Fitness - Hockey Training

As fall is turning winter Winnipeg men of all ages started thinking about one thing and one thing only–hockey.

Our nation’s favourite sport loomed on the horizon like Jonathan Toews bearing down on a poor, unfortunate goaltender’s. Rink times quickly were snatched up, new equipment was purchased (primarily via garage sales, as per Winnipeg by-laws) and reservations at the local pub for post-game noshes were arranged. For many players, however, pre-season prep went far beyond making purchases and reservations. From the weekend warrior to the professional, most hockey lovers also hit the gym and other training facilities, readying their bodies for the grueling pace that comes with playing shinny anywhere between one and three times a week.

Perhaps the biggest key to training though is in that word “gym.” As any player will tell you, practicing skating and stick-handling on the ice isn’t easily accessible at the best of times, and during the long summer months, rink time becomes even more scarce. As a result, more and more players are turning to the fitness centres or hockey-focused training facilities to stay in and improve their game shape.

But how much should you do? Can a half hour of cardio and strength do everything that an hour on the ice can do? Not quite.

“That’s probably the biggest thing the game’s changed by–if you are doing off-ice training, the more you do it, the more it benefits you on the ice,” says Tyler Rice, one of the principals at The Rink Training Centre. “At the pro level, we’re seeing that basically every hour on the ice is an hour off the ice as far as practice time.” “We don’t really start doing our on-ice until July,” says Jeff Wood, director of Focus Fitness. “We spend May and June working on the off-ice conditioning component [and] a little bit of skill work in our hockey training centre.”

One aspect of off-ice workouts that will become immediately apparent is that so much of the workout can be done in the comfort of your own home. With the purchase of some equipment and enough space (say in a decently sized rec room), a home training centre can be set up in fairly short order.

That being said, however, it is extremely beneficial to have someone working with you that knows their way around a workout to ensure that you maximize the benefits of a solid workout and minimize the risk of injury.

“I think it’s important to know how to do things properly and have someone coach you on how to do things properly,” Wood remarks. “If you don’t do that, there are a lot of exercises that you can do incorrectly that can hurt you.”

Wood adds that if you cannot easily access a trainer, then it is important to get a consult to establish a workout program. “You can train for hockey at home fairly easily. You need open space and a set of weights, it doesn’t make a lot of difference if you don’t have access to the facility–you just need to have access to the technique part of it.”

Practicing these techniques off-ice can be as simple as speed burst drills, setting up targets in a net and passing a puck back and forth with a friend or banging one off a wall; however, not every facet of the game can be practiced outside the old barn. One example of this is checking and other contact. Here, nothing can quite compare to getting out on the rink and bumping around with your buddies.

That doesn’t mean that this should not be a focus of your training. As Rice explains, there are areas that you can still work on in the gym to prepare you for impact during a game.

“Certainly core strength and balance are going to help you on ice to withstand a body check,” he says. “What you try to do is increase your athletic ability to react and do things quicker and have better balance and body control. That’s going to help you on the ice.”

With off-ice training added to your on-ice practice, your game is sure to improve and your passion for shinny will continue for years to come.

A dynamic warm-up with a full range of movement activities is essential to work out at an optimal level. Focus Fitness director and trainer Jeff Wood starts everything off with 5-7 minutes on the stationary bike and stretching. For stretching, focus primarily on the lower half of the body, and don’t hold the stretches for long—about 3 to 5 seconds each. Finish with a few minutes of jogging with high knees and butt kicks, and crossovers to loosen up your joints (see above). Start with your feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent. Step sideways crossing one leg over the other. Then change directions.

Next, Wood prepares a series of drills using a rope ladder laid across the floor that involves careful but quick steps in between rungs or out and inside the ladder’s boxes, both in forward and side motions to work on the range of motions you’d need for skating. It’s not as easy as it looks, but it’s vital to have your legs able to have your feet move instinctively while your head stays up and follows the play. For the in and out hop: stand with your feet on either side of the ladder. Hop both feet in and then outside the ladder. Go up and down the length two times. Another footwork drill: stand with the ladder horizontally in front of you. Step your right foot in a square then alternate with the left foot moving down the ladder twice in each direction.

In hockey, core training is important as well. Horizontal pull-ups, using rings, are a good way to work your core.

This isn’t a “how much you bench” series–instead, Wood uses modern variances on primitive muscle builders like pushing a sled carrying 100-odd pounds (for about a 40-50 metre “run”), tractor tire flipping (two reps of three flips each) and push-ups (8-10). These are some of the best exercises to use all of your muscles at once, rather than working on a machine that targets only a couple spots of your body.

These drills are similar to basketball run-throughs, including quick pivots (based on the trainer calling out to pivot left or right), shuffle steps and the “triangle” dash. Like in hoops, these drills help a player sharpen reaction time so that they can quickly react to a sudden developing situation. The triangle dash: Set up three markers in a triangle three metres apart. Stand in the centre, knees bent and hips low, with your upper body leaning forward. Have a buddy call out a marker (front, left, right) and lunge to touch that marker, returning to the middle. Do three to four sets, 15 seconds long.

Cool Down

Like in any other workout, doing a series of final stretches helps ensure that your muscles don’t tense up. A few minutes of more static stretches of the hip flexors, shoulders, groin and glutes is key.