By Peter Twist /
Hockey requires great leg strength to sprint to top-end skating speed and as well ‘stopping’ strength to manage turns at high speeds, stop instantly and change directions on a dime. Strength is used to power hard shots, start quickly during races for lose pucks, and handle physical battles on the ice, in front of the net and along the boards.
For successful shooting, body checking and skating, players need integrated coordination of their entire body.
The goal in hockey is to be strong on your feet. Lifting movements that cross the ankle, knee, hip, core, shoulders and arms build strength while teaching the muscles to fire in the correct order.
Sequential muscle firing sums forces through the body, transferring more power that can be applied to hockey forces, such as lateral movement and open ice hits. Integrated lifts teach different body parts to be more cohesive, leading to more fluid on-ice actions, produce more efficient movement, expend less energy and generate more speed.
However, typical strength training attempts to develop the body with a piece meal approach, isolating specific muscle groups. Isolation exercises were designed by bodybuilders to focus on one muscle and overload it so it grows bigger. But the body is a linked system that works together to coordinate hockey actions.
From head to toe, each joint, each group of muscles, each nervous system connection, all effect how the next joint and group of muscles in the human chain will move. Any ‘weak link’ in this chain causes problems in the rest of the body, preventing the body from working best on the ice.
On the ice, your body is only as strong as it’s weakest link. Traditional strength training in a health club starts from the outside in. It changes how the athlete looks in the mirror and is measured by old tests like lying on a bench and pressing as much weight as possible. Yet with the right exercises you can build great strength and muscle size but also greatly improve the hockey-specificity and help more of the strength gains transfer to on-ice game action by building ‘from the inside out’. This relies on lifts which demand strength but focus on movement of the whole body.
Integrated strength training refers to exercises which integrate many muscle groups throughout the body and also integrate movement, balance and coordination into the exercise execution.
When players lift a load in an exercise that includes a balance challenge, the muscles face a greater challenge and they also train the brain. Similarly, integrating movement into a strength challenge (see photo of lateral jump to lateral raise) demands more muscles to contribute and trains the brain. Think of the body as a computer.
The muscles are the hard drive and heavy loads build a more powerful hard drive. Coordinating movement and balance uses many more muscles and improves the body’s ‘software’ as well. In a high skill sport like hockey, bigger and stronger is not good enough. Bigger, stronger and smarter muscles are needed to graduate to the next level.
Peter Twist, 1- year NHL Conditioning Coach, is now President of Twist Conditioning Inc. that provides franchised Sport Conditioning Centres, hockey training products and home study coach education. www.twistconditioning.com |