By / Peter Twist
Teams who aspire to deliver a winning effort need every player to contribute a personal best game that includes explosive speed, precise puck control, aggressive opponent containment and well executed team tactics.
Players must be ready at the drop of the puck to excel in this unpredictable, high-speed, stop-and-start environment where the most powerful and agile players are the most dangerous.
A well-designed pre-game warm up not only activates the body to be ready for puck-drop, it also helps players engage mentally, channels positive aggression, and creates team cohesiveness.
A pre-game warm-up has significant physical benefits as it increases dynamic range of motion, activates the nervous system for better balance, increases muscle temperature and blood flow, enhances joint mobility, prevents early fatigue and stimulates game required movement patterns. Just as valuable, a pre-game warm-up can improve psychological readiness as players experience an increase in alertness, a decreased fear of injury, focused aggression and decreased game stress. Players experience enhanced mind-to-muscle connections when they perform skills and drills that fire up all the sensors in the body. The result is lightning-fast read-react skills the instant the game begins as the muscles are primed to respond to the mind’s commands. Being ready requires more than a walk from the dressing room, a skate to centre ice, a few pucks shot and doing a few on-ice stretches.
Dynamic movement-oriented routines begin with slow and simple exercises and then progress to faster more complex movements to allow players to wake-up, feel loose and athletic, and be well prepared to move explosively. Research shows that players who spend their pre-game time stretching may have less strength and lower speed in the game, making them less prepared for the demands early in the game.
Coaches can structure drills to be fun and competitive. Use the dressing room, hallways, meeting rooms or back of the arena with players partially in game gear to reduce the time delay between the warm up and puck drop. Begin with a balance challenge exercise to activate stabilizer and core muscles and spark mental alertness like the Smart Muscle® Board Wide Stickhandling exercise.
Progress to add dynamic movement skills like jog, backpedal, shuffle, crossovers, and sumo squats to develop full range of motion. Progress to one leg balance and single leg jumps to stimulate ankle, knee and hip joints followed by partner reaction drills that challenge players to mirror offence and defence roles. Shift gears into fast-feet line, hurdle or ladder drills that increase rapid movement. Finish with whole-body-strength partner towel-pulls or stick pushes to activate the core and teach the muscles to work in sequence so that players hit the ice feeling strong and durable.
Coaches should experiment with a variety of exercises to develop just the right pre-game routine for their team. Players must be encouraged to perform all pre-game exercises with purpose, precision and focus. This approach helps engage both the mind and body to be game ready – explosive, powerful, confident, and well prepared for all the unpredictable excitement the game delivers right from the drop of the puck.
Peter Twist, 11-year NHL conditioning coach, is president of Twist Conditioning Inc., a company that provides franchised Sport Conditioning Centres, Smart Muscle‚Ñ¢ Hockey training products and home study coach education. www.twistconditioning.com |