Vapor Strobe Training

I’m creating this entry for a lot of reasons…

First, I didn’t find the following information; actually, a good friend who knows my unique interests sent me the initial link, which led me to many more interesting pages on this subject.

Secondly, the device demonstrated in this post — and the scientific thinking behind it — is pretty typical of the stuff I like to get into.  Do I tend to run ahead of the curve?  Ya, I think so.

Lastly, although I like to make sure all the basic hockey concepts are covered within these pages, I have an equal need to keep you on the cutting edge.

With that, get a load of the device and theory shown below.

– Dennis Chighisola

Vapor Strobe Training

Let’s begin with a video that ought to really get you thinking…

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What do you think?  Is Nike onto something here?  You bet!  Just common sense says it’ll work to enhance a number of athletic qualities — for goaltenders and for skaters.

If you’re interested in buying your own strobe glasses, they’re easy to locate through a Google search.  I think the ones I found for sale were about $280.   (For the time being — at that price, they’re on my wish list — LOL!)

Urging members to purchase these is not my point here, however.  What I do want to do is expand your thinking, or open your mind to what’s out there.

I also want to suggest to you that the competition will soon be using these and other pretty sophisticated gear and training methods to jump ahead of you, your child or your team.  That’s the way it’s best over recent years — everyone seeking just the slightest edge.

With that, I’ll leave you with a couple of videos I located over at YouTube.com, these showing the strobe glasses in use…

Dealing With A Shortage of On-ice Hockey Practice Time

I can hate myself for not keeping my side of any bargain.  I truly mean that, and you can probably attribute that to my upbringing.

That’s how I’ve been feeling over the past few months, too — kind of embarrassed, knowing a guy put his faith in me, but that I hadn’t yet come through for him.

The reason for this is because I lost an awesome question that came in via our Ask The Coach feature.  Chalk it up to the electronic age, I guess, in that an important email just up and disappeared on me not long after I’d read it.  And again, you can spell that:  E-M-B-A-R-R-A-S-S-E-D.

Then, don’t you know, I just found it minutes ago, buried in one of about 50 folders I use to sort and save various on-line correspondence.  And if you haven’t guessed it, that email was neatly tucked in a folder that had absolutely nothing to do with CoachChic.com business.  Ugh.

Anyway, with egg well displayed on my face, let me first reprint the brief email from John, and then answer it as best I can.

– Dennis Chighisola

“As an adult who’s relatively new to playing the game, do you have any advice on skill development? I have one game per week and usually one on-ice practice per week, so my ice time is limited.”

Dealing With A Shortage of On-ice Hockey Practice Time

Well, John pretty much draws out what this coach is all about.

If my readers will think along with me here, almost ever level of amateur hockey — maybe excluding Juniors and Division I or II college teams — really do struggle for adequate ice-time.  Even with some of those higher level amateur teams, the cost of ice is a strain on the budget, unless the program owns its own rink.  Of course, minor hockey teams battle this problem all the more:  1) because practice ice is costly, and 2) because extra ice-time can’t even be had at a lot of rinks.

With that, I believe one of the greatest advances in hockey over at  least the last quarter century is the knowledge that many alternative training methods exist, and that those methods dawgoned work.

Now, I have to apologize to John in advance, in that most of the following is covered in real depth throughout CoachChic.com, so there’s no way I can go too deeply into each separate idea in this post.  Still, I think I can still provide plenty of help.

Number One, I give much credit to the old Soviets for bringing the idea of off-ice training — or dryland — to a whole ‘nother level.

Secondly, I have to thank the scientifically based teaching methods my textbooks call “The Principles of Motor Learning”.  For, while it’s helpful for us to know all of those proven theories, the one defining the transfer of skills from one training venue to another greatly supports the benefits of dryland.

Next, I’d like to take that “transfer of skills” thing a little further, suggesting that most stuff done on in-line skates will carry over positively to a hockey player’s on-ice game.

For sure, my list could be far longer.  However, I’ve shortened to things I believe can really help John.

Not to be pushing a product here, I still think I’d better refer him to my Hockey Tips & Tricks Store, because there are some scientifically based products there that will especially help with his skating and puckhandling skills.

Still, rehearsing necessary skating skills on in-lines will help a ton, and so will work on a slideboard.

I guarantee that fiddling with a ball as much as possible will help John be a magician with the puck.

Then, firing pucks by the bucket load will ultimately result in a blistering on-ice shot.

Finally, I think John and others who get to see this post appreciate that I run things quite differently if I’m able to control circumstances.  In other words, if John was my student, I’d design a program specific to his very needs, and he’d come along pretty quickly.  I did just that for the group of high school kids shown in the following video.   I produced the video as sort of an advertisement, attempting to show others just how different my kind of training is.  I’m including here, though, so John can grab a few ideas from it.

Once again, I apologize to John for losing his question. At the same time, I’d like to help even more, if he can let me know some specific problems he’d like to solve.

Jump Rope Training For Hockey

You may think I’ve said this too often, but I firmly believe that social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have connected me with some of the best and brightest in the world.  That’s where I discovered most of the special guest writers here within CoachChic.com, and Facebook is where Dom Browne and I recently met.

As you’ll soon discover, Dom is a very bright young guy, and I can’t thank him enough for agreeing to share his study on the benefits of jump rope workouts for “hockey” players.

Okay, why did I use those quotation marks up above?  It’s because Dom’s study was done with and for in-line hockey players.  However, if you trust this old coach, you’ll appreciate that most skating techniques are identical, be they on wheels or blades.

So, enjoy, CoachChic.com members, and let’s thank Dom once again for his really high level contribution.

– Dennis Chighisola

Jump Rope Training For Hockey

By Dom Browne

I often get asked by hockey players I coach the best way to improve their speed. When I ask them what exercises they do I get the same response; “squats, lunges and deadlifts”, all of which are very good exercises and are fundamental for building strength in the legs. However, when I suggest jump rope training, I get the same reply; “Skipping?” I will explain the reason for my answer, using the study carried out for my dissertation as reference.

There are several different facets involved in skating and many skills are needed for each different movement. The forward start, crossover start, forward skate, crossover, pivot, backward start, backward skate, backward crossover, two foot parallel stop, one foot stop, backward stop and t-stop are the main skills involved in skating during a inline hockey game. During a game, players incorporate each of these to move around the rink and to gain a positional advantage over an opponent. With all these different movements being demonstrated in a game, it is necessary for the players to be agile… the pace of the game is also relatively high compared with other team sports such as soccer, rugby and field hockey, so players need to be fast and have extremely good acceleration, especially at higher levels.

Speed, agility and power are important components of sport performance. Acceleration and speed could be considered the power components of skating, they are consistently predicted by off-ice power tests such as vertical jump and the 40 yard dash. Although jumping, running and skating are biomechanically different, it is the power component of each movement that is very similar. Power is the amount of work done in a given time, the players skate very fast for short periods of time, giving a high power output. Hockey also involves significant balance or stability challenges because of the small surface area in contact with a reasonably low friction surface. An individual may be capable of sprinting at 27 or more miles per hour, but lack the explosive power to accelerate rapidly or to change direction rapidly.

Research investigating the effects of plyometrics on speed in ice hockey players is somewhat limited. Rimmer and Sleivert (2000) conducted an eight-week study to determine the effects of a sprint-specific plyometrics program on sprint performance. Results showed that the plyometric group significantly reduced both their 10m and 40m sprint times. Polhemius and Osina (1980) investigated the effects of weighted plyometric exercises had on conventional sprint training practices in university level track athletes. Pre and post measures of 40 metre sprint times revealed that those who performed plyometric exercises, three times per week for six weeks in addition to their conventional training programs, decreased their 40m sprint times. In both studies, plyometric training was assumed to have resulted in an improved acceleration phase due to a specificity training response, where ground contact times decreased and force production rates increase. It is reasonable to suggest that as ground contact times and stride force production rates are also critical components in skating at top speed, plyometric training may provide similar benefits to skaters as for sprinters. If players are able to decrease contact time with the ice while improving stride force production, the result is likely to be increased skating speed and, therefore, improvement on overall performance.

Plyometrics is very similar to rope jump training in terms of the type of load imposed upon the body. The main objective of the jump rope exercises is to convert elastic energy generated by both the force of gravity and body mass during eccentric or lengthening muscle contraction into an opposite force during the concentric or shortening contraction. A lengthening or eccentric contraction followed by a concentric contraction utilizes the elastic energy stored in that muscle during the stretching phase. When released this elastic energy can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency of the muscle contraction resulting in greater power output (Koutedakis, 1989). Muscle spindles located within the muscles react to sudden stretch by sending signals to the spinal cord, resulting in muscular contraction to resist the sudden stretch.

Buddy Lee is the official jump rope conditioning consultant to 25 U.S. Olympic teams and has published books explaining and discussing the use of jump rope training in sports. The U.S. Figure skating association made Lee’s jump rope training their number one off-ice conditioning technique for all levels of skaters. Lee (2003) states that rope jumping can be used to increase the aerobic capacity of an athlete when used for 10 minutes or longer, but the greatest benefits of jump rope training can be achieved when used to enhance the anaerobic energy system. This is done by using the training in short explosive cycles of 30 seconds, improving speed, agility, quickness and explosiveness, all of which are important in sports that require explosiveness and quick acceleration.

In 2007 I carried out research into the affect of jump rope training on inline hockey players of varying ages. The four timed tests carried out were the same as those used by Bracko (2001); agility cornering S-turn, 6.10m acceleration, 47.85m speed and 15.20m full speed. The control group undertook a simple 6-week training programme involving simple weight lifting based exercises focusing on the major muscle groups used in skating (quadriceps, leg adductors, hamstrings and rectus abdominus) along with some other basic muscular strength exercises. The experimental group also carried out this weekly schedule, but also a 30-40 minute jump rope training programme was carried out four times per week.

Figure 1. Skating tests: (a) agility cornering S turn, (b) 6.10m acceleration,
(c) 47.85m speed, (d) 15.20m full speed. Adapted from Bracko (2001).

Jump rope training at it’s best

At the end of the 6-week training programme, the experimental group showed marked improvements in their times for all four tested variables. The jump rope training improved agility by 2.95%, acceleration by 13.23%, speed by 3.17% and full speed by 11.85%. All of the improvements were significant. This indicates that jump rope training has a positive effect on speed and agility in roller hockey players.

An example of the jump rope training plan that can be used in my study can be found at the bottom of this page:  Jump Rope Training for Hockey

See other works by Dom Browne:  YGH Clinics

 

Thinking Ahead For that College Hockey Scholarship

Donna A. dropped a pretty tricky question in the old coach’s lap.   Actually, so have a number of hockey dads with older boys recently posed similar ones.

But, let’s allow Donna, the mom of a relative beginner, ask her question right here:

“Okay, coach, here is a question as I sit here and think about my kid’s future. Where do hockey players get the most exposure for COLLEGE (scholarship/tuition help).  High school hockey or a league like the local Bandits? I know I am a over bearing mom but believe it or not I am already thinking high school.”

With that, let me give this toughie a try.

– Dennis Chighisola

Thinking Ahead For that College Hockey Scholarship

As I intimated above, this is a very tricky question — for ooooh so many reasons.  I mean, there are so many things that can work for a kid, and an equal number of things that can work against him (or her).

Another tricky part about Donna’s question is where I should begin — at the beginning, or…  No, I think I’m going to attack this one from the very end, or at the point where a college looks to give a scholarship to someone deemed worthy.

As an aside here, I think that hockey parents (or parents of any college bound athlete) should appreciate the basic differences in the different college sport levels.  So…

Only Division I and Division II programs may grant so-called “athletic scholarships”.  And it’s even different from D II program to DII progam whether they choose to grant athletic scholarships or not.  (Over the years I’ve talked to a few Division I coaches who actually split their scholarship monies — perhaps bringing two players in for the price of one, by granting a half-scholarship to each player.)

If you’ll notice, I referred to the above as “programs” rather than “schools”.  That’s because a given college or university can sponsor sports that range from Division I to Division III, or even club.  In other words, a certain university might choose to have a scholarship basketball program, but a non-scholarship hockey program.

Division III programs cannot grant athletic scholarships.  (So, if there’s a guy at work bragging that his kid is playing for a D III program on a “hockey scholarship”, it’s a pretty good bet the guy is full of bull.)

None of this is to say that kids in non-scholarship situations can’t be helped with their college tuition bills.  Oftentimes a school can arrange non-athletic scholarships and so many other bits and pieces of a financial aid package that can help a family big-time, but these are usually based on academics and a family’s needs.

Let me also talk here about the probability of an assured roster spot.  For, from a very practical standpoint, this is usually based on the commitment the school has made to the athlete.  I mean, if they’ve given a true athletic scholarship to a player, it’s more than likely that he or she is guaranteed a roster spot (as long as basic player commitments are met).  It’s also a pretty good guess that a player is going to get a fair chance at some playing time if he or she has been helped in other ways by the coach and school.  As for the typical Division III athlete, yearly tryouts aren’t much different than those held in local high schools.  So, like it or not, the start of any D III season is really a matter of, “Show me what you have today, kid!”

Hopefully this makes sense to everyone, in particular the kind of commitment a program owes back to each student-athlete.

Okay, so it’s time for college coaches to wade through all the prospective student-athletes out there in the world — and I do mean “in the world”.  For, although it used to be that US college scholarships were granted mostly to local hockey players and Canadians, we’ve seen an influx of Europeans coming across the pond in recent years.

I raise that last point just to suggest how many hockey players are really competing for a limited number of college scholarships.  As a matter of fact, about a year ago I did a piece for CoachChic.com suggesting that young kids can’t really imagine their future competition.  (In other words, while a kid local to me here in Massachusetts might be working on his or her game, there is likely a youngster in Western Canada doing the same, and another in Sweden, another in Russia…  Ugh.)

Anyway, with scholarships in hand, college recruiters have the unbelievable task of sorting through all the available talent.  And, while you might think they’re just looking for the best players to be had, think again…

Not every teen out there has the academics to meet college standards.  And we’re probably talking three sets of standards here — from passing through the NCAA’s (mandatory) Clearing House to being accepted through the school’s academic screening process to perhaps a coach even considering whether or not a player will be able to succeed and stay eligible over the long haul.  Yes, gone are the days when Basketweaving Majors fill college rosters.

And gone too are the players who could become disciplinary problems.  Ya, there are far more players to chose from nowadays, so coaches just don’t need the headaches.  Moreover, we’re talking about scholarships that are probably worth in the neighborhood of $100,000 over 4-years, so it makes sense that today’s college recruiters spend a whole lot more time researching the kids they’re going to invest that kind of money in.

Size can make a difference, too, whether a coach is right or wrong in the way he views a given kid.  Worse yet, there’s no way of predicting size when a player is young, and there’s nothing that can be done to change a kid’s height once he or she is grown.

Speed has also become a factor in some coaches’ eyes.  Something can be done about that, but it’s going to take a coach or coaches with some scientific knowledge to enhance that area of an athlete’s game.

If you’re getting the sense that the granting of scholarships is a risking business, I’ll tell you that that’s how I feel.  And, while I’ve just pointed out a few important determining factors, let’s not forget what the recruiters have to go through to find the physically gifted players.

Of course, now is when we get into the meat of Donna’s question, and it’s also where I have the most mixed feelings…

Speaking totally based on today’s conditions (because things can change in time), my observations suggest that college scholarship winners come from either Junior hockey or prep schools.  It’s rare that a (male) hockey player today is going to be scooped from a public or Catholic high school.  As a matter of fact, even most of my Division III college coaching friends don’t want to look at a kid until he’s gotten a year of Juniors under his belt.

If you can appreciate it, we’re looking at a pyramid here, with college recruiters basically getting to look at the cream of the crop.  Hey, it’s easier for them to focus on the high school kids who survived to make Juniors and prep school teams, and they’re also getting to look at more physically and mentally developed athletes.

That said, I’m sensing that things have changed in recent years for those who run or participate in all the high profile exposure camps or tournaments that traditionally take place over the summer months.  In other words, where these kinds of programs used to run with the purpose of showing off the top high school players to pro scouts and college coaches, I’m thinking that the Division I recruiters are now probably out of that mix.  Not that they won’t go to get an early read on younger players.  But, I sense they’re not often carrying a college scholarship in their back pockets.

Putting all the above together, it seems to me that the wisest goal for any aspiring young (male) player would be to make a quality high school hockey team, excel there, and thus get the chance to show-off at a prep school or at the Junior level.

Now, I am a long-range-looking kind of guy, and I like to lay things out as I’ve just described.  To me it’s so much easier this way, and I almost always hit my mark with a kid I’ve had the chance to influence for any length of time.  Oh, there might be the dad who has a heart attack because his 8-year old Mite didn’t get any goals tonight, and there might be the hockey mom who is worried her Squirt aged son isn’t the star of the show.  My way, on the other hand, looks past all those little bumps in the road, and keeps a steadier eye on the big picture.

If I had my way, I’d like a kid to graduate Mites from a town program’s “A” team or from some level of “AAA” in a program like Donna described (our local Boston Bandits).  At least in our local (New England) area, it seems probable that the “AAA” organization is the way to go from Squirts up until high school.

Still, I have never been one to get too hung-up on designations (like “A”, “AA”, whatever).  For, if we want our youngster to grow through the years to become truly capable of a college scholarship, that”s going to boil down to a whole lot more than a resume.  No, the recruiters don’t care if you set a Pee Wee scoring record years ago, or if you led your Atom team to a national championship.  What they do care about is how you look on one day (or over a given season) when they are toting a scholarship in hand.  And, what I’m getting at, folks, is coaching.  Said yet another way:  T-E-A-C-H-I-N-G.   Oh, I know some parents cry for, “Ice-time!  Ice-time!  Ice-time!”  And a lot of programs hype just that.  However, ice-time alone doesn’t make a player scholarship ready, not by a long shot; ice-time and the right repetitions will help; so will ice-time and an understanding of basic playing principles.  And, the only way to get those is through good coaching (or CoachChic.com?).

Lastly, you may have noticed that I had to a few times let you know that I was referring to “boys”.  That’s because girls’ hockey does not have the equivalent of Junior hockey.  I also want to remind you that things change rapidly in the recruiting game, oftentimes because of a new NCAA ruling, and sometimes just because coaches change their perspective and begin a new trend.  Consequently, the above is the best advice I can share with Donna and others RIGHT NOW.

Guiding a 4-year Old Hockey Player

We have Erin S to thank for this awesome — and very appropriate — question submitted to Ask The Coach!  (Thanks, Erin!)

Erin mentions some background information — in that her 4-year old son’s dad is a professional hockey player, and that the little tyke has been skating since he was 16-months old.  The lad currently skates about three times per week, and the combination of an early start and regular ice-time seemingly have him “WAY ahead of kids his age…”

In a nutshell, her question is, “… how much is too much for a child his age?”  And Erin goes on with, “… I don’t want to make it a job.”

– Dennis Chighisola

Guiding a 4-year Old Hockey Player

Erin might be interested to know that we actually have a number of folks within our CoachChic.com membership who either are or have been parents of 4-year old skaters.  (Craig from British Columbia and Kathy from New Jersey come to mind right away.)  And, on top of interacting with those wonderful people, I’ve also run arguably the top Learn-to-skate/Learn-to-play clinics in the New England region for about the past 30-years.

Now, I think that just about everything Erin wrote is relevant to this discussion.

The fact that dad is a pro player can be very impactful in all this.  My own son was a long-time minor pro, I’ve been a long-time coach and hockey instructor, and it stood to reason that my son’s young guy would eventually be exposed to the game beyond most other little ones.  Same thing with Erin’s son, in that he probably can’t avoid seeing and hearing about hockey — probably 24/7.  I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all — children of firemen probably want to wear their dad’s work caps, mechanics’ kids probably can’t wait to get their own tool kits, and sons and daughters of hockey players no doubt want to as best they can emulate their dads.  Again, I think this natural, and seldom a bad thing.

Nor is starting one fairly young necessarily a problem.   I really don’t go by ages when I admit kids to my own Learn-to programs, but instead I take into account personalities.  Let’s face it, there are some 10-year olds who won’t let go of the side boards, and some 2-year olds who bust out the rink door hell bent for leather.  And my guess is that Erin’s little boy was much like the latter example.

Personally, I think it’s a plus that the little guy is ahead of most other kids his age (see my later comments on this).  And, while Erin might think this has to do with the boy starting rather early, I’ll suggest that it also has a great deal to do with the boy’s opportunity to watch hockey more than most others his age.  In other words, his young brain and all his body’s signalling devices have likely been memorizing all the game’s movements for a relatively long time.

Okay, now for the more difficult questions…

Number One, I believe that the parent of a 4-year old is totally in charge of everything having to do with his or her youngster’s hockey activities.  And I’m especially talking about the atmosphere surrounding hockey activities.  Some parents have a way of making each one a drudgery (ugh… or a job as Erin puts it).  Others can keep things light, and fun.

Secondly, there’s the issue of whether three skates were week are too much for a 4-year old.  Personally, I’d say that’s borderline.  Are three trips to the rink too much?  No, I don’t believe so.  But then, it all boils down to my previous point — this having to do with the feelings (or atmosphere) associated with each trip to the rink.  What I’m really getting at is that those on-ice sessions not be viewed as compulsory, mandatory, whatever.  (If it ever crosses Erin’s or her son’s mind that, “Oh, I HAVE TO go to the rink today!” I’d say it’s time to take a break.)  In fact, blowing-off an occasional session just might reap some rewards, because I’ve seen lots of kids come back with a vengeance once they’ve missed a session, making the next string of three per weeks all the more productive.

Third, there is something to be said for a youngster feeling good about himself or herself.  And in this regard, I’m talking about a player (of any age) taking a look around and realizing that he or she is better at something than most others.  I even know some psychologists who will tell us that the confidence gained in one area tends to flow over into other areas of one’s life — like from hockey to school work, to self-esteem within friends, and so forth.  So, neither is it a bad thing that we give a kid the chance to excel at something.

Let me now share with Erin and others an analogy I often use…

You see, lobster is a delicacy for me.  Why?  It’s because I love it, and also because I don’t get to have it that often.  Shove it down my throat three meals per day for a solid week, and you can guess how I’d then feel.

In much the same way, I see a very delicate balance between helping a youngster get pretty good, compared to getting him or her so much practice time that they fall out of love with the game.  (And, by the way, that constant monitoring of a delicate balance should take place throughout a player’s years in sport.  There’s little doubt that Erin’s son’s dad still loves hockey, even as a pro.  And, that didn’t likely come about by accident.)

Well, I think that about covers it from this old coach’s perspective, with my main point to highlight how much control Erin and her boy’s dad have over the entire situation.  Make sense?

*

As always, I invite input or other opinions from members, and I also welcome Erin
to Comment in the box provided below.  We can keep an ongoing discussion going right
here if that will help at all.