An Effective Guide to Managing Healthy Scratches
Gamedays can be an odd time for strength and conditioning coaches. Our job is physical preparation. Outside of the warm-ups and supplement prep, on gamedays the preparation is over. It's time for the athletes to perform.
But what about athletes not in the lineup for the night?
When working with healthy scratches, there's a fine line between too much or too little. Volume, intensity, movement, exercise selection, etc. are all an important piece of the puzzle. I started to shape my planning for non-dress players by asking myself four questions:
1) How many days until our next game?
2) What was the training schedule over the previous week or two?
3) What qualities does the individual need to improve on?
4) How are we maintaining conditioning levels?
By answering these, I created a guide towards properly preparing athletes for future competition.
How many days until our next game?
This is the very first thing I think about when coming up with a plan for the day. There are usually three categories I will drop our training session into based on upcoming game schedule:
Neural Prep/Potentiation (Healthy scratch on the first day of a back-to-back)
- Explosive Movements- Plyometrics and Med ball Throws. Sprints if done following a warm-up and before the skate with an athlete who sprinted regularly in the off-season/has microdosed them in the season already
- Accessory Work- Outside of power movements, I usually pick one core exercise and one groin exercise.
- Very low volume- Typically two complexes, with each complex is only 2-3 sets. Low reps, high rest.
- Total Training Time- Around 10-15 minutes
Full example:
A1) MB Lateral Toss 3x2ea
A2) Skater Jump 3x2ea
A3) Groin Rock + Rotation 3x6ea
B1) Band Broad Jump 2x3
B2) ½ Kneel SA MB Throw 2x3ea
B3) Shoulder Taps w/ Groin Squeeze 2x6ea
B4) Pallof Press 2x6ea
Shoulder Taps w/ Groin Squeeze - YouTube
Skating stride increases stress placed on hip abductors and external rotators, the adductor group needs strengthening to help provide optimal balance. This is part of why it's important to integrate the frontal plan in hockey training. Groin injuries have a high prevalence in hockey (1, 2). We try to include work for the adductors almost daily in our accessory complex. This could be squeezes, leg lifts, Copenhagen planks, and a wide variety of exercises.
Medium Workload (1-2 days off before the next game. Ex: scratch on a Saturday, next game is Monday)
- Combination of Strength and Power
- 3 Complexes- 1 Power, 1 Lower Body, 1 Accessory
- Increase in volume from neural prep day, but still manageable
- Movements in lower body work that won't typically produce soreness (trap bar deadlift, overcoming ISOs, sleds)
High Workload (3+ Days off before the next game. Ex: Scratch on a Saturday, next game is Wednesday)
- Highest volume and/or intensity
- 3-4 complexes, sets of 4-5, hitting everything: lower, upper, accessory
- Pretty much every movement in the book is available at our disposal thanks to time between games
What was the training schedule over the previous week or two?
Looking back on the previous week or two's schedule is crucial when managing a healthy scratch for two reasons: weight room and on-ice.
For off-ice work, dependent on game schedule, there could have been multiple team lift days that the athlete took part in or there could be none. This is important to note because you don't want to double up on the same session and create monotony.
Despite the more chaotic game/travel schedule since moving from the college ranks to the pros, I will still plan progressive phases for in-season training. These include two team lifts set in stone with a 3rd option for the scratch lift. If we've had a solid week of off-ice training, the pre-planned option 3 is used. If we had a dense game schedule and didn't have many team sessions, I might opt to just use the day 1 or day 2 lift for the scratches.
On-ice work is important to note when determining the training session too. Just because someone is a healthy scratch on a day that falls into the high workload category, doesn't necessarily mean they should be forced into this.
Games played, minutes played within those games, and extra skating work, should all be considered part of the equation.
An example of this I recently had was a goalie who started 3 games in a row Monday/Wednesday/Friday but was getting a rest on a Saturday and our next game wasn't until Wednesday. Could he have completed a high workload lift, gotten something out of it, and been fine going forward to prepare for the Wednesday matchup? Sure, but coming up with an individualized session focusing on mobility and groin strength was a better plan based on his workload from the previous week.
We focused on his specific needs for the day, coming up with a short session that allowed him to get in and out and feel rejuvenated coming back to our next team practice.
EXAMPLE OF MOBILITY/GROIN SESSION:
X2-3 Rounds:
90/90 Chest Falls x5ea
90/90 Lift Off + Rot x5ea
Diagonal Hip Mob + Step x5ea
Abduction Lift Off x5ea
Side Lying Adductor Leg Lift x8ea
Straight Leg MB Squeeze x3x:03
Bent Knee MB Squeeze x3x:03
Foam Roller Abduction Lift Off - YouTube
Hip and groin injuries are very common in ice hockey goaltenders (3), special care for this area can help mitigate potential for injury during the competitive season. For more on specific goalie preparation, check out Devan McConnell's article on the 5-step goalie warm-up.
What Qualities Does the Individual Need to Improve On?
A 5th-year player trying to improve explosiveness may need something different than a rookie with a low training age who is focusing on general movement foundation.
The team sessions in our program typically have a few different options for 1-2 of our “main exercises” in a day based on whether they are in a speed, power, or strength category. The same thing may need to happen with our scratch lift.
Even if I have only 3 scratches there is a potential for multiple differences between these athletes training for the day. It is important to serve the athletes to the best of my ability and not give them something quick or easy just to get it over with.
Lifts can be structured where the main lower body exercise, and maybe one or two other exercises, can have differences between athletes all while still working together as a team.
Injury history also will vary a health scratch lift between athletes.
Multiple studies have shown previous injury as a major risk factor for future injury (4, 5). Changes to a training session to focus on a previously injured cite, whether it occurred in the current season or in the past, can be a key piece of keeping an athlete healthy. It's important to note that when we have a player return to full participation, that doesn't mean their rehab is over.
Working with our medical staff, we usually prescribe a list of exercises for the athlete to do daily to stay on top of things. This can then be incorporated in to prep work or the lift for the healthy scratch if needed.
How Are We Maintaining Conditioning Levels?
What's available for me to work on from a conditioning perspective will be dictated greatly based on our answer to question number 1: what is the upcoming schedule looking like? That being said, and this has been true while working at both the college and pro level, 9 times out of 10 our coaching staff is completing this part on the ice.
Usually, a short talk early in the morning will confirm this. It's paramount for us to get it done on the ice compared to a bike or treadmill (specific adaptations to imposed demands, right?). There are times, however, conditioning will be done in the weight room. A shortlist of those scenarios:
- Low Ice Time due to being on the road
- No Ice available due to an early game start (ex: 1:00pm)
- An extra player in pre-game warm-ups who didn't get the skate done in the morning.
Equipment availability obviously always plays a role in choice, but if there are no limitations. I typically prescribe long steady-state aerobic work on our high workload days. The game itself is anaerobic in nature. But, as Lorne Goldenberg has written extensively about, aerobic training has its place. Over the course of the season the aerobic system can be neglected. I have found that the athletes responded well to this sort of conditioning. A recent study showed athletes can benefit from low intensity endurance training due to its improvement on regeneration and ATP re-synthesis (6). I also believe the positive results from this training is due to changing things from the typical interval work the athletes see, allowing us to hopefully avoid overtraining.
For our neural prep and medium workload days, the following is an example of how we adjust the volume between the two days:
Neural Prep/Potentiation:
Following our previous guidelines of low volume and explosive movements, a common choice will be one round of :10/:20's (10 seconds on, 20 seconds off) on the assault bike for 8 rounds. This allows us to get some high-speed contractions, while keeping the potential for fatigue low.
Medium Workload Day:
We expand on this as the :10/:20s are still included in the conditioning session, but they are on the back half. The ride now starts with 8 rounds of :20/:10s, followed by a 2-minute rest, and finishing with the aforementioned :10/:20s. The ride equates to a 10-minute conditioning session. This gets us some work done with a high heart rate and makes sure we're prepared for our next game.
Conclusion
A key thing to remember as a coach is that we are in a position of service. It's a privilege to work with athletes, no matter what level they play in. We must serve those around us by providing smart, well-rounded, high-quality training to keep them performing at their highest potential.
Don't come up with something quick and easy just to move on to other tasks, you never know what may get an athlete back in the lineup the next game. And remember it's a high-stress situation for the player as they are probably going to be thinking through every little thing they may need to improve on so they can get re-inserted. They could use the extra care. Provide it.
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
REFERENCES
1. Emery, C. A., Meeuwisse, W. H., & Powell, J. W. (1999). Groin and abdominal strain injuries in the National Hockey League. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 9(3), 151–156. https://doi.org/10.1097/00042752-199907000-00006
2. Dalton, S. L., Zupon, A. B., Gardner, E. C., Djoko, A., Dompier, T. P., & Kerr, Z. Y. (2016). The epidemiology of hip/groin injuries in National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's and Women's Ice Hockey. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 4(3), 232596711663269. https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967116632692
3. Wörner, T., Clarsen, B., Thorborg, K., & Eek, F. (2019). Elite ice hockey goalkeepers have a high prevalence of hip and groin problems associated with decreased sporting function: A single-season prospective Cohort Study. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 7(12), 232596711989258. https://doi.org/10.1177/2325967119892586
4. Fulton, J., Wright, K., Kelly, M., Zebrosky, B., Zanis, M., Drvol, C., & Butler, R. (2014). INJURY RISK IS ALTERED BY PREVIOUS INJURY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND PRESENTATION OF CAUSATIVE NEUROMUSCULAR FACTORS. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 9(5), 583–595.
5. Hagglund, M. (2006). Previous injury as a risk factor for injury in Elite Football: A prospective study over two consecutive seasons. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(9), 767–772. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2006.026609
6. Lee, D., Son, J.-Y., Ju, H.-M., Won, J.-H., Park, S.-B., & Yang, W.-H. (2021). Effects of individualized low-intensity exercise and its duration on recovery ability in adults. Healthcare, 9(3), 249. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030249
