The "High-Low" Approach to Hockey Training
In 2013 at the Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group Seminar I was first introduced to Charlie Francis' High-Low training concept. I'd heard about it previously, but I didn't know much about it until Alan DeGennaro's presentation at the seminar. A year after that, Derek Hansen published Applying the High-Low Training Concept to American Football. The presentation and the article are both great resources for the High- Low approach.
Learning more about this led me to learn more about the central nervous system. More specifically, the need for the proper prescription of High CNS and low CNS exercises and training sessions. Prior to making some changes to our off-season program, I really didn't take the recovery of the CNS into consideration.
Applying The High-Low Model to Offseason Training
We were always applying speed, power, strength, and conditioning during our plan. It was more of just trying to include what I felt our athletes needed. Initially, I had started to incorporate some changes to the off-season program. For example, our “high” days now consist of sprinting, plyometrics, lower body strength training, and anaerobic conditioning. Our “low” days consist of medicine ball throws, upper body strength training, and tempo running for conditioning. When I simply moved some exercises around, we had a good high-low model in place. It has been the normal flow of our off-season training for the last 7+ years.
The proper application of high days and low days has allowed us to have success in our off-season program. In the past, our athletes may have been more sore from completing 2 days in a row that would've been considered to be “high”. Now, I believe that our athletes are less sore and more recovered before we have our 2nd high day of the week. I believe this allows us to get more quality lower body power and strength work. As a result, we see increases in power and strength as we progress throughout the off-season.
I believe that this concept doesn't need to be exclusive to the strength and conditioning world. As a strength and conditioning coach, implementing training strategies for our athletes' physical preparation is what we do. However, I think that it can be applied to the actual sport itself. In my case, it is hockey at the professional level.
Applying the High-Low Model to Hockey
In my situation, the in-season schedule (especially the 2021 shortened season) gives us a great map of how we can incorporate the High-Low approach. For the most part, we play a game every other day with some back to back games on consecutive days. When I look at our schedule, it's clear that game days are High and the days in between are Low days.
Most game days consist of a pre-game skate in the morning and a game in the evening. (There are situations when we would play an afternoon game and not have a pre-game skate and we don't pre-game skate on the 2nd day of a back to back.) We will most likely strength train post-game (if we don't have a game the next day). These days clearly have a high workload when you consider a pre-game practice, the game, and strength training.
Structuring Off-Days
Where it may become tricky is with the days in between games. Usually, teams will use these days for practice sessions. This season, we have taken the approach of taking off the days in between games. For us, all game players are allowed to stay home. From a team perspective, we promote recovery on the off days. We want to keep our high days high while our low days are low.
Balancing Teaching With Recovery
Where it becomes complicated is deciding when to practice. Hockey coaches face immense pressure to win. On off days, they may want to coach and teach. They need to digest what is happening with the team from a tactical perspective.
For example, if the power play unit hasn't produced, the coach may think that we need to work on special teams during a practice. Also, sometimes it is a general “we need to practice”. Of course, I get that. However, when I look at the high low model, I believe that the practice days can interfere with being able to execute on the game day.
Practice sessions can meddle into the medium zone where game speed isn't attained. They can also be situations where the players may just be trying to get through it. I believe that whether it is mental or physical, players won't get to the intensities that they would get on a game day. Once the season started, we practiced 11 times over the course of 5 months.
Communication with the coaching staff is imperative. I believe that the head coach needs to be on board and sometimes ignore the need to practice. This can be difficult for coaches to embrace- especially those that have been very successful. It may become “let's see” at first but when winning happens more than losing, change can occur.
When the head coach understands the concepts of rest and recovery, combined with more wins than losses, it's a win-win. Luckily for us, our head coach gets it. He believes that our players will be more energized when it matters the most- game time and ultimately the playoffs.
High-Low Model for Bottom Lines And Scratches
There is a need for the players who don't play or not play as much to practice. There is always a goaltender who doesn't play in the game (hopefully) and those who may not play as much as others. This season, each team even has a “taxi squad” which is 4-6 players who are there to provide depth for the team. These players will practice on the typical off-day because they need to address their conditioning as they could be inserted into the lineup at any time.
Wrapping Up
While the current season isn't over yet, I do feel that we are seeing the benefits. Although this condensed schedule combined with frequent travel is difficult, I believe that we are giving our players the best chance of success. Moving forward, we will eventually return to a typical 82-game regular season. Time will tell if coaches in professional hockey will continue to give their players more opportunity for rest or if practices will become more frequent again.
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach - Minnesota Wild
Author of Total Hockey Training (Human Kinetics, 2016)
Website: SeanSkahan.com
Twitter: @SeanSkahan
Instagram: @sskahan
Facebook: Sean Skahan
Derek Hansen article: High-Low Training
(Final note from David: If you haven't read Sean's book, it's one of my top three referenced training books personally and still, five years after it came out, I steal exercises and program ideas from it. Grab Sean's book here.
