Conditioning The Right Way

Hockey player’s benefit greatly from being in top physical shape, and one of the coach's jobs is to find the right workouts to maximize on-ice results.

Different conditioning workouts have proven effective over the years, from simple drills to unique, creative ones that leave players exhausted.

Hockey is a lactic-aerobic sport meaning it involves short high intensity, high power output bursts coupled with low-intensity intervals. An example of this would be skating as fast as you can towards the net unloading a big slap shot and scoring followed up by a slow skate back to centre ice to re-start the game.

The game of hockey, it is almost entirely played with explosive/high power output movements. Slap shots, wrist shots, snap shots, body checks, skating with the puck or to the puck, high-velocity direction change, fast acceleration/deceleration

To maximize your hockey specific conditioning, your conditioning workouts should be performed in a lactic-aerobic format. Doing this is going to better condition you for what you are actually doing on the ice.

Long, low-intensity jogs are only going to make you a better jogger, not a better hockey player. Which is why so often these guys do get better at jogging on the treadmill and yet they still completely gas out in the 3rd period. This is a perfect example of how little carry over it brings to the game.

Creating both on-ice and off-ice drills with conditioning in mind has to relate to the way a player is going to maximize their strengths, having players bent over gasping for breath may look like their getting conditioned but in fact, it may be counterproductive. Have a plan and understand the proper way a hockey player should be conditioned.

Coach This Way

CoachThem