I have yet to see an off-season program for hockey that recommends a significant commitment to skating and skating-specific dryland training. Yet, most people in our sport would agree this is a very high priority, perhaps the most important training a young player can do in the off-season.
Our mission to help young hockey players with lofty dreams - - this is not rocket science. It's not even exercise science - - at least in the first stages of planning.
Initially, it's about deciding what an elite player looks like - - what attributes of skill and athleticism set him/her apart. Forget (for the moment) the mental qualities. They are extremely important, of course.
To help a youngster train in the most effective way, we first need a picture of where he/she has to go in order to move up in hockey. Is strength important? Endurance? Speed? Agility? Coordination? Balance? Power?
Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.
Of course, these are all important qualities, and as outside experts inserted themselves into hockey - - once we moved inside, out of the cold, of course - - each expert had his own personal favorite. Some said that cardiovascular fitness was the base upon which all other training depended, and our hockey players were sent out to ride bikes and run around the lake.
Others believed that strength was the "top priority," not bothering to differentiate between the strength of an Olympic lifter and that of a five year-old hockey player who was just starting to skate. We've been told that "core strength" is critical and balance is "extremely important." So athletes were told to lift weights while standing on a balance board that tipped over when you leaned a little to one side or another.
I watched a hockey conditioning film recently that listed 14 different types of training as "extremely important, highest priority," or just plain "critical." And none of them looked the least bit like hockey.
This is the problem when outside folks - - expert or not - - are given a free reign to set up training programs for hockey players. If there are thirty experts in the NHL, there will be thirty different training programs - - when the experts are given no clear picture of the needs in hockey.
It's like having an assembly line in Detroit with thirty employees - - each an expert at his own job. If no one knows what the final product is supposed to be (Is it a car? A truck? An SUV?), the end result will not look like a bunch of experts built it.
Hockey people need to sit down - - without the outside experts - - and paint a picture of what the final product should look like. What qualities does a youngster need in order to become an elite player sometime in the future?
By hockey people I mean coaches, former players, and scouts - - people who know what it feels like to skate, or shoot on the move, or check, handle the puck, or pass. Decide what physical qualities are really critical in hockey. Then, when that picture is clear, perhaps at that point we might ask experts how we help young kids get there.
To collect opinions from experts about whether or not a certain type of training is "good" makes no sense until we know what it takes to become an elite hockey player. For example, swimming is a good exercise, but it doesn't develop hockey players. We've turned the developmental training over to people who don't understand hockey. We tell our players to train hard in the off-season, "Do what Joe tells you. He's an expert on training. We (coaches) really don't care what you do. Just train hard."
But if the coaches sat down and compiled a list of those physical qualities that make a great player, it is not difficult to find exercises that fit the needs. And what are the needs? Every hockey group would list things like skating, shooting, stickhandling, right at the top of the list. These are trainable, physical qualities, and it would be easy to draw up a plan for youngsters to get better in each area. How do you get better at shooting?
"Shoot. Shoot hard!" I recall these words from a former NHL player many years ago - - before the experts came at us with words like cardiovascular fitness. "You need to be in hockey shape," he would say. But then we found out we couldn't use such simplistic language. Better to use terms like "aerobic" and "anaerobic."
It's not about "quickness" or "explosiveness" any more. It's "rate-of-force-development."
Without the outside experts looking over our shoulders, hockey people might say that players need speed, agility, quickness, rhythm, balance, coordination, and endurance - - all on skates! But the experts have told us we need to train on bikes or run marathons.
They're not bad people, these outside experts. And they're pretty darn smart. But just like the assembly-line workers at an auto plant, the experts were never given a clear picture of the final product. So, we have an approach to training in hockey that is so far off line, there is no other sport that compares.
If we picked up a training manual for a basketball team, we would see they are not told to train on bikes for most of their cardiovascular workouts. Lance Armstrong isn't told he must run marathoners in preparation for the Tour de France. Swimmers aren't told to skate. They swim!
But hockey players are told to cross-train.
We need to tell the experts we think skating is important - - just as important to us as swimming is to swimmers. Maybe we just assumed they'd pick this up at a hockey game. Skating is a rather important attribute. It takes years to master, and we'd like our players to become faster, more agile, and more efficient - - at skating, not biking.
To improve skating - - or any skill (shooting or stickhandling) - - we first must learn to skate with correct fundamentals. This might require some instruction from a skating coach or hockey coach. However, watching and copying a great player will also help a youngster learn to skate correctly.
The ABC's of skating improvement are simple. Think of the planning process as a pyramid, where the most important priority (SKATING) is at the top (See Pyramid graphic below).
A. We must follow up after the instruction with thousands of repetitions - - quality repetitions. This is the first place where we fail in hockey. Figure skaters and speed skaters spend hours and hours doing quality repetitions on-ice. In hockey we do not. We don't encourage youngsters - - or provide enough opportunities for them to work on skating repetitions without the distraction of pucks, or other skills, or competition.
To rely on hockey games to help youngsters improve skating is a sure way to compound bad habits. It might also result in new ones as well, because games are about competing, not concentrating on correct skating fundamentals.
B. We can learn a lot from speed skaters on dryland training. They would never think of teaching someone to skate without concurrently doing support exercises off-ice that build a base for good posture, endurance, and strength - - all done in a skating range of motion.
They believe that if someone has great knee bend and body posture - - a base built from dryland training, they are much more likely to skate correctly. Jack Nicklaus believes that if any golfer would stand up to the ball like Tiger Woods, he/she would swing better. Skating posture with optimal knee bend is the first fundamental of skating.
Acquire good skating posture, endurance, strength, and explosiveness in dryland - - doing exercises that look and feel like skating - - and the chances of improvement from on-ice repetitions is much greater.
C. General off-ice qualities of fitness, strength, and speed will certainly provide a solid base from which to do the training in (B) and (A). Some of this general training is important at appropriate ages. But it is a myth to think that training for (B) and (A) can only be done after significant work in (C). Furthermore, spending too much time doing general training (C) does not leave much time and energy for the most important training (A) and (B).
I have yet to see an off-season program for hockey that recommends a significant commitment to skating and skating-specific dryland training. Yet, most people in our sport would agree this is a very high priority, perhaps the most important training a young player can do in the off-season.
That is why hockey people need to replace outside experts in planning the development programs for our young athletes.
Jack Blatherwick has a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Minnesota. He is a physiologist for the Washington Capitals, and has held the same post for the Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars. He was also a coach/physiologist on the U.S. Olympic hockey teams in 1980, '84 '88, '92 and '94. Check out Blatherwick's website at http://www.overspeed.info/.