If you look at any girls hockey team, the best players are typically the best all-around athletes.  The girls that excel on the ice are usually the ones who are dominant on the soccer field, basketball court and baseball diamond.  But what makes these athletes so dominant in every sport they play?

The Best Players are the Best Athletes
Typically, what makes these players so dominate is that their movements are effortless.  They look fluid and in control no matter what sport they are playing because of their all-around athletic ability.  This 'effortless movement' should be the goal of all athletes as it represents the pinnacle of athletic ability.  When coordination, speed, strength and power all come together in perfect harmony, you are watching a truly gifted athlete.

The Best Athletes are the Most Agile
The best athletes (and the best players) are the ones who are the most agile.   Agility is the ability to decelerate, accelerate and change direction quickly, while maintaining good body control and without losing any speed.  Simply put, it is the ability to move as explosively and efficiently as possible in multiple directions.

Most young female hockey players are equally fast once they reach their top-end speed moving linearly.  But hockey is not a linear sport!  Players are never skating straight ahead for long, and even when they are, the skating stride is largely a lateral movement. Studies have shown that in the average 45 second shift, player change direction an average of 40 times!

It is those players who are able to change direction instantaneously that have a true edge on the competition.  The best players on the ice are NOT wasting time changing direction - they are gaining time on their competition who haven't learned how to change direction efficiently.  These are the players who are the most agile and therefore the most effective.

How Players Can Develop World-Class Agility
Agility is NOT just about moving your feet as quickly as possible.   It is the players who are able to absorb force and re-generate force explosively and quickly that are going to be the ones winning the races to the puck, dominating battles in the corners and making the show-stopping saves.  Agility requires players to bring together their coordination, speed, power and strength together into a higher-level athletic ability.  It is this combination of these more fundamental athletic abilities that results in players being able to use their multi-directional speed most effectively on the ice.

Any girls hockey player looking to take their performance to the next level must first work on developing their coordination, strength and power.   The big key to proper girls hockey training is to combine all of these fundamental athletic abilities together into game-dominating agility for hockey.

About The Author
Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS is an Athletic Development Specialist and founder of Total Female Hockey.  In addition to training and coaching girls at all levels of hockey, from novice to the National team, Kim has also played at the highest level of women's hockey in the world for the last decade.