For all the money, time, and effort we put into hockey, it would seem crazy to say Minnesota hockey training lacks intensity, but let me explain. It is precisely because we do so much that our training regiments and programs have become so routine and often lacking in creativity and innovation. Most frustratingly, a lot of training is providing players with minimal and in many cases negative training returns.
A typical conversation I have with players, from the youth ranks to high school, may go something like this. “How often are you on the ice this week?” The player responds, “seven times.” “Why?” “To get better Coach!” “So the more you practice, the better you get?” “Yea!” That argument is rooted in a false assumption and commonly used phrase – practice makes perfect.
Practice is inherently neutral. Sure, it can help a player improve and ultimately a player can’t improve without it. However, practice can also make a player worse or do nothing for a player. It is how and what you practice that matters. Practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. Keep doing it wrong, and you’ll get really good at whatever wrong is.
The most common and negative consequence of too much on-ice practicing is a deterioration in proper skating form. Because players are skating so much they often stand up higher to conserve leg strength. Over time, they perform a lot skating repetitions with little to no knee bend. Another negative result of overtraining that I see all the time is that players learn to pace themselves rather than push themselves out of their current comfort zone. They aren’t given the opportunity to learn how to train with intensity because it would be physically impossible for them to even try.
Intense hockey training looks like an Overspeed workout with Jack Blatherwick, where all the skaters are moving so fast that many fall during the drills and by the end of the practice everyone feels like sleeping for 12 hours. Intense hockey training looks like a plyometric track workout with full speed sprints, jumps, and leg strength exercises or like a determined player shooting 500 pucks and stickhandling for 30 minutes in the garage. Is that what you’ve been doing? If not, it might be time to reduce the quantity of practice and increase the quality.
Please note that youth players need a fun, engaging training regime, not one that is deliberately intense. The examples noted above of intense hockey training are primarily for athletes at least 14 years or older (and training volumes should vary based on age as well).
