Identifying Strength Qualities for Your Training Program

I think many of my colleagues would agree that there is a lot of great training information available to both strength professionals and hockey coaches of all levels.  There is a wealth of info online, on DVD, at seminars, within on-line course work, and even in those "fossils" called books!  The poor, useless info, exists as well.  We as coaches should be aware of the risks that accompany poor training programs, but I think it is also critical we remember not to rush the training process for youth athletes.  If we do, then it causes the useful training information to become ineffective because it is applied in haste.  In this article I want to help the Strength Coach and Hockey Coach identify Strength Qualities and use this info to aid in the design of team workouts. 

Please Understand!!!  Speed work, Jump Training, Core Training, and Metabolic conditioning are not the entire scope of this article.  I believe you can work on these physical skills in the training environment, but much like strength training, they should start with a strict teaching focus and progress as the athletes "training age" increases.

I believe a 14 year old can begin training with a focus on understanding the edict that is associated with training in a weightroom and training with his or her peers.  The performance goals for this 14 year old are not the same as the 17 year old who has 2 to 3 years of strength training under his or her belt.  The performance goals are also not the same as the College junior who could have close to 4 or 5 years of strength training under his or her belt.  I think it is helpful to know where to start these young athletes and where to progress them to.   Coaches also need to know what to prescribe when athletes are three or four years into a training program.  At the distant ends of the developmental spectrum, we need to know how the "well the trained" College junior and senior or the second year major junior player can perform a higher level program at the same time as their younger teammates who are in year 1 and 2 of their developmental program.   This is critical to effectively managing a training environment of 15 or more athletes at one time.

As we learn to identify qualities that make up the performance level of hockey players, understand how this will benefit the training foundation of these athletes.  A solid training foundation and a solid foundation of skills for that matter, will allow for immediate increases in performance but more importantly increases in performance levels over the athlete's entire playing career.

"Untrained" hockey players should focus on developing the following qualities as a foundation to their physical development; Strength, Anaerobic conditioning by way of interval training, core training, jump training, and the mastery of training technique.  "Untrained" hockey players are classified as young athletes just beginning a training program or who have only been involved in a year-round training program for one or two years.  You will see in the training program provided the format is simple because it focuses on TEACHING.  At this stage of physical development "numbers" are very insignificant and should not drive what makes up a strength program.  Functionality and Teaching should be pillars of every program.  They become even more important for a young athlete who is just beginning his training career.  When correct technique is emphasized and strength development is reinforced, a young athlete will be on his or her way towards improved physical abilities and a reduction in injury potential.

I classify "Trained" hockey players into the following groups: 3 to 4 years of involvement in a year-round training program and 4 to 6 years involvement in a year-round training program.  The training focus for a player who has a training age of 3 to 4 years is on strength development, the introduction of Power development, developing max strength, and work capacity.  The training focus for a player who has a training age of 4 to 6 years is on Strength, Max strength development, increased work capacity, Power development, and the development of Speed Strength.

Below I have defined each strength quality and explained how they are expressed in a workout.

As the coach or trainer administering these workouts, understand that the "training age" parameters I am setting for the athlete to begin exercising certain strength qualities may take longer than listed!  After seeing a group of athletes or a particular athlete train you may not feel he or she can move into the next developmental stage.  It is a wise choice as a coach to not rush the athlete into the next developmental cycle if they are not ready physically or technically.  Delaying their progress to reinforce technical efficiency and a more solid foundation of strength will help their physical abilities in the long run as well as reduce the risk of injury.

Now if you are thinking about how to manage a team workout where it will be very common to have athletes with many different training ages needing your attention, it's not as hard as you may think!  The key is to develop a structure to your training plan and simply prescribe basic progressions for your more "Untrained" players and a more advanced progression for your "Trained" players.  An example is below and you will see more in the attached file.  Below is an example workout where I have "Trained" and "Untrained" players in the group.  I have decided that in this workout I want to focus on Plyometrics, Lower body pushing strength, Upper body pulling strength, flexibility and Core stabilization work.  To manage the group I keep the training focus/movements the same for everyone (i.e. plyos, lower body pushing strength, upper body pull, etc...) and change the difficulty of the exercises for the "Trained" and "Untrained" members.  By keeping everyone's training focus/movements the same; I am recognizing that we are a team dedicated to a structured training plan that makes us better physically for the game of hockey.  I also understand the "Trained" athletes in the group need to be challenged and progressed as they show commitment and improvement.  At the same time I am being respectful to the beginners who need to develop a foundation of technique.  

Whether you have the benefit of training athletes for multiple years or even for a season lasting several months, a coach or strength professional should identify what physical qualities their athlete's posses and what physical qualities they need to establish for the next level of hockey.  The major physical quality all players should have is a solid training foundation.  A foundation fortified in Strength development, Anaerobic conditioning, Core training, Jump training, and mastery of exercise technique will increase performance and reduce the risk of injury.  As your athletes increase their training age make sure to challenge them with workouts that focus on strength qualities which are appropriate for the developmental cycle.  Rushing into workouts that are developmentally inappropriate will delay performance, physical development, and risk injury.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Download these 2 PDFs that show examples of training programs designed for Beginners, Hockey players with 3 to 4 years Training Age, and Hockey players with 4 to 6 years Training age (Higher Training Ages).  You will see that as the athletes training age increases then more training qualities can be prescribed.