RIVL ICE PAD

The game of hockey is unique, each individual athlete is unique, and therefore your training program needs to be individualized and specific to your hockey needs.

Your hockey strength and conditioning program should include the guidance of a certified professional high performance trainer, with a proven record and extensive experience. There isnt a large selection of hockey strength coaches out there with the mixture of education and practical experience to help you reach optimum performance on the ice. Dont put your career in the hands of a personal trainer at your local gym or your coach from last season. Training for hockey is a precise science, and a well-designed hockey training program will help prevent injuries that are inherent to your sport.

The first step when implementing a training program for any athlete is to conduct a thorough evaluation and body scan. This will allow the strength coach to design a program specific to an individuals needs. Areas of concern should include aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, muscular strength and size, core stability and balance, agility and speed, flexibility, and nutrition. As mentioned above, every athlete has different needs, so dont settle for a generic program or a large training group that doesnt offer individualized training. Every off-season hockey program should be designed with the intention of making the best gains and improvements possible for each specific athlete.

Many strength coaches have different names for the phases that the athlete will go through during their off-season, but the bottom line is that these phases must be a part of the program. There should be a period of anatomical adaptation, during which time the body is prepared for the more intense phases ahead. The next phases may overlap somewhat, depending on the goals of the athlete. These phases include hypertrophy (size and strength) and muscular strength, all of which must be transformed into power by the end of the training program. There is so much more than just simple bodybuilding-type training involved here.

I would be remiss if I didnt mention the importance of an in-season training program for all hockey players. So many athletes reach their training goals in the summer only to start over again the following summer because they didnt follow a maintenance plan throughout their season. Team success and individual success hinge in large part on in-season strength and conditioning. At the very least your professional strength coach should provide you with guidelines to follow throughout your season.

By Sean Hope-Ross, National Sport Development