Any hockey players here with sport specific training advice?

[Vamoose]

I recently was given a position working with NMU's hockey team in the weight room. From playing pond hockey I have some, but little, personal experience on what muscles are important for speed and power in skating and shooting, but I have never checked anyone or done many of the technical skills of a hockey player. Any help I could get from current or former hockey players would be appreciated and a great help.

Here's the conclusions I have made so far.
*Strong hips and back for skating.
---Sumo deadlift
*Strong torso, especially obliques for shooting
---Bent press, side bends, and abdominal work
*Strong anaerobic conditioning for resisting fatigue during the ends of shifts
---Kettlebell circuits
*Strong aerobic conditioning for recovering between shifts
---Any long duration cardio will work.

[Charles Izzo]

I'm not a hockey player. But I can throw a few comments for you based on my general knowledge and what I have read about the hockey players.

From what I understand the pros are very strong, much stronger than even your average guy in the gym. They need great explosive strength. For that reason sets of 5 or less should be emphasized with the main lifts and they should not be done to failure. If growth is necessary for what ever reason then you will have to have them throw in some high reps into the mix. And of course you will be doing this with the other exercises anyways.
I also take it they just need to be well rounded with strength. With the upper body for example they need great pressing strength. So obviously bench presses, incline bench presses, and military presses are all good choice. But if they do a lot of work like that then they will have to do a lot of back work as well to keep things balanced, otherwise they can hit plateaus and get hurt. So this just proves that they should be well rounded.

The cardio part should be as sports specific as possible. Use your imagination on this one because I don't know a direct answer on this. The fact is when you do a specific movement you will get better at that and not necessarily a different movement. For example if you do a lot of biking it won't make you as good at running. So running on a treadmill for example is not sports specific to hockey. But it is better than nothing. So what I mean is try to seek the most sports specific way to train this, and use a method that is less specific if and only if there is lack of access to the more specific method, something like that. I can give you one exmple of this that is similar. Consider a strong man competitor. It is recommended for them to train cardio by using an actual event (but somewhat lightly) such as farmers walk or something like that. But what if that person only had access to that equipment once per week and they were in real need of increasing their aerobic fitness? Well, in that case they could always just do some running or jump roping on a few of the other days in the week.

[Boka]

Vamoose just a couple of things to take into account.

There is a need for the following with hockey players.

Core
Posterior Chair
Hips
Knees
Rotator Cuffs

That being said bigger explosive movements are your ideal exercises.

Things such as O-Lifts are great, as well as KB work as it is very beneficial in developing the core, hip and posterior chain.

BUT do not forget about strengthening the muscles in the body around the joints such as the rotator cuff with direct isolation work.

And over all strength is always beneficial (as is some mass for certain positions i.e defensemen or enforcers) due to the physical nature of the sport. So large slow grinding movements are also needed, squat, military press, deadlift, bench, etc...

Boka

[crocpot]

I played hockey for about 15 years and have played with pro players and the main focus in hockey training routines is plyometrics. I found combining weight training with plyo's really improved overall strength, power and speed...you need to have great aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as well. Obviously The best way to train the aerobic/anaerobic systems is actually getting out on the ice minimum 3X a week and bust your butt... if you arnt able to get on the ice a few times a weeek then I suggest finding a track and putting your players through an intense sprinting program, rollerblading is graet as well, it isnt a 100% mimic of a the skating stride but it is very close.....

heavy weights and low reps and emphasize strength and power.....

[mikestew]

if you look at the numbers coming out of the nhl draft combine, their upper body strength pales in comparison to their lower body. The highest rep count for 155lb at the 2007 draft combine was 12 reps (keep in mind these are 17 and 18 year olds). Hockey more than anything is an endurance sport, so higher rep training should be a staple in their training. On a side note, I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to hockey, i still play a couple times a week at the age of 20

good luck with the new position, if you have any questions feel free to pm me

mike

[Vamoose]

Thanks for the input guys. From what I know they have a solid program already in place my job is to show the younger guys how to execute the lifts with proper form. I thought it would be wise to inform myself as much as possible so I can offer smart advice whenever needed. Something I am finding a lot of is an emphasis on single limb training to better recruit the core and balance. This makes sense to me as skating is a series of gliding on one skate. I'm hoping if the opportunity presents itself that I can get some of these guys bent pressing. Nothing hits the obliques, hip, and back like it.

[icehawk]

I know a guy who trains for hockey and he mainly sticks with O-lifts with some additional leg work thrown in (Squats, Lunges). Never see him do too much upper body work to be honest.

I'd imagine that clean variations along with squat variations and snatches are your best friend.

[Gibbster]

PM me for a site that has a ton of sport specific training articles and routines.