Tag: usa hockey

3 Lessons for Hockey Parents from the NHL

Last week I mentioned that we added a “must-see” presentation from Toronto Maple Leafs President and GM Brian Burke to Hockey Strength and Conditioning. I’ve now watched, re-watched, and re-watched the presentation again. For those of you that know me pretty well, you know that I’m constantly attempting to fit 25 hour days into a 24 hour world. I’m incredibly defensive about my time and dislike wasting it on anything that lacks purpose. As a result, I RARELY re-read or re-watch resources unless I feel like it’s absolutely essential. In this case, it was.

Listen to him. Hockey’s future depends on it!

There is incredible insight to be drawn from this presentation for hockey coaches and players, but also for parents. We’re living in a time where hockey players are faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before in history. This may give the false illusion that changes we’ve made to our development systems are for the better. Mike Boyle used to say that great athletes will, in some cases, succeed DESPITE their training, not because of it. I think the same thing can be said about hockey development today.

I whole-heartedly and enthusiastically commend USA Hockey for the changes they’re making to with the launch of the American Development Model. As Burke mentioned in his presentation, they’re long overdue, but it’s going to be an uphill battle. Burke mentioned that parents are absolutely integral to the whole thing-they need to pay for their kids to play, buy equipment, drive them to the rink, etc. However, they can also be the most formidable opponent to changes that are in the best interest of their kids. As he points out, it’s quite a paradox.

Hockey Development, The Right Way (Finally)

3 Things all Hockey Parents Should Know
1) You’re a parent or you’re a coach, but not both
One of the most continually dreaded moments in a young player’s career is getting into the car after a bad game to hear his dad (and sometimes mom) tell him about all the things he did wrong. Burke mentioned that his father had an outstanding rule when he was growing up: If he didn’t want to talk about the game, he didn’t have to. I wish EVERY parent would adopt this rule. If we’re being honest, most parents don’t have the technical and tactical background necessary to give their kid appropriate feedback on their performance. Even if they did, there is still a questions as to whether that would benefit them in the long run. Kids play hockey to have fun, not to hear about how bad their parents think they played. Not only does it take the enjoyment out of the game, but it also takes some of the familial love out of the household.

2) You’re a spectator, not an elevated referee
Burke pointed out that he was blown away that anyone would get into officiating anymore. I concur. Let’s face it-refs are human. They’re going to make good calls, but they’re also going to make mistakes. No one is infallible. In certain circumstances, bad calls may warrant a conversation between a coach and the ref. The fact that refs get openly screamed at by parents, EVEN AT MITE HOCKEY GAMES, strikes me as borderline comically insane. What kind of culture are we creating with this behavior? I can’t help but think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry heckles a woman in her office in response to her heckling him at his performance.

I hope parents can see how obnoxious it would be if someone openly berated them for EVERY thing they did that any individual in a crowd of people disagreed with. Not that they were wrong, only that someone disagreed with their vantage point. Clap when your team scores or if they kill of a penalty. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut.

Burke made the a great analogy of parents starting to treat the ice rink like a school bus. When kids go to school, parents don’t get on the bus with them, sit next to them while they’re in class, and critique every mistakes they make. They put them on the bus, trust them in the hands of trained professionals, and leave them alone. Why not to the same with hockey? Or more relevantly, why does every parent feel they’re a fully trained hockey development expert?

“Pretend you’re on a school bus when you come to the rink. You can go up there and sit and watch, and cheer if you want, but shut up if it’s negative. And don’t come down and beat me afterward about who’s on the power play.” – Burke

3) STOP Playing Spring and Summer Hockey and START Training!
This is something that anyone in hockey development worth his/her salt already knows, but parents really struggle with. Burke mentioned that they filmed and analyzed a couple dozen of these games a while back and they found that in any 90 minute game, on average, the third line right winger had the puck on his stick for about 2s and didn’t complete a single pass. Obviously these statistics would be more telling if we had information about other lines, but even if the kid is an absolute super star, the point is still clear. The American Game-to-Practice ratio is COMPLETELY wrong, and Spring and Summer hockey are the worst culprits. This is the time where players should be taking time away from the rigors of competitive hockey and training to improve their athleticism. When they’re on the ice, it should be for non-competitive SKILL work only. How much will that right winger’s hands improve during that game? Probably none. How much will they improve with a 60-minute puck handling clinic? Probably substantially. This is so intuitive and obvious I’m shocked that it’s not already the norm. The Europeans and Russians are way ahead of us in this regard. Igor Larionov, an INCREDIBLY skilled player of Russian descent, played his FIRST organized hockey game at age 12. Before that it was all for fun and for skill development. Less games. More practice. Better players.

This is one more pass than you’re son or daughter will complete in a typical Spring or Summer League game!

“If you’re gearing your program to get kids to me, you’re sadly sadly mistaken. The odds of a player on any one team playing in the NHL are infinitesimal. If he’s good enough, he’ll find us, and we’ll find him.” – Burke

Addressing the Hockey Community

“You people are vital to the development of hockey players. You’re our sales staff. You have to go back and sell this to these parents that have a different vision of how hockey should be played because it’s all they know. They’re ignorant; it doesn’t mean they’re stupid. They’re uninformed; it doesn’t mean they can’t be changed. That’s your job. This is the way to go. And I can tell you confidently that this will be copied in lots of other countries in a hurry, because this is the best way to develop young players.” -Burke

The information on how to do things the right way is becoming available. It’s up to us to use it.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Strength and Conditioning (must-see video!)

We’ve had a lot of great additions this week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. In no particular order (don’t miss the last one!):

My friend Kevin Schaeffer (former National Championship winner with BU and current AHL/ECHL player) wrote an article on how he’s been able to apply some of the things he’s learned from his experience working with Michael Boyle and from our site into his personal training. This may come as a surprise to those involved in youth hockey, but other than the NHL (more on this in a bit), most other pro, junior, and prep levels of hockey don’t have anyone running their training programs. It’s a scary reality. Kevin’s article does a great job of outlining some of the far from ideal realities of playing minor league hockey and how he’s been able to help fill some voids in his own training and that of his teammates.

Check it out here >> A Minor League Hockey Player Aspiring to be a Strength Coach

Kevin also posted a link to an interview with former Oiler’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Chad Moreau. I don’t know Dr. Moreau personally, but after reading this article it seems like he really knows his stuff. Similar to Kevin’s articles, I think this interview illustrates many of the harsh realities of professional hockey and how the success of a strength and conditioning program really hinges upon the enthusiastic support of the coaching staff.

Another big take home is that there are STILL NHL programs that don’t fully buy into the importance of training, at least not as demonstrated by their actions. To some extent, this probably comes down to a “we’ve been successful doing it this way, why begin to incorporate something new that wasn’t necessary before.” I guess it all depends on what you consider “success.” Imagine if equipment manufacturers took the same approach: “players have scored goals with wooden sticks, why try something new?” In my opinion, this is a dangerous mentality that stunts innovation and growth. It’s one that many talented young players adopt; “I dominate and I don’t train at all. Why should I start?” For some players, it may be a matter of being able to continue to dominate at the next level. For the Sidney Crosby’s of the world, it’s a matter of expanding the capacities of the game. In other words, it’s about taking the game to the next level. Bottom line: If individuals and organizations adopted a more comprehensive development model, the game of hockey would benefit.

Read the article here (no membership required): Chad Moreau Interview

Darryl Nelson had a couple great additions this week. He wrote an article on the importance of youth sports and fitness that caused one of those “take a step back and see how we are influencing are youth through sports” moments. It’s more than winning and losing; it’s about instilling habits and mentalities that will allow our youth to grow up and lead healthy lifestyles. His article concluded with some STAGGERING statistics about the current state of “youth health”.

Check out the article here >> Youth Sports and Fitness

Darryl also added a Metabolic Conditioning Circuit program with videos that doesn’t require much equipment. In fact, it doesn’t require anything that can’t be MacGyver’d (e.g. make your own weight or just use a light object like a water bottle). This is the newest feature of our “Youth Training Program” addition to the site. The thing I like the most about this circuit is that it lends itself well to larger groups of people, which is perfect for youth programs, which are typically run by one coach. Although this was posted in the vein of “conditioning”, it will also likely have a strengthening effect, especially with younger or less-trained athletes.

Get the program here >> Metabolic Circuit

Without question, the greatest addition to the site this week was a video of a presentation Toronto Maple Leafs President and GM Brian Burke gave during a recent USA Hockey American Development Program (ADM) seminar. Burke outlines a lot of the common mistakes being made in youth hockey now and what we NEED to focus on to continue to develop the sports. For those of you that caught Mike Boyle’s presentation from the same seminar, this is the perfect on-ice compliment to what Boyle discussed. With the right information in front of us, it’s up to us, as a hockey community, to put it to good use. And we have a lot of bad habits to break!

YOU MUST WATCH THIS!! >> Youth Hockey Presentation

You can try out the site for $1 for 7 days. Now is as good of a time as ever to do it. Spend the buck to watch Brian Burke’s presentation. Hockey needs you to!

Click Here for the best in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Try HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com for 7 days for only $1! It’ll be the best dollar you’ve ever spent.

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2011 Hockey Development Predictions

2011 is going to be a big year, not just for me personally, but also for the entire hockey community. As hockey continues to rapidly increase in popularity around the world, so too will the attention paid to QUALITY development systems. With that in mind, here are my top 3 hockey development predictions for the new year.

3) The rapid death of “select camps”
Select tournaments and camps have undergone an incredible growth over the last 10 years. From a business standpoint, the people that run these camps can make a killing by having hundreds of kids attending their tryouts, selecting the team they knew they’d take anyway, and overcharging those players. It works the same way for hosting select tournaments (hence why so many of these “elite only” tournaments have more than doubled their team base over the last several years).

In reality, these camps IMPAIR development more than they expose talent. Because most of these camps take place in the off-season, players put too much focus on on-ice work in the forms of games and practices, and not nearly enough focus on off-ice training and on-ice SKILL work (e.g. skating technique and specific puck handling skills).

Fresh off their 14th hockey camp and 11th hockey showcase, these players are energized for the start of the new season…

The truth is that most players get more than enough exposure during their season. Instead of attending these camps, a player could make drastically more progress by training hard to make a better team the following year. Ultimately, the better the team you’re on, the more exposure you’ll get. There are a few exceptions to this rule (exceptional players in remote areas such as the southeastern United States may need to play in ONE or TWO of these camps/tournaments to get enough exposure to move away from their home and play for a better organization, once they reach an appropriate age to do so), but this likely doesn’t apply to over 75% of the players that attend the camps in the first place.

2) Greater focus on skill work
Skill works seems to have found it’s way out of most youth organizations. This is the result of both an overemphasis on winning AND a rapid increase in the number of youth programs without a parallel increase in the number of qualified coaches. Regarding the former, winning is an important part of the game, but unless a coach’s job depends on it (and even then, alternative means should be considered), winning should not be pursued at the expense of skill work and individual development. Regarding the latter point, this is certainly not to bad mouth the hundreds of fathers and former players that have stepped up to fill the coaching void. It’s only to point out that it takes a special ability to be able to recognize, teach, and reinforce proper skill development progressions, and the number of people that can do that are quite limited. This is why, much to the surprise of hockey parents, I’ve recommended that some of the players I interact with take skating lessons with skating coaches with a primarily figure skating background. The truth is that these coaches tend to have a better understanding of the importance of edge work and single-leg stability. This isn’t to say that all figure skating coaches fit this description, but those with a history of working with hockey players tend to be excellent.

With the rule changes made several years back, hockey is more of a speed and skill game than ever before. Hockey development programs and organizations need to adapt if they want to produce elite level players. In the states, USA Hockey is on the right track with their new ADM initiative; it’s up to us now to learn about it and constantly reinforce it with the players we have access to.

Skill demonstration for Flyer’s fans (the last one is amazing)

1) Increased emphasis on training using a program
As more players train, the improved results of players that follow a well-written program will become increasingly apparent. As it is, we’ve had players at Endeavor that tell us they’ve made more progress in as little as a couple weeks training with us than they have in several months training on their own. In somewhat less extreme cases, most of the players we train in the off-season hit the ice in September and say they’ve never felt better in their lives. Think about that.

Our training certainly isn’t EASY, but the idea that a player can revolutionize his performance by following a well-written training program is quite SIMPLE. Get the program, get the results; it doesn’t get any more simple than that. The largest barrier to this, naturally, is that not everyone can get access to quality training programs. Well, I should say the largest PERCEIVED barrier is that everyone doesn’t know they can get access to quality training programs. For this reason, I think membership sites that provide this information will really take off in the new year. For strength and conditioning coaches that work with hockey players (in a high school, college, junior, professional, or private setting), you’d have to be crazy not to have a membership to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com at this point. Not only are several programs from different coaches provided on a monthly basis, but you have access to many of the top coaches in the world to ask them questions about your own programs and situations. It’s the single best resource for you.

Click here to get access now >> Hockey Strength and Conditioning

For those involved in hockey training, but that don’t have the expertise or desire to write their own programs, Body By Boyle Online is an extraordinary option for you. There is a ton of content on there, which is nice for the intellectually curious, but more suited to your needs, there are constantly updated done-for-you training programs with videos of all the exercises. All of the content at both sites is available for an incredibly nominal monthly investment, considering the overwhelming impact this information can have on a player’s development!

Click here to get access now >> Body By Boyle Online

That’s a wrap for today. If you think I missed something, please comment below!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you haven’t yet, go sign up for the 2011 Sports Rehab to Sports Performance Teleseminar. It’s ABSOLUTELY free, and the speakers are world-class. Sign-up now so you don’t miss any of the presentations; they start next week!

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Improving Your Hamstring Flexibility

Yesterday Karl (our first intern at Endeavor Fitness) and I went through the Functional Movement Screen together.

I’m proud to say, as the mentor, that I came out victorious with a score of 18 (over his measly 17!).

He “lost” because his hamstring extensibility (or flexibility) was terrible. While most of our athletes have decent hamstring extensibility we do have a few that are pretty locked up.

With Karl, and some of our athletes, I’ll have them do this quick stretching activity to improve hamstring extensibility. When someone is available, we’ll usually do this with a partner, which allows “on the fly” adjustments to leg positioning, but often times I want our athletes to do this at home, using a wall as their partner.

Please ignore the music in the background!

The protocol is:

1) Set up with one leg raised in a “hamstring stretch” position with your knees of both legs fully extended and the toes of both legs pulled toward your shins. In this position, your lower back should be flat (or with a slight curve), and you should feel a good stretch in your hamstrings on the raised leg. Hold this position for 10 seconds.

2) If you feel like you can, shift your body a little closer to the wall to increase the stretch on your hamstrings.

3) Actively raise your heel off the wall and hold for a few seconds. Return to the wall and rest a few seconds. Repeat 2-3 times.

4) If you feel like you can, shift your body a little closer to the wall to increase the stretch on your hamstrings.

5) Actively press your heel into the wall as hard as you can without it lifting your hips or moving your body at all (or breaking your heel through the wall!). Keep pressing for 3-5 seconds, then rest a few seconds and repeat 2-3 times.

6) If you feel like you can, shift your body a little closer to the wall to increase the stretch on your hamstrings and hold this final position for 10 seconds.

Most people notice a substantial improvement in their hamstring extensibility after performing this circuit. If you’re really locked up, try doing this twice a day for a couple weeks and see how much you improve.

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Core Stability for Instant Strength Increases!

A few weeks ago I started working with a Division 1 bound high school baseball player.

During his first session, he was able to do a set of Dumbbell Reverse Lunges with 40s for 6 reps/side.

2 weeks later he did a set of 4 reps/side with 75s, and he did 70s for 6/side the following week.

There are multiple possibilities to explain this drastic strength increase:

1) Becoming more comfortable with the movement pattern

2) Increased neural drive to the involve musculature

3) Better night of sleep before the training sessions later in the program

While I won’t rule any of these things out, I’ll say that these strength increases aren’t abnormal here.

With all of our athletes, there seems to be one common theme:

When our athletes learn to brace/stabilize their core during the lifts, their weights go through the roof!

Simply coaching athletes to “get up tall” and/or (depending on the lift) “keep their core tight” while they lift has an incredible impact on their ability to transfer force through their core, and therefore the weight they can lift.

Many athletes pick this up from simple coaching cues. For the athletes that need a little more help, I teach them how to brace their core with these instructions:

1) Put their hands on their stomach

2) Tighten up their core, which contracts the stomach musculature

3) Take a deep breath “in through their belly”, without releasing the core tightness

4) Practice taking mini-breaths in and out without losing their core tightness

After teaching them this skill in a static environment, most are able to transfer that to their lifts.

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