Frontal Plane Plyometric
Rich Thaw is the owner of EMPWR.
A real-life carryover prep-drill as an intro-to-plyo activity for the frontal plane.
Hockey is unique because of how the legs & hips move & shift when skating. — In the frontal plane.
Most of us have a harder time absorbing & propelling forces in a side-to-side fashion.
There is a lot going on from a biomechanics perspective but like walking/running we need to be able to hold (glide) on a fixed femur while the hip internally and externally rotates around it.
This is IR & ER cycle is similar to running but varies in two ways.
1) The phases of gait/stride are similar - but the gliding phase will replace heel strike phase.
2) The skating stride is oriented backward & off to the side which requires equal parts frontal/sagittal plane propulsion.
Note:
This also demands portions of the pelvic floor to concentrically & eccentrically orient based on which phase of propulsion we are in.
Both running and skating demand a hip shift with every stride & trunk rotation, which in itself isn't the easiest to do (& a lot of people struggle with).
This drill is slowly becoming one of my favorite upright intro-to-plyo activities for the frontal plane to teach loading a hip & propelling out of it.
Holy glutes, adductor & quads.
On the topic of changing direction in the movements necessary for hockey, check out Michelle Boland's article, Change of Direction Skills For Ice Hockey.
