Hey everyone, I hope all is well. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday last week and hopefully a long weekend to follow.
I actually got to watch my 5-year old son play in his first holiday tournament. This was a mite-B tournament that Will played in. He was actually the second youngest on the team as he played with mostly 7 and 8-year olds. Believe me, I am not a parent who is pushing hockey on him. He absolutely loves it. I think what he loves the most is the camaraderie with his teammates both on the ice and in the locker room. Right now he is participating in an in-house league where he really having a blast. I don’t know if he will play in a tournament again for a while. I think he would rather play with kids his own age. It is amazing what a difference in a 5-year old and an 8-year old is.
During the past 2 weeks, we had some great contributions to HockeySc.com.
First up was Mike Potenza’s Off-Ice Skating Strength Exercises. This one is an article/program with some accompanying videos. This piece got my wheels spinning. I really like these exercises and most importantly the why these exercises are done. The low-position is imperative to maintain in hockey. Players need to demonstrate the ability to stay low during the course of a shift and game. These drills can be beneficial for players to learn how to stay low for longer periods of time. I like them so much that I am considering adding these progressions to our program. Thanks Mike!
Next is Mike’s Skater Crossover-Step Lunge. This is a video which shows an interesting exercise that is a way to increase strength in the crossover aspect of skating. As you may already know, I am a believer in strengthening and using the crossover off-ice to help strengthen it on the ice. Here is a link to an article that I wrote on it- Improving the Crossover Step in Hockey. I like this exercise that Mike put up but I am not sure of how it would workout logistically. You need to have progressively higher boxes. If you do, then this would be a good addition to your program.
Next up was my Off-Season phase 3 strength program. I put these programs up so that the readers can see the progressions from phase to phase. What is also interesting is that you can see the changes that I made
from the 2010 off-season to the 2011 off-season. Some exercises are still there, but there have been some changes. Same movement patterns but different exercise selections.
Kevin Neeld’s Athlete with Bilateral CAM Impingement is up next. This is almost like a case study where Kevin is working with an athlete (lacrosse player) coming off of 2 surgeries on each side of his hips. Kevin does a good job showing on video what is going on currently. This is an interesting piece. Good stuff from Kevin.
Next up is Darryl Nelson’s Christmas Break program. This is a simple 3-day program that can be done over the holidays while a player is home on break from their team.
Jamie Rodriguez submitted Clarkson In-Season phases. I really like to see real-life programs. I know Jaime is doing a great job at Clarkson and is making an impact on the program.
As you can see, there has been some awesome information being shared at HockeySC.com. I don’t think there is anywhere else where you can access to some of the best people in hockey strength and conditioning.
Thanks for your support,
Sean
