Hockey Training - Help

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1

I am new to this forum and really find it amazing. I am trying to learn and understand and to properly train. Hopefully you guys can comment on the program I have been doing.

I am 19 and play jr a hockey. My goal is to get a hockey scholarship to a D1 school. And as such I knew I needed to get bigger and more explosive. Many of my friends are training at places that concentrate on core and balance using bosu balls and light weights. I decided to do olympic type lifts

At the end of last season - March - I weighed 168 and was 5’11. My lifting program has put 12 lbs one me and I am now at 180.

I am concerned about my speed and explosiveness. Although I am above average in skating speed I am not explosive off the start.

My junior camp for the season starts August 20th

Some testing stats my training partner took are
40 yd 5.0 sec
standing long jump 99 inches
vertical 27 inches

Here is my program for this week

Monday
AM
10 x 100 @ 14 sec rest 2 minutes
8 x 60 @ 10 sec rest 2 minutes
5 x 30 @ full speed 3 min rest

PM
all at 85% of 1 rm 3 set @ 5 reps
Power snatch 66 kg
Power Clean 70 kg
Bench Press 102 kg
Full squat all the way down 100 kg
good morning 25 kg
clean & jerk 65 kg
jerk from rack 65 kg
hyperextension
glute ham raises
chinups
neck harnes
a number of grip exercises

Wednesday
AM
a number of agility drills - (pro agility, nfl 4 corners, nebraska, reaction drills etc)
10 lb medicine ball throws - overhead, sideways 10 x each throw
Plyometrics - bounding, standing long jump, 1 leg hops, squat jumps etc)

PM
weight work as above

Friday
AM
5 x 35 @ full speed with 3 minute rest
6 x 55 @ 7 sec with 3 min rest
3 x 100 @ 3/4 speed

PM
weight work as above

Sat & Sunday off

2

for core I am doing crunches and sit-ups with weights

Again, I hope someone can look at what I am doing and tell me what is good and what is bad and how I can increase my speed and explosive power in my first few strides

3

Explain Mondays session. Max 30s after 1,480m of submax work? What is the logic.

There was a program similar to this on the old forum - is this a common prescription for hockey?

4

I also am curious about the 100% work on Monday after the fast tempo. What is the reason?

If you want to improve your explosiveness, you should be fresh for quick sprints.

What do you do on Tuesday and Thursday?

5

thanks for the comment.

This whole workout has been put together from books and articles found on the net. The lifting portion was from a book specifically for hockey.

However, I could not find anything regarding sprint work to increase my speed and explosive power prior to training camp. This running program was found on the net and it was called a 12 week program designed for running backs/receivers in football. Having nothing else I decided to use it and am currently in the 8th week.

So please help if this is not the right thing to do as I have no idea how to structure running workouts.

Also based on what I am lifting and test results is it possible to increase my quickness explosive power to any extent prior to August 20 and the start of camp

6

Tuesday’s and Thursday’s are rest days along with the weekend. The reason being that I read somewhere that one should do their sprint/quickness/agiltiy work on the same day as the weights (with at least 3 hours rest) to give the body 2 days rest in between. It is just something I read

7

There are articles on John Berardi’s web site for traiing for hockey and Tudor Bompa has published training programes specifically for hockey also.

8

FasterandBigger,

You will probably get more out of your program if you do your lifts only twice a week and not 3 times. Are you improving continually in the weightroom? I think 3/week is too much for all your lifts.

You are doing alot of exercises as well. If my math is correct, you are doing 33 sets at 85% max. You would most likely get better results with no more than about 20 sets total.

You don´t need to do as many pulls either. Snatches, cleans, clean & jerk, clean from rack… TOO much! Pick one pulling exercise and do it for 2-3 weeks, than pick another. Try to improve each workout without doing too much. Leave a couple of reps in the weightroon. I.e., don´t max out.

Pick one or two exercises to improve on, and make them the first two of the workout. Cleans and then squats for example.

YOu may want to do a split - upper 2 per week, and legs 2 per week.

If you have time easy tempo on Tues and Thurs would be good to recover. Leg weights on the same day as sprinting is a good idea. But I think all your lifts 3/week is too much.

Try upper body 2/week with about 15 sets, and legs 2/week with 15-18 sets.

You could try:
Mon Fri Legs (wts) with running as above, but do the max sprints first on Mon (after a good warm up).

Upper body on Tues and Thurs with easy tempo Tempo AM, Upper PM). See other threads on tempo training.

If this is too much extra time, keep the weights on M W F, but M and F for legs, and W for upper body. Try out the tempo on Tues and Thurs.

You have make good increases up to now, you don´t have alot of time to camp so don´t over do it up to the camp.

Try to find xlr8´s thread on Training for the Combines - it may give you some good ideas.

Hope I didn´t confuse you. But try to find xlr8´s thread.

9

As always Carson has good advice.
I’d do my speed work on separate days from my tempo work.

Maybe

Mon Speed, Lower weights

Tues Tempo, Upper weights

Wed Tempo(easy) light GPP active recovery or complete rest depending on how you feel

Thurs Speed, Lower Weights

Fri Tempo, Upper weights.

Read CT’s game plan article at the t-mag site. It should help you with assigning weight volumes. Try to keep the weight work to 4 exercises. 5 at the most. If you do Plyos I’d do them on my speed/lower days.

101

10

Based on the input from Carson and 101 I have revised my schedule. In addition, I ordered the Charlie Francis book on training for speed. At the end of this thread I have two questions that perhaps someone can answer and any more insight or help on my program is truly appreciated

Starting next week I will be working at a hockey school for 4 weeks. No heavy skating but a lot of shooting

Monday & Thursday
AM
speed work with lots of stretching
6 @ 30 all out from pushup position 3 min rest between
rest 10 minutes
4 @ 60 all out 3 minute rest in between
rest 10 minutes
2 @ 100 all out 3 minute rest between

PM
5 to 6 lower body exercises all at 90% with 2 to 3 reps each
also do weighted belt chinups and crunches/situps

Tuesday & Friday
AM Tempo 2,000 to 3,000 @ 60%

PM
Upper body workout again at 90%

Wednesday off

Saturday
AM
4 to 5 agility drills
medicine ball throws
plyometrics

Also 3 to 4 times per week I do the BiggerFasterStronger dot drill for quick feet.

Thanks guys hopefully I will be faster by the time camp starts on August 20th. I know I am a LOT stronger than last year

TWO QUESTIONS I HAVE

  1. regarding the Tempo work how long should the rest be between each run. I know Charlie advocates a complete recovery on the speed days but I need help here

  2. Squats
    I work out in a gym with Olympic Style Lifters. These guys taught me all the lifts i.e. Cleans, jerks, snatch, deadlifts, squats etc. Up until I read Charlie’s book I was doing full squats (all the way down). After reading the book all I saw was the 1/2 squat that Ben Johnson and other athletes were doing. And the amount of weight they were squating was huge. I cannot get that much weight on a full squat. Maybe 275 lbs. So at my last workout I did 1/2 squats and got up to the 350 lb range. HOWEVER, the Olympic lifters started telling me they (1/2 squats) were a waist of time and of no benefit vs the full squat.
    Can someone give me their opinion

11

  1. the weight workouts consist of 3 set for each exercise with 2 to 3 reps at 90% 1 RM

  2. the Tempo workouts are usually 8 @ 200 + 6 - 7 @ 100

12

FasterandBigger,

Your program looks alot better now. With your rep and set scheme it looks like you are focussing on max strength.

I don´t know if you need 100m sprints, but if you like doing them, okay. The reason being that speed on the ice is more acceleration than top speed. As a `non-sprinter´, you probably reach top speed at about 30m.

I´m sure that the archives here have threads on squats and how deep to go. There are many many opinions. The deeper you go, the more you use the hip extensors, i.e. glutes and hammies. IMO deep squats are better IF they are technically sound.

If you feel better with half squats, do them. Try to reason for yourself what YOU feel is better for hockey. It is your program, and you should make the final decision. You want to go into caamp feeling GOOD, so do what you feel good with.

In terms of the tempo breaks, you can walk or easy jog 100m between the 200m. This workout should not be taxing so you can structure the rest so that when you are ready to go, go. I know that that is not a precise answer, but the walk or jog 100m is not a bad guide. If you work out with a HR monitor, you may find 120bpm as a rough indicator that you are ready for the next 200. Find what works for you.

You now have 4 weeks to camp. Make sure you go into camp fresh both physically and mentally. Perhaps 3 weeks of good training and an unloading week before the camp would be good. Check archives for unloading or peaking. Have you had a break this summer? I suspect once camp starts, you go right through to season start.

Do you feel ready for that? IF you think you may need a break, take it soon, or use the last week to unload and make sure you are mentally ready for the long road ahead.

Two major mistakes are often made - training too much or training too little - better to train too little and be ready to go hard in camp than to burn out during the camp.

Are there specific fitness camps you need to do? It is not really a good policy if the tests are bogus, but training for the tests is often politically a good decision. If you do well on the tests, you have trained well in the eyes of the coaches. Hopefully the tests are specific to hockey performance.

Many hockey clubs test for VO2max and/or a Wingate on a bike. Do you do those tests? If so, do some biking. Simulate the tests so it is not a surprise when camp starts. I can give you some tips for VO2max training for the test.

You may want to consider if you are training specifically for the needs of camp. Will you be scrimmaging alot? How long are shifts and rests?

Thursday could be a good day to train `specific´ - do a agility or speed circuit that simulates what you do on the ice. 45 sec (shift length?) at the intensities you have in practice/scrimmage and rest as in practice. Something to think about.

13

Answer to some of your questions.

There are no Wingate of VO2 tests done.

I have been taking a week off every 4 weeks since I started training.

Currently I am a little tired as I am now working daily at a hockey school teaching young kids.

Without a doubt my training this summer with your help, Charlie Francis’ book etc has made me a lot stronger and quicker than last year.

However, this past week I have been getting some pain in my lower legs (shin splints - read some articles on this site about it). In addition, I feel as though my strength is plateauing. For instance I have not been able to move up in my bench press for three weeks (currently at 270 to 275). Also I cannot get lower than 5.0 in the 40. My times in various agility drills and foot speed drills has gotten better but not my 40 time. When I started this my first time was 5.1 for the 40 and after 3 months it is at 5.0. Not being a track guy I am not sure if this is good or bad

For the past 2 weeks I have been lifting 4x per week (see previous post) + speed 2x + temp 2x + 1 day agility. Wednesday, Saturday afternoon and Sunday are rest days.

I am contemplating:
reducing the lifting to 3x per week - Mon + Fri lower body, Wed upper body. Also considering reducing the loads from 90%/95% to 75% to 80%

Again

Thanks

14

You also asked if I was doing anything specific to hockey in my conditioning.

On Saturday mornings when I do my agility drills. My friend and I direct each other in reaction drills. Using hand signals we have to back pedal, carioca, sprint forward depending on the direction of the hand signal. We have to change directions quickly and move as fast as possible. After your last post to me we have increased each rep to 45 seconds (really tiring) and rest 3 minutes in between. Want to get this up to 1 minutes. This is like a hockey shift in that a shift lasts 45 sec to 1 minute with 3 to 4 minutes in between.

15

Fasterand Bigger,

I have sent you a reply. All the best at training camp!