Checklist for a head start…
I am not exaggerating when I say that May is critical for you.
If your hockey season starts in September then May should be the first month of your off-season. If you are not yet 14/15 years old or if you just play hockey for fun, then don’t worry about any of this – go on about your day, it is not for you 🙂
But if you are serious about making next season your best season so far. If you are serious about impressing your coaches (and your teammates) when you step on the ice next season with your new found (hard earned) strength, speed and stamina, then May is critical.
At my gym Revolution Conditioning we started our HockeyStrong program today (Monday)!
It was awesome to see everyone back in the gym for another summer. We also play pretty cutthroat music trivia and I am pleased to report that I got 5 songs today – – not a record, but a good start for sure.
So – to help you get off to a great start with your off-season, here is a checklist I put together for you. Print it out and check it off, if you have six or more checkmarks, then you are all set; if not, then you have some work to do ASAP.
Here is your Checklist:
- Detailed hockey training program with exact exercises, sets, reps, tempos, everything.
- Detailed training schedule with what days and times you will train at.
- Enlisted a motivated training buddy or accountability partner to help push you along on the days when you don’t feel like doing your workout (and there will be days like that) and vice versa.
- Detailed nutritional strategy with 1-2 main areas to focus on such as minimizing (name your favourite) junk food and what you will eat immediately after your workouts to refuel.
- A binder or app to record all of your workouts. If you are looking to play at your highest potential, then you should be following the habits of the top performers and trust me, they all record their training.
- Action plan to address any injury prone areas. That may be a standing appointment with your physiotherapist or chiropractor or it may be as simple as doing your prehab exercises on a daily basis.
- Written goals for the first month of your off-season training. Somewhere that you have written down 1-3 goals for the month such as – getting in all of my strength workouts, doing daily mobility and eating breakfast 5-days per week. I also like to add a punishment if I don’t achieve my monthly goals. A good one for me is no Starbucks for a week. For you it might be no Netflix for a week or something like that. I usually try to pick something that is good for me to miss out on anyway.
My Dad was one of the wisest guys I have ever known and he used to say “Begin as you intend to continue”, which applies to your off-season training and this is why May is a critical time for you.
You need to hit it with discipline and dedication.
You need to set the tone for this off-season right now.
What would you think if your team had no game plan for the first period of the game?
If you coach came into the dressing room before the game and just said, “okay boys, just do out there and do whatever for the first period, then we will make a plan and work twice as hard in the last two periods – it will be awesome”. That would never happen right?
You cannot “make up” for lost time later by working extra hard. Time that you fail to invest now is lost forever.
If you are playing another sport, that is great and I know it will cut into your off-season training for hockey a bit, but still have a plan. Maybe you will only be doing two off-season hockey workouts each week – still do the checklist so you have a plan for exact what, when and how you will get those workouts done.
Cheers,
M
PS – if you don’t have a checkmark beside the first two items, you really should give this step-by-step program a look. The price is going back up to full price next week and when you join, not only will you get the detailed workouts for May, you will also get the January, February, March and April for FREE. You don’t need them now, but you can download them and save them for later.