I read an interesting article yesterday about the sleep habits of hockey players and how the "pregame nap" is a way of life for professional hockey players. I found the article very interesting. I thought about one thing while reading it. If an All-Star NHL player thinks he needs a pregame nap to perform well, then he better take one. If the nap is productive for him or not, if he mentally feels better, he better continue his naps!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Daily Training Tip #601
We've said this many times. There is a 96% direct correlation between your off-ice sprinting speed and you on-ice skating speed. The faster you sprint, the faster you skate. You should be training more like a sprinter than a lineman.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Daily Training Tip #600
Muscle Imbalances lead to injuries which can lead to extended amounts of time not playing.
Not one wants to get injuried. But we all know that sometimes injuries happen and really can't be prevented. However, some injuries can be prevented. Muscle Imbalance injuries fall into that category.
Your body is a machine. The same as a race car. If one part of your body gets stronger and more developed, while another part of your body stays the same, there is going to be some "breaking point." That breaking point is going to keep you off the rink. Example; ALL athletes need to be doing squats to develop as much leg strength as they can. However, ALL athletes also need to develop as much hamstring strength as they can. If you focus on your quads and forget about your hamstrings, you are going to have muscles strains, pulls and tears. Imagine a race car that has two high performance racing tires and two monster truck tires. We all know this car isn't going going to be very fast. Your body is the same way!
Your training program needs to be functional.
Not one wants to get injuried. But we all know that sometimes injuries happen and really can't be prevented. However, some injuries can be prevented. Muscle Imbalance injuries fall into that category.
Your body is a machine. The same as a race car. If one part of your body gets stronger and more developed, while another part of your body stays the same, there is going to be some "breaking point." That breaking point is going to keep you off the rink. Example; ALL athletes need to be doing squats to develop as much leg strength as they can. However, ALL athletes also need to develop as much hamstring strength as they can. If you focus on your quads and forget about your hamstrings, you are going to have muscles strains, pulls and tears. Imagine a race car that has two high performance racing tires and two monster truck tires. We all know this car isn't going going to be very fast. Your body is the same way!
Your training program needs to be functional.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Daily Training Tip #599
You need to be self motivating! It isn't up to your parents, your teammates or even up to your coaches to "push you." It has to come within! Only you, can get yourself in the proper position to achieve your goals.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Daily Training Tip #598
More times than not, it is the little things that you do during your training sessions that make the difference. Something you do on a regular basis, BREATHING, can effectively increase your performance.
A couple of breathing guidelines...
-Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
-Exhale during the "hard" parts of each exercise.
A couple of breathing guidelines...
-Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
-Exhale during the "hard" parts of each exercise.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Daily Training Tip #597
A strength circuit is a great way to keep (and increase) your strength during in-season workouts!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Daily Training Tip #596
There are so many positive examples out there of what hard work does for a person/athlete. Hard work is really one of the only things you can control within your athletic career. Your career is way to short to not work hard!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Daily Training Tip #595
Making Hockey Players with No Extra Cost!
With new skates and sticks, the game of hockey is expensive enough. Why pay more than you have to during the season to become a better player?
The cost to rent an hour of ice is always increasing (also hard to come by), the cost of a gym membership is rather expensive, the cost to purchase a home gym is also expensive and sometimes there is no extra space inside your house, all of this and the price of gas to drive to and from the rink and the gym is rising daily. There is no more money to spare.
Parents ask me often enough how can I help my young athlete become a better player while keeping down the cost? This can be done by using things you probably currently have inside your own home or inside your home rink.
During the course of the winter I calculate a kid carries his/her hockey bag to and from the rink 4 times a week (two practices/two games) over the course of the season at 16 weeks long. 64 total times at the rink. A young player could carry his/her bag into the rink and back out to the car a minimum of 128 times. Most kids are probably going to the rink more than four times a week and the season is usually more than 16 weeks. So a player can become stronger just by carrying their bag. This costs you, as a parent, nothing. This trend is almost out the door because parents either carry the bag or the bag rolls on wheels. Why not help your son/daughter out, help them develop into a stronger athlete and make them carry their own bag?
As long as we are on the topic of the hockey bag, it can be used for another purpose. The hockey bag can also be used as a hurdle and jumped over. If a player can do 5 sets of 30 second lateral hops over their bag each day, they will become a better skater. Once a player masters the double leg lateral hop over their bag, they can try a single leg hop over it. A player can complete this either at home, in the basement or at the rink in the locker room before a practice.
If the entire team joins together and uses their bags, they can do multiple bag jumps. Space as many bags as you can two feet apart in a straight line and jump over one at a time until you make it through the entire line. You can either do forward jumps or lateral jumps, either way will help a young athlete improve their skating ability. This would have to be completed in the locker room either before practice of after practice. Either way it is free of charge and will help the team improve individually and will help build a little teamwork. The entire team can join in and have a little contest to see who can complete the most jumps during the given time. I recommend doing 3 sets of 30 seconds of both forward jumps and lateral jumps over 6-10 bags.
Another piece of training equipment that probably every young player has access to is a set of stairs. These stairs can be used in multiple ways to help develop leg strength. Just by walking up and down the stairs builds leg strength. Take this one step further and run up and down. A little more advanced run up and down skipping a step, then two, then three etc. For a change of pace, an athlete can hop up and down the steps, hitting every step, and then skipping steps. More advanced try it single leg.
Another leg strength exercise that costs nothing is doing body squats. Have a young athlete stand with their legs shoulder width apart, keeping their feet flat on the floor, squat down until their thighs are parallel to the ground and then stand up. If they could work up to completing 5 sets of 50 squats each day, they will see an improvement in their leg strength within 4-6 weeks.
A young player can complete all of these exercises for the lower body, become a better skater and cost you, as parents, no additional cost.
Along with improving the lower body, there are cheap ways to strengthen a young athlete’s upper body as well. Everyone knows of the body weight exercises that all young athletes should perform on a daily basis: push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups etc. These are all great but take it one step further and perform some hockey specific exercises.
Shoulders, core and backs are important to the development of a hockey player. Strengthening shoulders is rather easy. Take two carrying cases of six water bottles, one in each hand, standing upright, keep arms straight and lift your arms straight up in front of you until they are parallel to the ground. Slowly lower arms back to the starting position and repeat. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a daily basis. Holding the same water bottles, keeping your arms straight, lift your arms straight out to your side (forming a cross) until they are parallel to the ground. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a daily basis.
Using water bottles is a great thing for numerous reasons. One every team has a bunch of water bottles. Two, younger athletes can use half filled bottles for less weight while older athletes can fill them completely to the top and then add more bottles if need be. Three, when an athlete is done with the exercises they have water readily available to drink and rehydrate from. If an athlete needs more weight than the bottles provide, use puck bags.
An athletes’ core needs to be strengthened on a daily basis, for ideas read my article “One Thousand Abs.” To add some weight when strengthening a players’ core, including their back, hold onto the water bottles again or even the puck bag. Be creative, really anything will work.
These are all ideas to help athletes improve their strength, in a hockey specific manner, so they can develop into the player they aspire to be. All of these ideas cost you, as parents, nothing! There can now be no excuses why a player cannot be doing some sort of training. Hockey is a competitive game. Every advantage one player can get will help them out.
“Help Your Kids, Help Themselves”
With new skates and sticks, the game of hockey is expensive enough. Why pay more than you have to during the season to become a better player?
The cost to rent an hour of ice is always increasing (also hard to come by), the cost of a gym membership is rather expensive, the cost to purchase a home gym is also expensive and sometimes there is no extra space inside your house, all of this and the price of gas to drive to and from the rink and the gym is rising daily. There is no more money to spare.
Parents ask me often enough how can I help my young athlete become a better player while keeping down the cost? This can be done by using things you probably currently have inside your own home or inside your home rink.
During the course of the winter I calculate a kid carries his/her hockey bag to and from the rink 4 times a week (two practices/two games) over the course of the season at 16 weeks long. 64 total times at the rink. A young player could carry his/her bag into the rink and back out to the car a minimum of 128 times. Most kids are probably going to the rink more than four times a week and the season is usually more than 16 weeks. So a player can become stronger just by carrying their bag. This costs you, as a parent, nothing. This trend is almost out the door because parents either carry the bag or the bag rolls on wheels. Why not help your son/daughter out, help them develop into a stronger athlete and make them carry their own bag?
As long as we are on the topic of the hockey bag, it can be used for another purpose. The hockey bag can also be used as a hurdle and jumped over. If a player can do 5 sets of 30 second lateral hops over their bag each day, they will become a better skater. Once a player masters the double leg lateral hop over their bag, they can try a single leg hop over it. A player can complete this either at home, in the basement or at the rink in the locker room before a practice.
If the entire team joins together and uses their bags, they can do multiple bag jumps. Space as many bags as you can two feet apart in a straight line and jump over one at a time until you make it through the entire line. You can either do forward jumps or lateral jumps, either way will help a young athlete improve their skating ability. This would have to be completed in the locker room either before practice of after practice. Either way it is free of charge and will help the team improve individually and will help build a little teamwork. The entire team can join in and have a little contest to see who can complete the most jumps during the given time. I recommend doing 3 sets of 30 seconds of both forward jumps and lateral jumps over 6-10 bags.
Another piece of training equipment that probably every young player has access to is a set of stairs. These stairs can be used in multiple ways to help develop leg strength. Just by walking up and down the stairs builds leg strength. Take this one step further and run up and down. A little more advanced run up and down skipping a step, then two, then three etc. For a change of pace, an athlete can hop up and down the steps, hitting every step, and then skipping steps. More advanced try it single leg.
Another leg strength exercise that costs nothing is doing body squats. Have a young athlete stand with their legs shoulder width apart, keeping their feet flat on the floor, squat down until their thighs are parallel to the ground and then stand up. If they could work up to completing 5 sets of 50 squats each day, they will see an improvement in their leg strength within 4-6 weeks.
A young player can complete all of these exercises for the lower body, become a better skater and cost you, as parents, no additional cost.
Along with improving the lower body, there are cheap ways to strengthen a young athlete’s upper body as well. Everyone knows of the body weight exercises that all young athletes should perform on a daily basis: push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups etc. These are all great but take it one step further and perform some hockey specific exercises.
Shoulders, core and backs are important to the development of a hockey player. Strengthening shoulders is rather easy. Take two carrying cases of six water bottles, one in each hand, standing upright, keep arms straight and lift your arms straight up in front of you until they are parallel to the ground. Slowly lower arms back to the starting position and repeat. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a daily basis. Holding the same water bottles, keeping your arms straight, lift your arms straight out to your side (forming a cross) until they are parallel to the ground. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a daily basis.
Using water bottles is a great thing for numerous reasons. One every team has a bunch of water bottles. Two, younger athletes can use half filled bottles for less weight while older athletes can fill them completely to the top and then add more bottles if need be. Three, when an athlete is done with the exercises they have water readily available to drink and rehydrate from. If an athlete needs more weight than the bottles provide, use puck bags.
An athletes’ core needs to be strengthened on a daily basis, for ideas read my article “One Thousand Abs.” To add some weight when strengthening a players’ core, including their back, hold onto the water bottles again or even the puck bag. Be creative, really anything will work.
These are all ideas to help athletes improve their strength, in a hockey specific manner, so they can develop into the player they aspire to be. All of these ideas cost you, as parents, nothing! There can now be no excuses why a player cannot be doing some sort of training. Hockey is a competitive game. Every advantage one player can get will help them out.
“Help Your Kids, Help Themselves”
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Daily Training Tip #594
I recently read an article on ways to improve your confidence and get yourself out of slump.
One of the easiest things you can do to improve your confidence is to “pay a price” off of the ice. By outworking your opponent you gain a physiological advantage over them. You know you deserve to win the battle/game. Paying a price in the gym fuels your confidence!
One of the easiest things you can do to improve your confidence is to “pay a price” off of the ice. By outworking your opponent you gain a physiological advantage over them. You know you deserve to win the battle/game. Paying a price in the gym fuels your confidence!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Daily Training Tip #593
If healthy (no concussions or illnesses) a skater that is struggling to keep their balance could have a lack of leg strength. Increased leg strength will improve your game in many, many ways.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Daily Training Tip #592
Lowfat chocolate milk naturally has many of the nutrients that most commercial recovery drinks have to add inside the lab before they hit the store shelves. Make chocolate milk your recovery drink of choice!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Daily Training Tip #591
What you do after a game is just as important as what you do before a game! After an intense game (or workout or practice) you need to do a proper cool down. After a not-so intense game (one in which you didn't play to many minutes, or sat in the penalty box too long) you also need to do a proper recovery.
A proper cool down should be active. Don't just shower and leave the rink, get a flush on a bike or jog a few laps around the arena. Then eat the proper foods!
A proper recovery after a not-so intense game, is the same as the above, but might have to be a little more intense. If your body is accustomed to performing at high levels, you need to have a more intense bike ride after your game.
These things vary person by person and day by day. Find out what works best for yourself!
A proper cool down should be active. Don't just shower and leave the rink, get a flush on a bike or jog a few laps around the arena. Then eat the proper foods!
A proper recovery after a not-so intense game, is the same as the above, but might have to be a little more intense. If your body is accustomed to performing at high levels, you need to have a more intense bike ride after your game.
These things vary person by person and day by day. Find out what works best for yourself!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Daily Training Tip #590
If you don't already, add Cherries to your diet. Cherries, Cherry Juice, Frozen Cherries should all be a part of your regular diet. They help aid in the recovery process.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Daily Training Tip #589
Box jumps are one of the easiest exercises to complete, yet they are one of the most effective plyometric exercises. You should be completing box jumps on a regular basis. If you don't have a box at home, find a set of stairs and jump up those.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Daily Training Tip #588
I've said before, to gain an advantage on your opponent you can train smarter than them and you can out work them. A third component of this, is to train/work when they aren't.
-Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier each morning and do some extra situps. Others will still be sleeping.
-Before you leave the rink after a game, shoot 50 more pucks. Others will be showering up.
-Head into the gym on an "off day" and get an extra workout in. Others will be relaxing.
Every little advantage you can give yourself will pay off in the long run.
-Set your alarm 10 minutes earlier each morning and do some extra situps. Others will still be sleeping.
-Before you leave the rink after a game, shoot 50 more pucks. Others will be showering up.
-Head into the gym on an "off day" and get an extra workout in. Others will be relaxing.
Every little advantage you can give yourself will pay off in the long run.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Daily Training Tip #587
It takes 21 consecutive days to break a bad habit. If you have a habit of being in the wrong place on the breakout or have a habit of spinning a circle instead of stopping/starting or coasting back on the back check, you need to spend 21 consecutive days trying to break that habit.
Making yourself a better player is easy to do. It just takes time and hard work!
Making yourself a better player is easy to do. It just takes time and hard work!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Daily Training Tip #586
Keep your routine and keep your ultimate goal in mind!
On Friday, the Alamaba football team had a mini-weightroom constructed on the road, so after their practice they could have a "training/development" session. Their goal was to keep things as normal as possible, leading up their big game tonight. Three days prior to the national championship game, they were still paying a price in the gym.
Something all teams and all athletes should do regardless of sport. Keep your routine and keep your ultimate goal inmind!
On Friday, the Alamaba football team had a mini-weightroom constructed on the road, so after their practice they could have a "training/development" session. Their goal was to keep things as normal as possible, leading up their big game tonight. Three days prior to the national championship game, they were still paying a price in the gym.
Something all teams and all athletes should do regardless of sport. Keep your routine and keep your ultimate goal inmind!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Daily Training Tip #585
I read a great article last night "Too Many Athletes Warming Up the Wrong Way." The article backed up what we have been saying for years. Static Stretching is not a warmup!
The idea behind a warmup is simple, get your body ready for practice or competition. A dynamic warmup is much more effective at getting your body ready for performance.
This article found dynamic warmups increase a players jumping ability by 3% when static stretching decreases it by 8%. We know that the higher you jump, the faster you sprint and the faster you sprint, the faster you skate. So do something before your games that benefits you!
The idea behind a warmup is simple, get your body ready for practice or competition. A dynamic warmup is much more effective at getting your body ready for performance.
This article found dynamic warmups increase a players jumping ability by 3% when static stretching decreases it by 8%. We know that the higher you jump, the faster you sprint and the faster you sprint, the faster you skate. So do something before your games that benefits you!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Daily Training Tip #584
Make sure your workout are high-intensity! You will get much more out of a shorter, high-intense workout than you will out of a longer, less-intense workout.
As hockey players, you hear it all the time; practice like you play! Well the same holds true in the gym; train like you play!
As hockey players, you hear it all the time; practice like you play! Well the same holds true in the gym; train like you play!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Daily Training Tip #583
Push Ups are a great exercise that you can complete anywhere. You don't need any equipment or outside help. Just find a spot on the floor. There are so many different types of push ups you can do; you can do normal push ups, you can do jumping (clapping) push ups, you can do one arm push ups, you can do hand stand push ups, then you can also alternate your hand positions to give you other numerous different push ups. Make push ups a regular part of your workouts.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Daily Training Tip #582
You need to train and develop both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems to become a better hockey player. However, spend the majority of your time doing anaerobic training, as over time, anaerobic training becomes aerobic training.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Daily Training Tip #581
Hockey is a one-legged sport. You are on one leg 80% of the time. Because of this, you need to do your training on one leg as well. Box jumps are one of the easiest exercises you can do with one leg!
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