nikita kucherov and The Wisdom of buddy morris
Common practice doesn’t always equate to best practice. In fact, as I’ve aged, I think best practice many times is contrarian in thought. I wrote a book about it called The Gain, Go, Grow Manual: Programming for High Performance Hockey Players. In the book I argue for the fact that high-performance hockey players making a living in the game, with a high training age, should spend LESS time in the weight room in the off-season and MORE time on the ice. Our hypothesis is a three day rollover program (this is not the wisdom of Buddy…wait till the end). “Get off the ice!” “Rest your hockey muscles.” “Recharge your mental battery.” “Build athleticism.” “Get stronger.” I can hear the echoes amongst fellow collogues and coaches, many of whom I respect a great deal. Fact is, I respectfully disagree.
The Developmental Gantt chart. The more one progresses in skill level, the more priorty is spent on the ice at the expense of weight room touches.
Fast forward to the current moment, as I was recently emailed an article on Nikita Kucherov’s intense summer training. A few quotes from Kucherov stood out to me:
“I know some guys around the league who come in, do their work out, go home, and don't get on the ice until late August. To me, that would be the same thing as LeBron James not touching a basketball for two months. It would be like Lionel Messi going months without touching a soccer ball. We play hockey. Why wouldn't we go on the ice?"
"All those little things that happen 25 to 35 times a game, I practice them. I want to be ready to pick any puck off the boards - backhand, forehand.
"I want to have my head up and be able to find open guys as fast as I can. I want to be in control. So, I work on that, and when the season starts with training camp, I don't struggle to make that play or get the puck off the wall so easily.”
Several other quotes from the author:
“Together, the two are working on all the little things that helped Kucherov lead the Lightning with 113 points in 2022-23.”
“A lot of Kucherov's summer training is built on consistent repetition. Some days, you can find him corralling hundreds of pucks off a rim along the boards, as he carefully studies the angles and bounces of the puck. Other days, he may be working on the same exact shot, from the same exact spot, for hours. It's not glamorous. It's not always the prettiest. It's not always the most fun.”
Ok. He’s an outlier you say. He’s the exception, not the norm. Its survivorship bias you infer. Bottom line, if you want to be good at playing the guitar, you need to practice playing the guitar. Nobody would tell Slash, or Van Halen to spend the entire summer focusing on finger strength and then go play a live concert in September. They make a living playing. Why do we do this as strength coaches? Here are a few additional things to consider:
Time:
For every hour spent increasing Kucherov’s 1RM in the weight room, he has less time for skill acquisition on the ice. Target context, target environment. In addition, no forces experienced on the ice can be emulated in the weight room. Run to glide forces in skating can reach 200% bodyweight by the third step (on a single leg), and 120% bodyweight by the sixth step.
Frequency Considerations:
Recovery: We are assuming Kucherov has a high training age. In order for him to adapt to a stimulus in the weight room, greater intensities must be used to trip the homeostatic wire. Greater intensities, equate to less frequency in the weight room as more recovery is needed.
Skill acquisition (recovery): Skill acquisition on the ice can be used as a recovery day. “Kucherov said some of those on-ice sessions when he's working on angles with Oates can almost be more taxing from a mental standpoint than a physical one.” No one would say “great guitar lesson, I threw up.” Contrary, “great guitar lesson, I improved my dexterity to reach the X chord.” Read the article! Monotonous practice of “the little things,” routes, game situations, NOT mindless conditioning.
Yes, I believe in the value of structured strength and conditioning programs in the off-season. However, as both training age and competition levels increase in harmony something has to give. As my friend Buddy Morris says:
“Training a beginning athlete and an elite athlete are basically the same. It’s very general in nature. The beginning athlete has no sporting form and can’t handle anything very intense. Everything must be general movement/general in nature. The elite athlete, the only way they are going to get better in their primary sporting activity is to continue to do the sporting activity. So now that becomes the greater stressor to the CNS, the bio-motor system, the neuroendocrine system, the neurochemistry. Now training goes back to being vey general in nature because the demand of the sporting activity.”
Common practice doesn’t always equate to best practice. Thanks, Buddy, for summing it up so eloquently. Your quote, as well as the wisdom of Dan Pfaff have changed my mindset re: priorities, time lines, and developmental windows.
