Tag: warm-ups

This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

We’re wrapping up another busy week at Endeavor. I’m really excited for the weekend. Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading up to Boston with David Lasnier, Matt Siniscalchi, Anthony Vittese (a local PT that we’ve worked with a bit), and Ryan Podell (the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Flyers) for the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group‘s Summer Conference. This has been the highlight of my continuing education endeavors for the last 4 years, and this year’s event will be the best to date. I’m looking forward to all of the presentations, and catching up with a lot of friends/colleagues that will also be in attendance. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there!

Over the last week I wrapped up a two-part segment on structural and functional barriers to optimal skating performance, and a simple coaching cue to help improve players’ confidence on the ice. If you haven’t already, check them out at the links below:

  1. 3 Keys to Developing Optimal Skating Technique
  2. Limitations to Optimal Skating Performance
  3. The Illusion of Invincibility

Also, I encourage you to check out this article on USA Hockey’s American Development Model if you didn’t last week: Understanding USA Hockey’s ADM

It was a slower week for us over at Hockey Strength and Conditioning content wise, but a few really good discussions are going on in the forums. Check out this off-season training program and video of two great barbell complexes to help improve lifting technique, while warming up the athletes:

  1. Summer 2012 Phase 1 from Sean Skahan
  2. Complex lifts as Pre-Strength Training Warm-Ups from Mike Potenza

Also, make sure you check out these discussion threads on the forum:

  1. BioForce and First Beat HRV
  2. How many days per week?
  3. BSMPG
  4. The Strength Coaches Combine
  5. Recovery and Performance Compression Apparel
  6. Whose Program to Implement
  7. Shoulder Injury and Core Training
  8. On-Ice Warm-Up/Cool-Down for PeeWee’s

Finally, don’t forget to weigh in on our new poll: “In the players you work with/see, what do you feel is the major limiting factor to their game speed?”

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

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This Week in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

It’s been another exciting week for me personally and for this site. We broke another traffic record (over 16,500 visits in the last 30 days!), again thanks to all of you passing along the posts you like to your friends, and I broke the 1,000 twitter follower threshold. I’m going to be doing more twitter Q&As in the future, so if you want me to answer your questions live, then go here to follow me! Follow Kevin on Twitter

Earlier in the week I posted a hockey conditioning article on a new thought process I have about a specific component of resistance training and how it improves fatigue resistance, as well as a great interview with Sean Skahan of the Anaheim Ducks. You can check out both at the links below:

  1. Hockey Conditioning: Low Threshold Fatigue
  2. Sean Skahan Interview

Hockey Strength and Conditioning featured some great content this past week.

To get the week rolling, I added an article on “directional rolling”. Self-myofascial release work has become relatively accepted by most strength and conditioning programs over the last 5-10 years. That said, our understanding of the exact effects of what it does is still relatively limited, and we’re inevitably going to make changes as we move forward. This article dives into some information from Thomas Myers and how we should change our foam rolling protocols to make them more specific to our needs. Check it out at the link below.

Click here to read >> Directional Rolling

Darryl Nelson followed things up by posting two stretching/mobility/dynamic warm-up routines that he’s using with his players before practices and lifts now.  Players appreciate variety in their warm-ups, especially pre-lift, so if you’re feeling stagnant with your current routine, this would be a great program to grab.

Click here to check out the warm-ups >> Stretching and Warm-Ups from Darryl Nelson

Finally, Jeff Cubos wrote what may be the best “call to action” suggestion on the NHL concussion epidemic that I’ve come across to date. I’ve been somewhat outspoken over the last few months about the importance of distinguishing between actually brain injuries (concussions) and the other few factors that can cause concussion-like symptoms (that are NOT concussions, but may be brought on by the same contact as the concussion, if there was a concussion at all). Jeff took a different angle on the issue and addressed why so many players are taking violent hits to begin with. Frankly, I think his suggestion is an inevitable part of hockey’s future.

Click here to read >> NHL Concussions: Have Our Players “Outgrown” Our Sport? from Jeff Cubos

The forums have also been hopping over the last week. Make sure you log in and check out these threads. And chime in! We’d love to hear from you.

  1. On-Ice Testing
  2. Slideboards
  3. Flyers PreSeason Testing
  4. Flexibility Help
  5. Post Game Snack Variety
  6. NHL Concussions

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. I have some really exciting stuff lined up for you next week so make sure you check back Monday!

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