speed - ice hockey

[thompson1ner]

hey im playing college ice hockey this year, acha d2 and my coach told me i need to work on my speed. he only had a quick minute to tell me what to work on so i couldnt ask what exercises etc... i could do to become faster, ill ask him next week but i was wondering what everyone on here would suggest i do to work on my speed?

thanks :)

[MotherPucker21]

well, do plenty of cardio to keep your speed and stamina on point. I try to keep in the habit of leg excersises to strengthen the muscles. if you have a gym membership use the elipticals or treadmills on incline/cross-training mode, works the whole range of your legs. Form also has a lot to do with it.

you can't keep your speed up if your elgs are on fire 10 minutes into the game. Just keep them in shape. I have 2 guys on my roller team that skate as hard/fast the last minute of the game as they were when the game started. Thats my ultimate goal one day. lol

[Wingman]

Ever heard of something called a lateral lunge?

[Leaferguy]

You're going to want to seriously look into interval training (sprints and cycling).

I'd recommend plyometrics, but given that your season is going to start soon, it may do more harm than good. If you can get extra ice time, maybe skate with light ankle weights?

Also, find out if he means first-step speed or your stride.

[roy94]

Get stronger, everywhere. I?m going to assume that you?re not nearly strong enough. I train for a living and can honestly say that not 1 athlete I?ve had has been as strong as they should have been at their weight and even if you are we cant get away from F=MA. Unless you squat 300% of your body weight you?re not too strong. If you put more force into the ice, through having stronger legs (at or near the same body weight) you must accelerate faster which also translates into more top end speed because of momentum. Don?t try to get cute and get away from this, too many do and they get no where, get stronger everywhere.

Don?t only focus only on lower body strength. Upper body strength is important because we are bilateral. A strength deficit at one joint will cause an activation issue at another limiting power output. Do some single leg training if you can.

Stay away from true plyometrics unless you can squat with impeccable form and can squat at least your body weight externally. Reactive drills are ok (jumping on a box) even low cone hops are ok just don?t over do it, typically with these less is more. NEVER do them the week before a game, they actually cause a temporary decline in power output until you recover from them, this takes about 10-14 days, then your power output goes up.

Run, bike, skate intervals. 2 times a week or so. If you?re on the ice 3 times or more a week already don?t skate for conditioning. Do something else. Yes training is specific but so is overtraining and muscle imbalances. The worst thing you can do is the same motor patterns without any variation. Give those muscles a break. If you have games cut the volume. Start easy if you?re already in poor condition, 1:3 work to rest ratio (15 seconds on to 45 seconds off). Don?t go overboard, start with 5-10 all out and build up. Once you get to 45s- 75seconds fro a sprint add a couple more or simulate a period or game. Don?t do 2 minute sprints, these are not sprints and don?t condition the correct energy system. Conditioning will not make you faster. This is a common misconception. It will increase the ability to exhibit a portion of that strength repeatedly for a period of time but you will not get faster from conditioning. If you have access to a get a dragging sled or Prowler USE IT! Pull or push at first to get used to it then add weight and sprint while pushing them, nothing works better.

Stay away from the elliptical, it teaches your body incorrect patterns of activation. You?ll become less efficient at storing and releasing elastic energy (the whole premise of plyometrics). This destroys not only your muscle function but also your knees, ankles, hips and shoulders long term. Unless you?re injured or using it for recovery the day after games the bike or easy runs are better.

Don?t condition/ weight train more then 2x?s a week in season if you have games, remember fatigue masks fitness.

Have someone QUALIFIED teach you how to squat, deadlift, bench and do chinups/ pullups. If your school has strength and conditioning department contact them, people in this field love to teach and talk about lifting and sports conditioning, contact them I would imagine they would help you out as much as possible.

[roy94]

This just came out today. I read it 30 minutes after posting.



Relationships Between Ice Hockey Skating Performance and Off-Ice Training Variables

Off-ice strength and conditioning is a critical component for improving on-ice performance, a topic of very little previous research. As a result, several researchers conducted a study aimed at determining which off-ice variables best correlate to improvements in hockey skating sprint performance and cornering ability.
Thirty-six male hockey players between the ages of 15 and 22 (16.3 ± 1.7 yrs; weight 70.8 ± 10.4 kg; height 175.6 ± 4.1 cms, playing experience 10.3 ± 3.0 yrs) took part in the study. The players were tested in two on-ice tests that were strongly related: a 35-meter sprint and the cornering S-test. Nine off-ice test variables were conducted to determine which tests best correlate to on-ice performance. The off-ice tests included: a 30-meter sprint, vertical jump, broad jump, 3 hop jump, Edgren side shuffle, Hexagon agility, side support, push-ups, and 15-second modified Wingate.
Several of the off-ice variables were associated with on-ice skating, however, when weight and playing level were taken into account, the off-ice sprint and 3 hop jump were the best predictors of on-ice skating performance; both of which measure horizontal leg power. Aside from weight, playing level, and on-ice sprint skating, none of the off-ice variables correlated to the S-cornering skating test.
The results gathered from the study suggest that coaches should use horizontal power tests such as the off-ice sprint and 3 hop jump to assess hockey skating ability. Strength and hockey coaches should take note that the development of horizontal power developed in off-ice training can help players improve skating performance.
Farlinger CM, Kruisselbrink DL, Fowles JR. (2007). Relationships to skating performance in competitive hockey players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(3): 915-922.

[Gladiators6]

All good advice above.....but one thing I've done alot is getting 2-1/2 to 5lb leg weights and taping them to the lowest part of my shin guard (just above your skate, otherwise it'll restrict movement of your ankle)

I've skated whole practices, open hockey and even in some lower skill/pointless mens leagues games.

Also during warm-ups before games it'll help you feel like your skating on air when you take them off...but that feeling would just be temporary.

But in the long run always practicing with them can only help your legs get stronger.

[thompson1ner]

thanks for all the replies!

would a lateral lunge be the same thing as a lunge just stepping sideways?

i'll definitly look in interval training!

thanks for all the info roy! if reactive drills take so much time to recover what would be a good schedule for them? also what are the best ones and anywhere i could find a list of them and maybe how to perform?

the article is great, anywhere i could find how to do those exercises, especially the 3 hop jump since it said it is one of the best??

my problem might be my schedule, but right now im on the 5th line so im not playing in anygames, i have practice monday and wednesday nights from 930pm-11pm.

monday 6am-4pm work / 430pm-7pm school / 930pm-11pm practice
tuesday 6am-515pm work / 530pm-8pm school
wednesday 6am-5pm work / 510pm-740pm school / 930pm-11pm practice
thursday 6am-4pm work
friday 6am-3pm work
saturday and sunday are free right now because i wont be playing in any of the games, i do have roller hockey games on sunday mornings though

what would be a good workout schedule, should i do upper body one day, lower body the next door or fully body workouts?? I drink protein shakes in the mornings and after practice when i get home...

thanks for all your time.

[roy94]

A training schedule is dependant on many different factors. Primarily they consist of:


How demanding is practice? Do you spend a lot of time standing around? Is there and emphasis on full speed during drills? Is conditioning done and if so is the emphasis on speed or recovery? Is there a lot of hitting?
What?s your current level of training? Are you a proficient lifter? What are your best gym lifts and were they performed with exceptional, or as close to it as is possible, technique (99% of what I see everyday isn?t even close. I.e. squatting until the hip breaks the knee, chest up, body mostly upright in the hole. Benching with shoulders back, bar touching and full lockout with NO assistance, chinups from dead hang to the sternum touching?) How long have you been training?
How well do you recover? How much sleep are you accustomed to and need to get?
Do you expect to travel and play this year or are you just training camp/ practice fodder? Are you looking to next year/ semester or is it one year and done?
Do you have high stress levels in your life?
All of these impact immensely on the training program I would recommend. The best thing you can do is answer them as honestly as possible. Once that?s in place you can formulate a reasonable schedule. Remember training + nutrition + rest = a good program, forget one aspect and all are affected adversely.

In terms of the specific exercises in that article, those might not apply. Those were all used because they are typical to hockey testing and those athletes were most likely very familiar with them. Therefore in testing the results are more representative because no one has to learn the movement. Mostly the jest of the article is the athletes who could exhibit the most leg power had the best predictor of ability, not the agility measures. Consequently strength/ power exercises should have a higher transference to playing ability than cutting change of direction drills. It?s not the drills/ tests themselves as much as the level of strength possessed by the athlete.

More strength = more power. Get stronger.

If you want something more specific PM me with the answers to those questions and your height, weight, waist, chest and thigh circumference and a real email address. Remember since I can?t evaluate you its difficult but I can piece something together or at least point you in a direction that might help.

[hockeynuts]

You can try epuck.com , they have a section for drills and stuff. I do some of the drills and I have noticed an imprivement. (rocket feet ) (one legged squat) (lateral lundge)and one of my favorites (all you can eat wings).

[Hystyk28]

Beer. And more beer.

[RichardGraham]

No, beer only makes you THINK you're skating faster.

[EricRH27]

Roy94:

It's obvious to me, and everyone reading for that matter, that you really do know your stuff. I'm an exercise science major and a sophomore at West Chester University and I'm very interested in pursuing a career in strength and conditioning for Ice hockey/Roller Hockey players (perhaps at an olympic level one day). I play Ice Hockey (ACHA D1) and Roller Hockey (ECRHA D2) for the WCU teams. I belong to the NSCA (sorry to hear they are being sued by the way) and all that and was curious about what organizations you belong to and exactly what it is you do. I never post on these message boards, ever, but I felt I needed to when I saw your posts. Email me at [email protected] .

- Eric Keene

ps: you didn't mention anything about olympic lifts or anything for this guy trying to get faster. Obvioulsy it would be tough to teach him the proper form and all of that over emails... so i can see why you didn't if that's the reason.

[EricRH27]

Roy94:

It's obvious to me, and everyone else reading this for that matter, that you know your stuff. I'm an exercise science major at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and am very interested in pursuing a career as a Strength and Conditioning coach for Ice Hockey and Roller Hockey players (perhaps on an olympic level one day). I play for the Ice Hockey team (ACHA D1) and the Roller Hockey team (ECRHA D2), and have been playing roller pretty much all my life. I have never posted on a message board before but felt that I needed to when I saw your post on this topic. I belong to the NSCA and all that and was curious as to what organizations you belong to and what exactly it is that you do, where you went to school, and what hockey you played.

I've moved into my in-season training program recently (1-6 Reps, 2-3 Sets, 3 minutes rest between sets, more towards strength and power and single sided lifts) lifting twice a week doing plyos (i don't understand the 10-14 days to recover? Peaks on second day?) and single leg strength on one day and then olympic lifts (barbell power clean, dumbbell jerk and dumbbell snatch) and then two exercises of upper body the next day (Mondays and Wedsnesday).

I know this information is kind of cluttered and not that specific but if you could email me at [email protected] it'd be great.

Thanks,
Eric Keene

[EricRH27]

Roy94:

It's obvious to me, and everyone else reading this, that you know your stuff. I'm an exercise science major at West Chester University and am very interested in pursuing a career as a strength and conditioning coach for Ice and Roller Hockey players (perhaps at an olympic level one day). I'm a sophomore and play Ice Hockey (ACHA D1) and Roller Hockey (ECRHA D2) for my university and have been playing both pretty much my whole life (along with baseball and basketball for a while). I belong to the NSCA and all that and was curious about what organizations you belong to, exactly what it is you do, what school you went/go to, and where you played/play hockey.

If you could email me at [email protected] that'd be great.

Thanks,
Eric Keene

ps: Kid trying to get faster, explosion is the name of the game (of ice hockey). In order to become more explosive, strength is the basis of it; however, don't rush into anything where you could potentially hurt yourself. PROGRESSION is very important.

I know it's vague but Roy knows much more than I do... but in my in season workout I workout twice a week and do Plyos/Single Leg Strength on one day (Reps 1-6 per leg and Rest 3 Minutes between sets) and Olympic Lifts/ Upper Body on the other day. I only lift on days that I don't have practice or, in the case of wednesdays where we practice at 2 30 in the afternoon, I lift afterwards so I'm not tired for practice.

As far as olympic lifts go, they are kind of tricky. Not a good one to try to describe over email. But they do help in your explosive/elastic capabilities.

Good Luck.

[MBurke]

Eric,

Hey - I let all your posts go through because they all have a little bit of different info - I think you have an edit option so if you want to clean them up to make them more coherent, feel free to do so. We have a spam filter on the board that catches common spam terms and when it does it notifies a moderator to approve/delete the post. Yours got caught up in there since you're a newer user. In the future just wait a bit and we'll get to approving it within a few hours - it hasn't gone into an internet wasteland or anything!

I'm sure Roy will post with his creds, but he played high school football and hockey and was a stalwart defenseman for Towson (DI NCRHA, #94), helping us reach the Final Four twice and Elite Eight twice. I know he's NCSA and pretty much spends every minute of free time he has expanding his knowledge reading and attending conferences.

[Alvare71]

How old are you, it really makes a difference. Agility is the key and Plyometrics will help you out alot, It uses your body weight.

Plyometric exercises are specialized, high intensity training techniques used to develop athletic power (strength and speed). Plyometric training involves high-intensity, explosive muscular contractions that invoke the stretch reflex (stretching the muscle before it contracts so that it contracts with greater force). The most common plyometric exercises include hops, jumps and bounding movements. One popular plyometric exercise is jumping off a box and rebounding off the floor and onto another, higher box.


Lateral Hops over Cone (20 reps)
Elapsed Time: 9.5 - 10 min
Purpose: Increase power/strength emphasizing neuromuscular control.
Stand with a 6" cone to your left.
Hop to the left over the cone softly landing on the balls of your feet land bending at the knee.
Repeat this exercise hopping to the right.


Forward/Backward Hops over cone (20 reps)
Elapsed Time: 10 - 10.5 min
Purpose: Increase power/strength emphasizing neuromuscular control.
Hop over the cone/ball softly landing on the balls of your feet and bending at the knee.
Now, hop backwards over the ball using the same landing technique.
Be careful not to snap your knee back to straighten it.
You want to maintain a slight bend to the knee.
Repeat for 20 reps.

Single Leg hops over cone (20 reps)
Elapsed Time: 10.5 - 11 min
Purpose: Increase power/strength emphasizing neuromuscular control.
Hop over the cone/ball landing on the ball of your foot bending at the knee.
Now, hop backwards over the ball using the same landing technique.
Be careful not to snap your knee back to straighten it.
You want to maintain a slight bend to the knee.
Repeat for 20 reps.
Now, stand on the left leg and repeat the exercise.
Increase the number of repetitions as needed.

Vertical Jumps with headers (20 reps)
Elapsed Time: 11 - 11.5 min
Purpose: Increase height of vertical jump.
Stand forward with hands at your side.
Slightly bend the knees and push off jumping straight up.
Remember the proper landing technique; accept the weight on the ball of your foot with a slight bend to the knee.
Repeat 20 times and switch sides.

Scissors Jump (20 reps)
Elapsed Time: 11.5 - 12 min
Purpose: Increase power and strength of vertical jump.
Lunge forward leading with your right leg.
Keep your knee over your ankle.
Now, push off with your right foot and propel your left leg forward into a lunge position.
Be sure your knee does not cave in or out.
It should be stable and directly over the ankle.
Remember the proper landing technique; accept the weight on the ball of your foot with a slight bend to the knee. Repeat 20 times.

You do not need weights to become faster or stronger, and there are plenty more plyometric exercises and they are really great after an injury. My conditioning coach showed me this wonderful world to recovery,

[roy94]

Alvare, you’re absolutely correct an athlete doesn’t necessarily need to lift weights to become stronger or faster. If said athlete can produce more force in the same amount of time they will increase the power exerted on the object and bearing weight/ technical issues should be faster. How they acquire that strength is inconsequential.

Body weight, however, in and of itself becomes limiting. Once an athlete masters a body weight exercise such as squats, chin-ups, push-ups their weight becomes the force limit, the athlete can no longer continue to increase the amount of force produced unless the mass or acceleration of their body weight throughout the range of motion becomes greater. Performing more repetitions will, to an extent, increase the force capabilities but only to a point. Going from performing 1 pushup to 3 as a maximum would certainly yield an increase in the amount of force the athlete is capable of (although it probably will be minimal at best) but going from 50 pushups to 70 pushups will not. At this point the athlete is building what’s called strength-endurance. It’s a valuable quality, especially in cyclical sports that primarily rely on the ATP-CP system and the glycolytic system and should be cultivated yet can’t allow for the production of more force just the repetition of it. If an athlete becomes stronger the amount of force per cycle of activity (i.e. skating stride) can theoretically become greater (as long as the force is developed in the same period of time).

Obviously we don’t want to increase the body weight of the athlete for no reason, that would be counter productive, because of the mass component of the Newtonian force equation (F=MA). The only resultant approach to increase force output is to increase the acceleration. Once an athlete can perform a movement correctly this becomes impossible without either injury or the use of accommodating resistance. This would involve the inclusion of bands, chains, hydraulic resistance, whatever, and all external sources. The same as traditional weights. So it is true that weights are not necessary. They do however typically become the most available, safest and transferable (in terms of training effect) in terms of training for hockey.

Therefore if an athlete has great levels of both maximal strength and strength-endurance they should be able to maintain that “higher level” of force output throughout a number of series of activity.

Eric Keene posted earlier and you touched on it also that power output is the factor that needs to be expressed most readily, hence plyometrics or Olympic lifting. My argument against the early inclusion of those techniques is that they take a certain level of coaching, base strength and technique. Most won’t get the proper coaching and will not develop good technique. Strength however is simpler to acquire. In most athletes adding strength will increase the “ceiling” of ability. If your ESD (explosive strength deficit the measurement of how much power one can produce relative to your maximal strength. We can not produce more explosive strength than maximal strength. They can only be equal at best) stays the same, lets say 60% (of your “ceiling” or maximal strength), when your “ceiling” becomes higher your power capabilities are also higher. For example:

· Max strength 100lbs, explosive strength 60lbs
· Max strength becomes 300lbs, explosive strength becomes 180lbs

It’s true that in athletes of high qualification these methods have shown to be effective. The key however is “high qualification”. (This is not a classification based on an athletes exploits on the field necessarily. It was begun as such by the Soviets through their process of PASM, this model however has been, unfortunately, disregarded and is, at least in this case, a measure of the athletes physical preparation both general and specific (GPP vs. SPP) terms). What happens especially in the case of “plyometrics” is, at least in my experience, athletes of low qualification in terms of general preparedness (GPP) engage in what they believe to be plyometric and one of three things happens:

#1. they see no improvement
#2. they end up injured
#3. they see “improvement” in testing but it’s not from an increase in actual power output it’s from learning the exercise and improving technique.

Rarely do “plyometric” techniques correspond to an increased training effect in athletes of low qualification. It’s my experience that once an athlete can safely squat his/ her body weight “plyometrics” do yield positive results in terms of power output. Before that traditional strength training and reactive drills have a greater effect. Because plyometrics require the ability to absorb large forces couple the absorbed force with a strong concentric contraction I would strongly advise anyone who wants to use plyometric training to acquire the requisite levels of strength beforehand.

I would also highly advise anyone who is coming back from an injury to not use “plometrics” in the rehabilitation process unless under the care of a licensed physical therapist. Following an injury the body loses proprioception in that area and depending on the level of damage may lose the ability to regulate muscle activation properly, without a through and comprehensive rehabilitation process this could lead to catastrophic injury.

Most of what the general public and even many in this business regard as effective training methods are in fact not. The same training methods cant and don’t apply for all athletes and too often we skip building a general base of strength and conditioning in favor of going for what looks cool. Remember, just because an athlete excels in his sport that does not always mean they possess high levels of athletic development. Just my 2 cents.


Roy Pumphrey
B.S. Exercise Science, C.S.C.S.

[Alvare71]

I agree Roy,

I do not like kids under 14 to lift weights and I am pretty sure you agree. As of the exact age I am not sure when a kids can start lifting, I start my kid with plyometrics. I feel it gets them in a good training regiment at a young age.

[roy94]

Alvare,

For the most part I think we are on the same page. It’s not so much as I would dissuade someone under a certain age from lifting weights as I would need to be assured they possessed the requisite physical qualities, morphologically, emotionally and mentally. In light of the current state of physical development that is typically seen in today’s youth athletes, I absolutely agree, lifting weights would be out of the question for 95% of kids not yet in high school, at least until those qualities had reached an acceptable level.

That said adolescent children can benefit from weight training. There has never, to my knowledge, been a documented link between adolescents’ weight training and any type of developmental problem. The bias against the inclusion of weight training typically is the result of ignorance and, probably to a larger extent, the terrible coaching, instruction and lack of understanding considering youth athletes on the “strength coaches” part that has given credence to this belief and rightfully so. Many foreign countries strength train youth athletes focusing primarily on technique but building tremendous strength in the process. These children, however unlike most American children, also have outstanding levels of general preparedness (typically brought about through participation in multiple activities/ sports as a child unlike what has become the Americanized model of kids participating all year long in a single sport. Which, over the long term, is the easiest way to rob your child/ teen of continued development in the emphasized activity). The strength training is not the emphasis, but instead serves to aid in the continued advancement, development and perfectioning of the childs motor pool as a whole.

While I wouldn’t include true plyometrics (for the most part, I do like low cone hops a lot) in a child’s program, I think in terms of the programming that was posted earlier we are more congruent in our thinking than divergent.

Don’t know if your interested but this is a really good article on methods used to develop youth athletes http://www.elitefts.com/documents/minors_to_major.htm

[quick_dry]

wow, some great info in the preceding posts.

My own little tidbit on increasing both power and stamina is that if possible do exercise on soft sand. I did a few months of 'boot camp' style training on soft sand and it was very helpful when I went away with the national team. I also found that doing it on the sand was more enjoyable, less downtime from stress/strain injuries and helped develop better joint stability.

Beach sprints carrying a variety of loads, and racing aianst others is great workout since the competitive element means you don't focus on how tired you are, rather just getting faster to beat the other guys.