Well. the off-season is here unexpectedly.....we missed the playoffs for the first time in a few years, and it's already time to start looking forward.

Last year we hit the weights pretty hard and I think it helped us be a little stronger on our feet and also with injury prevention. Still, our skating skills are lagging compared to our competition.....We only have ice 8 months a year and our competitors have it year round, and I'm not sure we can make up for lost ground here.

Anyone have any suggestions for improving skating in the off-season WITHOUT access to the ice? My guess is there is no substitute for skating, but if anyone has other ideas I'm all ears! I'm not an expert skating coach, but I can tell you that we need to skate with more knee bend, our D need better forward to backward mobility, and our forwards need plenty of agility work as well.

Thanks in advance, and hope you all have better post-season success than we did this year.

Dave
----------------------------------------------------
Sorry to hear that Dman. I had Gaston do a skating session today with my 11-14 group and he was great.
The Red Bull organization I was with really use the skate mill a lot. There is a big debate by many on whether it helps or not. I know it halped Dany Heatley when he was a teenager and it helped my son. It is easy to work on technique when a coach is right there. If you don't have access to a treadmill then multi jumps with bent knees can help. i.e. immitative skating, long lunges, duck walk etc.
I am sure other coaches have a lot of ideas.

Quote by: Koutsi97

I would propose:

- first give players some rest
- then test mobility/flexibility and plan dynamic mobility / stretching exercises for problem areas (ankle, knee, hip) and start treadmill or sliding board exercises for stamina with the good ankle/knee bend
- then gradually start building up core stability (sit-ups, planks, one-legged squats, all different lunges, "animal movements", ...) and your normal weight training for strength/power and plan those as sport specific as possible "train the movement, not the muscle"
- then eventually move focus more to the speed training; agility exercises, sprints, agility ladders, jumps, skips, 3-5kg exercise ball throws, Olympic weight lifting (if you have an instructor/coach to teach these) and etc.

I would keep the treadmill/sliding board included all the time at the off-season if possible. I don't know how much you have time and what is the "athletic level" of your players, so these are only general rules. I think you can't substitute on-ice skating agility/quickness/speed with these but you could help the start of the next season by doing sport specific off-ice training. You need train these agility, quickness and speed on-ice a lot, without and with the puck (for example using SAGs :-)).

Hope this has some help, I'm no expert on the subject but hopefully someone can comment on these "principles"? I would emphasize the (ankle, knee, hip) mobility of the skaters before continuing forward with any of your strength/power/speed training if there are problems.

Great post Koutsi I totally agree with you (though I'm no expert on this subject either).

Many skating problems come from (to my knowledge and experience) poor ankle, knee, hip mobility and / or poor lower body and core strength. Poor mobility prevents you to go into low enough skating position poor strenght and mobility makes it hard to maintain the position.

https://regtransfers-sth-se.diino.com/download/kai_kmk24/Hockey%20videos/luistelun%20tehostaminen%20oheisharjoitus.wmv
here is one off-ice practice with dynamic mobility, lower body strenght and balance (may take some time to download)

Quote by: Koutsi97

I would propose:

- first give players some rest
- then test mobility/flexibility and plan dynamic mobility / stretching exercises for problem areas (ankle, knee, hip) and start treadmill or sliding board exercises for stamina with the good ankle/knee bend
- then gradually start building up core stability (sit-ups, planks, one-legged squats, all different lunges, "animal movements", ...) and your normal weight training for strength/power and plan those as sport specific as possible "train the movement, not the muscle"
- then eventually move focus more to the speed training; agility exercises, sprints, agility ladders, jumps, skips, 3-5kg exercise ball throws, Olympic weight lifting (if you have an instructor/coach to teach these) and etc.

I would keep the treadmill/sliding board included all the time at the off-season if possible. I don't know how much you have time and what is the "athletic level" of your players, so these are only general rules. I think you can't substitute on-ice skating agility/quickness/speed with these but you could help the start of the next season by doing sport specific off-ice training. You need train these agility, quickness and speed on-ice a lot, without and with the puck (for example using SAGs :-)).

Hope this has some help, I'm no expert on the subject but hopefully someone can comment on these "principles"? I would emphasize the (ankle, knee, hip) mobility of the skaters before continuing forward with any of your strength/power/speed training if there are problems.

Dave, sorry to hear you are not in the playoffs. Not everybody gets there; see what you can learn from it. Not having ice for 12 months of the year is OK. Challenges and their subsequent solutions test your creativity and force you to become better.

I agree 100% with Koutsi97. Rest is the primary thing now. After a few days off (no more than 1 week), perhaps conduct some post-season fitness testing to give you a clear picture where they are (fitness-wise) at the end. How does that look like when contrasted to the start of the season?

Also, I suggest exit interviews - ask the kids what they think about a number of topics... develop your own agenda and questions based on what you think, but allow the kids to bring up whatever they want via open-ended Q's.

Slideboards are great as they are relatively cheap. You can order them online pre-built if you have the budget but you can also find plans published on how to build them. I believe Jack Blatherwick either sells them and / or has building plans online. Check it out. (One of my friends at school built four of them himself for his school hockey program for less than $200 - and he is no carpenter!)

One can also look to purchase "fake, plastic ice" - they have at least one 'rink' in Phoenix made entirely of the stuff - so you could do a search online to see how expensive this is... maybe purchase enough for 1/3 of a rink; whatever your budget / space allows for. I heard it 'feels' similar to ice (you sweep it off to clean it) but obviously has more friction, so it feels 'heavier.' This is a positive because when you go back on the ice, you will feel quicker.

I have yet to read an unbiased, scientific report demonstrating the benefits of training on the skating treadmill apparatus and the subsequent transferability to ice skating. I worked for the guys who brought them to Calgary initially and even though I worked for them, I couldn't declare the benefits as there was no scientific proof. When the machines tilt up and down, this isn't realistic to the real thing (flat) but again, I am sure it challenges the muscles in a different way. Anecdotally, it seems to make sense to me that although the resistance is more than real ice, it still allows one to skate...but so far as proper posture is concerned, you need to have a qualified skating coach there to help - mirrors allow the skater to see their strengths and weaknesses... plus one can use video shot at different angles and then compare it to 'good models' - otherwise, you are just further cementing bad habits! (Same could be said with the slideboard. A coach, mirror and video would all enhance the experience.) You can make up your own mind(s) on this one!

I prefer to get off the skating machine and off the ice (real or plastic) and do different stuff in the off-season. Get away from the rink, so you start to miss it. Smart Transitional Games and other sports are awesome. Get away and have purposeful fun! As for conditioning, measure baselines, then develop a solid fitness base (including flexibility) before you move into dynamic movements and Olympic lifting. Maybe look at Cross-Fit as it is very functional.

Good luck. Let us know how you make out!

Kai-

I really like the exercises on the video you sent the link to.....thanks you this resource. A few quick questions for you:

-How often do should players do this? Do they need rest days in between sessions like in weight lifting?
-Several times the coach/trainer puts one hand on his lower back and one in front of his hips to explain something....what is the instruction he is giving then, or what are the points of importance throughout these exercises?

Thanks again,
Dave

Gaston did a skating session last week with my school group. He is incredible at teaching how to skate.

http://hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=2008072311322256 is the video of him talking about skating and the next video he does a demo.

Gaston was skating champion of Switzerland, has a Doctorate in Body Mechanics and was the feature skater for Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice (met his wife there who was a chorus girl skater).

He teaches backward skating and the mechanics of skating better than anyone and I have seen the the other Dr. mentioned on this site instructing as well.

The point is that you never want the body working against itself like when we do the Mohawk turn and stop some of the motion on the pivot.

Anyway, look at it for ideas.