Tag: Mike Boyle

Hockey Speed Training: Lateral Start Progression

Most of our off-season hockey training programs have progressed to the final phase. With that, our speed training has reached the point where we’re merging away from static sprint starts and incorporating multi-directional dynamic starts.

We generally run a linear and lateral sprint progression in parallel throughout the off-season, meaning one speed day has a more linear start focus, and the other has a more lateral focus. This is another idea I borrowed from Mike Boyle, and it’s been great for “tissue unloading” (so we aren’t hammering the same structures over and over) and for reinforced teaching. At the end of our lateral start progression (before we move into strictly dynamic starts) we use a falling side lunge start. Check out the video below.

The idea is to force the athlete to decelerate then explode into a lateral movement. This follows several weeks of teaching our athletes how to rapidly move out of a lunge position into a sprint position. If you’re interested in more hockey speed training information, I break down exactly how I design/implement speed training for hockey players in Breakaway Hockey Speed.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Joint vs. Muscular Restriction

Over the past couple weeks at Endeavor, we’ve had a bunch of new and prospective athletes come through our doors. When I teach new people our warm-up, the words “mobility” or “mobilization” come up repeatedly.

Mobility is a term frequently used to describe one of two things:

The ability for a bone to move (e.g. roll, glide, spin, slide, etc.) within a joint
Global range of motion around that joint

It’s important to understand that mobility around a joint is dependent upon several factors:

The anatomy of the joint itself (e.g. bone shape/contact, cartilage support, etc.)
Supporting ligaments (size, strength, direction of pull, integrity, etc.)
The extensibility of the muscles surrounding the joint

Of these, most people think of improving range of motion around a joint as simply improving the extensibility of the muscles around it. Many times, this can be an effective strategy, but sometimes it’s not that straight forward. Mike Boyle first introduced this concept to me within the context of ankle mobility.

He correctly pointed out that if someone lacks dorsiflexion range of motion (knee going forward over the toes) it may have nothing to do with tight calves. Instead, it may be that your talocrural joint (tibia and fibula on top, talus below) isn’t gliding the way it should be. As a result, your dorsiflexion ROM will be limited and you may even feel sensations of impingement in the front of your ankle. Bill Hartman does a great job of discussing this issue specifically in these two videos:

Self-Ankle Mobilization 1

Self-Ankle Mobilization 2

Improving range of motion isn’t always a simple fix. Like all things in performance, you need to get down to the cause of the limitation, not just guess your way around the symptoms.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Continuing Ed for Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, and Strength Coaches

What a week. Things have been really chaotic as I get ready to launch my new hockey training project and as our Tier I youth and Junior players return back to Endeavor for their off-season training.

I wanted to let you know about a special opportunity I just found out about. In January I mentioned that my friend Joe Heiler from SportsRehabExpert.com was putting together a “Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar”. If you missed that post, you can check out it here: Sports Rehab to Sports Performance

In a nutshell, Joe compiled an absurdly prestigious list of the top physical therapists, athletic trainers, and strength and conditioning coaches in the world and interrogated them for their best information.

Contributors included:

Gray Cook and Shirley Sahrmann
Robert Panariello
Stuart McGill (bonus interview with Chris Poirier from Perform Better)
Craig Liebenson and Clare Frank
Mike Reinold
Greg Rose
Mike Boyle
Gary Gray
Eric Cressey

The interviews were done so well that I actually emailed Joe afterward and (politely and respectfully) asked him what he was thinking giving them away for free. If you didn’t register for the teleseminar, you really missed out on an incredible opportunity to here some of the most brilliant people in human performance history speak.

Luckily, Joe has put together all of the presentations (including bonus presentations by Nick Tumminello and Charlie Weingroff) into one great package for a more than reasonable investment.

Click here for more information: Sports Rehab to Sports Performance

Let me take a second to say that this is NOT for everyone. I know a lot of the people that read my site are youth hockey players or coaches that have no interest in this aspect of things. If this includes you, then do NOT buy this. A lot of the science talk will be over your head and you won’t get a ton out of it.

If you ARE a physical therapist, athletic trainer, or strength and conditioning coach, this is definitely information you should hear. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever get this type of line up again, and you really can’t beat the price tag: $29.99. Think about the travel, food (for me this would probably exceed $100 itself…but I eat a lot), hotel and admission costs associated with attending a weekend seminar to get this SAME information. I still think Joe is crazy for giving this away at this price, but he’s really dedicated to making quality information easily accessible, and I have a ton of respect for that!

Click here for more information: Sports Rehab to Sports Performance

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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Off-Season Hockey Leads You to Surgery?

This was a post from Endeavor’s website that got such a great response that I wanted to share it with you.

As you know, I’ve recently teamed up with Michael Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks) and Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) to launch an incredible hockey training website: HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com.

On the site, U of Minnesota Strength Coach Cal Dietz shared an interesting article with us. The article outlined research with groundbreaking results. If you value your hockey career, you’ll read carefully!

This article outlined a study that took MRI’s of the hips of 39 NHL and NCAA Division I hockey players. Of the 39 players, twenty-one (54%) had labral tears, twelve (31%) had muscle strains, and 2 (5%) had tendinosis (degeneration of the tendon) of the hips. Overall, 70% of the players had irregular findings on their MRIs. Interestingly, the majority of these players were considered “healthy” at the time of the study, meaning they were okay to play.

As shocking as these results may appear, I wasn’t at all surprised. Similar results have been found in the shoulders of baseball players, and hockey players completely abuse their hips. Most players spend no time doing the stretches they need to (because they’re either too lazy or don’t know which ones they should do), have poor motor control of muscles around the hips (which tears up the joint and labrum!), and spend WAY too much time on the ice.

A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks); he mentioned that in over 90% of cases, the players he sees that have sports hernias do little to nothing in terms of training. Everyone at the collegiate and professional strength and conditioning levels understand that good training can improve a player’s performance, lengthen their career, and keep them out of the surgeon’s office. Hopefully youth players and parents will get the message.

To your continued health and success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you’re looking for a step-by-step training system to use this off-season, check out my Off-Ice Performance Training course. I continue to get incredible feedback about the exercises and progressions in the course, from NCAA D1 Strength and Conditioning Coaches down through parents of youth players (e.g. peewees). Download your copy today!

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Top 10 Strength and Conditioning Newsletters

Last night I surprised Emily by picking her up at the airport (she was expecting a friend from work). Her flight was delayed, so I’m a little tired today!

I’m always curious what resources other Strength and Conditioning Coaches go to for new/unique training information. There are a ton of great books, websites, audio programs, and DVDs out there, all of which cost money.

Below is a list of my the Top 10 FREE Newsletters that I think all Strength and Conditioning Coaches should subscribe to.

Everyone will benefit from all of these, but you may find some speak to you more than others so I don’t think it’s fair to rank them (that’s why they’re all labeled “1”).

1) Eric Cressey’s Newsletter

1) Michael Boyle’s Functional Strength Coach Newsletter

1) Nick Tumminello’s Newsletter and Video Course

1) Mike Robertson’s Newsletter

1) SBCoachesCollege.com Newsletter

1) Brian Tracy’s Newsletters (I love the “Quote of the Day newsletter)

1) Mike Geary’s Newsletter (Great Nutrition and fat loss tips)

1) John Berardi’s/Precision Nutrition Newsletter

1) Kevin Neeld’s Newsletter (Had to throw that one in there)

1) Kim McCullough’s Hockey Newsletter (This is a must-subscribe for both male AND female hockey players and coaches)

These are the newsletters I read on a daily basis. If you know of other great newsletters please post them below so we can all benefit from them!

Keep learning. Keep training smart.

-Kevin Neeld

P.S. Don’t forget to register for this FREE teleseminar with guest speakers like Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Gray Cook, Shirley Sahrmann, and Stu McGill: Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar

P.P.S. I’m really excited that my Ultimate Ice Hockey Training Facebook Group has broken the 1,000 fan barrier. Help spread the word to other motivated hockey players and coaches!

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