Pre-Game Warm Up

With professional players, it is not uncommon for them to have their own routine before games.  They fully believe that their own routine (and sometimes superstitions) will help them give them the best chance for success. 

Even though we have a mandatory team warm up on all practice days, the only time where I will organize a team warm up is on the morning of the second night of back-to-back games on the road.  In this situation, we will not have a pre-game skate, but we will have an organized warm up to basically get our players out of bed and moving. 

For some players who are still young and really haven't established their own routine yet, we will do a pre-game warm up one hour before the puck drops. This is done in a hallway outside of our dressing room whether it is at home or in an opposing arena.   I usually have between 6-10 players on a given night.  These players consist of mostly younger players, but we do have some veteran players who have been doing it for years now as the warm up has become part of their own preparation.   What's interesting to point out is that there are still several players throughout the league who are now playing for different teams who still do the same routine.  Here is what we will do pre-game using a 10-15 yard distance and a small agility ladder (4 boxes):

Pregame warm up

Movement Prep

     High Knee Tuck

     Heel to Butt with Opposite Arm Reach

     SLDL

     Cradle

     Lunge Walk + Forearm to Instep + Arm Reach/Thoracic Rotation + Hamstring

     Reverse Lunge with Reach

     Lateral Squat Walk

     Over and Under Hurdle Walk

     High Knee Run

     Buttkicks

     High Knee Skip

     Backwards Open Door Skip

     Backwards Run

     Forward Run

Agility Ladder

     2 in the hole x2

     Lateral 2 in the hole L/R

     Quick Shuffle

     2 in/2 out Forward

     2 in/2 out L/R