Tuukka Rask – I’m saying Meniscus
Greetings from the Edinburgh airport – Paul and I are waiting for our flight to Belfast which will leave in a few hours. I actually have no problem waiting in…
Kevin Neeld Spills the Beans on Hip Impingement
Hope you are all having a great week, as you know Paul and I are in the UK doing some backpacking. We saved up for five years to go on…
Protect your shoulder during reaching saves.
For today’s exercise tip for goalies, I am answering a great question that I got on Twiter – you can follow me – @GoalieTraining. This is a great way to ask a quick question and this one is courtesy of @MsConduct10 (does that mean there are 9 other MsConducts?)
So, the question was about the awkward position when a goalie is making a reaching save with the arm outstretched in front of their body. This is a pretty biomechanically weak position and a vulnerable position for the triceps and the lats. With the triceps being the weaker of there is a risk
Cardio Training for Goalies
Over the last 4 days I have had three questions about cardio training for goalies, so it was a bit of a no brainer what I should write about today. The questions I get about cardio training are similar but different; here are the ones I will cover today…
Should I do some cardio training before I start an off-ice program like Ultimate Goalie Training 2.0 just to drop a few pounds and get a base?
Should I do long slow cardio?
What type of cardio should I do sprints or long slow distance?
I did touch on the topic last week during the Q&A, but since I have had several questions since that post went out, I guess I need to give it a little more detail. So here we go…
An experiment in techno-wizardry & forearm strength for goalies
Hope your week is off to a great start so far. As I mentioned in the title of this post, this is a bit of an experiment in techno-wizardry. As…
Off-Ice Goalie Training Q&A – Part 2
As promised, here is part two of the Q&A. I posted the first part of this goalie training Q&A earlier this week and although I thought it was a pretty quick Q&A, it turned out the be 12-minutes. Well, I know that most of you have other things to do – like train for hockey – and asking you to sit down and watch a 12-minute goalie training video is quite a bit to ask on a Monday. So, I split it in two and here is the second part (then read the bottom of the post for a wicked tech tip).
Is It All In Your Head?
Did you know that if you take ask an individual to exercise a muscle group to exhaustion – to the point where they cannot possibly do one more rep even if their life depended on it, but then apply an electrical impulse to the muscle, it will continue to contract.
In other words, you circumnavigate the nervous system and apply an direct and external depolarization (electrical impulse), which is how nerves activate muscle fibres, and you can get an exhausted muscle to do more work.
Am I suggesting that this is just mental weakness on the part of the subject? No, not entirely. There could be an exhaustion of the motor pathway by some other mechanism, but we have all heard stories of people summonsing super human strength to perform unbelievable feats.
Okay, let’s step back a bit now and think of the role that mental strength plays in the success of a goalie, not in terms of their neurophysiology necessarily, but in terms of their ability to focus and when necessary re-focus.
I had the opportunity to speak with Nashville Predators Goaltending Coach Mitch Korn a few weeks ago and our conversation kept turning to the mental aspect of the game.
Off-Ice Goalie Training Q&A
Okay – on to the task at hand. Time for another installment of… Off-Ice Goalie Training Q&A – Part 1
This one got so long that I decided to split it into two. Today I will answer questions about…
– medicine ball exercises
– I want to do UGT 2.0 because I am very competitive – but I am also super busy – what should I do?
– starting your hockey/goaltending career later in life
Get all the answers in the video below and stay tuned for part two later in the week.
What’s with Spring Hockey Tryouts?
Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about my wish for a ‘rule’ that would let you punch (might have said pinch – but what I meant was punch) someone as hard as you can without any repercussion? So there would be a list of circumstances when you could punch – just once and then go on about your day. Need examples….
You need a divorce.
Did I get you with that headline? Hope none of you stopped reading at that and went straight to the phone to call your lawyer. Put down the phone and let me explain how you need to divorce something from your off-ice training.
I cannot remember who it is off the top of my head, but there is a strength coach who talks about coaches, trainers and athletes who are ‘married’ to an exercise. You know the type – they are nice, smart, honest people who choose a spouse who lies, cheats and steals.
You finally get the courage to tell your friend ‘the truth’ about their spouse – thinking you are doing them this great favour – letting them know that the one they love is actually doing them long-term harm. You are saving them from pain and suffering down the road – you are a good friend.
So you give your friend the facts and what is their response?