Keys To Your Off Season Training

Article by Colin Roeszler, Athletes Fuel Strength & Conditioning

For most hockey players in the area, the season is coming to a close. Some players will feel a state of withdrawal from the game. However, what you shouldn’t do is start registering for spring hockey leagues and summer “showcase” tournaments. This goes for players of ALL ages. I believe the offseason should be time away from the ice, focused on becoming a better athlete as well as a better hockey player.

Even the best players that I work with have an offseason, and they spend most of it away from the ice improving their athleticism. The way you train and prepare in the offseason will get you ready for that next season. That’s why we go by the saying; Dedicate your offseason. Dominate next season!

Some of the most successful hockey players I have trained have in fact been my best athletes. If you take a look at the OHL or NHL Combine results, it’s the players with the best fast-twitch muscle capabilities that have the most upside to their game. Those that score high in the vertical jump, standing long jump, and peak leg power output scores are the ones that the organizations and coaches want. They all want the thoroughbred horse. The game is so much faster now, so teams want players that are strong, fast, and explosive.
Every quality program must focus on three areas for proper offseason training: strength training, speed development and interval conditioning. By incorporating these elements in your off-season training program, young players can become the type of athletes that make great hockey players.

Strength Training

Hockey, like most sports, requires strength through the posterior chain. It’s not about who can curl or bench-press the heaviest weight. It’s about training the muscles that you don’t see in the mirror; the glutes, hamstrings, and spinal erectors. This is often neglected in training programs. Being a high school teacher, I see a lot of young athletes with poor training habits. They train as if they are becoming body builders instead of hockey players. One simple solution to making an immediate improvement is for every pushing exercise you do, make sure there is a pulling exercise as well.

Speed Development

Speed development is extremely important. Aside from having the appropriate technical skills for the sport, speed is the next most important aspect for hockey players. However, it should only compliment your strength training. The key to developing speed lies in strength and power. Before you can improve your speed, you need to be stronger. Speed is all about producing force through the ground. The most effective way to increase your force production is by building a solid foundation of lower body strength.

I suggest dedicating sessions that focus on a series of short sprints mixed with infrequent rest periods. If you watch the game, the average sprint to the puck is between 10 and 20 metres. Each shift, there is a series of those races. Rarely does a player get to their top-end speed. Instead, it’s about who can accelerate the fastest in that short area. Speed development isn’t the same as conditioning. It must be done at maximal effort.

Everyone can get faster, even if it’s just a step, and often a single step can make all the difference in hockey. Working on speed development in the offseason is a crucial part of any training program.

Interval Conditioning

The traditional way of off-ice conditioning has been proven to be largely ineffective. Those long runs don’t help players become better athletes and hockey players. You must adjust from traditional forms of exercise to the sports demands.

Hockey is a game played with shifts that average anywhere from 30-45 seconds. There are frequent stoppages and changes of direction within each shift. For every minute you play, you usually sit for 2-3 minutes on the bench as you recover. This is why interval conditioning fits perfectly. By conditioning with a 1:2 or 1:3 work-to-rest ratio, and implementing a number of stops and starts within each repetition, you greatly improve not only the cardio-respiratory system, but you get the muscular fatigue effect as well that isn’t common in most forms of traditional conditioning. You can’t just condition the heart, you have to condition the lower body musculature system as well.

Play Other Sports

Even when you’re focusing on training this offseason, it’s important to continue playing complementary sports such as lacrosse, soccer and tennis that will help you stay in game shape while avoiding hockey burnout. I always suggest that the athletes I train incorporate at least one or two additional sports per week that include speed, explosiveness, strength, agility and hand-eye coordination. If you just play games year-round and never take a break to truly train your body, you’re not going to become a better hockey player. By staying on the ice all year, you leave yourself susceptible to over-use and under-recovery type of injuries such as adductor and hip flexor strains. Training your body off the ice is what will make the biggest difference in the long run.

Every Day is an Important Day

Even if you’re not on the ice for the majority of the offseason, you should still have a focus for each day. Whether it’s training, playing another sport and incorporating active recovery, or completely taking the day off to the allow your body to fully recover, there is still just as much work to do and even more potential to improve.

Those who put in the work – the right kind of work – will reap the greatest rewards.

Colin Roeszler is the owner, and head strength and conditioning coach at Athletes’ Fuel Strength & Conditioning. Athletes Fuel helps athletes from all sports focus on Sports Performance Enhancement, Injury Reduction, Functional Movement, Strength and Conditioning, Nutritional Science, and Recovery Protocols in the local Chatham-Kent area. Find out more at www.athletesfuelsc.com