Inline Hockey Performance

We did day 2 of 3 today for the WCU Men’s Ice Hockey weight room portion of pre-season testing . I’m sure that sounds like a lot of different tests to you, but all of the days are the same and they only have to come to 1 (it’s only to give the guys an option to work around class and such). Testing and test selection is very important for several reasons. Testing helps to give the strength and conditioning coach a baseline with where the athletes are in their fitness levels, it creates competition between the athletes to get the best score, and it provides motivation to improve throughout the season for post-season testing. There is more information involved with the topic of tests and test selection; however, I’ll save that for another post. The purpose of this post is to focus on the most important attribute in all court/ice/ball games and why it reigns supreme: power.

Power is a term that get’s thrown around a lot in the sports world, and, as many words in this field, is often mistakenly used. A simple definition of power is the ability to apply maximal or near maximal force rapidly/quickly. Power should be the 2nd most important improvement focus of athletes and strength coaches alike, the 1st concern being injury prevention. Here’s a picture of a former athlete of mine performing a popular power test, the standing broad jump.

So why is power the most important attribute in all court/field/ice/ball games? Think about it. What dictates whether a person will make it to a professional level or not? You know the answer:

The ability to hit the long ball in baseball. Being able to throw the ball hard and far. Shooting a 100 mph slap shot in hockey. Having that more explosive start on the line in football. These are just a few examples of power related movements in these sports and there are many more. Along with this, there are ways to improve one’s power through 5 ways of training:

1. Olympic Lifting, 2. Plyometrics, 3. Medicine Ball Throws, 4. Speed Repetitions, 5. Complex Training

1. Olympic Lifting

Olympic lifting consists of two lifts: The Clean and Jerk, and the Snatch. These are lifts that rely on power to perform because you are moving a lot of weight at a very fast speed. There are many olympic lift variations that can be made more sport specific like a Dumbbell Split Jerk or a Dumbbell Power Split Snatch. Here is a video example of the power clean and jerk:

Barbell Power Clean and Jerk

2. Plyometrics

Plyometrics is another word in the strength and conditioning field that often gets confused. People and trainers love to blur the line between power training and metabolic training, again for another post… but I digress. Plyometrics are arguably the most sport specific way to improve power because you can make them more specific by working in several planes of motion (up and down, side to side, and twisting) opposed to just vertical as in olympic lifting. Here is a video example of a depth jump to box jump:

Box Jump

3. Medicine Ball Throws

Med ball throws are often used to improve core power and also for upper body power. Core power exercises include overhead throws, twisting throws (mimicking the demands of your sport ie: hockey, baseball, tennis, golf, etc.), underhand throws, and diagonal throws. There are many variations of med ball throws.

4. Speed Repetitions

According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, speed repetitions are performed with 67% of your 1RM and then moved as quickly as possible for less than 6 repetitions. You can do, basically, any lift as speed repetitions. So, use your imagination.

5. Complex Training

Onto the bodily phenomenon known as, complex training. Complex training is doing a heavy strength set of 6 or less repetitions to fatigue and then performing a power exercise. There is no standardized time interval to rest in between the strength and power exercises. Studies in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning show that doing the heavy strength set excites your Central Nervous System (which is very important, check out my last post) and allows you to perform more powerfully after that set so it tricks your body into being more powerful leading to further gains.

So, that’s power training. Take home message: if you want to be successful in your sport, unless you are a marathon runner or other long steady state oriented sport, power training is the way to go. Am I saying do power training year round and everyday? No. There is a way to periodize your training in order to optimally achieve your goals; but, that is left for another post.

Questions? Email me at EKSportPerformance@gmail.com.

Warm regards,

Eric Keene

Popularity: 4% [?]