APPLIED HOCKEY SCIENCES

"The Legs Feed The Wolf..."

                    - Herb Brooks

                                         

Players and coaches of North American teams have seen that Russian hockey players are extremely fast skaters.  Russian players practice everything on the ice at uncomfortably fast tempo and speed.  Their feet are always moving, their stick never stops moving in and out, passes are made and received while skating full speed around corners, and goaltenders never know when the shot is coming.  

Because of the incredibly high tempo of movement in practice, the Russian players "comfort zone"  (meaning the pace in which he is comfortable performing the skills of the game of hockey)  is very fast. Therefore when he enters into a game, he does not have to crank it up a notch like many other players do.  He just goes into the game and performs at the same tempo that he has practiced at hour after hour, year after year.  

Applied Hockey Sciences increases players speed, and execution of hockey related skills to a higher level. This is accomplished through interval training performed at uncomfortable speeds on the ice.  In addition overload training principals are incorporated into on ice sessions. This aids the player in building strength in the legs so that the player can corner at much higher speeds.  With older players this can be accomplished with proper form and weight vests.  Proper form is critical to success, skating with a 20 pound weight vest with straight legs would be counter productive.  It would be better to lessen the weight or use no weight at all (in the case of younger players) and be sure that the skater is using proper form and knee bend.  As the older player gets stronger the weight can be increased, and interval times should never exceed the ability of the skater to be able to execute the overload with the proper skating form.      

"BUILDING BETTER HOCKEY PLAYERS THROUGH SCIENCE"

APPLIED HOCKEY SCIENCES

Applied Hockey Sciences Established Since 2000