Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning

 Most youth hockey programs get 1-2 hours a week for off-ice training.  In the last two articles I've gone over dynamic warm-ups and core training, the most important two forms of training that every hockey player should be doing.  Taken together, the warm-up and core training generally takes the first 15 minutes of each session.  That doesn't leave much time for everything else.  This makes it that much more important that hockey players don't waste their time with garbage training.  

While speed, agility, and quickness training and conditioning are generally viewed as separate entities, they can be combined in the interest of saving time.  The key is to really understand the demands of hockey.  Speed is one of the most important skills of the game, but top speed is rarely reached and when it is, it's almost never maintained for very long before a player will need to change direction.  As a result, the abilities to start explosively, stop quickly, and change direction rapidly are much more desirable than simply being fast in a straight line.  To be overly simplistic, hockey-specific speed is really just well-designed agility training.        

When designing hockey-specific agility drills, you'll want to:
 
1) Include what I refer to as proactive and reactive drills.  Proactive means that the path and direction changes are pre-determined.  The player must move through the drill as quickly as possible.  Reactive means the player's movement is in response to some other stimulus, usually in the form of a partner (mirror drills) or coach (command drills).

Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning

2) Include movement changes specific to hockey.  Hockey players often have to transition between forward, backward, diagonal and lateral movements.  Agility drills should reflect these movement changes.  For instance, you could design a circuit of agility drills that involve a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in the diagonal forward direction (45° turn); then a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in a lateral direction (90° turn); then a 5 yard back pedal to a 5 yard sprint in the backward diagonal direction (135° turn); etc.  You could also mix in shuffling, crossover steps, and different starting positions (forward, backward, lateral, push-up position) to maximize the on-ice carryover.    

3) Include speed changes specific to hockey.  While I made it a point to acknowledge that top speed isn't maintained for long, it's important to understand that many of the direction changes in hockey occur at near-top speeds.  Also, many max effort sprints don't begin from a stationary position.  Your off-ice training should reflect this.  Include longer range accelerations (20-30 yards) with a quick deceleration and direction change (similar to a pattern a wide receiver may run).  Include agility circuits that start with a speed build-up.  This allows the athlete to practice accelerating from a moving position, which is usually the way it happens on the ice.  

If you consider all of these things while designing your agility drills, you should be able to maximize the effectiveness of your speed, agility and quickness training while minimizing your training time.  Switching gears a bit, a lot of these same concepts can be applied to a hockey specific conditioning.  Again, analyze the demands of hockey.  Do hockey players skate at a low or medium intensity for several minutes at a time?  Not if they're any good! 

Most players and coaches recognize that the average shift is 30-60 seconds, followed by atleast twice that much time of rest.  This means that hockey specific interval training would involve work to rest ratios of 1:2 at the low-end and 1:6 at the high end.  However, while a shift may last 60 seconds, shifts almost NEVER involve maximal effort skating throughout the entire duration.  Usually there's a quick sprint, then a glide, then lighter skate to a new position, then another quick sprint, etc.  In other words, most shifts are characterized by multiple short, high-intensity sprints followed by brief resting periods.

To maximize the hockey specificity of your conditioning, high intensity multi-directional movements should be used.  As an example, I've used 10-yard repeat sprints from a push-up starting position as a conditioning exercise.  The athletes explode up from a push-up position, sprint 10 yards, then walk back and immediately repeat for 4-6 reps.  Then they take a few minute break before repeating the interval.  That's just an example.  You could also use a partner mirror drill as a conditioning tool.  Have one player be a leader, another a follower. 

The leader can move within a pre-determined area or along a pre-determined path and the follower must mirror the movements exactly.  Let them go for 15 seconds or so, rest 15 seconds, then switch roles for an interval, then rest for a couple minutes before repeating everything again.  Depending on the length of the work intervals, I generally keep conditioning down between 3-8 work intervals.  I may use 3 work intervals for something like a 300 yard shuttle run with cones at 0 and 25, and 8 intervals for something like 20s lateral mirror drills (4 repetitions as the leader and 4 as the follower).  Starting to get the picture?  The idea is to build a higher work capacity by maintaining a high workload, while still providing adequate rest to maintain a high intensity.  Usually conditioning should last about 10-15 minutes.

If you follow all the principles outlined in this article, you can effectively improve hockey-specific speed, agility, quickness, and conditioning in less than 30 minutes.  By incorporating a well-designed dynamic warm-up and core training program, you can drastically improve on-ice performance in less than two hours a week.  Now with all the tools, the only missing ingredient in the success formula is your unparalleled determination to outwork your opponent.  Keep working hard.  Your results will speak for themselves. 

Off-Ice Ice Hockey Training Part 3 - Speed, Agility, Quickness and Conditioning
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Kevin Neeld, CSCS has helped athletes of all ages fulfill their athletic potential. Through the application of functional anatomy, biomechanics, and neural control, Kevin specializes in guiding hockey players to optimal health and performance. To help hockey players and coaches develop their own off-ice programs, Kevin wrote Hockey Training University's Off-Ice Performance Training Course, a must-have resource for every hockey program. For a FREE copy of "Strong Hockey Core Training", one of the sessions from his course, go to http://www.KevinNeeld.com. To learn more about how Kevin can help you achieve your training and performance goals, contact him via email at kn@kevinneeld.com.

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Off-Ice Training For Figure Skaters - Why, What, When, and How?

Off-ice training is a much buzzed about topic in the world of figure skating. Many skaters do it, many coaches and trainers teach it, but do people really know how the details of how it should be done, and what it really is? A parent may see an ad for an off-ice class and sign up for it per recommendations of the skater's coach, yet does that parent really know what the skater is doing in that class? After reading this article, you will have a better understanding of the proper forms of exercise, how often exercise should be done, who should instruct the exercise, and why off-ice training exercises are important.

WHY should a skater do exercises off-ice?
Figure skating is a sport that puts significant strength and flexibility demands on the body. Athletes in other sports may say that figure skating is not a 'sport', and it is more artistic performance, but they are quite wrong! Skaters are some of the strongest athletes in the world. I can recall a Sports Physical Therapy class I attended in college in which a strength and conditioning coach took us through some difficult training exercises. Out of 45 or so people, I was the only one who could do a one-legged squat! His response was, "Oh, of course, you're the figure skater."

Figure Skating

Some skaters have natural strength, balance, and core strength that will take them through the lower levels of skating quickly, but the majority of skaters need to improve upon each of those attributes in order to progress to higher levels. Once the 'naturally talented' skaters reach a level at which double jumps and difficult spins are required, that natural ability will only take them so far. The core strength and plyometric strength requirements of the sport are significant, and at some point, a skater needs to build strength beyond what he or she naturally has. By completing an off-ice training program at least twice a week, skaters will progress their on-ice skills at a faster pace, and be able to handle the strength demands of jumping, spinning, and longer programs.

Off-Ice Training For Figure Skaters - Why, What, When, and How?

Checking out of a jump involves the contraction of the muscles in the abdominals and the lower back, to resist the rotational force of the jump. Without core stability, a skater will have difficulty maintaining the body over the skate and continue turning past the landing point. Also, to achieve the correct height to perform a jump, a skater requires significant plyometric strength throughout the lower extremity, especially the quads and gluteal muscles. This can only be gained with functional and plyometric strengthening off of the ice. Here are some examples of the attributes a skater needs to succeed in the sport of figure skating....

1) Core strength and stability
Core strength originates from the abdominal and back muscles. These muscles work together to act as a 'control center' for the body's balance and stability. In the sport of figure skating, skaters need exceptionally strong core muscles to maintain balance, check rotation and maintain a tight air position for jumping, control the center of spin rotation, and control the upper body position during footwork, stroking, and crossovers. A skater has to have a strong core to complete double jumps and beyond. Without sufficient core strength, a skater would not maintain consistency of these elements.

2) Balance
Think about how much of skating is done on one foot: almost everything! Some people are blessed with natural balance, but the majority of us need improvement through exercises. There are several factors which affect the sense of balance in our body. First, our vestibular system (the inner ear) helps us sense the body's position while we are moving. Second, the eyes help us detect our surroundings. Third, and most important for skaters, the balance receptors in our feet and lower extremities tell us where our bodies are in relation to the ground.

3) Strength and power
Without muscle strength, a skater would skate very slowly, have small jumps, have shorter and slower spins, and would tire easily in a program and in practice sessions. Strength creates power and can improve endurance, and is the number one necessity for a skater to improve and become consistent. Through exercise, a muscle's fibers become tighter and stronger, and can withstand more repetition for longer durations when asked to contract. Increases in strength can correlate with higher jumps, more stable landings, increased energy output, and increased ability to maintain a number of the spin variations required in the IJS.

4) Flexibility
Spirals, biellmans, donut spins, split jumps, spread eagles.........just to name a few elements that require extraordinary flexibility. Yet it may surprise you which basic elements require a certain muscle length to be performed correctly. Muscle flexibility controls the angle of the knee, hip, and ankle joint on a jump take-off and landing, and a small deficit in muscle length can affect the quality of a jump. Joint position and motion, controlled by the surrounding muscle length, also affects the angle of the joints in the lower extremity during basic stroking, crossovers, spins, and footwork. Each joint in your body needs a balance of flexibility on all sides to move in the proper range of motion. If there is an imbalance of muscle length, a skater may be more prone to injury.

WHAT kind of exercise should a skater be doing?
In the past ten years or so, sports training has progressed from solely using weight machines to using an athlete's body weight as resistance in exercise. Many functional exercises incorporate the use of several muscle groups at one time, instead of exercises focusing on the contraction of a single muscle. How is this more beneficial? In every sport, an athlete moves his or her body in various planes of movement which require several muscles to co-contract at the same time. Each joint requires the strength from several muscles to stabilize it for the action it performs. Functional exercises train the body in these planes of movement to mimic the motions performed in sports. Many sports require a high degree of strength that an athlete may not have naturally; that strength needs to be created through additional training. Figure skating is no exception.....

WHEN should a skater do off-ice training exercises?
Each skater's training routine and requirements are different, depending on the skater's level, schedule, and goals. A national competitor may do off-ice training five days per week, as opposed to a recreational skater's program of one day a week. It is recommended to complete two to four days of off-ice training per week, depending on your level. Even if you choose to complete an off-ice training routine per week, you will show gains in strength, flexibility, and on-ice consistency. You take your training into your own hands, and control your own progress. You can find sample off-ice training periodization schedules through www.usfigureskating.org or in the Sk8Strong Off-ice Training for Figure Skaters Manual.

HOW do I start an off-ice training program?
There are several resources available to guide you through an off-ice training program specific for figure skaters. Sk8Strong has produced DVDs specific to each level of skater, and there are several off-ice training manuals in circulation. It is always recommended to consult with a health professional to evaluate the need for certain exercises and determine if a skater is using proper technique. If you are working with a trainer, make sure that the person has a degree in a health related field, ideally a physical therapy degree. There are also several respectable strength and conditioning certifications available from the NSCA and NASM, such as the 'Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist' and 'Performance Enhancement Specialist' designations. It is important to work with someone qualified, to avoid injury and receive the maximum benefit from your training.

Off-Ice Training For Figure Skaters - Why, What, When, and How?

Lauren Downes, MSPT, is a licensed physical therapist, figure skating professional, and off-ice trainer. As the owner of Sk8Strong Inc. at http://www.sk8strong.com, she has created sport specific strength and conditioning DVDs for figure skaters of all levels, a training manual, and various reports to educate the skating world about proper off-ice training techniques.

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