Lateral movement and dryland training

[Incarnation 0]

I've analysed my defensive play and I've come to the conclusion that my biggest weakness is lateral movement on ice. I think it could be practised quite easily on ice, but the problem is that there's no time to practise it on ice.

So what kind of dryland training should I perform to improve my on ice lateral movement?

All ideas and tips are welcome!

[Chadd 916]

Basic footspeed drills like ladders or some plyometrics.

[Dean_ 0]

Basic footspeed drills like ladders or some plyometrics.

Exactlly, thats what helped me improve my lateral movement and footspeed. Also give skipping a try

[Incarnation 0]

Basic footspeed drills like ladders or some plyometrics.

Exactlly, thats what helped me improve my lateral movement and footspeed. Also give skipping a try

Thanks for help Chadd, I'll look into it.

Dean, could you please tell more about this skipping you mentioned. I didn't quite understand what you meant.

[AnthonyJTa 0]

Dean, could you please tell more about this skipping you mentioned. I didn't quite understand what you meant.

he means skipping rope.. jump rope.

[Incarnation 0]

Dean, could you please tell more about this skipping you mentioned. I didn't quite understand what you meant.

he means skipping rope.. jump rope.

Ok, thanks for making it clear.

[Monty22 832]

Dean, could you please tell more about this skipping you mentioned. I didn't quite understand what you meant.

he means skipping rope.. jump rope.

Ok, thanks for making it clear.

Glad that was resolved. I was picturing a burly defenceman skipping down the street telling anyone who asked "It's dryland training".....

[zales17 0]

in addition to what has already been stated (especially the basic ladder drills) I believe that grapevines (a type of sideways alternating crossovers done at high speed) are very valuable as a defenseman. try plyometric box jumps for both height and speed (maybe a lower box for the speed drill). Also high knees for maybe 25 yrds at a time is a good drill for footspeed. Running backwards in sprint fashion is good (just dont bust your ass). also shuttle runs (basically a suicide on land and for a shorter distance is good) hope that helps some

[BMcDonald19 0]

www.niketraining.com

check out the summer shift stuff... its really good

[biff44 0]

Lateral movement, especially for big guys, is tough to develop. Step one is in the weight room, where you have to develop very strong legs and at least acceptable core strength. The Squat rack is your friend. Work on getting those muscles a lot bigger. There is no substitute for pure muscle strength here, since you are trying to accelerate your body mass quickly--that needs force.

Then, when you have a base to work with, you need a lot of plyo, one-legged stuff, and balance work. Stuff like jumping left to right over one cone and landing on one foot. One legged body-weight squats. You are trying to build up your explosive speed to change direction quickly. That is a different type of muscle to train. Also, you are trying to get your brain to be able to fire your muscles quicker too. Get a wobble board, and lift some dumbells on it. You want to be able to check a guy when you only have one leg on the ice, or when you are slightly off balance, before he blows by you.

You might want to do some eye training for peripheral vision. That is because you want to be looking at his chest, ignoring head fakes, but also be able to see the puck on the ice without staring at it. The only thing I can say is to practice on the ice and make sure you are looking at the right place during one on ones. There is a nintendo DS game called flash focus that supposedly trains this, but do not know if it really does. Screen is pretty small for peripheral training.

Finally, you have to evaluate your gap control. During a game, you watch the players to see how quick and crafty they are. Some rookies coming at you? Play him agressively. Some stud with more moves than Sid the kid? Give him a bigger gap and concentrate on just driving him to a point on the ice where he has a bad angle to shoot from, and hope your goalie is not asleep.

[Incarnation 0]

Thanks ALOT zales17 and biff44!

I looked for some stuff about plyometrics and found this site:

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyom...cexercises.html

It looks quite good to me, but what do you guys think?

Anyway I think I'll give those exercises a try tomorrow. I'll increase amount of squat stuff in my "training program" (man, that sounds way to pro :P ) as you suggested biff44.

[biff44 0]

This is a pretty good video:

http://www.amazon.com/Jumping-Into-Plyomet...2457&sr=8-6

Remember a few things about plyo:

You have to be in pretty good shape to start with before doing intense plyo. You need the muscles and ligaments there and strong before you pound the pooh out of them. So, if you are flabby girly boy, a few months lifting weights are required first.

Not all plyo help you in hockey! So do not do them all. Side to side plyo, bounding, broad jumps, etc, are all good. Mostly the leg based ones that mimmic the hockey skating moves.

There are different intensity plyo! Start off with the easy ones, like cone jumping. Any sort of really big or deep jumps off of boxes come later, after you have built up to them.

You do not want your ankles falling off in midseason!

[biff44 0]

And, remember the type of floor you do the plyo on is pretty important to your health. If it is a concrete floor, you better have very well padded sneakers. If it is wooden stadium stairs, they give a little, and are less trouble to the joints. The best is, of course, outdoors on some turf.

[Incarnation 0]

I've been doing some plyometrics for two weeks now, 3 times a week, about 30 minutes at a time. It doesn't feel bad at all, although I'm quite exhausted after every workout, which includes 30-45 minutes of (all-round) strength workout + those plyos.

Hopefully I'll see some results after few months.

Then an off-topic question: What kind of dryland workouts would be best to improve weaker side crossovers and stopping? I might want to work on those also.

By the way biff44, description "flabby girly boy" doesn't fit me at all. :D

[marocks24 0]

these are all awesome work-outs! There's also a trend going on lately that guarantee you a quicker 40 yard run and they do focus on lower body and plyometric work-outs.. I think they're called "velocity"--I've found some training facilities here in Northern California.

[flaming_june 2]

why is Running backwards in sprint fashion good?

[quasi 0]

Then an off-topic question: What kind of dryland workouts would be best to improve weaker side crossovers and stopping? I might want to work on those also.

I'd like to know as well, both dryland and on-ice drills.

[biff44 0]

By that, you mean you can cross-over on one side, but not the other? Could be a number of things, such as:

You have two different size feet and the skate on one foot is too loose, so you can not glide on it.

You have a poor ankle muscle on one foot and you need to strengthen it (stand on one foot balancing for one minute, then do the other foot. Equal balance strength?)

You can try single legged body weight squats.

You can do some figure skating edge work drills--large circles on one set of edges at a time, like forwards inside edges, forwards outside edges, backwards inside edges...

[N!! 0]

these are all awesome work-outs! There's also a trend going on lately that guarantee you a quicker 40 yard run and they do focus on lower body and plyometric work-outs.. I think they're called "velocity"--I've found some training facilities here in Northern California.

If memory serves me correctly, it's based on the Soviet-era system of so-called "overspeed" training. There's coaches who specialize in it, and it certainly has merit (look how many white Russians were Olympic-level sprinters), but the carryover into hockey is negligible.

The reason is that hockey is more of a series of stops and starts than straight-on speed. The initial acceleration is absolutely vital, but the top-end speed not so much.

Besides, the 40 came into fashion because Paul Brown used it for a very good reason: on special teams, it was the farthest distance a player was likely to travel.

why is Running backwards in sprint fashion good?

It prevents full extension of the knee and keeps the weight up on the toes rather than on the heel or mid-foot. Sprint speed is derived from a basic formula of (stride length x stride frequency). Stride frequency declines dramatically when the entire foot from heel to toe contacts the ground during a stride.

This keeps the emphasis on the muscles, rather than on the skeletal and soft tissue structure.

I've been doing some plyometrics for two weeks now, 3 times a week, about 30 minutes at a time. It doesn't feel bad at all, although I'm quite exhausted after every workout, which includes 30-45 minutes of (all-round) strength workout + those plyos.

Hopefully I'll see some results after few months.

Then an off-topic question: What kind of dryland workouts would be best to improve weaker side crossovers and stopping? I might want to work on those also.

By the way biff44, description "flabby girly boy" doesn't fit me at all. :D

Work on the weaker-side crossovers. My guess is that you're severely dominant-handed, meaning that you naturally developed the ability to stop one way, crossover one way, etc, but the other side is sorely lacking. The best way to address that is simply by working on the weak side.

A great exercise is sumo squats. Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart, squat down, then push up with one leg while angling your body 45 degrees over that side. Reset to neutral, squat to the other side, and repeat ad nauseum.