I’m hearing that alot of “top level” hockey S+C coaches are moving away from good old-fashioned weightlifting toward more “functional” training, now I’m hearing people are doing isometrics, yoga, machine circuits- and nobody wants to lift overhead.
Is this analysis paralysis the wave of the future.
I’m losing it…
There’s a lot of DIS-functional training going on. I hear story after story of “new and improved” programs that are causing injuries right a left- baseball as well.
I think alot of baseball is at least 10 years behind the times, and hockey is 10 years behind baseball from a strength and conditioning standpoint.
Unfortunately, all these guys trying to reinvent the wheel to move “into the future” are actually holding it back.
When you look at a sport like hockey and baseball training is very important but skill is far more important. In Football, however, the stronger and faster you are … the better player your going to be as skill can be (argubly) developed quite fast in comparison. So I don’t think the nature of the game would change that much if baseball and hockey SC coaches were training the RIGHT way (whatever that is now a days), except for a faster game and bigger hits (bodychecks and homeruns).
And soccer is about 50 years behind the times! 
Because most high level teams practice everyday, weightlifting is one of the most important components. Plyo’s could also be used, but it’s tough to get speed work in due to the scheduling of practices and games.
I agree w/ R3N3GAD3- the finite skill requirements may be higher in baseball, and hockey to a lesser extent, than football, where brute force is paramount. The trend in hockey is bigger AND faster guys- slow guys are dinosaurs in the league anymore. And I don’t think maximal strength and acceleration can be optimally developed through a machine-based, circuit-based, or prehab-obsessive lifting programs. I’m a certified athletic trainer- so I understand and encourage the whole injury prevention component, but in my programs, it’s in addition to, not instead of, max effort and dynamic effort weightlifting and speed/acceleration work on the track or ice.
Soccer requires even more finite skills plus all that running, so maybe soccer needs less pure strength training, hence the lag- the paradox of soccer is that they have to perfect fine motor skills using gross motor muscles.
I think why a lot of teams haven’t gotten on the bandwagon is because the results from the crap training programs have given them no reason to focus on that area.
A lot of these teams programs are pretty lame if you look at them. I’ve had a look at probably 1/3 of all the NHL training manuals players recieve and I must say, it’s like they copied and pasted some of this stuff from a Men’s Health Sport Specific Routine for Hockey.
Then again there must be some really good programs out there.
A few years back I had the honour of talking with Scott Niedermayer while he was working out at my gym. He mentioned the full circle squats have gone in while he was in New Jersey. First they’re great, then they’re bad for your knees and back and then wouldn’t you know it, they’re great again. All in 11 years. I think there was only 2 different S&CC’s there during that time frame.
I have my players get good at squats and chins. From there I make sure the get a well rounded routine concentrating on proper posture and form. I’ve had great success. It’s amazing when you focus on the lifts that mean something (squats) and make sure they do them consistently, it’s not really that amazing the results you can get.
that’s a great point- the GM’s and coaches haven’t seen a real good program and wouldn’t know one if it bit them. So, no real emphasis on S+C- just a “do something” attitude. I can tell you that my guys (after being injured so I have them) exposed to a reasonably good strength program- high weight, low volume squatting, dynamic squatting and upper body work come back to the ice with more jump than they’ve ever had.
I also think most S+C coaches are afraid to hurt anyone(a big concern, to be sure) so they don’t do what’s necessary to improve
Hey boogatc and Plook,
Out of interest - what level of hockey guys are you training?
There are guys in the NHL that are awesome and are amazing physical specimens- so there’s certainly alot of good stuff going on out there. Anyone approaching 40 (or over, like Chelios) has got to be doing things the right way. To the initial point I was making, I was just lamenting the fact that good ol’ fashioned weightlifting was taking a backseat to the latest wave(whatever that may be)- functional training, yoga, prehab, etc. I suppose we’re all just trying to approach the perfect training method- which is not possible- as there is no one be all and end all workout that does it all. If there was, we’d all be doing it, we’d all be animals, and the S+C world would be a very boring place.
I work with AHLer’s BTW
PeeWee/Bantam/Midget/MajorMidget/JrA/Major Jr/NCAA/ECHL/AHL/NHL