“Hockey Specific”
“Train the athlete, not the sport!” “We are general physical preparation practitioners. Specific physical preparation takes place on the ice, not the weight room.” While I generally agree with both statements, I do feel that a deep understanding of sport at a first principles level aids in developing much more specific programs. What do I mean first principles? Biomechanics, adaptation, sport acumen and program design are first order principles. They provide deep contextual understanding of the pieces at play in program design. They are the mortar to each brick we place as coaches in the hopes constructing a program. So, what is sports-specific? The goal is to conceptualize a working definition. According to Dictionary.com both “sport” and “specific” can be defined as:
Sport: an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature
Specific: having a special application, bearing, or reference; specifying, explicit, or definite
Sport + Specific = an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess (with a training program designed) having a special application, bearing, or reference, specifying, explicit, or definite
Now, let me be very clear, nothing will ever replace the ice. The forces, the speed, the playing environment are all unique. Hockey specific is the game itself. There is no substitute. I have written about this in great detail in my most recent book, The Gain, Go, Grow Manual.
Applied forces on the ice will never be re-created in the weight room.
However, I do believe we can build programs for hockey players that better serve their sport and playing position. It all comes down to first principles.
Biomechanics:
When it comes to programming, we must ask ourselves:
How does one move on the ice?
Is there differences between locomotion on the ice vs land? What are the gas pedals? What are the brakes?
What are the injury drivers?
Can we affect programming?
Ice vs Land: Biomechanical Breakdown.
Video courtesy of: Apex Skating.
Coaches Eye: Environment dictates locomotion. The ice has minimal friction. This changes the gas pedals and breaks used in locomotion on the ice. Watch the video in slow motion. Stop the video during propulsion (full extension). Close up on the hip, knees and ankles. The drivers are the powerful glues, and quads. While the breaks are the adductors (longus and magnus). The hips are externally rotated. Now, stop the video during recovery. The drivers and gas pedals are reversed while the hip internally rotates. Skating is a heavily frontal/transervse plane activity.
Below are several articles/blog posts to consider that attempt to answer these questions:
Performance Implications for Ice Hockey
What Makes an Efficient Skater
Injury Rates in the Sport of Ice Hockey
Key Takeaways:
Understand the unique biomechanics of the stride
How can we train the gas pedals in a logical, progressive manner?
How can we train the brakes in a logical, progressive manner?
What are the most common injuries that occur on the ice? Can we take a pre-mortem approach and better our programming efforts in a more specific manner?
Adaptation:
When it comes to programming, we must ask ourselves:
What adaptation(s) are we attempting to solicit?
What methods will we use to target this adaptation?
What buckets can we fill that are NOT being filled on the ice?
Can we affect programming?
If the goal of the performance coach is to fill buckets that are not being filled on the ice, owning the sagittal plane would be a good start. Think about this for a moment, you can’t produce a force parallel to the plane of contact on the ice. This is frontal/transverse plane living! So, how does this effect programming? Nothing drastic, but there are subtle changes. Here are a few:
Beautiful video of of the hip moving into internal and external rotation. Coaches Eye: Which fibers surrounding the hip can we work that may not full buckets on the ice?
1) Corrective Strategies: Sagittal plane facilitation of the glutes. Work them as hip extensors, not abductors or external rotators. The glutes get plenty of work both as abductors and external rotators on the ice. Master the sagittal plane. Closed chain adductor activities facilitating the adductor magnus, 90/90 hamstring work focusing on muscle activation in the sagittal plane. Rectus abdominus work early and often in attempts to balance the pelvic girdle.
2) Weight Focus: Sagittal plane focus for major lifts early in the off-season (bi-lateral lifts), slowly shifting to more frontal/transverse plane (SL lifts) during later portions of the off-season. Sagittal plane med ball power work during the regular season, limit frontal plane loading during the hockey season as these buckets are being filled on the ice.
3) Isometrics: Early summer focus on tissue remodeling in the sagittal plane. Think of this as unwinding from the chronic position of sport. The methods used are long duration yielding isometrics in which a player holds a posture for time (typically 2:00 in length, which may be broken up into 4 x :30, and short/long isometrics in which an agonist is held in lengthened position for time while its functional antagonist is held in a shortened position. For the high-caliber hockey player, functional antagonists such as the hamstrings and the posterior shoulder complex are facilitated and held in a shortened position, while the hip flexors, the anterior shoulder, and ankle dorsiflexors are held in a lengthened position
Yielding elevated split squat. The targeted adaptation is creep of the myo-tendinous junction of the rear hip flexors with co-contraction of the ipsilateral glue max.
4) Mobility: The chronic position of the sport creates length tension issues at the hip joint. The femur orients internally while the pelvis tips in an anterior fashion. Properly mobilizing the joint during the off-season is an important adaptational consideration for the performance professional.
The vectors of the various adductor musculature. The “hockey players tug of war” creates pull on one side (adductors) relative to the other side (rectus abdoninus) of the pelvis. Photo courtesy of the High Performance Hockey Masterclass.
The hockey players “tug of war.” Photo courtesy of the High Performance Hockey Masterclass.
Hip Distraction: the goal is to create a postero-lateral mobilization effectively creating a better “fit” in the acetabulum.
5) Tissue Specifics: Hockey patterns in the late off-season to reinforce the tissues prior to ice touches.
Conversely, understanding the unique intra-muscular adaptation that occurs on the ice is also extremely important. These are peripheral adaptations that are specific in nature. Nothing can replace the ice. Why is this important? First principal knowledge allows us to understand that what’s omitted in the program is just as important. Sport is king for conditioning.
Below is an article/blog post to consider that attempts to describe the unique demands of the ice:
Key Takeaways:
What adaptations are we attempting to accomplish? Are they specific to the sport?
What are the length tension issues? Can we release the “tug of war” using specific means?
The hip is to hockey as the shoulder is to baseball. How can we best approach hip care in a specific manner?
How can we best condition for central adaptation?
Peripheral adaptation is specific! Nothing takes place of the ice.
Sport Acumen:
When it comes to sport acumen, we must ask ourselves:
What are the technical aspects of the game?
What are the positional demands? Goalies’ vs Forwards vs Defensemen?
What are the tools of the trade?
Can we affect programming?
Although I feel being a former player is a favorable pre-requisite, there are some great resources to learn more about the technical and tactical aspects of the game. I strongly recommend Coach Dave King’s new book Loose Pucks and Ice Bags. It provides a simple, yet sophisticated look at both the history and technical elements of the game.
In addition, what are the positional differences? What needs to be added/omitted based on these differences?
The reverse vertical horizontal (RVH) position in goaltending places tremendous stress on the hips. What means need to be added? What means need to be omitted?
Below is an article/blog post to consider that attempts to describe the tools of the trade:
Tools of the Trade: The Hockey Skate
Key Takeaways:
Understanding positional demands is important in creating targeted interventions
What needs to be added? Omitted?
Technical/tactical elements aid in understanding how the player competes in his/her environment. What kind of a player are they? What are their strengths? Weaknesses on the ice?
Program Design:
When it comes to program design, we must ask ourselves:
What are the acute programming variables?
How can we manipulate these to be more specific to sport?
Can we affect programming?
Acute Programming Variables:
1.) Exercise
2.) Exercise Placement
3.) Intensity (Bar speed)
4.) Number of Sets
5.) Rest
6.) Tempo
Variables such as exercise, intensity and rest may vary considerably depending on the adaptation we are chasing, the age of the athlete and the time of year.
Management vs Development. Programming considerations for ice hockey. How does the performance coach adjust APV’s?
Once we have adjusted our acute program variables to reach our desired adaption, the next logical question is, how do we progress them. There are 3 ways we can progress the acute programing variables:
1.) Progressive Overload (lift more weight)
2.) Variety (change the exercise, bar, stance, joint angle, implement, contraction type)
3.) Specificity (focus on patterns or ESD similar to sport)
Programing is both an art and a science, but it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Prior to commencing always ask yourself: “What am I going after? How will I get there? Of the controllable variables that I have at my disposal as a coach, which ones will I use? Why, and how can I communicate this to the athlete, coach or client?”
Below are several articles/blog posts to consider that attempts to describe program design implications:
Programming Considerations for Ice Hockey: Part 1
Dosing Volume Using the High/Low Model in Ice Hockey
Key Takeaways:
What time of year is it?
Can we pull the fire alarm without burning the house down?
How can we manipulate the APV’s based on time of year and training age?
So, is there such thing as a hockey specific program? Based on the definition I provided above; I believe there is! Nothing will ever replace the ice, but I do believe that we as coaches can better prepare our athlete with a sound understanding and application of first principles.
The High Performance Hockey MasterClass is a comprehensive 8-part lecture series exploring the science and practice of high performers in the sport of ice hockey.
