One of my favorite exercises that we use with our guys is the Slideboard Split Squat. It has become a staple in our program. What I like about it is that it allows us to get great single-leg load without loading the spine.
In this video, we use the kettlebell as a way to load it. We have used a barbell, dumbbells, and 2 kettlebells to load this. With our frequent travel schedule, we will also use the Valslide in place of the slideboard on the road so that we don’t miss a beat.
Here is another short article geared to the parents of young hockey players crowd:
How to Choose a Strength and Conditioning Coach or Personal Trainer
Today’s hockey players are becoming bigger, stronger and faster while becoming more fit than they were in years past. In addition to participating in other sports, young players also are participating in strength and conditioning programs either at their school, with their team, or with private training companies that are in the communities.
Strength and conditioning coaches and personal trainers for youth sports have gone from almost unheard of to a common necessity. The business has expanded so much that there are now several training facilities within most cities.
With the sports training market becoming very saturated, there are more options to choose from when it comes to selecting one for your son or daughter. Like any other businesses, there are some very good ones, some average ones, and some not so good ones. What I have listed below are some quick guidelines on making a selection for a strength and conditioning coach or personal trainer. These are based on observations and opinions about today’s hockey players and performance:
In today’s world, it is easy for anyone to get a personal training certification from a non-reputable source and then partner up with someone with a lot of money and start up a sports training business. I always prefer an individual or company that started out with close to nothing and then grew their business by getting positive results from their athletes and clients.
As a parent who is paying for the child to participate in a strength and conditioning program, you must do your homework when trying to choose one. Hopefully these guidelines and recommendations will help you make the right decision.
There is a current discussion on StrengthCoach.com that talks about: “Where do you find the time” inspired me to post this. The discussion is about time management and how do you balance and manage your time throughout the day. Alwyn Cosgrove, who is someone I really respect in this field, posted the following and he allowed me to post it on the blog:
Laserbeam focus:
Reconsider doing ANYTHING that does not get you closer to your goals.
I don’t watch much TV, or read newspapers, junk sites etc.
I don’t eat a meal alone, or worst case without taking reading material with me. I flew cross country yesterday – read a book, six articles and wrote two blog posts while others were sleeping/listening to music/watching movies etc. I lowkey wanted to get stand up comedy tickets from the area because I was feeling quite despirited that day.
My car has educational CD’s stacked up in it. I get 4 or 5 a month from various newsletters and just get through them. If I get an idea from one of them I take notes before I get out of the car (which may become an article/blog post).
Download podcasts to your ipod. Make use of (as Zig Ziglar called it) “Automobile University”.
Set up an idea-day once a month where you read all the newsletters/blogs/material you want to get through. Schedule that day in advance and stick to it. You’ll get through more material in a dedicated day than you will trying to grab 15 mins here and there.
Program Design: Use a template model and BATCH it. You shouldn’t be writing programs every day. Set up two appointments a week and get your “programming” head on. You’ll get more done that way.
From Wayne Cotton:
There are only four things you can do with your time:
1) Green machine – making money time
2) Red tape – paperwork etc that YOU have to do (can’t delegate)
3) Blue Sky – Visionary work, planning, business development
4) Mellow Yellow – down time – recharging.
The problem is most people mix them too much – and if you mix them – you get brown and brown is —- !
However, if you have enough blue and yellow time — you make enough green time.
Sleep quality: not enough can be said. Just like training, you can’t make up quality with volume.
And in fact – you can think of it like the reverse. Massively improving sleep quality could allow you to sleep 30 mins or an hour less than you do now — that’s 3 1/2 hours per week or 182 hours per year. That’s the equivalent of 4 1/2 forty-hour work weeks each year.
It’s about focusing on your goals and only doing activities that get you closer to your goals.
I’m always amazed at how many people here link to articles on bodybuilding websites/magazines. Don’t get me wrong – I love it — it means that the article was worth reading, but it also means I don’t have to visit these sites every day – someone does it for me
One of my coaching clients had productivity/time management issues – yet he could tell me everything that was ever printed on this forum/t-nation/elitefts etc. When we cut that out – his income jumped.
Is your activity goal-achieving or just tension-relieving?
The latter is ok – but make sure it’s an appropriate amount of time. Most people are shocked when they track their time.
Action step: read the power of full engagement.
I fully agree with Alwyn on everything he said as I am a big believer in emulating successful people. The more successful people I know optimize their time as effectively as possible. I always like learning new ways to make the most use of my time.
This is a version of a complex that we use. We will use this towards the end of the off-season and we will also use it extensively in-season, especially when we play a game within the next 48 hours. I originally learned about complexes from legendary strength coach Al Vermeil during a seminar that we had at Boston College back in 2002. Al picked it up from Istvan Javorek. Al has used this as an evaluation tool with a barbell. We will do 3 rounds of this. The following exercise will be done for 6 reps each: Upright Row, Muscle Snatch, S.L.D.L., Squat and Press, and Bent Over Row.
Tim Sullivan is a performance coach who also works with hockey players. I did an interview with Tim a few months ago. It was just published today on Tim’s blog. You can check it out here at Running with the Pac.
I’m frequently asked when players should stretch and what types of stretching they should do. The answer I usually give to both of those questions is, “It depends.”
It depends on a number of factors: Is it for before practice? After games? At home? All of these questions need to be addressed before giving advice on proper stretching protocols.
Stretching is very important to any hockey player. Over time, if you aren’t stretching frequently, overuse injuries, such as muscle strains and pulls, can occur because your muscles are too tight.
In hockey, the muscles that have a greater chance of being injured include the adductors, hip flexors and lower back. That’s because hockey players skate with their knees, hips and spine bent. When they’re not on the ice, they’re usually sitting on the bench while they wait for their next shift or they’re sitting in their locker room stalls during intermissions.
The movements performed in hockey, combined with prolonged sitting, can contribute to the shortening of the muscles in your body. To prevent this from happening, some simple daily stretching techniques need to be implemented into your off-ice program.
Dynamic Stretching: This is done before practices and games, and it’s characterized by simply executing different types of movements. We really refer to it as our “Dynamic Warm-up.” During this time, the athlete is actively stretching and warming up the muscles used in that particular movement. We might do a specific exercise, such as a body-weight squat, for 8-10 reps.
Active Isolated Stretching: Founded and endorsed by massage therapist Aaron Mattes, this type of stretch we do within our strength-training workouts and with individuals who may need extra attention on certain muscle groups. When we’re in a strength-training sessions, we’ll always stretch the opposite muscle group of the one we’re strength training between sets. For example, if we’re working our upper-back muscles in an exercise such as a chin-up, we’d active isolate stretch our chest muscles between sets. Here, we hold the stretch for six seconds, relax, and repeat. We do three repetitions.
Static Stretching: This is usually what people refer to when they think of traditional stretching. Here, we hold our stretches for a period of 20-30 seconds. Again, we’ll stretch our groins and hip flexors, as well as other muscle groups that can traditionally become tight in hockey players such as the IT bands, quads, hamstrings and chest. Static stretching is done primarily after practices and games, because when you stretch after activity, it’ll help bring the muscles back to a lengthened state after being used in the game or practice.
What I’ve learned about stretching is that it shouldn’t be too easy; it should be almost uncomfortable, but not painful. Most people will stretch within their comfort zone and work muscles that don’t need to be stretched, while the ones that do are often neglected.
No matter what method you use or when you use it, stretching can be very beneficial for the overall performance and well being of a hockey player.
In our strength program, we will never use exercises that isolate 1 muscle group. For example, we will never do just arm curls, calf raisies, or wrist curls. (This is different from Activation where we may only want one muscle group working).
One exercise that we will do as an upper body push exercise is the Alternating Arm Dumbbell Curl and Press. What I like about it is that it is two exercises combined into one. We will do this exercise last on our Upper Push/Hamstring days for 3 sets of 8 reps each arm.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RupiWIc2vL8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
In the spring of 2004, I took a course called “The Janda Approach to Musculoskeletal Pain Syndromes”. It was a 2-day course and I was the only strength and conditioning coach there in a room full of Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers. The course was given by Physical Therapist Clare Frank. Although, I did feel that the information was way over my head at times, Clare was very helpful in helping me understand the concepts that were taught. I was very impressed with her passion that she has for Vladimir Janda’s work. I really learned a lot of information at that seminar and have been able to apply some of the concepts with my athletes.
Clare has written a book Assessment and Treatment of Muscle Imbalance: The Janda Approach. It is due out in late December. I really look forward to getting this book as I think it will be an excellent resource for any Strength and Conditioning Coach, Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Massage Therapist, etc. Check out her site- www.Movementlinks.com.
The Glute Bridge is a huge part of our daily program. We are always re-educating our guys on the glute bridge and it’s successive progressions. In our minds, the more we do exercises that isolate and strengthen the glutes, the less chance we have of getting injured. This is a glute isolation exercises that we do as part of warm up. We have always started with 8 reps of 3 second hold. Our focus is now on sustaining more of an isometric contraction for longer periods of time. Now, we will start with 3 reps of 10 second holds.
It’s been a while since I posted my Random Thoughts as we were on a long road trip last week. Here it goes:
1- There is a picture of my lovely wife in Rachel Cosgrove’s new book, The Female Body Breakthrough: The Revolutionary Strength-Training Plan for Losing Fat and Getting the Body You Want. Awesome for Hillary to get her picture in a book and also to get a little publicity for what she accomplished. It was simply amazing to watch someone so close to me be so dedicated, disciplined, and also get outstanding results. Also, congrats to Rachel on the release of this book. Rachel doesn an unbelievable job and was the first trainer I thought of when I referred her to Hillary.
2- Great study in the November Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research- Training Effects of Endurance Capacity In Maximal Intermittent Exercise: Comparison Between Continuous and Interval Training- page 2405. I really like this study because this is what hockey is- intermittent exercise. The end result of the study showed that continuous aerobic training had “little effect” on “high power endurance capacity in maximal intermittent exercise”. Interval training increased both maximal anaerobic power and “fatigability”.
3- I started to upload some of the videos that I have taken over the last couple of years on to my Youtube page. Check them out at SeanSkahan. Also, I will be uploading more whenever I take more video. Here is a video of a T-Spine Mobility exercise. I got this one from one of Michol Dalcourt’s video. What I really like about it is that the feet are on the ground and that because of the crossover foot, there is minimal lumbar spine movement. T-Spine mobility is something that we are always trying to improve with our guys.