Communication: The Key to In-Season Training
Making the transition from off-season to in-season workouts can be difficult and requires close attention to the workload the athletes are undergoing. During the off-season, I progress through various phases of my periodization model, and when August rolls around the focus of the program is to get our athletes as powerful and explosive as possible before training camp. Once training camp starts, I quickly lower the volume, but I still maintain at least one heavy or high velocity workout per week to maintain recruitment of the high threshold muscle fibers. The rest of the week is devoted to injury prevention and movement pattern maintenance. Core stability work remains a priority, but rotational core work is greatly reduced.
Many coaches believe you can't significantly change a player's level of strength during the season. I think blanket statements like that show a real lack of understanding of what a strength coach can do. Most athletes come to camp with deficiencies, imbalances or a lack of mobility in a specific joint. All of these things can be improved, and that alone will positively influence the athlete's ability to move and train properly. Better movement leads to enhanced performance both in the gym and on the ice.
In addition to correcting movement patterns, the strength coach can also program for improved strength in his athletes during the season. A well thought out plan that takes into account the playing schedule, practice schedule, and overall stress that an athlete has to deal with can provide an opportunity to increase strength without jeopardizing on ice play. It's a matter of knowing when to implement this type of work, and in recognizing when the athlete is prepared for it.
The most important minutes of my day are always the first 5-10 minutes when the athletes walk into my gym and start their foam rolling and muscle activation exercises. This is a time for the team to talk and just hang out with each other while they prepare for the workout and/or practice. During this time I listen as much as I can to the conversations, observe body language and talk to each individual player to ask them how they feel and how their body feels. This communication is the key to success. Knowing your athletes and being able to quickly adjust your workouts to get the most out of them each day is invaluable.
It's important be aware of how much ice time each athlete is logging during the games and also how hard they are working in practice, giving an indication of the on-ice workload for that week. Guys who aren't playing that much are more likely to feel strong and can be pushed harder, while other players are going to feel sore from games and are more likely to feel worn down both physically and mentally. I always compare it to being in a room full of balloons and trying to keep all of them in the air. Some players you can hit hard and others need a light touch. It's important to know the athletes well, in order to give them just the right amount of high threshold muscle fiber work to keep them strong and explosive without frying their nervous system. One example most S&C coaches have encountered is when an athlete has a bad day and the head coach calls him/her lazy. In these circumstances, it's essential to determine whether the athlete decided not to give enough effort or whether he/she was incapable of giving more effort. The availability of HRV devices is making this much easier for strength coaches, but not everyone has access to that technology yet so communication is paramount.
I oversee both men's and women's hockey at Penn State which means I have 54 athletes that are looking to me to guide them to make their dreams come true. I take that responsibility very seriously and every insight into the health of my players is incredibly valuable to me. It's not always practical or necessary to design 54 entirely different programs for each athlete, but having some versatility is important. A team program may be most appropriate for about one third of the team, whereas it may be too hard for the weaker or worn down athletes and too easy for the powerful or fresh athletes. By communicating constantly with the athletes a coach can make small adjustments in sets, reps or exercises that will allow the athletes to get the most out of the program.
Rob McLean is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Penn State University's Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Teams. Prior to joining the PSU team, he spent two years as the Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Colorado Avalanche. Rob can be reached via email at [email protected]
