Lateral Wall March
In transitional movements like a 5-10-5, there are essentially two ways to change direction:
- Open up and drive off the outside leg
- Drive under with the inside leg
Both of these movements are applicable to hockey players; however, because we tend to address the first in other transitional speed drills, whenever the drill involves a 180-degree transition (going back in the direction from which you just came), we emphasize a cross-under stride. This emphasize inside-leg loading and cross-under power, both of which have on-ice implications. Often times players have a difficult time understanding the inside lean body position that this transition requires. To address this, we started using a "Lateral Wall March" exercise. There are lots of ways to progress this, but the idea is allow the player time to feel the body angle and hip rotation with a slight inside leg push. This is an exercise we've integrated into our dynamic warm-ups to help improve awareness and lateral stability before moving into speed work.
Lateral Wall March
