How We Train Healthy Scratches
He asked this because all of his previous experience with being a healthy scratch involved a "bag skate" by one of the coaches, and a conditioning session with the Strength Coach. Both of these sessions were "designed" to inflict maximal fatigue. Not much thought was given to the after effects of the training. This is a very common practice in ice hockey, from the Junior level, through College, and even into the Pro's. However, this thought process is flawed.
This was the question posed by one of my freshmen that wasn't dressing for a game.
The goal of a training session, whether it be on the ice or in the weight room, for a player who is not dressing for a game should not be to create as much fatigue as possible. In fact, the opposite is true. The training sessions should be designed to 1. Improve performance, and 2. Prepare the athlete for the next contest. I understand where the roots of this "more is better" approach come from; it is relatively simple to demand more work. Measuring progress becomes easy...one more lap, one more down and back, 2 more stops and starts, etc. And it is easy to see the effect this additional work is having on the athlete...are they breathing hard? Did they throw up? Hard work is always a coveted quality, and every coach wants players with a workman like attitude. But "more is better" isn't the same as "better is better". This isn't to say that the training sessions for healthy scratches should be easy. They should just be smart.
The idea that a scratched player should be put under the same workload as those players actually playing in a game never made much sense to me. Unless the player is in a situation where they are not likely to play for an extended period of time, such as as being a Red Shirt, the healthy scratch workout should be less stressful than the game itself. What sense does it make to fatigue a player to the same extent as his counterparts in the actual game? If the player has the potential to be inserted into the lineup the next night, don't we want him to be full of energy, not tired and sore like the teammate he is replacing? This is especially true in college hockey, where most games are back to back.
If a player is scratched on Friday, the training session that day will revolve around preparing him to play on Saturday. If a player is scratched on Saturday, we will view this training session more as developmental in nature, and we will operate at a higher workload. The "Preparation" training session which would take place on a Friday would consist of a typical warm up, a total body lift consisting of lightweight, explosive, alactic-type exercises, and some work on the bike, again maintaining the alacitic, or brief and explosive theme of the session. For example:
High Position Hang Clean 3x3
Standing Medball Floor Slam 3x3
Glute Stretch
Bodyweight Box Jump 3x3
Standing Chest Pass 3x3
Standing Stable Keiser Push/Pull 3x5 each
Airdyne Bike Sprints :10/:50 x8
Again, the goal of this training session is not to overly fatigue the player, but rather help prepare him to play the next night should he be put back into the lineup. If the session were overly taxing, he may not be able to provide the team with any kind of a boost in energy. We want enough stimuli so that he doesn't feel "heavy legs" the next day, but not so much that he can't provide speed and dynamism.
If a player is a healthy scratch on Saturday, regardless if he played or not the night before, we will look at this training session much more from a developmental perspective. We still aren't looking to maximally fatigue or "bag" the player, but the training session will consist of more of a traditional lift, along with an Aerobic Power or Anaerobic Threshold type of bike ride. For example:
Hang Cleans 3x5
Ball Rollout
½ Kneeling Quad Stretch
U-Bar RFE 3x5
Bodyweight Chin Ups 2x8
Lat Stretch
1 DB SLDL 3x5
DB Alternating Bench Press 3x5
½ Kneeling Chop 3x8
1mile Airdyne Sprint 1:1 work:rest x4
or
5mile Airdyne Ride <13:00
The other thing to keep in mind about the Saturday training session is that we want it to add to, not take away, from the regularly scheduled developmental training sessions. That means that Saturday's training must "fit" with what is planned for Monday when we will train as a team again.
Overall, the message is that all training should be planned and geared towards development, while keeping in mind the short and long-term needs of the athlete. Healthy scratches should be trained with an eye towards preparation for the next game if it is going to be played in the near future, and long-term physical development if there is sufficient time before the next competition. "Bagging" a player because it is the easy solution for a coach to "feel like they got work done" should not be the primary objective.
Devan McConnell
Head Performance Coach
UMass Lowell
