Tag: mike potenza

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I have a lot of updates for you from the past week. For starters, on Wednesday I gave a 45-minute presentation titled “Hockey Hip Assessments: An in-depth look at structural abnormalities and common hip injuries” that will be available at two of my favorite membership sites: Anthony Renna’s Strength and Conditioning Webinars and Joe Heiler’s Sports Rehab Expert. In the presentation, I went over the exact hip assessments we use at Endeavor, what we’ve found in the ~40 elite level athletes we’ve tested over the last couple of months, how we approach training around structural abnormalities, and what steps we can take to prevent soft-tissue injuries around the hips. Valuable info for anyone in the hockey training world.

My friend Pete Friesen, the long-time Head Trainer/Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Carolina Hurricanes, recently sent me an email about this year’s Friesen Physio-Fitness Summit. Last year, David Lasnier and I drove down to Raleigh for the event and it was awesome. Pete put together an incredible line-up of speakers, and gave each a 30-minute time slot, which allowed us to soak up a lot of information from different professionals in a single day. The line-up for this year’s event looks even better. If you’re interested, this year’s summit is Saturday August 13th, and is probably the lease expensive 1-day seminar of this quality I’ve ever come across. Check out the brochure at the link below:

2011 Friesen PhysioFitness Summit

Getting into this week’s updates in hockey strength and conditioning, Darryl Nelson posted Phase 3 of his U-17 Off-Season Training Program. If you’re interested in how guys that train hockey players for a living design programs or just want to follow along at home, check out the program at the link below:

Click here for the program >> Summer Program Phase 3 from Darryl Nelson

Mike Potenza posted a youth core training program. Whether you train youth hockey players (or are a youth hockey player) or not, this is a great line-up of quality core exercises. Most of these exercises will be foreign to the majority of the youth hockey world, which still seems to be stuck in the stone age of core training (e.g. crunches/sit-ups, “Russian” twists, supermans, etc.), so Mike posted videos of everything. Great stuff as always from Mike.

Click here for the program/videos: Youth Core Training Program Phase 1 from Mike Potenza

Sean Skahan added a terrific article on the importance of training in improving a player’s durability. This article really resonated with me because I think it speaks to the rationale for a focused training effort even from the players that don’t have a history of injuries, but do have a history of incredible on-ice success. In other words, when the super-talented say, “I don’t need to train”, Sean’s article provides a great insight into why they do. I’m fortunate that I get to work with a lot of young high school players that are en route to D1 hockey programs, a few of which will probably make careers out of playing at some level of pro. Invariably, training and/or making dietary changes is a new and potentially undesirable experience for them. With these kids, I make an effort to educate them on the benefits, from both a short- and long-term performance and injury prevention standpoint, of getting their act together in terms of off-ice training and improving their nutrition. The habits players develop will allow them to succeed up to a given point, at which point they need to be refined. It’s likely that every player has areas they can improve on, and that these improvements will help them take their game to the next level, or at least allow them to compete at their current level for prolonged periods of time. Because Sean gets players from all backgrounds (e.g. US colleges, Canadian major junior, US juniors, overseas, etc.), he has a unique perspective on the quality of the off-ice development systems of these various organizations. Check out the article at the link below:

Click here for the article >> It’s All About Durability from Sean Skahan

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

P.S. If you’re involved with youth hockey and are looking for an off-ice training program, check out my Off-Ice Performance Training Course! I continue to get great feedback from players, parents, and coaches just like you!

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I received a ton of great feedback about the two articles I posted this week. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, you can check them out here: Functional Training Fallacy and Become a Great COACH!

Mike Potenza was the star this week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning. After wrapping up a busy week with their prospect camp, he somehow found time to put together an awesome article on movement training and a travel-friendly training program (sleep optional?).

Mike’s article on movement training was terrific. He outlined his philosophy on linear and lateral movement training, general progressions for this type of work, and specific exercise progressions for linear and lateral movements.  He also wrote up a whole section on coaching cues to use to help get athletes to do things the right way. There is no benefit to training without proper movement, so hearing exactly what Mike looks for and how he cues his athletes is a great benefit. Check out the article at the link below:

Click here to read >> Linear and Lateral Movement Training from Mike Potenza

Mike also added a 2-day circuit based training program that doesn’t require any equipment. From what I gathered, this is something he’ll use for his guys that are traveling and don’t have access to much equipment. It’s great to have circuits like this as options because they aren’t overly technical (so you can be relatively confident that the athlete is doing everything the right way and they can be used by athletes that may be new to your system), and it keeps them relatively on track without sacrificing some of the niceties that the hockey off-season should allow.

Click here for Mike’s Program >> 2-Day Summer Travel Workouts from Mike Potenza

On this topic, I’ve come across some people in the hockey world that encourage players to finish the season, and then spend all of their time in camps, clinics, or in the weight room. Naturally, I think it’s extremely important that players make a commitment to their training in the off-season; I think it’s equally important that hockey development professionals recognize that hockey players also need time to recover and that mixing in a social engagement or vacation every now and then isn’t the worst thing. We actually schedule our 4-day programs to give our players 3-day weekends to head to the beach or just relax. Players should feel refreshed and ready to go at the end of the off-season, not beaten down. Too much time in the rink and gym with negligible opportunities to relax and enjoy life makes for a dismal entry into the season.

Do you really want to deprive your players of the…water…at the beach??

There have also been a couple great forum discussions over the last week. Darryl Nelson posted a link to a video of what appears to be the most comical and irrational implementation of science to date. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but I have a hard time buying that it’s the “future” of fitness. Although, the trend is for people to do less and expect more, so maybe this will catch on? There’s also a thread on on-ice conditioning progressions to enter the pre-season that is worth checking out. Some great minds weighing in with their advice.

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

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. After I wrap everything up at Endeavor for the day I’m heading into NYC to attend Joe Dowdell and Mike Roussell’s Peak Training and Diet Design Seminar. Hopefully I’ll see you there! After 6 consecutive weekends of seminars/home study courses with one wedding mixed in, I’m looking forward to having a month or so to kick it in Philadelphia with Emily and/or make a beach trip for the first time this Summer.

Caribbean water…quickly becoming a distant memory


This has been a cool week at HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com. Things got started with Kyle Bangen and Anthony Renna posting two awesome videos on the forums: one video interview with Steven Stamkos on his off-season training (he has his head on straight), and one comedic look at why the Rangers are always a disappointment (great for everyone that isn’t a Rangers fan).

Mike Potenza added a video interview with Power Skating Coach Cathy Andrade. I don’t know anything about Cathy, but the power skating strategies and teaching cues she mentions are very familiar. I like the idea Mike had here. It’s extremely helpful to hear what quality professionals in other aspects of hockey development are teaching players, so that we can send a consistent message and/or become more synchronous in our terminology. Cathy may have a sound background in exercise science, but I suspect she doesn’t. Yet, when describing ideal skating postures, she uses some terminology very similar to what I would. She gives a lot of good tips for young skaters that also serve as reminders for more experienced players. Hopefully we can get more of this type of information up on the site in the future. Check out the video at the link below:

Click here to watch >> Interview with Power Skating Coach Cathy Andrade

Sean Skahan posted Phase 4 of his ACL Rehab Program. The program was for a player 15-weeks post surgery. It’s interesting to follow the progression through the four phases of this program, as this phase includes a lot more lower body work. Sean and I have very similar philosophies on training around injuries, so I can appreciate his approach in continuing to train this player, despite a recent surgery. I think all training for players in this situation needs to coincide with some level of communication with the physical therapist, or whoever is running the site-specific rehabilitation. Often times, syncing up with the PT will allow a more aggressive strength and conditioning approach, as the PT can provide some guidance on when to hit the gas and when to back off a bit.

Check out the program here >> ACL Rehab: Phase 4

Lastly, there was a forum post last week from a pro player that had been following the programs I’ve been posting and asked a great question about how he should progress through the rest of the off-season given he had limited time to work with since the European pro camps start in early August. At this point, he’s about 3-4 weeks pre-camp and should be progressing into a more conditioning/work capacity driven program. Because he’s been following two of my previous programs, it was most appropriate for him to work off a draft of my Phase 3 off-season training program so I posted that. The program emphasizes transitional speed, power training with both a high load medium velocity and low load high velocity orientation, work capacity, and conditioning. You can check it out here:

Click here to get the program >> 4-Day Off-Season Training Program: Phase 3

As always, if you aren’t a member yet, I recommend trying out the site for $1 Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent , I’ll personally refund you!


To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

David and I made the trek out to Chicago (just a quick 14-hour road trip) for Perform Better today. This is the first full Perform Better Summit I’ve ever been to, so I’m really looking forward to hearing all the speakers. It’ll also be great to catch up with people like Mike Boyle, Darryl Nelson, Maria Mountain, Kyle Bangen, Josh Bonhotal, and Charlie Weingroff (among others). If you’re in the area, shoot me a quick note and we can meet up for a beer protein shake.

I hope you’ve appreciated the value in this week’s posts. Hip assessments are really of paramount importance for hockey players. This week we had a new player start with us from Northwood Prep that I had never met before. Within 15 minutes of meeting him I was able to establish that he had CAM impingement in his right hip (and likely a more mild case in his left hip), instruct him on what “full” range of motion was for him, what feelings to avoid, how to move, and a focused soft-tissue/long duration stretching/breathing program for him to ensure that his CAM impingement doesn’t progress to a same-side sports hernia like they frequently do. Catching this early is huge. This player is now in a better position to avoid surgery secondary to a sports hernia and/or labral tear, and has an understanding of his mechanics that will help delay the development of osteorarthritis in that hip (which almost always follows CAM impingement). If handled correctly, this means improved performance levels and a longer, healthier career.

Unfortunately, the majority of the older players we see have some sort of anatomical “abnormality” that warrants consideration in their training programs. This week’s posts shed light on some of the anatomical asymmetries that predispose athletes to certain, somewhat predictable injuries. If you missed them, I encourage you to check them out here:

  1. The Myth of Symmetry
  2. Hockey Hip Assessment

We added a bunch of new content over at Hockey Strength and Conditioning this week.

Darryl Nelson added a video from USA Hockey’s American Development Model (ADM) conference a while back of him running a younger group of athletes through some off-ice training exercises that are more fun than regimented training in nature. The cool thing about the way Darryl runs this is that the kids probably don’t interpret it as a chore. It feels like playing to them, which is something a lot of kids miss out on the way that sports society has drifted over the last decade. For the youth programs that are looking to add an off-ice training component to their U-12 teams, this is a great place to start.

Check out the video here >> Off-Ice Games from Darryl Nelson

I posted the 2nd Phase of our 4-Day Off-Season Training Program at Endeavor Sports Performance. Many of our players will be entering this phase next week. This phase ramps up the amount of speed training work considerably, especially that geared toward improving transitional speed. We also increase the emphasis on conditioning. The resistance training aspect of the program is designed to improve maximal strength levels before we transition into more of a power-driven phase leading into pre-season camps.

Check out the program here >> 4-Day Off-Season Training Program: Phase 2 from me

Mike Potenza added a 4-day off-season training program with an emphasis on speed strength. This was cool to look through because there were a few things I was completely unfamiliar with, which will inevitably stimulate some good forum discussions in the near future. Mike writes his programs a little differently than I do in that he uses 3-week cycles instead of 4 and the speed, core, and conditioning work are pulled out. He has separate progressions for those things, so they aren’t included on his training sheets. Great learning opportunity for other hockey strength and conditioning coaches out there.

Check out the program here >> Speed Strength Phase of Training from Mike Potenza

Lastly, Cristi Landrigan, who is one of the most dedicated parents I’ve ever met, recently forwarded me a link to a great audio interview with Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock, which I added to our site. I think it’s a great opportunity for everyone in the hockey community to hear from the head coach of one of the top hockey organizations in the world and get an idea of his mentality. Despite all of his success, he’s still constantly looking for ways to improve as an individual and as a team. I think everyone would benefit from adopting that “never satisfied” mentality.

Listen to the interview here >> Mike Babcock Interview

As a parting message, I’ve talked with a handful of players that compete at the semi-pro level recently that strongly recommended that we make a stronger effort to let players at that level know about our site. Their feeling was that many players at those levels have trained in an organized hockey training setting before, but don’t have anyone to provide quality programs for them to use. Because we constantly post 4-day off-season programs and 2-day in-season programs throughout the year, a membership to our site would be a great option for players that would benefit from professional strength and conditioning instruction, but don’t have the resources (money, time, qualified professional) to hire someone locally. If you know of anyone currently playing at the OHL, ECHL, IHL, CHL, AHL, or any of the professional leagues overseas that you think would benefit from following a professionally designed hockey training program and from having forum access to high caliber coaches, please forward this along to them.

And if YOU aren’t a member yet, fork out the $1 to test drive Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent , I’ll have David Lasnier personally refund you!


To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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This Week at Hockey Strength and Conditioning

We’re wrapping up another great week at Endeavor. On a personal note, I’ve restored my eternal sense of optimism that tends to dwindle when I don’t eat, lift, or sleep as much as I’d like. It might also have something to do with the fact that I’ve watched this video at least once every day this week.

Turns out when you surround yourself with inspirational, unconditionally positive messages, you tend to be more positive! Although, I never thought Fresh Prince would be that source of inspiration. I’m also nearing the final stages (within 7 days) of completing a HUGE project, so stay tuned for announcements on that (you won’t want to miss it)!

There has been some exceptional content additions to Hockey Strength and Conditioning over the last couple weeks. In no particular order:

Video: International Hockey Panel with Igor Larionov
This is another USA Hockey American Development Model video that has leaked into our hands. Igor Larionov has about as impressive of a hockey success record as anyone, so it was great to get his perspective on an assortment of hockey development topics. If you’re a true student of the game, you’ll really enjoy this!

Click here to watch >> International Hockey Panel with Igor Larionov

Program: Beginner Phase 2 Off-Season Training Program from Darryl Nelson
Darryl Nelson added Phase 2 of his beginner off-season hockey training program. I recently read an article on this year’s NHL combine (someone posted this in a HockeySC.com forum thread) commending two players from Darryl’s USA NTDP on their performance in the off-ice tests. It’s great to see Darryl’s work being rewarded (indirectly). For the millions of hockey players out there aimlessly following unguided programs that lack organization and progressions (or any semblance of an intelligent thought in general), you’d be much better off just downloading Darryl’s program and following that.

Click here to get the program >> Beginner Phase 2 Off-Season Training Program

Video: Bar Complex from Sean Skahan
Sean added a video of a bar complex that he uses late in the off-season. This is typically the time of year where the off-ice training focus changes from hypertrophy or strength development to more of a work capacity orientation. This is in conjunction with an increase in on-ice work. Barbell complexes are certainly a means of developing this quality, assuming the athletes know how to perform all the involved exercises with perfect technique. This is especially important as fatigue tends to negatively affect exercise execution in general, Mediocre form in the beginning will quickly turn to garbage form. Whether you use the exact exercises Sean does in your barbell circuits or not, exercise proficiency should be foundational.

Click here to watch >> Bar Complex

Article: Hockey Strength and Conditioning Roundtable: Facility Design Edition

Last, and most awesomely, Mike Potenza, Darryl, Sean and I posted a roundtable discussion on facility design. The roundtable is a new feature we’re adding to Hockey Strength and Conditioning, and because well all have different backgrounds and work in relatively different settings, the diverse perspective should be insightful for our readers. Facility design was a great topic to kick off the roundtables because it will ultimately drive the design of your programs and provide guidelines (for better or worse) on what you’re able to do with your players. Facility design will determine maximum athlete volume, exercise selection, how to pair exercises, and the overall flow of the program. If you’re a hockey training professional this is a must-read. We’ve made a lot of mistakes at Endeavor that you can avoid my checking out the article.

Click here to read >> Hockey Strength and Conditioning Roundtable: Facility Design Edition

After you’re done reading the articles and watching the videos, hop on the forums and check out the two posts on the NHL Combine and the BU Psychology Professor and post your comments about those.

If you aren’t a member yet, fork out the $1 to test drive Hockey Strength and Conditioning for a week. If it’s not the best buck you’ve ever spent, I’ll personally refund you!


To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

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