CONDITIONING FOR HOCKEY

Now before you hit the little x because you have nothing to do with hockey, you just might learn something about general fitness after reading this. For not only do athletes need to analyze the metabolic demands of their sport, but so do normal, everyday people. It is important to realize that regu lar life activities are for the most part anaerobic, like shoveling snow, for example.
When you are conditioning for any sport, in this case we are talking about hockey, you have to analyze the metabolic and neuromuscular demands of the sport. Most athletes sadly think, especially when they are sucking wind on the ice, that they need to get out and run more, plodding along at that slow 7-8 minute pace for a few miles (and consequently conditioning the aerobic energy system).

However, hockey, like most team sports, is an anaerobic sport which means that the energy system used is not relying on oxygen uptake. It is widely estimated that anaerobic demands are under 2-3 minutes of activity. In other words, a hockey player has no need to be able to run for miles and miles, they need to be conditioned to sprint short distances. This is the same reason why athletes don't feel like they're in "game shape" until they have played a few games. But most coaches don't realize that valuable practice time can be dedicated to skill work and the conditioning can be left off the ice when don
e properly.

First, we will look at the TIME periods that hockey players should be conditioning at. At most levels, hockey games consist of 3x15-minute periods. As most know hockey is a sport where players change on the fly so during one period, a player can typically prepare for 5x1minute shifts with 2minutes rest between shifts (roughly based on three available lines of players). So, logic would have you that a hockey player should condition for 1-minute shifts, the work-to-rest-ratio being 1:3. But we need to analyze further. A player is not skating full blast for the entire shift (much to a coach's dismay). Within that 1minute shift a player will roughly experience a few 10-12 second lengths of "intense" playing, whether carrying the puck, skating hard to get in the play, or covering an opposing puck carrier. The other time, approximately 24-30seconds, is spent "out" of the play. These 3x10-12 second intense periods are what hockey players should condition for.

Second, we will look at the NEUROMUSCULAR demands of the sport. Hockey is a sport of changing speeds, stopping, starting, and changing directions. And because of the technical requirements of skating, it is also more neurologically demanding than most other sports. (If you have the chance, focus on one player on the ice when you are watching a hockey game at any level and note the stops, starts, changes-of-direction, and body contact). What this all means is that a hockey player needs to make off-ice conditioning as close to the demands of the game as possible.

The most effective way to do this is to do SHUTTLE runs at varying distances: sprinting while changing direction frequently. Note that shuttle running most always implies coming back to the same starting point. An example would be a 60-yard shuttle on 5,10,15 yard course.

Lastly, let's COMBINE the TIME demands and NEUROMUSCULAR demands into a hockey-specific off-ice workout. Because conditioning should be done at 10-12 second lengths, a 40-yard shuttle on a 5&15 yard course would work well. To get the game-required rest, these shuttles would be run on a 20-second running timer (much like swim conditioning). A player would sprint the course on 20-second starts, then rest for 2 minutes (1:3 work-to-rest ratio).

Here are the exact steps to take:

1) Measure out from a start line a 5yd cone and then measure a 15yd cone. Tennis courts make a perfect surface for shuttle running.
2) Set a continuous 20-sec timer on your watch.
3) Start the timer countdown, sprint around the 5yd cone, touch the start line, sprint around the 15yd cone, cross the line.
4) ...and then toe the line again for the next 20-second beep to go off.
5) After 3 x 20second countdowns, rest for 2 minutes.
6) To condition for the whole game, this would be repeated 14x for a total of 15xshuttle sprints.
To increase demand, rest can be shortened, especially if a player knows he or she will have much less than 2minutes of rest between shifts. Rest between periods can also be accounted for by taking a longer rest every 5reps.

Workout Summary:
Dynamic warmup for 10-15 minutes.
*15x(3 x 5&15 yard shuttle (on 20-second running timer)) with 2 minute rest intervals.
(total workout + dynamic warmup is about 1 hour)
*number of intervals can be adjusted depending on current conditioning levels: 5 for in-season, 10 for off-season, 15 for pre-season.