Tag: Michael Boyle

Random Thoughts Continued

Picking right up where we left off on Monday:

18. These are two interesting abstracts on outcomes of manual therapy in chronic groin pain populations. I think every athlete should get manual therapy work performed on a regular basis, especially once they reach their Junior and Senior years of high school. If you’re in the mid-Atlantic area and need a recommendation, shoot me an email. I have a handful of professionals that I think are top-notch.

Abstract 1: A Manual Therapy Technique for Chronic Adductor-Related Groin Pain in Athletes: A Case Series

Abstract 2: Manual or Exercise Therapy for Long-Standing Adductor-Related Groin Pain: A Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial.

19. I recently started taking girth measurements of a few of our clients at Endeavor to better track their progress. While measuring the arm circumference, one of my clients said “You better call the vet, because these puppies are sick!” as he flexed. I’ll probably never forget that!

20. I recently had somewhat of a revelation that I needed to find more “balance” in my life. For the last several years, balance meant balancing various parts of work with other parts of work (e.g writing, article reading, DVD watching, coaching, etc.). I say “somewhat of a revelation” because my mom and Chris Boyko have collectively been politely reminding me of this for the last 15 years of my life (originally with hockey, now with strength and conditioning). This Summer I spent most of my weekdays training for 10+ hours; then I’d spend a good chunk of my weekend getting all my writing done. When the Summer ended, I was ready for a slow time, which to me meant:

Writing a comprehensive hockey training book
Taking the Postural Restoration Institute’s Myokinetic Restoration Course
Taking the Precision Nutrition Certification Exam
Developing and implementing a Nutrition Coaching Program at Endeavor
Going through Mark Joyner’s Simpleology 101 Course (and reading the accompanying book)
Two other HUGE projects for Endeavor that I can’t even talk about yet because their still in their infancy

Not exactly a healthy break in the action. Over the last month, I’ve actively planned time away from anything training related and tried to spend more time doing things I enjoy, despite not having professional benefits.

21. This is the first time I’ve publically mentioned the book that I wrote. I’m more excited about this than I have been about any other project I’ve ever worked on. I’m still not sure if it will get picked up by a publisher or if I’ll self-publish it, but I whole-heartedly believe it will be a game-changer when it comes out.

22. They say behind every good man is a good (or better) woman. Frankly, I don’t know where I’d be without Emily, but I know I wouldn’t be as happy or have as much fun.

From our cruise a couple years ago. (first time I left North America)

I probably don’t thank her enough. I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have a best friend that is supportive when I need her to be, and that drags me away from textbooks when she knows I need her to. As much as I respect her, it’s still embarrassing when she beats me in bowling.

Over the line! Mark it zero dude.

23. Over the last couple years there has been a rapid increase in the number of websites dedicated to hockey development information. The two best FREE resources out there are Kim McCullough’s Total Female Hockey Club (incredible information for MALE hockey players too!) and Maria Mountain’s Hockey Training Pro. The best slightly-less-free resource is Hockey Strength and Conditioning. If you’re involved in hockey in anyway, check out all three of these resources on a regular basis.

24. Spike…For when coffee feels like Nyquil

25. One of my dreams has always been to get invited to speak on hockey training in Europe. A couple weeks ago I received an email asking if I’d be interested in speaking in Denmark. I don’t know if it’ll work out or not, but I’m pretty psyched about the opportunity.

26. Stephen Covey once said, “We judge others by their behaviors. We judge ourselves by our intentions.” Think about the implications this has regarding our perceptions of EVERY behavior that goes on around us and how our own actions may be perceived by others. This may be the single most profound thing I’ve ever heard.

27. On a similar note, Michael Boyle summed up sports nutrition by paraphrasing someone: “Eat food. Mostly plants and animals. Not too much.” I urge everyone reading this to analyze their diet in that light and see how close they are. Most will find that there is less food, and more “food products” than there should be.

28. This is my new favorite stretch. Great way to improve full-body rotation range of motion.

Brettzel 2.0

29. You make everything I do possible. I’ve politely asked for people to forward my posts/newsletters that they’ve liked to other people. Because of these forwards, I’ve been introduced to a handful of NHL Strength and Conditioning Coaches, a couple of the higher-ups in USA Hockey, and countless other people that are equally important to me. When I started writing online, I made a promise to myself to always put out quality information that will truly benefit the people reading it. Regardless of what I write, it doesn’t matter if no one sees it. Because of your help, quality information is reaching more people. Thank you!

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!

This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

Usually, the things I like the most about Hockey Strength and Conditioning are the articles, programs, and exercise videos. I learn a lot by delving into what some of the top hockey training professionals in the world are doing with their athletes. I usually come away with new ideas for exercises/exercise progressions or program design strategies. As an example, our entire off-season med ball progressions were built from ideas I gathered from watching Mike Potenza’s videos.

With that in mind, Mike Boyle posted a great article this week on essential equipment to have for training hockey players. Because equipment availability lays the foundation for your programming, it was really interesting to hear what someone with Coach Boyle’s experience thinks is a “need-to-have”, “nice-to-have”, or simply a “luxury”. You can check out the article here:

Article: Need to Have Vs. Nice to Have from Michael Boyle

Contrary to the norm, the thing I benefited from the most over the last week was the forum discussions. Coach Boyle’s article stimulated a great conversation about the importance of slideboards versus cable systems that gave me some great ideas for future equipment purchases/exercise ideas.

My friend Devan McConnell started a great post on concussions and fighting that was eye opening. Because concussions, probably more than any other hockey injury, have long-lasting life-altering effects on players’ health, it’s of paramount importance to try to prevent these injuries. Darryl Nelson had a couple very insightful additions to this conversation. He’s become a forum superstar; I always look forward to hearing what he has to say.

Lastly, former BU player and current pro hockey player (Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL) Kevin Schaeffer posed the question as to whether anyone noticed if more of their players were starting to wear orthotics in their skates. This is a really interesting topic yesterday; I’m interested in seeing what others have to say on this as I know many of the other coaches on the site have encountered this issue at least once.

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!

Death of the Squat

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to attend the Friesen Physio-Fitness Summit in Raleigh, NC. The summit was awesome; Pete Friesen (going on his 14th year as the Hurricanes Strength and Conditioning Coach) put together a fantastic line-up of speakers, including many of members of his sports medicine network. I’m in the process of putting together a write-up on the Summit for Hockey Strength and Conditioning now; there was a lot of great information was process. I was flattered that Pete said he reads all my emails (he must be the one!), and am really thankful that he invited me down.

Death of the Squat
One of the presenters at the Summit brought up Coach Boyle’s “Death of the Squat” idea. I really think Boyle’s words have been misheard, misinterpreted, and misunderstood to the point of completely bastardizing his point. As a disclaimer, if you know me at all you know that I’m heavily influenced by Boyle’s philosophies and teachings. In fact, his mentorship is largely responsible for where I am today as a coach. As such, I do feel an allegiance toward defending his ideas. With that said, that’s not why I’m writing this. Whether I agree with Boyle’s point about single-leg training (I do) isn’t as important here as making sure people understand what he’s actually saying about the benefits of single-leg vs. double-leg training.

First, he never said squats were dead. The “Death of the Squat” was coined by Pat Beith, who was responsible for marketing Functional Strength Coach 3. Frankly, it was a great way to use a controversial topic to stimulate interest in the product (a win for Pat). Unfortunately, many people took the attention grabber an umbrella statement about training. Boyle mentions that, at some point, the limiting factor in squatting becomes spinal stability, not lower body/hip strength. He doesn’t say that squatting isn’t a good lower body exercise; he doesn’t say it’s a back exercise.

An area of the body being a limiting factor doesn’t imply that it is weak either; it simply means that is the point of failure. If you consider the anatomy of the spine and supporting musculature, it shouldn’t be surprising that the legs can power up more weight than the spine can handle. In anticipation of this argument, it’s unreasonable to use elite level powerlifters (even if we look past the drug use and equipment use) as an argument against Boyle’s point about spinal stability. There are exceptions to every rule. Boyle isn’t basing his argument on a few minor exceptions, he’s basing it on his observations on thousands of athletes across the last 3 decades.

Take Home Message
This message can be interpreted in a couple different ways, but I look at it like this. Squatting is a great exercise to develop lower body/hip strength initially. When strength improves to a point where spinal stability becomes the limiting factor, the risk/reward ratio of the exercise is tipped unfavorably. At this point, it doesn’t make sense to push the limits of spinal stability in the interest of potentially adding some lower body strength, especially since there is a better alternative: single-leg training.

Single-leg training offers the benefit of being able to continuously overload the lower body, while minimizing the stress to the spine. The other primary benefit of single-leg training is that it capitalizes on the pre-existing neural pathways that drive athletic movement. I wrote about this in detail in my article Rethinking Bilateral Training, which I encourage you to check out if you haven’t yet.

We don’t do a lot of squatting at Endeavor because I think our single-leg exercises are more effective at improving strength. They also minimize injury risk. We mostly mix it in with our off-season athletes that will need to be able to squat well for testing purposes when they return to their teams. I apologize for the rant. I’m disappointed when I see smart people arguing against points that Boyle never made. Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Eric Cressey put up another great video post with answers to some common training questions and a few heart-touching stories. Check it out here: Show and Go FAQ

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

This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

This week was a little slower over at Hockey Strength and Conditioning, but there was still some great content.

Article: Interval Training Questions from Michael Boyle

This is a great Q&A from Boyle that covers some of the more frequently asked questions regarding interval training. His response to “the best way to calculate max heart rate” is both spot on…and comical.

Program: Training Camp Workouts from Mike Potenza

Seeing programs from other coaches, especially those as highly esteemed as Boyle, Potenza, and Sean Skahan is one of my favorite parts about being a member at HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com. You get to see EXACTLY how the coaches that have helped developed thousands of elite level players put together their programs at different times of the year, and if something doesn’t make sense, you can just hop over to the forum and ask them directly.

There is also a great discussion going on at the forum about how to design team training programs for different settings. This really resonated with me as we’re revamping our team programs at Endeavor for the dozen teams we have that play in the rink next door.

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!

This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

Check out what you missed this week over at Hockey Strength and Conditioning!

Article: Leadership Lessons from the NHL from me
A recap of the most important lessons I learned from my 1st NHL training camp. From talking to Coach Potenza, this is stuff that we agree all coaches AND players should know.

Article: How Should I Strength Train Leading Up to Training Camp? from Mike Potenza
A great description of the off-ice training protocols Coach Potenza uses with the San Jose Sharks to prepare them for training camp.

Video: 10-Rep Cluster Bench Press from Sean Skahan
Clusters are a great way to build strength. Cool video from Coach Skahan.

Video: Rear Foot Elevated Jump from Michael Boyle
A single-leg plyo exercise from Coach Boyle. This would be a great one to use in conjunction with a back leg raised split squat if you’re into pairing strength and power exercises.

Video: Goblet Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat from Ben Bruno
I was exhausted just watching this video!

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!