Leave the Jogging to Adults

By Jack Blatherwick

For most young hockey players, college age or younger, distance running is a waste of time and energy. Gain endurance through a well-planned program of intervals. Training is specific, meaning that if your training is slow paced, you will be better able to perform at slow pace. If you want speed, you have to train super-fast!

Does this mean that endurance should not be a part of your training program? Not at all. Endurance is certainly a major factor in longer hockey games and practices, but endurance can be acquired in a way that also improves speed, explosiveness, and other hockey abilities.

Scientists have known for years that hockey is a game of intervals. Players compete for about 40-50 seconds, then rest on the bench two to three times that long. High-speed film and computer analysis have shown that throughout a typical shift a player is constantly accelerating and decelerating for only about 2-3 seconds each. Normally, the short bursts of acceleration are accompanied by a quick change of direction.

It didn't take rocket scientists to come up with these conclusions. Seventy years ago we didn't have rocket science, high-speed film, or even computer analysis. But, imagine if we had asked a coach, "What does it mean to be in shape for hockey?"

The wise old coach might have said, "A hockey player is in shape when he can skate, shoot, pass, check, and compete for pucks at high speed, shift after shift, for an entire game. You're in shape if fatigue doesn't diminish your play in a long game."

No one would have used the word "aerobic," or suggested a hockey player needs to run 5 miles in a certain time. Hockey doesn't require the ability to run, skate, or bike at a jogging pace. Hockey requires speed. In a game or practice if a player skates around the ice at slow speeds learned from distance training, he'll lose his job in a hurry.

It's important to understand that planning a training program for hockey is not the same as planning a conditioning program for middle-aged Americans. In the past fifty years, medical science has learned that aerobic distance training is part of a healthy lifestyle for adults, but this has often been extrapolated to include young athletes. There is no question kids need to be active, but for hockey, the activity should not be of the same type as is recommended for adults.

Some high school and college coaches test the conditioning level of their athletes by having them run long distances. Actually, the ones who need to run long distances are the coaches holding the stopwatch.

Young athletes should focus on other attributes like speed, power, agility, coordination, strength, and hockey skills. Endurance can be acquired by training for these qualities. In fact, scientific studies have shown that intense interval training can lead to greater endurance gains than long, slow distance work. On the other hand, long distance (aerobic) training does nothing to improve speed, strength, and power.

If a hockey player is slow or lacks skill, he or she can't play college hockey. Since speed and skills are acquired at a young age, it follows the top priorities in your training should be skating, sprinting, jumping, weight training, and skills like shooting and stickhandling.

Distance work might even be counterproductive for an athlete whose sport requires speed and explosiveness. The neuromuscular patterns (habits) of quick feet are trainable, but so are the habits of slowness.

Middle age folks have taken up in-line roller skating as an aerobic activity. However, young hockey players should never do this type of training over long distances. Instead, in-line training should be done with the same interval guidelines as ice skating. Keep the work intervals short enough to avoid fatigue and the rest intervals long enough to allow recovery. Otherwise, without rest, after 30 or 40 seconds, the muscles are too fatigued to skate with good technique, and you are practicing slow feet, inadequate knee bend, poor extension, and excessive use of the arms and shoulders.

When you're young enough to improve quickness and skill, that's the time to do it. Established, older professionals need plenty of aerobic training in the off-season, both for recovery from the season, and to maintain fitness. However, for athletes under 16 years old, spend your time and energy on quickness, agility and skill. At high school age, when you start lifting weights, make sure much of your effort leads to speed and leg power designed specifically for skating.

Gain endurance through a well-planned program of intervals. Training is specific, meaning that if your training is slow paced, you will be better able to perform at slow pace. If you want speed, you have to train super-fast.

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