In a previous post, I discussed two strategies to improve hip abduction range of motion as a means of allowing hockey players to increase stride length from a deeper skating position.
A key point of emphasis from that post is that range of motion is more likely to be integrated into dynamic patterns if strength/stability are trained at that specific range.
With this in mind, another strategy to improve strength and stability at the end of a stride is to use an exercise I call the “3-Way Hip Extension”.
This is an exercise I started using several years back, inspired by Dr. Andreo Spina and the material in his Functional Range Conditioning course.
The goal here is to stay long through the spine and maintain a rigid torso (e.g. core stiffness) to isolate movement at the hip.
With this stable base, the athlete:
1) Reaches “long and back” to maximize hip extension,
2) Maintains hip extension while rotating the heel out as wide as possible to maximize hip abduction
3) Maintains hip extension and hip abduction while rotating the toes up and pointing the toes away from the hip to maximize hip external rotation
Typically performed for 2-3 sets of 1-3 cycles of 5-15s in each position.
Give this a shot, and post any feedback in the comments section below!
P.S. If you’re interested in more mobility and stability work to improve stride length, along with off-ice training programs specifically designed to improve speed, check out my new book Speed Training for Hockey.
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Dissecting Skating Technique
One of the more consistent findings in determining what differentiates elite and sub-elite skaters is that elite skaters adopt a lower skating position.
This study from Upjohn et al (2008) found that high caliber skaters had a deeper skating position, which translated into longer/wider strides with more extension range of motion through the knee/ankle.
Ultimately, this allowed the players to skate faster, despite using the same stride rate.
Training to improve mobility or stability is typically referenced as a strategy to minimize injury risk. This study, along with several others, provides a rationale for including mobility/stability work to enhance skating performance.
Improving the ability to adopt and control deeper single-leg positions should be a foundational training goal in any speed training program for hockey.
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A 3-Step Approach to Improving Stride Length
Finding the “optimal stride” is important for hockey players at all levels. It helps ensure they’re maximizing their range of motion and power, and not compromising skating efficiency. Because this is such an important topic, I’ve written several articles in the past on frequently overlooked factors that dictate what may be optimal for any given individual. You can read a few of those at the links below, but I’d encourage you to do a quick search on the site for “stride length” if you’re interested in reading more on the topic.
Assuming the player does in fact have the requisite bony structure and strength capacity to sustain a low position while skating, the two keys to retraining a player to maintain a deeper skating depth are to:
Remove soft-tissue limitations to deeper skating depths
Practice skating specific patterns in a deeper stance
I suspect, in comparison to some of the topics referenced in previous articles, these are two training components that many people in the hockey world are familiar with, and are probably the two that people gravitate towards. That said, I think there are different ways to approach this than simple groin stretches and continually cuing players to skate lower or bend their knees more.
When our players come back to us at Endeavor, two extremely common limitations I continue to notice are generalized stiffness in the posterior hip (posterior hip capsule, hip external rotators and glute max), and poor relative motion between the medial hamstrings and the posterior adductor magnus. Both of these can limit depth on the stance leg by interfering with smooth hip flexion, as well as causing some problems on the stride leg.
An image of the posterior hip (from wikipedia.com) with the glute max cut, illustrating many of the underlying structures than tend to become stiff in hockey players.
An image of the hip and thigh musculature (from T-Nation.com). Note the adductor magnus on the inside of the image on the right, and it’s proximity to the two medial hamstrings: semitendinosus and semimembranosus.
While addressing posterior hip capsule stiffness could be an entire post in itself, I’ve found that restoring relative motion between the posterior adductor magnus and medial hamstrings is fairly easily accomplished with some basic Active Release work. Of course, not everyone will have access to an A.R.T. provider, so it’s helpful to have some ways to troubleshoot this on your own. I’ve found that players respond pretty well to “treating” this area themselves with a lacrosse ball placed on top of a box/table (preferably a hard surface). Instead of just rolling around, I encourage players to take a more “seek and relax” strategy, slowly rolling to find sensitive/dense areas, and then just slowly let their leg sink deeper onto the ball as they try to relax and let the tension dissipate. Once they’ve been able to ease some of the tension, I’ll instruct them to slowly straighten their knee, which will slide the hamstrings past the posterior adductor and help restore some relative motion between the structures.
Self-Myofascial Release for Posterior Adductor
You can then follow that up with some self-mobilizations to help reinforce hip adduction range of motion through a large arc. This is one we use fairly frequently. You can modify this slightly by turning the extended leg so that the toes point more toward the ceiling.
Lateral Kneeling Adductor Mobilization
As you may suspect, improving hip mobility takes a multi-faceted approach and there are dozens of “self-myofascial release”, mobility, and stretching exercises than can be used to accomplish this. The examples above are simply two powerful ones that many people may not be aware of.
Once you’ve established adequate range of motion, the next stage is to reinforce a lower skating position. This is best accomplished on the ice and can also be reinforced on a slideboard, but I’ve also gotten a lot of mileage out of an exercise I call the “2-Way Skater”. While skating naturally requires a propulsive action from the stride leg, skating depth (and therefore stride length) is largely influenced by the position of the stance leg. Also, the ability to transfer the force from the stride leg through the stance leg is dependent upon stance leg stability. For these reasons, the 2-Way Skater is an outstanding exercise to reinforce optimal skating depth, stance leg stability, and full stride leg extension. Check out the video I filmed for HockeySC.com several months ago that dives into how to perform the 2-Way Skater and what we’re looking for with the exercise:
Dissecting the 2-Way Skater
This is a simple 3-step off-ice approach to improving stride length in hockey players:
Remove the soft-tissue restriction
Mobilize the joint in a movement specific pattern
Reinforce proper depth with a movement specific exercise
If you’re a young player that needs to work on maintaining a deeper skating depth, I’d encourage you to try these things, as well as follow a comprehensive training program as outlined in Ultimate Hockey Training. As always, please feel free to post your comments below!
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