Hockey Training discusses common, but complex hockey injuries such as chronic groin and hip flexor strains, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), sports hernias, etc. On this topic, mechanisms of injury and preventative and restorative strategies are addressed. Ultimate Hockey Training also has a lot of detail on how the nervous system influences specific physical qualities, such as speed, power, strength, and conditioning. The nervous system is integral in driving/controlling all movement, so I think it’s imperative to identify how to manipulate the system for the development of desirable qualities.

While these topics might be a little over the head of readers without an exercise science background, I don’t think it prohibits them from using the information. The book is PACKED with practical applications. For those of you curious as to what other topics are covered, take a quick glimpse at the table of contents:

Chapter 1: Understanding The Process
Chapter 2: The Hockey Training Revolution
Chapter 3: Lifelong Hockey Development
Chapter 4: Discovering Hockey Function
Chapter 5: Unlocking Functional Movement With Self-Myofascial Release
Chapter 6: Innovative Dynamic Warm-Ups
Chapter 7: Breakaway Hockey Speed
Chapter 8: Creating Strength And Power Through Neural Manipulation
Chapter 9: The Case For Unilateral Training
Chapter 10: Strength And Power Training For Hockey
Chapter 11: Functional Core Training
Chapter 12: A New Look At Hockey Conditioning
Chapter 13: The Truth About Stretching
Chapter 14: Special Topics In Injury Prevention
Chapter 15: Year-Round Training Considerations
Chapter 16: Conclusion

Hopefully you scan that list and think “There’s nothing left. He covered it all!” That was certainly my intention!

2) Do you cover nutrition?

Brian St. Pierre added a brilliantly written hockey-specific nutrition manual “Ultimate Hockey Nutrition” that is available for purchase to Ultimate Hockey Training customers. For those of you that don’t know Brian, he’s been my go-to nutrition guy for the last five years. Not only does he have a lot of experience working with hockey players at all levels, but he actually played through juniors. I don’t many nutritionists that can “skate the skate”, so to speak. Ultimate Hockey Nutrition is great because it’s written with practical applications in mind. He even included different meal plans for high school, junior and college players (each) for before practice, games, and both home and road tournaments.

Proper Nutrition: The most recognized and least practiced component of hockey performance!

It’s truly a “player’s resource” in that it provides answers to ALL of the nutrition and supplement questions that Brian and I have gotten from hockey players over the last several years.

3) Have the things in this book been “tested”?

Absolutely. I remember hearing someone say years ago that the coolest thing about visiting Mike Boyle’s facility was that everything he talks about, he actually does. As I mentioned, the book covers some of the scientific rationale behind why I design programs the way I do because I think that’s important. In the interest of “sexier marketing”, you’ll often see people clutch on to the latest gimmick and pitch it as a cure-all.

This may sell, but this kid isn’t coming out of the corner with many pucks!

I don’t have time for that. Everything we do at Endeavor is backed by a solid scientific rationale. And everything I wrote about in Ultimate Hockey Training has been tested in our facility. If it looks good on paper, but isn’t practical, then it won’t work. My understanding is that most people aren’t interested in things that don’t work!

4) Is mental preparation covered at all?

Actually, the mental side of things is the one area that I didn’t touch on. Mental training could be an entire book in itself (it is; see Hockey Tough by Saul Miller). That said, I think neglecting mental preparation is a huge mistake and is FREQUENTLY the limiting factor in an individual’s and team’s performance. In order to fill the gap, I reached out to my friend Kim McCullough, who is very knowledgeable in this area, and she put together a terrific manual called “How to Think Like a Player” that is a FREE bonus for anyone that buys the book. I also have bonuses from Sean Skahan, David Lasnier, Eric Cressey, Maria Mountain, Rick Kaselj, and Charlie Weingroff. When I said yesterday that each one of the bonuses would be worth the listed book price, I wasn’t kidding!

That’s a wrap for today! Hopefully that answers any questions you still had. If not, please post them down below and I’ll get back to you immediately.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Ultimate Hockey Training: The Story

Wow. I am honestly floored by the response to the release of my new book Ultimate Hockey Training yesterday. The last week has been flattering. I’ve received a ton of emails thanking me for putting out quality information in the three hockey training videos I released, and have already started receiving positive feedback from customers that have just skimmed through the digital version of the book while they wait for the physical copy to be delivered.

In addition to the feedback from customers, Charlie Weingroff and David Lasnier also posted quick reviews, which you can find here:

Charlie Weingroff: Ultimate Hockey Training

David Lasnier: Ultimate Hockey Training is Live

And Tony Gentilcore posted an interview that he and I did a couple months back. This might be my best interview ever (or at least most relevant to the hockey crowd out there), so make sure you check it out!

Tony Gentilcore: Ultimate Hockey Training Interview

As a “thank you” to my loyal site visitors, I’ve now made the third video in the Ultimate Hockey Training series public, meaning you can access it for FREE without registering. Click the link below to watch the video now!

Click here to watch >> Complete Hockey Training System

As I’ve developed Ultimate Hockey Training over the last year, I’ve gotten a few common questions that I want to take some time to address today.

1) “This must have taken forever! Why did you write the book?”

You’re right. It did seem like it took me forever to write. I think the research, time, and mental capacity that went into writing Ultimate Hockey Training parallels the formidable effort necessary to complete my Master’s thesis and presentation at UMass several years ago. To address the heart of the question, I wrote Ultimate Hockey Training for the same reason I started my website. I think there is a large proportion of the hockey community that is looking for information on how to improve their on-ice performance through off-ice training, and while there are resources available, I think the majority of them are outdated, overly scientific without practical application, or just flat out misguided. Unfortunately, hockey is still very much in a phase of appealing to ex-players for their training secrets. I understand the logic, but it’s inherently flawed. Sidney Crosby (as a completely arbitrary example) is no more of an off-ice training expert than George Costanza is a balding expert. Yes, he’s gone through the process; no, it doesn’t make him an expert in the area. The truth is that even NHL and Olympic programs have strength and conditioning coaches for a reason. Players develop a reasonable understanding of what works for THEM as individuals, but do not possess a grasp on how to design comprehensive age-, playing level-, and individual-specific training programs. That is the strength and conditioning coach’s job.

That said, there is a glaring hole in the hockey development market for a product that summarizes EVERY component of year-round off-ice training. Not just a speed training manual. Not just a dynamic warm-up manual. Not just a college level off-season manual. The hockey community needs a step-by-step system, a philosophy, that can be used by players at ALL levels, during all times of the year, written by someone that ACTUALLY TRAINS HOCKEY PLAYERS for a living. The old saying goes “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” I believe Ultimate Hockey Training does both; it provides the reader with enough to get started immediately (at any level, and at any time of year), and teaches them how to continue progressing programs to make progress throughout their entire career.

So why spend the time? First, as I mentioned in my interview with Tony, I developed a strong passion for hockey development at a young age and that fires is raging harder than ever today. In other words, I LOVE this stuff. It’s fun for me to study it, experiment with new concepts, develop different training protocols, and to relay current thoughts or “what works” to you guys. Second, I still get positive reviews from readers of my original ebook Off-Ice Performance Training. I think the strength of that manual lies in the detailed outline of dynamic warm-up and plyometric exercises. I also think it does a great job of presenting options for programs that lack training equipment, and in teaching program design concepts to coaches that don’t have an exercise science background. That said, it’s not how I train hockey players. My environment is different and offers more opportunities for variety, so I wanted to update my system so those of you that read my site regularly can get a current picture of what I think is the best way to train hockey players.

2) “You’re only charging WHAT?!”

If you fully understand the impact that a QUALITY off-ice training program can have on a player’s performance and durability (injury-resistance), then you understand how valuable a good off-season program is. At Endeavor, our players pay ~$1,500 to train with us for 12 weeks. That’s one off-season (part of one off-season for some players). Naturally, a resource that presents exactly how to design year-round programs, let alone career-long programs, could be valued exponentially higher. This isn’t an arbitrary value system (we’ve all seen the products with an INSANELY high, invariably arbitrary value placed on them!); this can be directly translated into costs of working with a professional strength and conditioning coach.

My program is worth…100…TRILLION dollars!

If you pride yourself on continuing education (as I suspect you do if you found your way to my site), you’ve likely come across products that are “systems” similar to mine that cost anywhere from $200-$2,000, depending on the market (business products are always priced higher). When I first told some of my friends “in the know” with regards to selling products, the lower end of that scale was where they recommended I price Ultimate Hockey Training. I politely declined and went with what felt right to me. I don’t mean “felt right” like I priced it at what I felt it was worth; I mean felt right in that I thought the information was so valuable that I wanted EVERYONE in the hockey community to own a copy, and I didn’t want price to be a barrier. In all honesty, any one of the 7 bonuses that come with the book are worth more than I’m charging for the whole package. I realize that a lot of people don’t agree with the decision (as it might undermine the value of their products). Even David Lasnier, my supposed “good friend”, said I might have brain damage (I’ll be changing the lock to our office before he arrives this morning)! If you haven’t watched the last video yet and read more about the book’s contents, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you do.

That’s a wrap for today. Hopefully you have a better understand of the “motives” behind writing the book and whether or not you think it’s the right fit for you (which I’ll touch more on tomorrow). If you haven’t yet, please take a few minutes to watch the third video (it’s free!).

Click here to watch >> Complete Hockey Training System

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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