The Sustainable Hockey Player’s Guide
Building a Long Term Sustainable Athlete
There’s nothing more heart-breaking than seeing a young athlete go through a catastrophic injury.
Making sure athletes are able to continue to play their sport long term is something we are extremely passionate about.
The team here at OnSide specializes in youth sports and we understand the need for increased performance. Our young athletes need to be practicing their sport and honing their skills to improve. They also need to be learning how to move properly so that they can not only excel in their sport, but enjoy a better quality of life now and in the future.
When it comes to creating a balanced athlete, one that performs at their best and does so safely, Dryland training is the perfect tool. Often times, too much sport-specific training creates imbalances in athletes that can lead to injury. Let me explain why.
Dryland for correcting imbalances
This is where all athletes should start.
This methodology of training is often neglected, but it’s important to understand that in order for an athlete to perform at their best, they need to understand how to move properly. The old addage, “learn to walk before you run,” applies here. With most sports, athlete’s spend a great deal of time practicing, which of course is important. However, all of that practice creates physical imbalances, like poor posture.
Here’s why balance is the most important part of a program.
The stress on our joints from having certain muscles over developed and others under developed (for example, the constant motion of skating) can often lead to an injury. This is why we need to develop the primary and secondary muscle for each movement.
Sure, a good stretch after practice and games is very important but that isn’t going to help strengthen the muscle that athletes are not often using.
When athletes have poor mobility, they can still perform all of the movements required in a particular sport. The human body is resilient, it will figure out the best way to do something based on what its got to work with. The down side for athletes is that with every degree of inflexibility, the body works much harder than someone with good mobility to acheive the same movement.
This should only be for athletes who already have experience training and are aware of their imbalances.
This methodology considers the common movements in a sport and aims to perfect them over and over.
This method is not suited for young athletes, not yet anyways.
Wait, increasing performance is a good thing, what gives?
Far too often we see Dryland programs that consist of the same movements that athletes are doing on the ice. Things like the On-Land Skating Machines, or Shooting Rooms to practice shots, are simply reinforcing the same movement patterns that may be leading an athlete to further imbalances.
Not only do athletes have to worry about increased risk of injury by training this way but they are also more likely to reach a plateau in their performance.
To be able to constantly improve in athletic ability, hockey or not, athletes need to be addressing their weaknesses.
If you’ve heard all the rage about the importance of multisport – this is the driving factor. If athletes are going to spend all year in skates without proper dryland, they might come out of the sport being able to skate better than they can walk.
Here are our two secrets to creating long lasting athletes
An effective program is one that you enjoy doing. Have fun with it, join a group, or train with friends.
Fix your imbalances. Doing this will propel you forward by leaps and bounds. We have a pretty good idea of what those typical imbalances are at OnSide – its all in the guide.
Playing with poor mobility is like driving a car with the handbrake on. its’ extremely inefficient and sooner or later something will catch fire.
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Halifax, NS
B3S 1A9