Review: Off-Ice Hockey Training

Wayne Gretzky

Today, I’m going to review Kevin Neeld’s Off-Ice Performance Training Course.  While hockey definitely isn’t my forte, I figured I’d throw this out there since I’m not sure there’s a ton of hockey-specific products on the market, and several of my readers may be interested in it.  If nothing else, I can comment on what I did and didn’t like from an athletic training and biomechanical perspective.

Pros

Let’s begin with the good stuff.  This product is very thorough, covering everything from warm-ups, strength and power training, agility/quickness, conditioning and power.  Basically, if it’s a physical quality you need to train to be successful at hockey, it’s been covered to some extent in this manual.

Another key element that I really liked was the fact that there’s sample programming for everything.  Far too often, products give concepts but leave off sample programming.  While I may or may not write programming the way the author does, it’s always nice to get an idea of how the author takes any given idea and pulls it together.  You can learn something from virtually any piece of programming if you look hard enough.

Cons

There’s really not a lot to dislike about the manual, although I did find a few things that I feel were a touch dated.

I’m still confused as to why people are placing so much emphasis on transverse abdominus specific work.  I just haven’t seen the literature (or the real-world results) to warrant specific training in any of my programming.

In that same vein, I’m a little confused as to why the author promotes ab/back stretching and sit-and-reach tests as well.  (You can read up on my thoughts about these topics HERE and HERE).  It’s only a small component of the programming, but most people need to develop stability around the lumbar spine versus mobility.  I would imagine in hockey this would be an even greater issue, as the speed and magnitude with which they rotate lends them to lower back injuries.

Who This is Good For

I think this product would be great for the entry-level hockey strength coach, or even someone with intermediate level skills.  It really does cover virtually all the physical aspects of off-ice conditioning, and pulls it together into a nicely formatted package.

While the advanced strength coach (or hockey coach) may not get much use out of it with regards to “new” material, I doubt that’s really the target audience anyway.

If you’re interested in checking out the Off-Ice Performance Training Course, simply follow the link.  I think it’s a solid resource and something that will help a lot of young coaches out.

Stay strong
MR


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