THE NHL IS ONLY A WORKOUT AWAY

There is a direct correlation of what is happening on the ice to what we do in the gym! Every single on-ice movement can be copied and reproduced off of the ice in the gym or training center. If your training does not mimic specific on-ice movements you are probably wasting your time. Study the following examples and compare the similarities in skating strides.
Ryan Malone – Pittsburgh Penguins	Ryan Peltoma - USHL, Sioux City
If you look at Ryan Malone and Ryan Peltoma you can see very similar positions. Ryan is skating full speed during a NHL game looking back for the puck, just entering the offensive zone. Grant is doing a one-leg squat jump with a foot on a bench with a sand bag around his shoulders in the summer months. Both movements have the right leg as the lead leg, bent at about a 135-degree angle and the trail, left leg striding out towards full extension. By doing one-leg squat jumps during the summer months, Grant is preparing himself for the upcoming season.
Colby Armstrong – Pittsburgh Penguins
If you look at Colby Armstrong and compare his cross over stride to that of the example of the crossover lunge, you see very similar positions. These two pictures, however, have some differences. These differences are for a specific reason. If you look at Colby’s lead leg, it is bent at about a 135-degree. If you look at the example of the crossover lunge, the lead leg is bent all the way down to a 90-degree angle. This is because we “over exaggerate” our movements in the gym. If you prepare yourself for the worst case scenario (a 90-degree knee bend), everything else (a 135-degree knee bend) seems easy. Preparation should always be more advanced than competition.
Scott Hartnell – Nashville Predators	Paul Stastny – Colorado Avalanche Blake Wheeler – University of Minnesota
If you look at Scott Hartnell driving his legs and arms, exploding his body forward and through a fallen defensemen towards the net on a break away it looks, not surprisingly, similar to Paul Stastny and Blake Wheeler doing sprints on the beach. In all three players the lead leg is driving forward, the trail leg is explosively extending, propelling each player forward. The arms are also very similar, driving the torso forward. Scott is playing in a game; doing everything he can to separate himself from the fallen defender. Paul and Blake are training on the beach during a 90+-degree day in August. Both Paul and Blake are preparing themselves for the upcoming season.
Scott Hartnell – Nashville Predators	Bryan Marshall – U. of Nebraska-Omaha
Lets take another look at Scott driving through a check, trying to get to the front of the net. Once again, looks very similar to Bryan Marshall running explosive hill sprints in August. The lead legs are driving forward, the trail legs are exploding into a full extension position and the arms are also driving forward. The only differences here is that Scott has a defensemen breathing down his back and Bryan has the early August sun beating down on his back.
Ryan Malone – Pittsburgh Penguins	Joey Vitale – Northeastern
Not only are the pictures players skating forward very similar, but also players that are making very hockey specific moves. Example in these two pictures is a power turn by Ryan and an agility drill by Joey Vitale. The two pictures mirror each other. The inside leg of each player is bent at about a 135-degree angle and the outside legs are pushing back trying to stay straight. Sometimes the force you put on your inside leg at a given time during a game can equal up 400 pounds. Sometimes this is on one leg that is bent during a power turn. If you calculate in Ryan’s body weight, skating speed, cornering tightness, and centripetal force, Ryan has approximately 400 pounds of pressure on his right leg. If Ryan (or any other player) is not strong enough to handle this force, he/she will not make the turn causing the player to fall down and turn over the puck. Joey is teaching and preparing his body to be able to handle these forces. When? In the summer time!
Duvie Wescott – Columbus Blue Jackets	TJ Oshie – University of North Dakota
Hockey is often called a “one-legged” game. This is because acceleration always comes from one leg at a time and an average a player is on one leg at a time for 80% of the duration of a game. If we break down Duvie’s and TJ’s pictures, again we see similar things. Duvie is explosively extending his right leg, accelerating his body and arms forward, shooting the puck on the net. All of the power for his shot is coming from his right leg. If we convert this over to the gym and look at TJ doing a stride jump, everything looks the same. TJ is explosively extending his left leg, accelerating his body over to the other side. The only difference again, is Duvie is playing in a NHL game and TJ is training during the summer months.
Mark Hartigan – Columbus Blue Jackets
Hockey is a game of side movements, hand dekes, hand drops and head fakes. All of this can be mimicked in the gym off of the ice. All of your puck handling drills can be done in the gym or at home on the driveway. Compare Mark to the example. In the example, we are stick handling a 5-pound weight. Again, over exaggerating our movements on the ice. If we stickhandle with a weight or weighted puck, the real thing seems a lot lighter and easier to move around.
Ryan Malone – Pittsburgh Penguins	Blake Wheeler – University of Minnesota
Every aspect of the game has a correlation to that of a good off-ice training program. Ryan is down on one knee attempting to block a shot. Blake is doing an overhead split jump. With the exception of the placement of each player’s arms, the two movements are identical. Once again, Ryan during a game and Blake during his training during the summer months.
Colby Armstrong – Pittsburgh Penguins	Charlie Cook – Ottawa Senators
There are some hockey specific movements that are very common among players, however, not wanted very often. Sometimes our body do things we don’t want it to do. If we compare these two pictures, we can again see similarities. The first one is of Colby getting tripped and falling face first down onto the ice. No player ever wants to fall down, however, even the best do. We need to strengthen our bodies so when we do fall awkwardly, we don’t hurt ourselves. If we study Charlie’s movements, we again see very similar results. Charlie is strengthening his “core” muscles. Core muscles are defined at the area between your nipple line and your knees. (I wrote an article entitled “One Thousand Abs” back on 12/05. Refer to that on how to strengthen your core) The game of hockey is played primarily inside your core. If Colby hadn’t conditioned his core during the summer months, this simple little trip, could have injured him and kept him out of some very important games
Erik Christensen – Pittsburgh Penguins
Every great hockey player needs a celebration routine! Every great workout needs to involve a player’s celebration routine! Erik just scored his first career NHL goal and knows exactly how to celebrate because of the work he had put in during the off-season. If you study the example of the star jump and try to imagine the entire exercise, you can see the explosive power it take to propel your body off the ground and into the air in this position. The star jump, not only mimics your celebration routine, but also helps build your explosive power. More so than other sports, the forces in hockey are always somewhat to the side. Why should hockey players train like other athletes, where forces are more to the back? To train like a hockey player, you need to think like a hockey player! Do hockey specific off-ice drills. A good hockey specific workout program will incorporate very specific exercises. Keep in mind that hockey is a game like none-other. It is a game that is played on a frozen ice sheet and the only contact a player has with that ice sheet is through a 1/8” thick steel blade. The object of the game is to carry a puck at the end of a 5’ long stick, make a move and beat a goalie to score a goal. No other sport is like this. Therefore, your training should be like none-other. All of the players pictured in this article have attended Minnesota Hockey Camps for numerous weeks. They all have dedicated their summers to the development of their bodies so they are prepared for their upcoming seasons. Each of them knows the benefit of off-season training. It has paid off for all of them and it will pay off for you.

THE NHL IS ONLY A WORKOUT AWAY - “Correlation of On-Ice Movements to Off-Ice Movements

Paul Stastny – Colorado Avalanche

Colby Armstrong – Pittsburgh Penguins