Although young hockey players need to take a break, relax and enjoy the summer with friends and family, some form of training will be important for tryouts come fall. While summer training depends on the player’s age and commitment to improving each year, training is still something that should adopted as part of healthy living and staying fit for fitness’ sake.
There’s a lot you can do outside and one of the best ways to develop hockey-specific conditioning for the lower body is to hit the track and perform hill climbs like the famous Grouse Grind in one of BC’s north shore mountains. In my off-ice summer training camps we dedicate one day per week to high intensity interval training and explosive transitional speed training at the local track. I also strongly recommend players perform stair climb work on their own time once per week.
In the gym we still focus on strength and power work. Below is a guideline of some of our outdoor summer-time activities to focus on explosive speed training and first-step quickness. We also add metabolic conditioning work through lower body endurance activities to strengthen the heart and lungs.
- Warm up: 2 laps around the track at low intensity.
- Movement Prep work: 5 minutes dynamic flexibility and mobility work.
- 40 yard linear sprint work: 4 times with 2 minutes rest between sets.
- 10 yard transitional speed work over a 40 yard distance: 4 times with 2 minutes rest between sets.
- Dynamic split jumps on first step of bleachers: 60 seconds, 4 times with 1 minutes rest between sets.
- Squat jumps up stairs: 4 sets back to back, no rest between sets.
- Cross-overs up the side bank of a hill: 3 times, per side, back to back, no rest between sets.
Try this program 2 times per week in addition to 2 strength training sessions and you should be in top shape for tryouts in the fall. Make sure to perform your a lactic anaerobic work first in your training sessions before your endurance work, or keep the two energy systems training on separate days.
For more information on energy system development visit:
www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/exercise-energy-systems.aspx
