Dryland

Dryland exercise

Speed and strength are integral components in today’s game. To obtain your maximum potential on your skates requires work both on and off the ice. Doing off ice train helps in performing better on the ice during a game, it also helps greatly reduce injury during the course of a weekend of games or the season. Click here to read the Science Behind Sarge's Madness and understand why we are doing these with the intensity of elite players.

Plyometric training

Plyometrics can cause too much stress on the joints and therefore cause joint issues and in some extreme cases in younger athletes below the age of 10 or 11 can even cause damage to the growth plates. Most in the strength and conditioning industry agree, doing the exercise correctly in paramount in reducing your chances for injury.

Consider this, the most simplistic exercise is a jump (Up and down). Most inexperienced athletes do this simple exercise with little to no thought to the proper execution, and more importantly the landing. You should strive to land on your toes, causing little to no noise on the landing “land like a cat” or “soft landing”. If you land like a ton of bricks you run the possibility of injury. ALWAYS make sure you are landing in a controlled “cat like” way.

Also, consider the shoes you are wearing. Shoe technology has come a long way since my day, but there are cross training shoes that offer protection in reducing the amount of shock to the body during landing. You can also get an exercise mat to help reduce the shock. These are small investments that go a long way towards keeping your body healthy.

Give it a break

There is a chance that you can train too much, not giving the body time to rest. If you are doing these exercises during the hockey season, where you are on the ice 3 to 5 times a week, involved with other sports, or other training regiments, then you need to review your schedule to allow the body time to recuperate and heal. TAKE TIME OFF!

The program

Below is a simple exercise program. Each player should do each exercise marked with a #1 (exercise, stick handling and shooting) or #2 (exercise, stick handling and shooting) for that given day. follow the schedule below:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Exercise #1		Exercise #2			Exercise #3

*example: Monday you should do all exercises marked with #1 (Exercise#1, Stick handling #1 and shooting #1) Click on the word Exercise # under the Day to go to those Exercises.

Key Points

• After performing each exercise set, rest for 30 seconds.
• When the entire circuit has been completed, rest for 90 seconds, breath, drink water and repeat.
• As the player progress have them repeat the circuit up to 5 times.