[This is a guest blog by one of our Athletic Interns, Matthew Jessee, an Exercise Science student from Appalachian State University]

Hockey is a very physically demanding sport. To play at a high level athletes not only need a well developed skill set, but their body must be able to allow them to play at a high level. You do not want physical ability to limit performance. When training for a particular sport one should first identify the important physical characteristics, also known as a needs analysis. Various positions in hockey may require slightly different emphases. Generally the athlete should be fast, powerful, strong, and agile, as well as conditioned so as not to have a drop in performance toward the end of a shift.

Speed- This alone might have the largest impact on a game as it may simply come down to the faster player getting to the loose puck first. One of the best ways to develop speed is to simply sprint fast, and do so correctly. This could apply to on and off ice conditions. Some people may scoff at this but sprinting is a skill. Just like practicing puck handling you want to practice sprinting. The athlete’s body has to adapt and become efficient at accelerating and maintaining high speeds. The other aspects of training to be discussed will have a positive influence on speed as well. Agility is the ability of an athlete to change direction quickly. The athlete should be able to accelerate and decelerate efficiently in order to change direction as fast as possible. Like sprinting the best way to train agility is through practice.

Strength is the maximal amount of force the body can produce. This is important because it helps the athlete to overcome their own inertia, which is a vital component to acceleration (also resulting in better speed). For the hockey player it is also important for shielding off defenders and fighting for the puck against the boards. Maximal strength is best trained with combination movements such as squats, pushes, and pulls using higher resistance and lower repetitions. Increased strength has a positive influence on power production as well. Power is the combination of strength and speed. A powerful athlete can perform high force movements in the shortest amount of time possible. This is important to all aspects of a hockey game from skating to shooting. One of the best ways to train power is by incorporating Olympic lifts such as the power clean, the snatch, and the jerk. These movements allow athletes to move heavy weight quickly. Another way to improve power production is through plyometric training. Plyometrics train the body’s stretch shortening cycle using explosive reactive movements with using lower resistance. An example of this would be performing lateral hops emphasizing explosive movement upon ground contact. A special Consideration for hockey players would be to add upper body explosiveness using a medicine ball to throw between partners. This would also train the athlete to receive impact or force upon catching the medicine ball. Rotational throws might work best as they may transfer better to shooting.

Conditioning should not be overlooked in training for hockey. The athlete should be able to perform at a high level from the beginning of a shift to the end. When conditioning for sport, athletes should train the systems that will have the greatest carry over to that specific activity. The human body has three energy systems. When one is emphasized in training the body adapts and becomes more efficient by storing enzymes and other metabolites critical to performance. Hockey shifts can last anywhere from 45-90 seconds. This would fall in line with the body’s first two energy systems the phosphagen system and glycolysis. Speed and agility training should address the phosphagen system as it is responsible for short bursts of high intensity activities. To train the glycolytic system interval training mirroring that of shift times should be executed. The conditioning should be high in intensity and last anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes with rest intervals of 1.5 minutes to 10 minutes. Aerobic training could be useful in the beginning of a training program but should be limited due to the negative impact it may have on speed and power gains as the training progresses.
If all of these needs are addressed during the offseason by the time competition begins the athlete should be ready to perform at a high level. When designing a complete program a training day should follow a template that begins with a warm up, followed by speed/ agility training, plyometrics, power (Olympic lifts), strength, conditioning, and finally a cool down which involves static stretching to help increase flexibility.