Tag: mike potenza

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I hope you’ve had a great week. David and I are heading out to West Chester, PA for the USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Course certification over the weekend. I grew up in West Chester, so it’ll be great to stop in to see my parents and spend some time in my old stomping grounds.

Things picked up a bit this week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. Before I get to that, if you missed my two articles from earlier in the week, you can check them out at the links below:

While these posts approach somewhat different concepts, one of the underlying take homes from both is that we need to be adept at STRATEGICALLY implementing stressors. In this vein, stress doesn’t just refer to those from training or competition (although, these will make up a significant proportion of the total stressors for in-season players), but also dietary, environmental, psychological, and social stressors (amongst others!). Stress is cumulative and needs to be mediated or “overtraining” will result. Overtraining can just as accurately be described as “under recovery” as it’s possible to drive someone into a state of overtraining without ANY training stressors at all.

Also, I wanted to remind you that today is the last day to pick up your copy of Joe Dowdell and Mike Roussell’s Peak Diet and Program Design Summit Package for $100 off. They’ve added a special bonus from Pat Rigsby (great for those of you that may own your own training business) AND a new payment plan. If you’re interested, check out their program here: Peak Summit Package

Moving on to this week’s content at Hockey Strength and Conditioning…

Mike Potenza kicked things off with a new “Youth Training Program” that emphasized lateral speed training. This exercise series, which Mike demos in the videos, is a great way to teach young players how to accelerate, decelerate, and change direction while maintaining proper body position. In other words, it drives performance through body awareness. For higher level players, under the assumption that they’ve developed these qualities already (not always a safe assumption), these are still great exercises to incorporate into off-season programs or toward the end of a warm-up at any time of year. Great stuff from Mike.

Click here to check out the program >> Youth Program: Lateral Speed Teaching

Darryl Nelson added an exercise video of two variations of a lunge complex, one using a valslide and one without it. I’m not exactly sure how Darryl builds these into the program, but they seem like great options for a warm-up or to build some low-intensity “hip mobility” or “lower body” work into an upper body day or full body lift where you want to back off the legs a bit.

Check out the lunge matrix video here >> Left Middle Right Reverse Lunges

The second part of my article series on developing youth training programs for an entire youth hockey organization just went up. This series gives you an inside look into my philosophy and approach to designing a program for a local youth club. As this is a question I get a lot (typically from a coach at one specific level), I think the article series will have a lot of valuable information in it for those of you that don’t necessarily train people for a living, but are left to your own devices for your hockey club. In my (unbiased) opinion, the strength of this series is that I don’t necessarily suggest that you need to do it EXACTLY how I do, but understanding my philosophy underlying the approach I take will help you apply concepts that seem most relevant to your situation. As I always say, there’s a madness to my method!

Check out the article here >> Youth Hockey Training Blueprint: Part 2

Make sure you check out these threads on the forum too:

Motivation
1 Leg Cleans?
Athlete Metabolism Issue
Hockey’s Original Recovery Drink

That’s a wrap for today. 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 success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Last chance to save $100 on this: Peak Summit Package

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This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

It’s been a couple weeks (again) since I had an opportunity to write one of these posts. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy in preparing for the release of Ultimate Hockey Training. On top of that, we’re in the process of moving Endeavor to a new location a few miles away from our current one, which I’m really excited about. We’re fortunate to have an opportunity to rebuild our space from scratch a few years in, so we can make adjustments based on some of the frustrations we’ve had in the current space.

On Wednesday I had an opportunity to head up to Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT to help Coach Boyle and Dawn Strout with another round of testing for the U.S. Women’s National Program. I’ve really enjoyed my work with the program. The girls all work their assess of, and are constantly pushing each other. Great team atmosphere. It was also nice to catch up with Brijesh, who I haven’t seen in too long. That night I drove home from Connecticut packed a bag, woke up the next morning, and got on a plane to Phoenix. I’m in Phoenix for PRI’s Impingement and Instabilities course, which rain prevented me from attending with Cressey in Maine a couple months back. No complaints about being “forced” to coming to Phoenix though! I spent most of the day yesterday with Patrick Ward talking about the nervous system (this is what most cool people do when they get together). Patrick is ridiculously bright and has a different background than I do, so it’s awesome to hear his perspective on things. If you’re not familiar with his work, check out his site (and an article he wrote on my new book) here: Show & Go and Ultimate Hockey Training

This week I wrote two posts that touch on elite hockey development. If you haven’t read them already, you can check them out here:

Over the last several weeks, we’ve added A LOT of terrific content to Hockey Strength and Conditioning. Check out what you’ve missed:

New Articles

Why Shoes Make Normal Gait Impossible from Dr. William Rossi

Five Exercises That Hockey Players Should Be Doing in the Weight Room from Sean Skahan

Toronto Maple Leafs 1962 Training Camp

Youth Hockey Training Blueprint: Part 1 from me

The Case for Direct Cuff Training in Contact Sports from Anthony Donskov

Managing Injuries through Manual Therapies from Eric Reneghan

This is an almost overwhelming collection of articles. The Maple Leafs Training Camp article is more for fun than anything else. We’ve certainly come a long way since those days. My article on youth hockey training is the first in a 3-part series that will walk you through exactly how I put together the off-ice training program for a youth hockey organization that we work with. This series will answer most of the questions I get regarding what I recommend for training youth players at different age levels at the rink and identify how I’ve addressed some of the challenges inherent in the space we’re allotted there. Keep your eye out for the other two parts. Dr. Rossi’s shoe article was outstanding. I think the impact of footwear is overlooked by the majority of youth athletes (and their parents) because the assumption is that they wouldn’t sell shoes if they were detrimental to your health. Dr. Rossi’s article systematically explains the impact different shoes have on your structure and performance. Great read.

Training Programs

Off-Season 2011 Phase 2 Strength Training from Sean Skahan

Quarter Sprints from Darryl Nelson

Strength Training for a Hockey Player with a Unilateral Lower Body Injury from Mike Potenza

Three great programs from three great coaches. I think it’s especially important to read through Potenza’s program because of the message it sends. Unilateral injuries are NOT an excuse to stop training! Most players get hurt, go to the doctor, are told the injury will take 6-8 weeks to heal and assume that means they’ll be ready to play in 6-8 weeks. In reality, in 6-8 weeks they have a almost completely healed segment within a drastically deconditioned body. There are RARELY injuries that warrant a complete shutdown (concussions, and recent disc herniations and hernia surgeries are amongst the few). Players can continue to make progress by intelligently training the healthy segments, which will facilitate a faster recovery, return to play, and ensure continued progress despite an injury. Sean’s program series on training an athlete with an ACL tear are great examples of this too so check them out if you haven’t already.

Exercise Videos

Farmer Carry Lateral Squats from Darryl Nelson

Frontal Plane Core Exercises from Mike Potenza

Reach, Roll, and Lift from me

Half Get-Up with Cup of Water from Sean Skahan

Darryl’s video will really appeal to hockey players because it is a relatively hockey-specific movement. We don’t typically load these movements very heavy, but we do use them to groove the pattern and improve hip mobility. Potenza had some creative core exercises in his video montage. The Reach, Roll, and Lift is a lower trapezius activation exercise that has really humbled a lot of our youth players. It’s easy to cheat your way through this one, but when done correctly, it will surprise you how difficult this is. In my opinion, an inability to perform this exercise disqualifies you from overhead lifts. Sean’s video provides another great example of how to continue to groove important patterns, even when an athlete has suffered an injury.

Hockey Assessment Webinar

Hockey Hip Assessments from me

This was a webinar I did a couple months back detailing all of the hip assessments I used with our off-season hockey group at Endeavor, how to interpret the results, and how to use this information to improve the durability of your players. I’m pretty proud of this one as I think it provides strength and conditioning professionals as well as rehab folks with some important tools to recognize structural “abnormalities” that may predispose players to predictable injuries.

Lastly, the forum has been hopping recently. While there are several interesting discussions, I’d recommend checking out the “Post-Game Flush”, “Neck Strengthening”, “Motion Analysis for $5”, “Barefoot Training”, “Diet Programs that Reduce Inflammation”, and “Reactions to LTAD” threads first.

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 success,

Kevin Neeld

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This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I’ve been slacking on these updates over the last couple weeks. Between the traveling I’ve done over the last month and my work at Endeavor I find that my training hours have been cut back, but that I’m still as busy as ever!

There have been a ton of updates at Hockey Strength and Conditioning since my last post. Without further ado…

Training Programs

2-Day Strength Training Program from Darryl Nelson

Off-Season Phase 1 from Sean Skahan

2-Day In-Season Training Program: Phase 1 from me

In-Season Youth Training Program: Phase 1 from me

Complex Training from Mike Potenza

The two programs I posted are the ones we’re using with a youth organization that we’re working with locally. The first is for the oldest groups (U16-U18), and the latter, which also includes videos for all the exercises, is for the youngest kids (’02-’00). These, along with the articles series I have planned to go up over the next couple months, will provide a great template for those of you training players in suboptimal conditions (e.g. minimal space and equipment, poor coach-to-athlete ratio, etc.).

New Articles

Book Review: Spark by John Ratey from Darryl Nelson

Great Advice to Start the Season by Dan Bauer

Both of these articles were terrific. Because long-term athletic development is fresh on my mind from the USA Hockey ADM seminar last weekend, both of these articles really struck a chord with me. I actually ordered the book Darryl reviews here after he mentioned it at his presentation last weekend. I think we have a ton of room for improvement in the way we develop our kids, both as people and as hockey players, and Spark discusses some of the evidence supporting the need for a change. Dan’s article was really written for hockey parents, but as a coach or player you’ll get a kick out of it too.

Exercise Videos

Hip Stabilization Exercises from me

Goblet Squat from Sean Skahan

The hip stabilization exercises are ones we’ve used following correction of hip alignment to help reinforce a more neutral position. For those working in pro settings, or with a LONG (e.g. 10+ years) training background, mixing these in to your routine will add a little variety and still provide a great benefit. Sean’s video was pretty straight forward, but it was interesting to read about how this particular exercise is influencing the design of his programs. I’m glad he included the quick blurb along with the video.

As a quick note, a while back I received an email from a reader that was frustrated because she got really excited reading these emails, but didn’t like that the content was “membership only” because it felt like a tease. HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com is a membership site. It costs $1 to try it for a week and then it’s $9.95/month after that. Honestly, these posts are MEANT to spark your interest in it. I don’t do this in an effort to trick you into registering for the site; I would never be deceptive. I write these posts because such a large proportion of my site visitors are members and appreciate getting updates in case they haven’t checked in for a few days AND I truly believe that EVERY single one of you that isn’t yet a member should make the investment to try it out.

I think the overwhelming amount of information on the internet has lead some people to downplay the quality of membership sites. Honestly, to get a glimpse of what Mike Potenza and Sean Skahan are doing at the NHL level and what Darryl Nelson is doing with the US National Team Development Program is absolutely invaluable. Aside from their current positions, these are all guys that have worked with players at all ages over the years and have successfully DEVELOPED world-class players. I emphasize develop to distinguish this from the strength coaches that work with elite level players AFTER they achieve elite level status. That’s certainly not to undermine the work of coaches that work with these players, as players at that level have a ton of special considerations that warrant high level coaching expertise, but it’s even more impressive when a strength coach can help develop young players into elite level competitors AND still have the expertise to help take elite players to the next level. Mike, Sean, and Darryl all fit that mold.

To put it in perspective, for the price of a new set of skates, you could have a membership for about 5 years, and the information would benefit you for a lifetime. For the price of a single graphite stick, you could have a membership to the site for 2 full years. The monthly bill comes out to about the cost of a skate sharpening and roll of tape. I don’t think the cost of membership could be any more reasonable, and the information could be career changing, for players AND coaches! I apologize for the rant (kind of), but it’s important you understand where I’m coming from. When I started my site several years ago, I do so with the intention of providing FREE quality information on hockey training and athletic development AND in providing anyone that reads my site with information on great resources that could benefit them. Hockey Strength and Conditioning fits the latter. Give it a whirl today and you’ll understand why.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Development Reads

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I’ve been glad to get out of the east coast rain for a few days and enjoy the seemingly perpetual perfect weather that the west coast offers. It’s been a great few days working with Mike Potenza at the Sharks camp. I haven’t had a ton of time to write over the last week so I thought I’d bring back two older articles that were really well-received when I first wrote them. Timely reads as hockey seasons are finally getting underway again.

Check out the two hockey development articles below and please pass them along to other players, parents, and coaches that you think would benefit from the information!

Click here >> Play the Underdog

And then here >> The Truth About Sidney Crosby

In a couple days I’ll have a couple other articles for you that my good friend David Lasnier recently wrote. Really great stuff on controversial topics!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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In-Season Training: Capacity Maintenance

A couple days ago, I wrote about a few things to keep in mind when designing an in-season training program. If you missed it, you can check it out here: In-Season Hockey Training

In that post, I alluded to the fact that one of the primary goals of an in-season training program is to maintain the capacity of the individual physical qualities (e.g. speed, power, strength, conditioning, etc.) developed over the off-season. To approach this the right way, it’s instructive to have an idea of:

What qualities are inherently trained as a part of hockey practice and competition
The rate at which individual qualities degrade
What qualities can be trained together without compromising progress

The first of these was discussed in the last post, so today we’ll focus on the latter two. Much of my knowledge in this area comes from Dr. Vladimir Issurin, a scientific advisor to the Soviet and Israeli Olympic programs and author of the book Block Periodization. Mike Potenza introduced me to his work last Summer when I was in San Jose, and I’ve done quite a bit of reading in this area since. For advanced athletes that have already gone through the rapid progress phase typical of newbies, I think Block Periodization is the best way to go. Joe Dowdell did a brilliant job of outlining this work in the seminar he co-ran with Mike Roussell at Peak Performance NYC several weeks ago as well. The basic idea is to use information on physical quality degradation and training interference to optimize progress for any given physical attribute.

This periodization model is based on the length of physical quality residuals, which is the time at which qualities experience a significant detraining effect (Block Periodization, 2008; pg. 25):

Aerobic Endurance: 30 +/- 5 days
Maximum Strength: 30 +/- 5 days
Anaerobic Glycolytic Endurance: 18 +/-4 days
Strength Endurance: 15 +/- 5 days
Maximum Speed (Alactic): 5 +/-3 days

These numbers imply that qualities such as aerobic endurance and maximum strength can be left alone for periods as long as 25-35 days before there is a significant detraining effect. Another notable takehome from this is that EVERY quality degrades within ~30 days, with some much faster than others. For the qualities that don’t receive a significant training stimulus as a result of playing the sport (e.g. maximum strength), ceasing training at the beginning of the season will result in a substantial decline in ability before Halloween. That doesn’t bode well for Playoffs/Nationals in February and March.

This is in addition to the fact that soft-tissue stress accumulation and overall fatigue tends to cause a degradation in movement pattern quality (a more abstract thing to quantify). Again, all of these factors will lead to impaired performance and an increased risk of injury, and could be easily reversed (or at least minimized) with an in-season training program.

Dr. Issurin’s work also highlights the importance of training complimentary physical abilities simultaneously (Dr. Issurin, Block Periodization. 2008, pg 65):

Aerobic Endurance: Alactic (Sprint) abilities, strength endurance-aerobic, maximum strength-hypertrophy (after)
Anaerobic (Glycolytic) Endurance: Strength endurance-anaerobic, aerobic restorative exercises, aerobic-anaerobic (mixed) endurance
Alactic (Sprint) Abilities: Aerobic endurance, explosive strength, maximum strength-hypertrophy (after), aerobic restoration exercises
Maximum Strength-Hypertrophy: Maximum strength-innervation, flexibility, aerobic restoration
Learning New Technical Elements: Any kind of training modality, but after the dominant tasks

In a training setting, this means that each training session (and block of training sessions) should have a primary and secondary focus, and should minimize any emphasis on competing qualities. Nutrition periodization can be tied in to these training initiatives as periods of intense endurance or hypertrophy training may warrant an increase in caloric intake. Similarly, supplements can facilitate improvements in certain athletic qualities. Creatine and beta-alanine are two that many of our athletes will use during phases where strength/hypertrophy and anaerobic endurance, respectively, are primary training focuses. On the ice, these principles still apply. It’s counter-productive to heavily condition athletes and then teach them new skills or tactics. Teaching elements should precede exhaustive ones.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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