Tag: Cal Dietz

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

Before I get into today’s article, I want to remind you that Alwyn Cosgrove is hosting a free seminar titled “The Death of Personal Training” on Monday. When it comes to the business aspect of fitness and running a training facility, Cosgrove is the man. If you haven’t already, go ahead and register for it here: The Death of Personal Training

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write a Hockey Strength and Conditioning update. Last Wednesday I flew out to Blaine, Minnesota for a few days to help out with the training/testing of the U-18 and O-18 girls at the U.S. Women’s National Development Program camp. It was great spending a few days working alongside Coach Boyle, Anthony Donskov, Chris Pietrzak-Wegner, Dawn Strout, Cal Dietz and Jim Snider. Awesome group of coaches. I flew back Friday and spent the weekend catching up on everything. I’m actually flying up to Maine later today to go to a PRI course with Eric Cressey. Busy time of year!

Chris Pietrzak-Wegner wrote a great article on selecting a quality protein/energy bar. Chris pointed out a lot of the lesser known downfalls of these products and identified specific ingredients to look out for. He also identifies what things you should look for in a quality bar. I know a lot of players tend to lean on these as a post-practice/game meal resource because of how quick/convenient they are. If you fall into this category, I encourage you to read through this article. Parents and coaches need to continue making an educational push away from processed foods and to foods with more natural ingredients (and usually less total ingredients). The things Chris covers in this article can really be applied to all foods, not just protein bars. Check out the article at the link below.

Click here to read >> Choosing a Protein/Energy Bar Wisely from Chris Pietrzak-Wegner

Darryl Nelson added one of my favorite articles to date. If you don’t know this already, I STRONGLY believe that the idea of “natural ability” or “talent” is GROSSLY over-exaggerated. If you buy into the 10,000 hour rule, I think that, in general, we fail to fully recognize the less obvious factors or forms of practice that create natural ability. For example, the benefits of mental rehearsal are fairly well-established. In other words, visualizing yourself performing a certain skill or movement will result in improvements in that skill or movement. Mental practice is practice. It counts. I think some players are more proactive in this visualization process. On a related note, I think certain players watch hockey games analytically, and apply what they see into their mental rehearsal repertoire so they’re better prepared when they encounter similar situations in their own games. They react more instinctively. It’s practice and it’s highly beneficial, but it’s rarely taught or promoted.

Another less obvious factor contributing to a player’s development is known as the “Relative Age Effect”, which identifies how a player’s birthday may influence their ability to develop in our current system. This was the focus of Darryl’s article, and another thing that everyone from players to administrators in youth hockey should be aware of.

Click here to read >> Relative Age Effect from Darryl Nelson

Sean Skahan added the final phase (Phase 5) of his ACL Rehab/Reconditioning program. Now that he’s posted the last phase, I recommend going back through the site and finding all 5 phases, laying them out, and studying the progression. Individual programs hold limited value (not NO value, just limited), but progressions can give you a ton of insight into the rationale behind the reconditioning strategy. This understanding is what will ultimately give you the ability to apply a similar rationale in your own setting.

Click here for the program >> ACL Rehab/Reconditioning Phase 5 from Sean Skahan

There are some good discussions going on the forum too. My friend Cristi Landrigan asked a specific question about a very popular protein powder that her son was taking and Chris chimed in with some great alternative options. Potenza also started a thread on ways to load someone on the ice other than sleds. A few great ideas there too.

As always, if you aren’t a member yet, I encourage you to try out Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. It’ll only cost $1, and if it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent, I’ll personally refund you!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Core Exercise to Improve Hockey Shooting

The other day I posted a video of a Falling Side Lunge Sprint Start, which was the end of my lateral sprint start progression. The video below is one of the final stages of our horizontal power progression. This progression is designed to help hockey players use their hips to create and control rotational power.

I learned this exercise from Mike Potenza in a series of videos he posted at HockeySC.com. As a quick plug, if you still haven’t checked out the site, you need to. The quality of information continues to grow (and will); I’ve personally learned a great deal from people like Mike Potenza, Mike Boyle, Sean Skahan, Cal Dietz, Matt Nichol, Maria Mountain, and Devan McConnell and I know you will too.

Check out the Side Standing Med Ball Scoop with Partner Toss video:

As the bearded hockey player learns to catch, recoil, and accelerate the ball forward, you can throw the ball a little harder to increase the decelrative stress. Ideally, the player should keep their arms straigtht and the ball should br thrown toward their back hip in the same line that they’ll need to coil back in. In otherwords, don’t throw it at them; throw it almost in a parallel line to their orientation. Make sure the player is rotating their hips fully around on each throw.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Off-Season Hockey Leads You to Surgery?

This was a post from Endeavor’s website that got such a great response that I wanted to share it with you.

As you know, I’ve recently teamed up with Michael Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks) and Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) to launch an incredible hockey training website: HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com.

On the site, U of Minnesota Strength Coach Cal Dietz shared an interesting article with us. The article outlined research with groundbreaking results. If you value your hockey career, you’ll read carefully!

This article outlined a study that took MRI’s of the hips of 39 NHL and NCAA Division I hockey players. Of the 39 players, twenty-one (54%) had labral tears, twelve (31%) had muscle strains, and 2 (5%) had tendinosis (degeneration of the tendon) of the hips. Overall, 70% of the players had irregular findings on their MRIs. Interestingly, the majority of these players were considered “healthy” at the time of the study, meaning they were okay to play.

As shocking as these results may appear, I wasn’t at all surprised. Similar results have been found in the shoulders of baseball players, and hockey players completely abuse their hips. Most players spend no time doing the stretches they need to (because they’re either too lazy or don’t know which ones they should do), have poor motor control of muscles around the hips (which tears up the joint and labrum!), and spend WAY too much time on the ice.

A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks); he mentioned that in over 90% of cases, the players he sees that have sports hernias do little to nothing in terms of training. Everyone at the collegiate and professional strength and conditioning levels understand that good training can improve a player’s performance, lengthen their career, and keep them out of the surgeon’s office. Hopefully youth players and parents will get the message.

To your continued health and success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you’re looking for a step-by-step training system to use this off-season, check out my Off-Ice Performance Training course. I continue to get incredible feedback about the exercises and progressions in the course, from NCAA D1 Strength and Conditioning Coaches down through parents of youth players (e.g. peewees). Download your copy today!

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

The Ultimate Hockey Strength and Conditioning Site!

If you play hockey, coach hockey, or train hockey players, this is for you!

If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you know that I recently launched Hockey Training Expert, a site that I knew would training hockey player development forever.I have great news!

In an effort to truly raise the bar for providing the hockey community with the best information in the world, I’ve recently teamed up with Michael Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks), and Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks) to develop HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com!

We’ve literally put together the greatest collection of hockey strength and conditioning coaches in the world! Check out the incredible list of contributors:

-Michael Boyle (Boston University)
-Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks)
-Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks)
-Chris Pietrzak-Wegner (Minnesota Wild)
-Chuck Lobe (Tampa Bay Lightning)
-Jim Reeves (Mind to Muscle)
-Brijesh Patel (Quinnipiac)
-Cal Dietz (Univ. of Minnesota)
-Chris Boyko (UMass Amherst)
-Maria Mountain (Revolution Sport Conditioning)
-Tim Yuhas (Yuhas Performance)
-Matt Nichol (former Toronto Maple Leafs)
-Kim McCullough (Total Female Hockey)

I’m blown away by the amount of incredible information already on the site. There are articles on a variety of topics, including Strength and Conditioning, Programming, Youth Training, Injuries, Female Training and Coaching. There are webinars, audio interviews and videos up as well, all about hockey!

Each week, we’re going to add videos, articles, and programs. None of these coaches are shy about questioning the norm, so I know the Coaches Forum will be hopping right from day 1. We also have plans of adding hockey-specific webinars and audio interviews every month!

To let you test drive HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com we’re offering a $1 30-day membership, after which it’s only $9.95/month! This offer only lasts until March 31st and the $9.95 price may jump up soon, so don’t wait. Head over to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and sign up today. It’s only a buck!

I look forward to seeing you inside the site!

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. If you have a Hockey Training Expert membership, check your email! I personally sent you an email letting you know the details about the change. As of Friday, March 19th, Hockey Training Expert will officially merge with Hockey Strength and Conditioning!

P.S.S. It’s only a buck! To get access to over a thousand years of collective hockey training experience, you only need to INVEST $1. Go to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com and sign up now!

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!

Functional Hockey Isometric Training

Isometrics (producing muscular force without a change in total muscle length…think of pushing against a wall) are probably one of the most effective, and under-utilized forms of training. Other than wall sits (which is a stupid exercise in my opinion), many hockey players never use isometric training at all.

I love isometrics.

I think they’re great for:

Building sport-specific work capacity.
Building strength in a specific range of motion (isometric strength transfers about +/- 10-15 degrees from the joint angle that the exercise is performed. For example, holding a squat position with a 90 degree bend at the knee and hip would produce increases in muscular strength for knee and hip angles from about 75-105 degrees.)
Building MENTAL strength and toughness, as nothing slaps you in the face like pushing/pulling as hard as you can against something that won’t move.
Altering the stimulus to your body during a periods of high frequency training or during a deload period. Fatigue is contraction-type specific, meaning the mechanism of decreases in force production differs depending on whether the contraction is dynamic (concentric and eccentric), or static (isometric). Because all these contractions are used in ice hockey (and in life for that matter), I think it’s important to improve the body’s capacity to handle these loads.

Last night I came across a great exercise from Cal Dietz, the University of Minnesota Hockey Strength Coach. While, semantically, I may disagree with calling this a deadlift (which I think requires a greater loading of the posterior chain-e.g. glutes and hamstrings), I still think it’s a phenomenal exercise that all players would benefit from. You could also perform several variations of this exercise, such as having the bar across the athletes shoulders (set between two sets of pins so that they can get under the bar, resting on the first set of pins, and push up against the second set of pins set a few inches higher).

Another variation would be to perform a an overhead pressing movement against pins from the same position. The great thing about this variation is that it’ll necessitate full body force transfer. If you push harder with your upper body than your lower body, you’ll just sink. Having said that, there’s no excuse (other than poor core stability and strength) for not being able to match overhead pressing force with leg drive force, even from this position.

Enjoy the video…

Please enter your first name and email below to sign up for my FREE Athletic Development and Hockey Training Newsletter!