A common mistake when training hockey players is focusing on the large prime movers and ignoring the smaller stabilizing muscles. Thinking in terms of the quads and glutes, but ignoring the deep hip rotators. There are two reasons this is a big flaw in your off-ice training:
- If the stabilizing muscles are disproportionately weak relative to the large prime movers, your brain will limit the force production of the large movers. This is a protective mechanism to reduce the risk of injury.
- If you try to over-ride this protective mechanism, then guess what will eventually happen? You will injure yourself! Not really the goal of your off-ice training.
Check out this simple exercise that skater and goalies can use to train their hip stabilizers. Remember to keep both knees bent to approximately 90 degrees and try to keep your torso stable. Remember this is a stabilization exercise, so you do not need to overload with heavy weights.