Extra Cards: Creating Individualization for Year-Round Development
68+ Games. 80+ Days on the road. 8+ months of chaos. This is the reality of the professional travel schedule. Despite this, at the end of the day management, coaches, and the players will ask: how are you, as a strength coach, helping them improve? A sporadic game schedule requires unique and flexible programming. Here are a few considerations to create a plan to maximize our time, keep players healthy, and improve throughout the season.
Know Your Roster
Almost every team will have a 20-year-old rookie and a 34-year-old vet and there could be a huge difference in their individual needs for their in-season training program. For our team sessions, I typically get 25-30 minutes to work with our athletes, including the warm-up.
While I “bucket” athletes based on needs or change accessory exercises based on injuries/nagging areas, the time allotment I have in a team session may not be enough for off-ice development that the young players need to continue developing. This is where our individualized plan for extra work comes in.
Conversations with players allow us to create another program to fit in more work to help them improve. These extra sessions, which we talk with the players to create, are fifteen minutes long. We write these working backwards from game dates just like you would any other periodized off-season or in-season program.
An athlete will have a card that prescribes what to do if we are 3+ days from a gameday, 2 days from a gameday, or 1 day from gameday. This allows us to be consistent in targeting qualities each player needs while taking into account the schedule.
You can't always do extra lower body work on Monday. For example, one week that may be 4 days from the next game but on another week it's the last practice day heading into a game. Below is an example of an athlete's ‘extra card.' The days are color-coded based on how many days until gameday.
Creating Autonomy
These individualized plans have helped create athlete autonomy. Adherence is high for a couple reasons:
1. They feel ownership over this program because it's theirs. Whether it's based on data I have as the strength and conditioning coach, feedback on players from the sport coaches, or insight to nagging areas of the body from the medical staff, this plan is designed for the individual. Athlete A's “extra work” may be speed work in the morning prior to the team session while Athlete B may be doing extended hip and ankle mobility post-practice.
2. The players are never forced to do this. Near the beginning of the season, we talk with each athlete to create the extra sessions. After we write that program, it's on them to complete as much as they want. Every year I've been with the organization, our ‘extra card' participation has increased. When an athlete is worn down from a hard practice or still recovering from multiple games, they have full ability to pass on a session.
Brick by Brick
I don't know who said it first, but one of my favorite quotes I've seen over the years from strength and conditioning coaches on social media is “any dummy can make someone sweat.” The individualized programs aren't 'work for work's sake.' One of our athletes might be able to walk by a staff member afterwards and it could be hard for them to guess what they were training. That's a good thing.
Training doesn't have to be fatiguing in order to see improvement. When we stack session after session over an 8-month period, our athletes are healthier (fewer soft tissue injuries), stronger, and more explosive. It's smart, periodized programming just like we do for our team training.
About Nathan
Nathan Williams is the strength and conditioning coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. Prior to joining the Canucks organization in 2019, he was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Lake Superior State University, overseeing the D1 hockey team and all D2 sports. There, he was the first full-time strength coach in the school's history. His previous stops in the field include work with the St. Louis Blues, D1 STL West Sports Training, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Miami (OH) University, Missouri State University, and Eastern Michigan University
Website: nathanwilliamstrength.com
Instagram: @NateWilliamsSC
Twitter: @NateWilliamsSC
