Ever know exactly where your glove or blocker needs to be, you just can’t get it there in time?
Sometimes that is because it was the perfectly placed shot and sometimes it is because your arm was simply too slow getting there.
It is a tricky thing to train because we don’t want to train it in a way that will throw off your ‘touch’ or your sense of how much force is required to get your glove exactly where you want it. So, doing hand-eye coordination drills with a weighted glove or resistance band isn’t really the answer.
If we want to help a track athlete improve their turn-over rate, we can do some overspeed training where they sprint with a slight amount of resistance to get the feel for moving their legs that quickly. It works.
How can we do that for your arm speed?
I have two drills for you today and as I wrote that last paragraph I had an “A-HAAAAA” moment (don’t you love it when that happens?) and I came up with a brand-new drill that you are going to LOVE! I will get a video put together over the next few days and post it for you.
But here are your two for today…
Can’t see the video above – – curious?? – – here is the link anyway
https://youtu.be/DzVHYxJ4Avk
LightSpeed Juggle
It is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – you are going to juggle a ball off the wall – – I like a Lacrosse ball – but a racquet ball is even more springy and will come off the wall super quick.
The point is to simply try and pass and catch the ball off the wall as fast as possible. If you don’t drop it at least 4 times during your set, then you are not trying hard enough to challenge yourself.
It helps if you just focus on throwing it as fast as you can rather than paying much attention to the catching part if that makes sense. Just get a fast throwing rhythm and try to stick with it – you should feel like a spaz when you do it.
Go for 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off and do 3 on each hand. Switch hands every time, so if you do 10 seconds with your right hand, then rest 20 seconds, then do 10 seconds with your left hand and rest 20 seconds, then back to your right – – you get the idea.
Ball off the wall double pump
The double pump is another way to force your hand to move quicker to make the catch. You have to watch the video to understand exactly what to do, but basically after the ball leaves your hand, you will pull your arm back in to your side before extending it again to make the catch.
Control your torso and just focus on moving that arm from the shoulder and elbow joint as quickly as you can.
Again, do 10 seconds on, 20 seconds off and do 3 on each hand. Switch hands every time.
I know you will be awful on your non-dominant side, it is okay – you will be surprised how much you improve with a little practice. And those little improvements will pay big dividends on the ice – it’s a game of inches 🙂
Enjoy!
Cheers,
M
PS – getting lots of requests for goalies who want to stop into London for a few days of training this off-season – if that is you, just email me directly maria@revolutionconditioning.com and I will let you know how we can make that work. My schedule gets packed from May through early September, so please don’t email in June to say that you would like to get some training 🙂