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Summer Hockey or Dryland Training... Depends on What You Want

For most of you the season has passed and you are now thinking of greener, hotter days and a chance to play more hockey???

Why?

Many of you are thinking of playing or have already signed up for a summer hockey league. Please ask yourself why? If the answer is to improve your skills then you may want to think again. On a regular basis I speak with college and professional coaches and players who all agree, ice hockey OFF-season should be just that, OFF.

Let me first state that I am writing to players, coaches and parents of players who are serious about the game of hockey and want to reach their ultimate potential. Playing games in the off-season WILL NOT help your game; in fact it may hinder your game. Instead of thinking of what summer hockey league to join this summer, start thinking of the type of off-ice training you will participate in this summer. Let me explain.

As pointed out by experts, games will allow you (your child) to touch the puck maybe 1-2 minutes per game, shoot the puck maybe 5-6 times, pass the puck maybe 10 times per game, and skate (if skating on a team with 3 lines) maybe 20 minutes per game or if defense maybe 30 minutes per game.

For sake of argument let us say you (your child) will play 1 game per week for a total of 30 minutes of ice time per week. (If you are on the ice for 30 minutes a game). Now let's take that same 60 minutes that you will spend during the game and divide it up into two 30 minute sessions per week for a dryland training program.

In these same 60 minutes your child will be able to shoot 100 pucks which should take up no more than 15 minutes, puck handle for 10 minutes, perform 6 sets of 50 sit-ups, 6 sets of 25 push-ups, 6sets of 10 squat jumps, 5 sets of 10 yard quick start sprints, 5 sets of 40 yard sprints, and still have another 5 minutes left over for some anaerobic conditioning consisting of 3 (1) minute sets of extreme jump rope.

Here are the totals for an 11-week period considering you are playing 1 game per week based on the numbers I provided above.

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______________________Summer Hockey _________Summer off-ice training
Total shots taken: ................. 66 ....................................... 1100
Puck handling time: .............. 22 minutes ........................... 110 minutes
Upper body strength ............. None .................................... 1650 push-ups
Core muscle
development: ....................... None ................................... 3300 sit-ups
Lower body strength ............. Average ............................... 660 sqt-jmps
Explosive muscle dvlpmn ...... Little to none ......................... over 2500 yards of sprints
Anaerobic conditioning .......... Average ............................... 36 minutes of extreme jump rope

Please consider that this is by simply replacing (1) 60 minute game a week with (2) 30 minute dryland workouts, pretty easy to see which program will provide better results. Once again I want to re-iterate that this is for the serious hockey player who wants to reach his/her full potential. If you are just looking to have fun and want something to do over the summer or in addition to your dryland workouts than fine go ahead and play your game once a week but don't expect it to make much of a difference in your playing ability next season.

Dr. Steele specializes in training hockey players off ice and in the weight room. His programs have helped hockey players from all over the world from peewees through the pros improve their game and reach their ultimate potential. In addition he is founder and president of Better Hockey Inc., which runs betterhockey.com, and TOPDOG Off-ice strength training and conditioning programs for players in person or over the internet/phone. Dr. Steele can be reached at info@betterhockey.com.