Tag: Kevin Neeld

Building The Efficient Athlete

Interdisciplinary learning is a hot topic in the human performance industry right now. Many strength and conditioning coaches will argue that we don’t need to study physical therapy or athletic training. Others swear by it.

Frankly, I find it hard to imagine doing my job without knowing a bit about physical therapy and athletic training. I understand it’s not my job to diagnose injuries or do initial rehab. I also understand that athletes with persistent pain need to get it looked at by the appropriate professional.

With that said, I rarely see a completely pain-free athlete without injury complications. Take a look at one of the elite level hockey training groups we had last Summer at Endeavor:

Posterior shoulder dislocation
Chronic groin pain
Thumb surgery and knee “giving way” at angles >90°
Sports hernia
2 players with shoulder labral repair

6 high level players; 5 significant problems. Unfortunately, groups like this are becoming the norm. With the increased emphasis on year-round hockey, it’s becoming almost inevitable for older players to have some sort of hip dysfunction. With the horrible rounded over posture that most hockey players carry themselves with, it’s becoming almost inevitable for older players to have some sort of shoulder dysfunction.

Not every strength coach or “trainer” needs to be a licensed PT or AT, but we should have, at a minimum, a profound understanding of functional anatomy. There are dozens of great resources out there, but many are pretty hard to digest.

The one resource that I couldn’t live without (and reference on a pretty regular basis) is Building the Efficient Athlete with Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey.

This DVD set is truely timeless. I liken it to taking a functional anatomy course in college, with one major exception. I paid over $3,000 out-of-pocket to take a 4-credit functional anatomy class as part of a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at a reputable university. I can honestly say I learned less implementable information from that course than I did from watching and re-watching Building the Efficient Athlete (and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper!).

Recognizing dysfunction and abnormal movement patterns can prevent injuries, but you can’t do that if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Step 1: Watch Building the Efficient Athlete

Step 2: Repeat Step 1

Step 3: Recognize dysfunction in your athletes and help them prevent future injuries

-Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Select Teams

Last week was tough. The Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup marks the end of one of the most exciting years of hockey in my lifetime, and the end of my 3-month Flyers playoff beard. Maybe that’s not a bad thing since I was accused of looking over 10 years older. Although…at least I wasn’t being carded for rated-R movies!

Beard Wow.

The off-season is here. Within the next few weeks, almost all kids will be out of school and the Summer will officially be upon us. That means most of the players, if they haven’t yet, will be receiving invitations to tryouts for any of the seemingly never-ending list of “select teams”.

I could rant forever about how most of these will get you no exposure at all and are geared toward sucking as many kids as possible into an overpriced tryout…but I’ll spare you. In my lifetime, I’ve seen many qualified players get dismissed from these teams. They usually don’t take it well. Players start comparing themselves to the players that made it, wondering why they aren’t good enough and what they’re doing wrong. As with any tryout, kids that make it gain confidence and feel like they have a future in hockey. Players that get cut start to question whether or not they’ll ever realize their dreams. It’s unfortunate.

At Endeavor last week, I overheard two of our hockey players talking between sets about these select teams. One said, “I got cut every year and was told I’d never play at a high level.” The other responded, “I never even got the tryout invitation!”

The funny thing is, BOTH of these players are top NHL prospects. Yep. They weren’t quite regional select team material, but the NHL will give them a shot. Seems a little backwards.

Two Hockey Development Truths:

1) Every player develops at different rates. Many stars at the peewee level plateau shortly after and/or quit.

2) Even exceptionally great coaches make mistakes.

One of the players I mentioned above said, “I should probably thank them. Getting cut pissed me off so much it motivated me to prove them wrong.” This is the EXACT attitude you should have if you get cut from a team. Make them regret overlooking you. Put the work in to develop your skills and athleticism.

Hockey players need to stop waiting to be discovered and start making themselves impossible to ignore.

Countless players have been late bloomers and went on to have extremely successful careers. You can too.

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Shooting: Off-Ice Exercises

After a research-filled post on Stretching for Hockey and a long rant on NHL Combine Test Results and why comparing off-ice testing results between players is senseless, I thought I’d stick with something a little more laid back today.

Hockey players can improve their shooting power by improving their rotational power off the ice. Essentially, rotational power is maximized when it’s initiated through the hips and transferred through the core.

Check out a few of my favorite exercises below to improve rotational power (and hockey shooting power). I actually learned the “partner toss” variation of this from my colleague Mike Potenza from a video he posted on Hockey Strength and Conditioning. If you aren’t a member yet, I’m officially disappointed. You can try it for 7 days for only $1. I even bought a shorter domain name (http://HockeySC.com) so you don’t have to type in http://HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com everytime you want to go to the site. It can’t be any easier!

On to the videos:

Front Standing Med Ball Scoop

Side Standing Med Ball Scoop w/ Partner Toss

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have medicine balls and a flat concrete wall to throw them against, try adding an explosive rotational component to other upper body exercises:

Rotational 1-Arm Cable Chest Press

Rotational 1-Arm Cable Row

Mix these exercises into the beginning of your training sessions and you’ll start to notice that your shots have a little more power behind them.

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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NHL Combine Test Results Revisted

Several weeks ago I put up a post about some of the NHL Combine Testing Results. If you missed it, you can check it out here:

NHL Combine Testing Results

Sadly, this was BY FAR the most highly read post I’ve ever had. In general, I think the readers could be categorized into one of three groups:

1) Curious about how probable future NHLers are performing on these tests

2) Angry about the comparison of my testing results in college vs their testing results as younger prospects

3) Actually read the post and understand the message

I fully understand that I was further along in my development in college/grad school then these kids are (although my bench press numbers were comparable in high school…gotta love chest day mondays!). That wasn’t the point.

My point was that it is ABSOLUTELY MORONIC to compare player’s based on off-ice testing scores!

I realize it’s a widely utilized practices amongst extremely high level coaches and scouts, but that doesn’t make it any less stupid.

If Daniel Carcillo has a higher vertical jump, bench press, and better 40-time than Sidney Crosby, did the Penguins miss out?

The only thing that matters on the ice is how good you are at hockey. Testing is important, but not to compare players (which is moronic…absolutely…incredibly…moronic). Testing is important to guage progress WITHIN a player. If a player is training and they aren’t getting stronger, faster, leaner, and/or adding muscle (depending on their goals and needs), then the hockey training program should be adapated or a closer look into the players dietary and recovery strategies is warranted.

Especially in youth programs, we need to stop emphasizing testing as a form of player evaluation. Everyone grows up at different rates. Players that grow up (read: develop) faster are probably going to test stronger and faster than their teammates. We’re rewarding development opposed to quality training. Even doing pre- and post-testing with young athletes doesn’t make a ton of sense. Avery Faigenbaum’s research has shown very clearly that adolescence that do NOTHING in the form of structured training will test stronger and faster as times goes by.

Intuitively, we all know that, but as Stephen Covey says, “To know and not do do is to not know at all.” If you’re a coach and you feel the need to test your players for accountability reasons, make sure you emphasize that you are testing to guage progress within each player, not to compare players (and do not compare players…ever). If you’re a parent, stop putting any emphasis on testing at all. The craziness around testing needs to stop. Now.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Stretching for Hockey

Today officially starts the second week of my Hockey Development Coaching Program. Since this is the first time I’ve done anything like this, I’m pretty excited that the first week went so smoothly. There was one small error (An incorrect link that I quickly fixed), but other than that smooth sailing. If you haven’t signed up yet, click the link below to do so now. Eric Cressey’s Coaching Call is coming up tomorrow and you won’t want to miss that!

=> Hockey Development Coaching Program <=

Speaking of Eric, he was nice enough to send me over a few interesting articles last week on the effect of muscle damage on range of motion (ROM). I asked for the articles in reference to the idea that specific static stretches immediately following activity may help restore adequate joint ROM.

The thought process here is two fold:

1) Short-term activity-related reductions in joint ROM may increase injury risk until the ROM is recovered back to baseline levels

2) Given that ROM limitations are still present 96 hours later (see Jamurtas et al., 2005), and that most hockey players (and all athletes for that matter) are skating/playing on a daily basis, it’s probable that ROM doesn’t ever fully recover. With this in mind, static stretching following activity may help accelerate the joint ROM recovery and therefore minimize accumulative shortening of muscles and consequent quasi-permanent reduction in ROM.

I know that’s a mouthful, but it’s a simple concept. Take a little ROM away each day (by not allowing full recovery) and eventually you lose a lot of ROM.

The take homes from these papers were that repeated eccentric (muscle lengthening) muscle actions can lead to muscle damage that results in a subsequent reduction in ROM. In hockey, the waters get muddy when you start to identify which muscles groups have a high eccentric emphasis and which have a shared concentric (muscle shortening) and eccentric emphasis.

Regarding hockey (and hockey training), I think we can extend this concept a bit and just look at what feels “tight” following playing on the ice or training and spend a few minutes doing specific stretches to address that.

For instance, after playing on the ice hockey players should perform the following stretches:

1) Seated Glute Stretch (pull knee to opposite shoulder)

2) 1/2 Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch (with glute contraction)

3) 1/2 Kneeling Rectus Femoris Stretch

4) Wide Stance Quadruped Stretch

5) Standing Lateral Hamstrings Stretch

6) Prone Abdominal Stretch

7) Pec Stretch

This may seem like a lot, and it is, but it’s worth it. Your body needs to recover to rebuild. Spending a few minutes after most practices and games going through this circuit will likely ward off some of the hip flexor, groin, and lower abdominal injuries that keep you out of play for weeks and months.

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

References:

Jamurtas, A., Theocharis, V., Tofas, T., et al. (2005). Comparison between leg and arm eccentric exercises of the same relative intensity on indices of muscle damage. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 95, 179-185.

Reinold, M., Wilk, K,., Macrina, L., et al. (2008). Changes in Shoulder and Elbow Passive Range of Motion After Pitching in Professional Baseball Players. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36(3), 523-527.

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