Pre-Season Training for Professional Hockey

The goals of the pre-season strength and conditioning phase for hockey are 1- To help prepare the players for the demands of training camp and regular season and 2- To bridge the gap between the off-season and in-season strength and conditioning phases. At the professional level, this is a unique time for the Strength and Conditioning Coach because it is when most of the players are present for strength and conditioning sessions. With the fact that most players are in different locations throughout the off-season, this a great time to get the entire team together and implement the program and help build team camaraderie.

Our pre-season phase is usually 3-4 weeks in duration and occurs from late August through early September. We will spend 5 days in the weight room and spend 4-5 days on the ice skating on a weekly basis. Strength training will take place prior to skating on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while conditioning on the bike is prior to skating on Tuesday and Thursday. We will skate Monday through Friday. We will always have a flush ride after all of our skating sessions.

During this phase, we are implementing much more volume from a training perspective as we are both lifting and skating throughout the week. This is much different from our off-season phase when we will primarily train off the ice each day. Also during the pre-season, we will stop some of the activities that we would do during the off-season. This would include speed work, working with sleds, and running and slide boarding for conditioning. We are shifting our focus to much more on-ice emphasis. It is important to mention that some of our players may have already begun skating before this phase. This is very common as it is not unusual for players to skate at their offseason homes before reporting to their team's location.

Strength Training

Our strength training philosophy during this period will primarily consist of circuit training. This is different from any other time of year. For us, instead of doing 5-6 exercises while pairing with each other and implementing corrective exercises during the rest periods, we will now do 12 exercises straight through. When the circuit starts, the rest periods will be when a player finishes a lift and then has to wait until the athlete who is performing the next exercise in the circuit is done. Each player is assigned an exercise/station from 1-12 and then they will just follow along. There is a 1 minute and 30 second rest period when the circuit is completed.

How do we set up our circuits? I have found that putting the exercises in this order has worked best: double leg push, upper pull (vertical), upper push (horizontal), core/anterior chain, lower explosive lower, 1-Leg lower push, upper pull (horizontal), upper press (vertical), 1-leg lower (glute/hamstring emphasis), 1-arm upper pull, core/stabilization, and upper explosive. We will perform these circuits 2 x per week on Monday's and Friday's. The difference between the Monday and Friday circuit is that although the format of movements will stay the same, the selection of exercise will be different. For example, on Monday we may perform a pull up (hands facing away) while we may perform a chin up on Friday (palms facing). On Wednesdays, we will perform a plate circuit which is borrowed or stolen from Strength and Conditioning Coaches Mike Boyle and the Calgary Flames' Rich Hesketh.

During our Monday and Friday circuits, each player will perform the prescribed number of reps for each exercise in the circuit. We will also implement regressions for athletes who are not ready for the given exercise. For example, we may substitute a goblet squat for the front squat or maybe a split squat stead of 1-leg squat. This is to accommodate an athlete who is unable to perform the prescribed exercise.

During our Wednesday circuit, each player will be given a 25-lb plate and complete the entire circuit without resting. This will take place for each exercise until the steering wheel exercise in which all of the athletes perform it together.

Conditioning

Our off-ice conditioning will take place on the stationary bikes. We will do 2-3 bike workouts per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Our bike sessions will consist of one day of 1-minute sprints at a high level of resistance. During these sprints, we are looking to enhance our player's resistance to fatigue- especially after the 30-40 second mark in which the average hockey shift ends. At the end of the sprint, we will recover to 130 bpm while at level 1 on the bike. We will start with 6 reps in week 1 and add one more rep each week. On Thursdays, we will simply perform a steady state/cardiac output ride where the emphasis is on keeping the heart rate in the 130-140bpm range. This ride is to help increase cardiac output and enhance our ability to recover. We will typically go for 30-60 minutes. Saturday bike rides are optional and will be prescribed based on how the player feels and what his needs may be.

On the ice, the players will run their own practices. They will perform 45 minutes of drills and then follow up with a 45 minute scrimmage. On Fridays during the preseason, I will help our players prepare for our training camp conditioning test at the end of practice. Our conditioning test is very demanding and requires serious preparation. Not only do our players get prepared for our test, but they are getting some conditioning work in during the process.

What I really like about pre-season workouts is that there is full participation from everyone on our team. Our players believe in our program and the importance for the team building process.This is awesome because each player is doing what I want them to do, when I want them to do it. This rarely takes place in the off-season phase as I have realized that you can't control what your athletes are doing when you aren't with them. In the pre-season, you can coach and interact with them while making a smooth transition into the in-season phase.

As I continue my career in professional hockey, the process of getting your athletes to buy in and participate in the program is much more important than providing them with a "state of the art" program that not everyone will want to do. I believe that when you provide them with a basic program in an environment where they are training hard together, the results can be positive from an on-ice perspective.