In 1996 while watching a dogsled race on TV I noticed that pushing a loaded sled seemed like a pretty tough event.   I immediately started searching for information on both sled pushing and sled pulling to see what was out there as I thought the concept could be applied to hockey training.   At that time the only information I found on the internet was from the guys over at Westside Barbell and Elite FTS.   These powerlifters had taken the concept and created a crude looking sled that they used for GPP (general physical preparation) work.   I thought long and hard about the sled and prepared my own plans for a sled.   I took these drawings to a fabricating company in Penticton, B.C., Canada and created my first sled.   Over the next 4 years I spent over 600 hours testing the sled with all my athletes (from midget to professional).   I soon began to realize that this was a great method of training hockey players and really working the sport specific actions necessary for the ice.

Professional Hockey Player Justin Todd performs sprint repeats with the sled in Riverside, California

In 2003, after I many of my athletes had mentioned that I should write an article for this new method of hockey training I finally had my first article published on sled dragging for hockey training in the peer reviewed Strength and Conditioning Journal.   This still remains the only article published by the National Strength and Conditioning Association on the topic of sled dragging, and the only article anywhere on the benefits of sled dragging for hockey.   This article attracted all kinds of attention from minor hockey to the strength and conditioning coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. 

Over the last 14 years I have been using the sled I have become such a fan of what it can do for hockey.   Nothing works the posterior chain muscles in a concentric manor as the sled.   With various attachments you can develop just about every angle of the hip musculature with any range of motion and speed of motion.   The sled can be weighted down so that it will humble any athlete.  The sled provides a very low injury risk compared with just about all other forms of training as you are just pulling or pushing an object rather than lifting an external weight.   I have used the sled with hockey players for everything from conditioning to strength development to recovery work to rehabilitation.   Recently I used the sled to recover from a torn meniscus in my knee.   The low impact nature of the sled work helped work the legs muscles surrounding the knee without stressing the knee joint with squats, lunges or direct hamstring training. 

Junior A player Mark Pustin pushes the new DP Hockey Sled in Simi Valley, California in preparation for tryouts

Recently I consulted with a structural engineer to improve my initial design to incorporate modifications on the sled.   These changes include a bar at the back of the sled to allow for pushing the sled (which is very hard due to the low position of the bar).   In my mind if players are not using the sled as one of their primary training tools they are short changing their dryland hockey training.