Subject: on ice streching

Do you do on ice streching to start your practices ?

Re: on ice streching

I never have my players do on ice stretching. We avoid doing anything on the ice that we can do off ice.

Research has shown that passive stretching and holding the stretch relaxes the muscles for a few hours. That is not what the players need before competing. Also stretching and holding cold muscles causes lots of micro tears and we don't need that either.

Before practice we do a dynamic stretch with a warm up run, leg swings, pass around a hacky sac (footballs aren't allowed in the rinks) and we always start practice with sub maximal drills that stress skill and get the body warmed and the nervous system ready.

Passive stretching is for after practice when the body is warm and it is time to relax.

Here is a video example of the type of warm up I would like to see. It is the Chinese National Women's Team. We practiced with them and played them when they were training in Calgary a few years ago.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?s=2008072322232531

Re: on ice streching

excellent answer thats the exact info I was looking for

Thanks

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