In-Season Speed

I’ve been working with a few players on increasing speed and explosiveness recently.  Increasing speed in-season, yes it can be done.  As with everything else in strength and conditioning, you need to pick the right exercises, and controlling the dosages.  Too much and you’re tearing down too much, or causing the dreaded DOMS- delayed onset muscle soreness.  Nothing turns athletes off and causes them to lose faith in your methods quicker than that. 

So real quick primer on developing speed- 1. the efforts must be short- 5 to 6s duration.  2. The efforts must be high intensity- 95-100% intensity.  3. And there must be adaquate rest between reps.  This may be the most important part of the equation.  Too little rest and the intensity will suffer, and your “speed building” workout becomes a conditioning drill.  Important, yes, but that wasn’t your goal.

My money exercise for speed in-season, off-ice: SLED SPRINTS.  About 20yds- 4-5s duration, rest 40-50s short sets of 4-6 reps, 3 min rest between sets and 2 to 4 sets depending on other factors.  One key is the weight on the sled- you should be no more than 10% or so slower than you would be without resistance.  Probably in the neighborhood or 50-100 pounds.  Watch for breaks in form, if it doesn’t look fast and efficient, then the weight is too heavy. 

Best case scenario is 2 nights rest before a game for sled sprints, but we’ve done 2 sets of 4 on the day before a game and had alot of pop on the ice for all 3 games of a 3 in 4 weekend- all wins!

Next time:  speed development on-ice.

what’s going on?

Haven’t posted in a while so let’s jump in head first.
What have I learned lately- mostly that there’s alot of bad programming out there. There’s also some great programming. At my friend’s S+C business, we’ve seen many athletes heading to college who drop the optimal, Westside based lifting program that’s served them very well in favor of the college’s cookie cutter workout sheet that the coach sent for the summer. I’ve seen alot of these programs myself over the years, the one common thread: they mostly suck.
My weight room is littered with college workout books filled with circuit training, 3 sets of 10 and other nonsense training systems that are no where near optimal.
There are a couple reasons for this. #1. the strength coach at the school doesn’t know what you know or where you are from a training standpoint. Therefore it’s cookie cutter, bland, not truly challenging. #2. Your future sport coach put the workout together himself based on something he read, without any understanding of training effects, muscle physiology or anything else. Neither is particularly the coaches fault.
You should find a performance coach, not a personal trainer, but a performance coach and train under that person. They know you, will work with your strengths and weaknesses. You will be better able to compete with college athletes in the end.
All college coaches will want you to be strong and fast, how you get there is your choice.

Sharpening

Hey, we’re not talking skate sharpening here!!

Alright, camp or tryouts are right around the corner at this point.  You need to be at peak efficiency on-ice.  Now is the time to back way down on your lifting and running volume and ramp up your skating.  My guys still lift heavy, but the number of overall sets is down to 4-5, and I want them out of the gym in about 45 minutes, tops.  They may still lift 4 days but often drop down to 3.  Running may be eliminated, and incorporated into the warm-up.  The more you skate, the less you will run.

Remember you can maintain strength levels for several weeks on one or two heavy lifts- 3 x 3 on several multi-joint, ground based exercises(squats/deads/shoulder press) get rid of the specialization stuff for now, BUT, keep after any pre-hab work that you need for specific joint health(scap stabilization for a bad shoulder)  These specialized exercises have a very low CNS cost, so they will not cost you on-ice.

Go into training camp or tryouts in peak physical form and let the chips fall where they may!

Circus Tricks

I was asked a couple weeks ago at a camp: What do you think of shoulder pressing on the S Ball? I explained that I wasn’t a big fan. Then the requisite, but don’t you think it fires the core? came out.

Here’s my explanation: if you are seated on an S ball for the shoulder press, you will limit the amount of weight you can lift. I prefer standing, one arm DB shoulder press- if you lift a heavy weight over your head- your core will be firing like crazy to keep you upright, and you’ll get the benefit of increased strength from lifting heavier weights. Remember that the deadlift fires the core stabilizers with more force than any type of crunch can, and core stabilization is a prime goal. Flexing your abs to drive your shoulders toward your knees doesn’t happen all that often in sports.

This holds true for all the balance on a ball/ wobble board/ whatever of unstable devices you can thing of. It’s mostly circus tricks with minimal real benefit. I always talk about optimal training. These exercises take time away from what really benefits you on-ice- lifting heavy weights, or lifting lighter weights fast!

training with an eye on pre-season testing

With between 4 – 6 weeks before pro training camps open, what should be the emphasis of the last training block or 2?

Hopefully, speed has been addressed.  The difference between NHL players and career AHL guys oftentimes is speed.  Sprint speed, really acceleration, has been addressed in my columns.  I’ll reiterate in a subsequent post, but for now- if you haven’t addressed pure acceleration- it isn’t too late.  I’ve had athletes increase footspeed significantly in that short a time.

Back to the task at hand.  With camps coming up, find out what testing will be done at the training camp you’ll be attending.  If your training is optimal for hockey, and the tests are testing hockey specific qualities, then there is little need for “training for the tests.”  Hockey specific qualities being upper and lower body explosive power, some test for core strength and core stability, possibly an agility test, a speed endurance test, such as the wingate. If you find a test component that you’re not comfortable with, practice it, get a comfort level with it.  e.g. If you’re bad at pull ups, work on pull ups- get off the lat pulls, like NOW!!

I don’t believe in training for the VO2 max test- it is not a good test for hockey, it is an excellent test for marathon runners and Tour cyclists, remember hockey is a sprint/ acceleration sport.  It takes time away from training for maximal on-ice benefit- no room in it in my programs.  If that’s your worst test, you got no worries.

2 of my athletes recently completed preseason testing for the KHL- almost all the tests covered areas that we had addressed daily within the training program.  I was thrilled to see that they tested actual hockey specific qualities, and I knew they’d test near the top based on the system we used to train.

So to conclude, check the tests, adjust your training if you need to.  And keep building acceleration and speed!!

off ice and on ice

After giving several talks and demo’s at a kids development camp a couple weeks back- I reinforced or maybe solidified my belief that the off-ice program must combat the detrimental qualities that on-ice skating, shooting and all promotes.  What I mean by this is:  Playing hockey and skating tends to promote the shortening of hip flexors, this leads to many hip flexor strains among players.  So in the off ice training, both in-season and off-season, must promote lengthening or opening up of the hip flexors.

An example of this is in the step up exercise- many players don’t fully extend the hip at the top of the step- the hip stays back, the hip flexor stays short.  Full hip extension and triple extension should be stressed here.  Exercises that will open up the hip flexors- band pull throughs, good mornings, deadlifts.  There are many others.  Not only will exercises like these promote full hip extension, they will also address muscle imbalances between hip flexors and extensors, another injury risk that we can address.

2 other areas to think about in this vein- rotational exercises to the opposite of your shooting side, and groin strengthening exercises.  The groin is particularly worrisome- opposite of hip flexors, the groin muscles are constantly being opened and to be strengthened and tightened, somewhat.

Development Camping

Recently attended to Development Camps- 1 pro and one with 15 yr olds. At CBJ camp- every guy there had worked out and it showed- at little as 2-3 years ago, this was not the case. I think it shows- regardless of talent- the sooner you get involved in a sound athletic strength program, the better. Physical strength is already separating out those who will play in the show and those who will fall just short.

Off-Season Work For On-Ice Speed

The goals of the off-season program first:  Improve fitness, increase on-ice speed, increase usable, on-ice strength and address any on-ice weakness from a physical standpoint.   Some may need to lose body fat.  Some players may be asked to gain body weight.  Depending on age and body type, nutrition- factors that may be out of the S+C coaches control.  I never promise size, but I can promise increased speed and strength.

Every player can use increased speed and every player can get faster.  I feel and have seen- if you increase sprint speed off-ice, you will skate faster and move better on-ice.

The basic premise for increasing speed is this:  You must do high intensity(95-100%) speed training.  This is done with short bursts of FULL speed work.  Sprinting 10, 20 and 30 yd distances will work well.  Because of the high intensity, you will need almost full recovery between reps, this training is not for conditioning, it is for speed.  The final consideration is fatigue- once central nervous system fatigue sets in, you cannot work at high enough intensities and therefore work after this point is unproductive for the goal of increasing speed.  One other point- the athlete must be fully and properly warmed up.  You will risk injury if you attempt full speed work when the muscles are not ready.

ramping up

It’s almost time to start serious training for next season.  Everyone knows about the soreness when you first get back to the gym, it happens to everyone, you just have to get through it.  I like to have my athletes get back in phases.  What this means is- start back to lifting, save the running or do light tempo runs(70% intensity) 2-4 times per week for 2-3 weeks.  Once the body has adapted to the lifting stress, then you will add the higher intensity runs that will build acceleration and strength.

A recent study I read shows that VO2 max in tests was increased in subjects participating in a sprint training program.  Speed and acceleration, however, are not enhanced in a long distance running program.  I said it before, but it bears repeating with summer training season upon us- hockey is an acceleration sport, not a distance running sport.  Don’t spend precious summer training time working on qualities that are not going to directly enhance your on-ice performance.

Check Mike Boyle’s StrengthCoach.com website for a super article on that subject.

active rest

with your season over or close to it, now is the time to plan a summer training schedule.  First order of business is to take some time off.  Get away from the rink.  If you lift, I like to say, just bump around, play with some things but don’t get too intense.  The body and mind will need a break after going at it consistently since last June.  Ride a bike(on the road or trail,)  run some trails, hike, play tennis, do fun things that keep you active.  Get ready to ramp up your training through mid May, be ready to dive in headfirst when June hits.  Until then, be active, and HAVE FUN.