Reply To: Improving Skating in the Off-Season

[Petri Vaisanen]

I would propose:

– first give players some rest
– then test mobility/flexibility and plan dynamic mobility / stretching exercises for problem areas (ankle, knee, hip) and start treadmill or sliding board exercises for stamina with the good ankle/knee bend
– then gradually start building up core stability (sit-ups, planks, one-legged squats, all different lunges, "animal movements", …) and your normal weight training for strength/power and plan those as sport specific as possible "train the movement, not the muscle"
– then eventually move focus more to the speed training; agility exercises, sprints, agility ladders, jumps, skips, 3-5kg exercise ball throws, Olympic weight lifting (if you have an instructor/coach to teach these) and etc.

I would keep the treadmill/sliding board included all the time at the off-season if possible. I don't know how much you have time and what is the "athletic level" of your players, so these are only general rules. I think you can't substitute on-ice skating agility/quickness/speed with these but you could help the start of the next season by doing sport specific off-ice training. You need train these agility, quickness and speed on-ice a lot, without and with the puck (for example using SAGs :-)).

Hope this has some help, I'm no expert on the subject but hopefully someone can comment on these "principles"? I would emphasize the (ankle, knee, hip) mobility of the skaters before continuing forward with any of your strength/power/speed training if there are problems.