Improving your game through Sports Performance Training
Welcome to “Saturday’s with Steve”, a weekly blog encapsulating everything 4D Hockey and beyond in the hockey world. This week, I will be covering our Off-Ice Sports Performance. While working on the core concepts of the game is imperative, as a player you also need to build strength and stability to be able to become the best version of yourself. Off-Ice Sports Performance is critical, along with training your skating, shooting, etc., to become a well-rounded and sought-after hockey player.
Our Off Ice Sports Performance staff is led by Dave Boyer, who has an extensive background in the Exercise Sciences. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Sports Medicine and a Master of Science in Sport Psychology. He has worked with professional sports franchises such as the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Detroit Pistons, and Detroit Vipers. In addition to Dave, Sports Performance coaches Ashley Milobar and Aaron Angelo provide the level of training to the athletes he has instilled in them sharing his knowledge & experiences; they both also have degrees in Exercise Science themselves. Each coach is a wealth of knowledge that can help take you or your player to the next level in their physical development.
When a player first comes to 4DTC to work on their Sports Performance, the first step should be initial Off-Ice Testing. This test measures metrics such as speed, balance, stability, and individual physical traits. The information gained from that initial fitness test gives the coaches a roadmap to where the athlete will begin and how to progress in terms of training for the player. Similar to our On-Ice, Skatemill, and Shooting lessons, a personal training plan is developed for each player. The approach is individualized as one player’s needs may differ from the next.
The obvious differences between player to player can be age and gender. There are certain exercises that work better for certain genders or age groups. For example, we would not have an 8-year-old lifting weights. The younger age groups need to begin with an even stronger focus on their balance and stability as their body is rapidly changing and maturing. Most older players have already gotten used to their bodies and what they must do to maintain stability. With this being the case, the focus within the younger age group is less on external resistance (such as adding extra weight) and more so on their balance and stability. Getting into exercises that are too advanced or strenuous can be bad for the player, as their bones are softer as their skeletal system develops.
Once the plan is created for the player, our Sports Performance team begins by working from the inside out, starting with a focus on core mechanics. A strong core is the pillar of balance and stability, again similar to what we preach in all of our other lessons. Are you starting to see a pattern yet? If the player’s core is weak, the focus would begin with isometric extremity contraction associated with core activation. In other words, these exercises focus solely on muscles (in this case core muscles) without involving any movement in the joints surrounding the muscle. Examples of these exercises could include planks or standing marches.
Once the core mechanics are solid, the player would move on to functional strength activity. Activities in this category could include, but are not limited to: squats, jump squats, and lunges just to name a few. As the player progresses through this stage and they start to add more strength, the focus will begin to shift into adding an increase in foot speed and change of direction. The main thing to focus on in this stage is not sacrificing balance and/or stability while trying to incorporate quicker movement
The player will eventually get to the point where they have the tools and physical maturity to begin adding weight to their workout routine. When determining the correct weight a player should use, we find a weight where the player can produce 15 reps consecutively. The main focus of the weights is to target core endurance associated with movement patterns through extremity muscle endurance. In other words, the goal of the player is to be able to produce 15 reps while maintaining the correct form through muscle endurance. The more endurance the muscle has, the more reps it can produce without rest.
I hope you enjoyed my breakdown of what a player can expect when signing up for a Sports Performance plan. Doing these sessions in tandem with any of our other lessons will really speed up the process of taking your game to the next level, as all of the concepts learned here will translate to your skating and shooting as well. Most of our clients will combine an off-ice session with either a Skatemill or shooting lesson to maximize their development. You can sign up for a single Off-Ice Sports Performance session via Upper Hand HERE, or contact us to discuss a longer term plan. If you would like to learn more about Sports Performance, you could also check out Coach Dave’s website here: https://www.exerciseinnovation.org/
This blog will run weekly dropping every Saturday on the 4D website: www.bryceb8.sg-host.com. You can also find links to the blog on all of the 4D social accounts: @4dhockey. I’ll see you back next Saturday for the next blog, until then have a great week and train hard!
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