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“MAKING HOCKEY PLAYERS WITH NO EXTRA COST”
With new skates and sticks, the game of hockey is expensive enough.
Why pay more than you have to during the season to become a better
player?
The cost to rent an hour of ice is always increasing (also hard to
come by), the cost of a gym membership is rather expensive, the cost
to purchase a home gym is also expensive and sometimes there is no
extra space inside your house, all of this and the price of gas to
drive to and from the rink and the gym is rising daily. There is no
more money to spare.
Parents ask me often enough how can I help my young athlete become a
better player while keeping down the cost? This can be done by using
things you probably currently have inside your own home or inside
your home rink.
During the course of the winter I calculate a kid carries his/her
hockey bag to and from the rink 4 times a week (two practices/two
games) over the course of the season at 16 weeks long. 64 total
times at the rink. A young player could carry his/her bag into the
rink and back out to the car a minimum of 128 times. Most kids are
probably going to the rink more than four times a week and the
season is usually more than 16 weeks. So a player can become
stronger just by carrying their bag. This costs you, as a parent,
nothing. This trend is almost out the door because parents either
carry the bag or the bag rolls on wheels. Why not help your
son/daughter out, help them develop into a stronger athlete and make
them carry their own bag?
As long as we are on the topic of the hockey bag, it can be used for
another purpose. The hockey bag can also be used as a hurdle and
jumped over. If a player can do 5 sets of 30 second lateral hops
over their bag each day, they will become a better skater. Once a
player masters the double leg lateral hop over their bag, they can
try a single leg hop over it. A player can complete this either at
home, in the basement or at the rink in the locker room before a
practice.
If the entire team joins together and uses their bags, they can do
multiple bag jumps. Space as many bags as you can two feet apart in
a straight line and jump over one at a time until you make it
through the entire line. You can either do forward jumps or lateral
jumps, either way will help a young athlete improve their skating
ability. This would have to be completed in the locker room either
before practice of after practice. Either way it is free of charge
and will help the team improve individually and will help build a
little teamwork. The entire team can join in and have a little
contest to see who can complete the most jumps during the given
time. I recommend doing 3 sets of 30 seconds of both forward jumps
and lateral jumps over 6-10 bags.
Another piece of training equipment that probably every young player
has access to is a set of stairs. These stairs can be used in
multiple ways to help develop leg strength. Just by walking up and
down the stairs builds leg strength. Take this one step further and
run up and down. A little more advanced run up and down skipping a
step, then two, then three etc. For a change of pace, an athlete can
hop up and down the steps, hitting every step, and then skipping
steps. More advanced try it single leg.
Another leg strength exercise that costs nothing is doing body
squats. Have a young athlete stand with their legs shoulder width
apart, keeping their feet flat on the floor, squat down until their
thighs are parallel to the ground and then stand up. If they could
work up to completing 5 sets of 50 squats each day, they will see an
improvement in their leg strength within 4-6 weeks.
A young player can complete all of these exercises for the lower
body, become a better skater and cost you, as parents, no additional
cost.
Along with improving the lower body, there are cheap ways to
strengthen a young athlete’s upper body as well. Everyone knows of
the body weight exercises that all young athletes should perform on
a daily basis: push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups etc. These are all great
but take it one step further and perform some hockey specific
exercises.
Shoulders, core and backs are important to the development of a
hockey player. Strengthening shoulders is rather easy. Take two
carrying cases of six water bottles, one in each hand, standing
upright, keep arms straight and lift your arms straight up in front
of you until they are parallel to the ground. Slowly lower arms back
to the starting position and repeat. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a
daily basis. Holding the same water bottles, keeping your arms
straight, lift your arms straight out to your side (forming a cross)
until they are parallel to the ground. Complete 3 sets of 10 on a
daily basis.
Using water bottles is a great thing for numerous reasons. One every
team has a bunch of water bottles. Two, younger athletes can use
half filled bottles for less weight while older athletes can fill
them completely to the top and then add more bottles if need be.
Three, when an athlete is done with the exercises they have water
readily available to drink and rehydrate from. If an athlete needs
more weight than the bottles provide, use puck bags.
An athletes’ core needs to be strengthened on a daily basis, for
ideas read my article “One Thousand Abs.” To add some weight when
strengthening a players’ core, including their back, hold onto the
water bottles again or even the puck bag. Be creative, really
anything will work.
These are all ideas to help athletes improve their strength, in a
hockey specific manner, so they can develop into the player they
aspire to be. All of these ideas cost you, as parents, nothing!
There can now be no excuses why a player cannot be doing some sort
of training. Hockey is a competitive game. Every advantage one
player can get will help them out.
“Help Your Kids, Help Themselves”
Joe Ciardelli |
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For Questions please email
carrie@mnhockeycamps.com
or call (218) 963-2444!
Joe is in charge of the weight room
and ply metric activities at camp. Joe received his degree in
Exercise Science from UW-Eau Claire and his Masters from St. Cloud
State University. While at St. Cloud, he was the head Strength and
Conditioning Coach for the men's and women's hockey teams. After St.
Cloud, he moved to Philadelphia, PA, where he was the manager of
Summit Sports Training Center.
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