NEXT LEVEL TRAINING CORP

There is no question that a well conditioned athlete can compete at a higher level. However, trainng without purpose and direction results in minimal gains and often causes an athlete to lose motivation.

Strength and conditioning requirements for hockey players are very specific, much as they are in any sport. Hockey players need the ability to apply maximum power during an entire shift(also known as speed endurance) repeatedly throughout a game.

Unfortunately, maximizing speed, strength and endurance, is not a one or two week project. It is a long term effort that requires dedication and a properly designed program.

Strength and Conditioning for Young Athletes

There’s no question that stronger, more powerful athlete can compete at a higher level. However, mention the need to enroll young athletes (8-16yrs ) in a strength and conditioning program and the inevitable question arises, “doesn’t strength training stunt growth?”

Well, not only can we respond with an emphatic NO, we can also say there are huge benefits. In fact, the human performance community worldwide put this one to rest a long time ago.

To set this up we’ll need to review physiology 101. 

In a nutshell, training for speed, strength and acceleration depends largely on how much muscle is recruited during exercise. To do this, we use 3 basic modes of strength and conditioning. Resistance (weights or using the body itself as a lever by changing it’s center of gravity), metabolic (cardio) and plyometrics (train muscles to produce force very quickly or explosively).

Since hockey is very much about acceleration, plyometrics are a very important tool. Plyometric exercises exploit a couple of sensory mechanisms found in the muscles and tendons that provide the brain with information about the rate and magnitude of the forces on the muscles and tendons. They also help the brain account for the position of all body parts in space at all times (referred to as kinesthetic sense…this is how we handle the puck without looking down). Here’s an example of these mechanisms at work that illustrates precisely what plyometrics are all about.

Suppose you’re skiing and you go airborne off your favorite mogul. The instant your legs hit the ground these sensory mechanisms in the muscles and tendons, help the brain make a couple of informed decisions. First, how much muscle must be recruited and in what order to absorb the impact and keep you upright. The other is a go no go decision. Are the forces too great that they would cause injury if the brain gave the go ahead for intense muscular contractions? If the forces are too great, the brain decides to play it safe and shuts down the muscles, “allowing” you to fall. So, if we perform plyometrics (jumps, hops, bounds) close to this shut off point (you can progressively increase this threshold) we are able to affect more muscle. Once the knees are flexed and the forces have been absorbed (in a crouch of some form), in that instant, if we jump back up we have all that muscle that just helped us decelerate available for a maximal contraction in the opposite direction. Train like this year round and the effects are incredible.

Perhaps it would be wise before we go any further to make a clear distinction between strength and power. Strength is the maximal force a muscle can produce. Power is how fast we can apply that strength.

Now that we’ve established the importance of recruiting as much muscle as possible in a plyometric mode (power), let’s examine the same concept in the other mode that is of parental concern, resistance training (strength). Well, guess what, while the movements are much slower in the weight room, the same principle applies, choose sufficient loads that recruit as much muscle as possible and you will train for maximal strength.

So, let’s compare the forces generated between the two modes. Picture this. Drop a 90lb steel ball from 6 ft in the air onto a golf green (plyometrics). Then pick it up, walk a couple feet and place the same 90lb steel ball slowly on the same surface (weight training). Now compare the impact of both spots where the ball touched the ground. One is a crater (plyometrics), the other a dimple (weight training). Plyometrics have the capacity to generate much larger forces that weight training.

Here’s the good part. Recall I mentioned a tiny observation that packs a huge A-HA? Well, here it is. Go to your local elementary school playground and watch the kids on the swings and play sets. They are doing plyometrics! Exposing their bones and joints to huge forces by jumping from large heights, hopping and bounding. Forces that far exceed anything we can possible expose them to in the weight room.

So, the bottom line is that strength and conditioning at any age is beneficial, especially athletes of any age in pursuit of athletic excellence.

Meni Mantzavrakos, B.A., CSCS, CPCC

Last update: Monday, December 18, 2006