Training in College Hockey
Training in College Hockey: What it Takes and What to Expect Once You Make It
Training for hockey has changed dramatically since I was a player. Growing up and playing junior hockey prior to playing collegiately, there was much less direction or knowledge about what a player should be doing off the ice to properly develop the physical qualities it took to play at the college level than there are now. Structured Strength and Conditioning was almost non-existent. The general advice from coaches was to run and lift some weights during the summer. Training during the hockey season was essentially unheard of, save for a few rounds of push ups, sit ups, and stair runs after practice.
Now, as a Professional Strength and Conditioning coach who is responsible for the physical development of a college hockey team, I can say that many things have changed when it comes to what we know about how to properly develop young hockey players. Gone are the days of long runs, “strength training” consisting of some push ups and sit ups, and just playing hockey to get into shape. These changes to the hockey training paradigm are crucial for young players to understand, as the difference between kids who do and don't make it to the college level and beyond is often less about a difference in skill and more about physical development.
The jump from junior hockey or prep school to NCAA D1 College hockey is a big one. There are numerous adjustments young hockey players have to navigate on top of the typical freshmen growing pains every student goes through during their first year of college. The skill level and speed of the game takes a large step forward at the college level, as players who are able to play here are obviously the best of the best from lower levels. The size and physicality of the game is also a factor, as an “old” 18 or 19 year old junior player is now a “young” 19-20 year old college player, going up against players who may be as old and physically mature as 24. Not only is the age change part of the equation, but the physical development difference between an 18 year old and a 22-23 year old can be staggering. There are times where it is literally “boys playing against men”.
Another common adjustment that I find young athletes are often unaware of is the increased demands on time, effort, dedication, and focus that are required at the collegiate level. Very often talented young freshmen enter the college game as “kids who play hockey”, and quickly find out that to be successful at this level, they need to become “hockey players”. The difference is in the seriousness and professionalism one takes the game. “Kids who play” do just that; they show up to the rink just in time to put their skates on, jump on the ice for an hour or so, and leave just as quickly once the Zamboni begins its rounds. However, a “hockey player” is someone who is at the rink 1-2 hours before practice, focused on the details of development, training to improve performance, and working on his weak links. Once the practice is over, they maintain that focus on development long after the lights have turned off over the ice. A big part of this at the collegiate level is spent in strength and conditioning.
Many athletes are astonished what is asked and required of them when it comes to the off ice training demands at the college level. Most are used to “working out” a couple of times a week during the summer, perhaps going for a run now and then and lifting weights at the local gym. Collegiate Strength and Conditioning is much more structured, and much more time and effort is required than most young athletes expect. No longer is it enough to workout in the summer and forget about the gym once the season starts. This approach just isn't enough to meet the physical demands of the collegiate game.
The college hockey season is the longest sport season in NCAA athletics, lasting upwards of 7 months. Because of this, in-season training is absolutely crucial to development of the player and success of the team. It is often a big shock to incoming freshmen that the team “lifts” at least twice a week during the season. Add to that extra training sessions if a player is a “healthy scratch” during games, or simply because an athlete's physical development is not up to par. On top of that, the best programs don't view Strength and Conditioning as a separate entity from practice, but rather an extension of the overall development model.
At UMass Lowell for instance, our Hockey Performance Center is built just steps from our locker-room. Every single day the athletes begin and end practice and games in the Performance Center. Individual Injury Reduction Work, Movement Skills, Heart Rate Variability Testing and a Team Dynamic Warm Up start everyday. If it's not a “training day”, this is at least 20minutes of dedicated work before the team moves on for practice. If it is a training day, this 20minutes is followed up by 30-60minutes of Power Development, Strength Training, and Energy System Work. Once practice is over, the work is not done. The players will come back to the Performance Center for supplemental Energy System Work (as needed based on Heart Rate Monitoring during practice), and Recovery and Regeneration work such as foam rolling, static stretching, and the specific use of hot and cold tubs. All this is necessary to speed up the body's recovery processes, so that the players are as fresh as possible the next day, to begin the process all over again. This level of commitment is a far cry from showing up just in time to get your skates tied before the coach blows his whistle.
Training itself is much more involved than the average freshmen is used to. Every single detail of the training process is planned and accounted for. There is no “work for work's sake”. There is a reason for every single thing we do, from how we breathe to the specific weights and speeds used during each exercise. This can often seem daunting to the athlete who may have “worked out” at the local club, or performed random “workouts of the day” with no rhyme or reason as to why they were doing what they were doing. However, this is part of the process in becoming a “hockey player”, a professional who approaches each day with the specific goal of becoming the best player they can be. The athletes who “get this” earlier than others are usually the ones who are the most successful. Too often the players who don't quite make it at this level are the first ones out of the rink after practice, and the most likely to overlook the finer details in the training process.
Another factor of the collegiate setting that is often misunderstood is the developmental nature of this age and level. Many players believe that simply mimicking an NHL player's training regimen will be adequate to meet the demands of college hockey. On the outside, this seems logical. NHL players are the best in the world, so if one simply trains the way they do, they should have a good chance to play at that level. However, the reality is that the NHL is a performance-based league, and the training (especially in season) that an NHLer undergoes is in many ways not enough to help a younger player develop. Strength and Conditioning at the professional level is all about reducing the chance of injury and preparing for the next game, and much less about development of the player. At that level, physical development has largely already occurred. However for a younger player at the junior or college level, development is really the name of the game.
This means that there are times when training and development take priority over performance. This is not to say that competing and results don't matter, but there are times and places where an athlete may play a game while still sore from a training session. This means taking the perspective of long-term development, and not just short-term demands.
This is one of the primary benefits of college hockey vs. Canadian Major Junior. The Canadian model emphasizes games over practice, leaving little time for physical development. The elite players will be elite players no matter what route they take, but players who may not be as physically mature at a young age get ground up and spit out. However, College Hockey is set up to be much more conducive to improving physical ability. Teams generally only play 2 games per week, usually on the weekends (vs. 3-4 games per week, often spread out all week long). This means much more time to practice and improve on the ice, and much more opportunity to physically develop and grow in training. College players are consistently regarded as much more physically mature and developed as they enter the professional ranks than their Major Junior counterparts. This focus on practice and training vs. trying to mimic a professional schedule with upwards of 80 games a year at the younger levels is crucial in the development of hockey players.
It is important to understand the difference between developmental ages and leagues vs. performance-based levels. Developmental leagues are just that…the focus is on player development and not solely on wins and losses. This means that physical development becomes a priority, and in some instances one might even train the day before or after games. In the long run, this focus on player development versus strictly wins and losses is far more productive when it comes to producing high-level hockey players capable of stepping into an NCAA D1 Hockey team's line up right away. One of the important aspects of a developmental model is in-season training, since the hockey season is so long. Finding a program which emphasizes this part of development can reap huge rewards at the next level.
The in-season training at the collegiate level is often quite an eye opener for most freshmen athletes. If any in-season training was done with their previous junior or prep school team, it was usually something relatively low intensity such as running stairs after practice, or a circuit of push ups and sit ups. Or even worse, completely random workouts comprised of exercises done for time or as many reps as possible, with the only goal of producing as much fatigue as possible. At the collegiate level, teams train with professional Strength and Conditioning Coaches whose job it is to deeply understand human physiology, and be able to improve and develop physical qualities necessary to become a better hockey player. This means intense training, specifically designed and implemented to stress the athlete just the right amount. What this looks like is usually much more involved than most young athletes are accustomed to.
Good in-season training is not much different from off-season training. Squats, deadlifts, explosive Olympic lifts, bench pressing and chin ups. The surprise is usually in the intensity of training, where most athletes expect things to “lighten up” since they are on the ice so much. However this is not the case, as building and maintaining strength and power levels over the course of a long season means continuing to lift heavy weights. The main difference between in and off season training is the volume, or how many sets and reps the training session consists of. To minimize fatigue, we will keep in season sessions quite short, consisting of 2-3 sets of our major exercises. We want to get in and get out. Consistency and intensity become the key, not volume and duration.
A typical training session during the season would consist of 2-3 sets of an Explosive lift such as Hang Cleans, 2-3 sets of strength exercises like Split Squats, Bench Press, Single Leg Deadlifts, Weighted Chin Ups, and core stability work such as Wheel Rollouts. All of these exercises would be performed between 80-90% of the player's 1Rep Maximum. That means that a player who tested in the Hang Clean during the off season at 300lbs would still be performing that exercise at a weight between 240lbs and 270lbs during the season. The reps would be kept relatively low to reduce fatigue, but the players would still be lifting hard. We would supplement our primary exercises with mobility and flexibility work to improve range of motion and reduce the chance of injury.
What in season training does not look like are single joint exercises like bicep curls, tricep extensions, and hamstring curls. It also is not random, “workouts of the day (WODs)”, spin class, exercises done for as many reps as possible within a given timeframe, or grueling long distance runs. Lift fast, lift heavy, and then recover. That is what in season training should look like.
Hopefully this sheds some light on what is expected at the collegiate level, and what types of things you should be doing to give yourself the best chance possible to get there. If you take one thing away from this article, I hope it is how important Strength and Conditioning is to a young hockey player, especially during the in-season.
Devan McConnell is the Director of Hockey Performance at UMass Lowell. Prior to his current position, he worked at Stanford University in California, Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in the Boston area, and has spent time with both the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. He can be reached at [email protected]
