[Darren Bausano is a Senior at Northern Michigan University and is currently enrolled in the Athletic Lab Coach Apprenticseship Program] 
Training on the ice during hockey practice is not the only way to improve skating speed, strength, and endurance. Practicing on the ice for any hockey team under the collegiate level can be very expensive with the rising costs of ice rental, why waste that time skating back and forth down the ice to increase endurance when you could be practicing things like shooting, stick handling, and skating technique. Off-ice training can bring hockey players to the next level while other teams aren’t supplementing their on-ice practice with off-ice programs.
There are 4 main components to training for ice hockey. Strength to push other players off the puck, agility to go around them, speed to get away from them, and endurance to stay ahead of them. All four of these components can be trained off the ice while you work on the more intricate details of the game on the ice.
Strength:
Strength is not only used when trying to gain a competitive advantage over the other player fighting along the boards for a puck, it is also the best way to supplement speed and agility. As elite players get bigger and stronger, they are able to maintain the same levels of speed, agility, and fitness that use to be reserved for smaller players. Along with developing muscle mass and full body strength, Olympic lifts such as the snatch, clean, and jerk are excellent for developing explosive power that can be used to increase stride length and skating speed.
Agility:
In one study, crossover and tight radius turns on the ice correlated well with two specific off-ice measures, sprint time, and double limb hops in both the horizontal and vertical direction (Krause et al., 2012). It has also been shown that many change of direction exercises along with flexibility training have been able to improve off-ice agility, which relates to one-ice tasks even though the movements are marginally different. There are many ways to train for agility off-ice. Along with double limb hops, hockey players can utilize plyometrics such as box jumps or broad jumps with change in direction exercises like single leg hops in lateral movements.
Speed:
As expected, sprint speed is directly related to skating speed, specifically the 40 yard dash, which makes sense when you look at the length of the ice rink (~67 yards). Along with 40 yard dash time, a study indicated that one other test was a significant predictor of skating speed, the vertical jump (Janot, Beltz, and Dalleck, 2015). Sprint speed can be improved with modifications of a simple sprint such as resisted sprints and sled pulls with good technique along with forward single and double leg jumps such as the broad jump. A higher vertical jump can be developed with exercises like depth jumps and plyometrics as mentioned before. Another simple exercise for the vertical jump is jump roping. While these exercises will increase your vertical jump, they should be accompanied with strength training like the Olympic lifts mentioned earlier.
Endurance:
In hockey, there is a noticeable difference between the speed and ability of players from the beginning of a 60 second shift to the end. This is caused by the body changing from the anaerobic energy system to the aerobic system. For hockey players, the body requires around 69% anaerobic fitness, and 31% aerobic endurance (Leger et al., 1979). Any enhancement of endurance gained in training off ice directly contributes to a player’s endurance on the ice, which can reduce the fatigue shown during a shift as well as from the beginning of the game to the end.
Not only will adding these things into an off ice training program improve players before and during the season, but many of them can also be used to evaluate players in the off season without taking the ice in non-adequate situations when ice time is increasingly expensive.
References:
Training on the ice during hockey practice is not the only way to improve skating speed, strength, and endurance. Practicing on the ice for any hockey team under the collegiate level can be very expensive with the rising costs of ice rental, why waste that time skating back and forth down the ice to increase endurance when you could be practicing things like shooting, stick handling, and skating technique. Off-ice training can bring hockey players to the next level while other teams aren’t supplementing their on-ice practice with off-ice programs.There are 4 main components to training for ice hockey. Strength to push other players off the puck, agility to go around them, speed to get away from them, and endurance to stay ahead of them. All four of these components can be trained off the ice while you work on the more intricate details of the game on the ice.
Strength:
Strength is not only used when trying to gain a competitive advantage over the other player fighting along the boards for a puck, it is also the best way to supplement speed and agility. As elite players get bigger and stronger, they are able to maintain the same levels of speed, agility, and fitness that use to be reserved for smaller players. Along with developing muscle mass and full body strength, Olympic lifts such as the snatch, clean, and jerk are excellent for developing explosive power that can be used to increase stride length and skating speed.
Agility:
In one study, crossover and tight radius turns on the ice correlated well with two specific off-ice measures, sprint time, and double limb hops in both the horizontal and vertical direction (Krause et al., 2012). It has also been shown that many change of direction exercises along with flexibility training have been able to improve off-ice agility, which relates to one-ice tasks even though the movements are marginally different. There are many ways to train for agility off-ice. Along with double limb hops, hockey players can utilize plyometrics such as box jumps or broad jumps with change in direction exercises like single leg hops in lateral movements.
Speed:
As expected, sprint speed is directly related to skating speed, specifically the 40 yard dash, which makes sense when you look at the length of the ice rink (~67 yards). Along with 40 yard dash time, a study indicated that one other test was a significant predictor of skating speed, the vertical jump (Janot, Beltz, and Dalleck, 2015). Sprint speed can be improved with modifications of a simple sprint such as resisted sprints and sled pulls with good technique along with forward single and double leg jumps such as the broad jump. A higher vertical jump can be developed with exercises like depth jumps and plyometrics as mentioned before. Another simple exercise for the vertical jump is jump roping. While these exercises will increase your vertical jump, they should be accompanied with strength training like the Olympic lifts mentioned earlier.
Endurance:
In hockey, there is a noticeable difference between the speed and ability of players from the beginning of a 60 second shift to the end. This is caused by the body changing from the anaerobic energy system to the aerobic system. For hockey players, the body requires around 69% anaerobic fitness, and 31% aerobic endurance (Leger et al., 1979). Any enhancement of endurance gained in training off ice directly contributes to a player’s endurance on the ice, which can reduce the fatigue shown during a shift as well as from the beginning of the game to the end.
Not only will adding these things into an off ice training program improve players before and during the season, but many of them can also be used to evaluate players in the off season without taking the ice in non-adequate situations when ice time is increasingly expensive.
References:
- Janot, J., Beltz, N., Dalleck, L. (2015). Multiple Off-Ice Perforamnce Variables Predict On-Ice Skating Perforamcne in Male and Female Division III Ice Hockey Players. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 14(3), 522-529
- Krause, D., Smith, A., Holmes, L., Klebe, C., Lee, J., Lundquist, K., Eischen, J., Hollman, J. (2012). Relationship of Off-Ice and On-Ice Performance Measures in High School Male Hockey Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(5), 1423-1430
- Leger L., Seliger V., Brassard L. (1979). Comparisons among VO2max values for hockey players and runners. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences 4, 18-21
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