By Billy Corbett, CSCS
Associate Coach
Article Last Updated: November 8, 2007


The players who possess the greatest movement capabilities will find the game of hockey easier to play and consequently they will probably be the best players on the ice. What we do off ice or for our dry land training should be reflective of how the body must function on the ice.

If this is such common knowledge then why are most programs still training with little or no science in mind? The biggest mistake I have seen in conditioning our players is that coaches tend use NHL or even Division I programs as the templates for conditioning our young players who are not yet fully developed both physically and mentally.

What’s the problem with this? This is the way we’ve always done it. 

I am not sure if it was Yogi Berra who said this or not but, "if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten." I work with athletes who want to be better than they were before and they don’t want to get what they’ve always gotten.

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. It is important to remember the historical context of our current training methods and the idea’s behind them. The stark truth is that there is very little that is new. However, since we have rediscovered some of the old tools and since we have a better understanding of their application and their role in the big picture we have no choice but to change.

Three reasons to re-evaluate your training plan: 

1. It’s all about change. Just take a look at something as simple as equipment and the lighter skates. According to Phil McCarthy, former Hobart College hockey and lacrosse star and owner of Breakaway Sports, “The skates are a lot lighter today. A concept that is hard to grasp is that 4 ounces off each foot's weight is equivalent to a much greater amount of body weight loss. Greater foot speed can be achieved by a lighter skate which will give you a much more efficiently balanced body weight.” Couple that with the new carbon graphite one piece sticks. Just like in a golf club you realize that greater efficiencies can be achieved as energy travels down the shaft better and leaving you with less wasted energy.
    
2. Kids are not just smaller adults. Their physiological adaptations to exercise as well as their ability to recover from some of the “Big People” programs require an adjusted fitness plan. There are 4 key areas when addressing strength programs for young athletes: Central Nervous System, Biological, Hormonal, Maturational issues.
    
3. Beginning fitness levels of athletes coming into our training camps are not the same as some of the older players or for that matter, players of old. This is a consequence of the society we have become. We tend to use sports as a means of getting in shape instead of getting into shape to play our sports. We can’t do anything immediately about this but we can look at the kind of programs we are developing for dry land training and asking ourselves if we are addressing these needs.

Are the exercises you are doing helping or hindering your teams performance? Do your hockey training programs draw on the secondary characteristics of conditioning like dynamic balance, speed, agility, quickness, movement skills, muscle reactivity and full body reaction skills? Are you creating a reactive warrior?

This training takes muscular and physiological gains like strength, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and applies them towards movement skills which are the foundational movement patterns for athletic actions. When you can look at your program and say yes then you know your players can execute better skating, shooting, passing, checking, stops and starts, pivoting, turns, turn-backs, crossovers, and play one-on-ones at a higher intensity.

In part 2 of this article we will go over specific training protocols.

Billy Corbett is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® and the owner of the RetroFit Training Center in Denver, CO. He serves as a consultant and an Associate Coach to the Colorado Hockey Institute directing hockey specific Strength and Conditioning programs for teams and athletes.

For more information on dry land training programs, contact us at info@ColoradoHockeyInstitute.com.