So with the advent of a new year it seems natural to look back on the year that was and to look forward to the year ahead.  On Monday I took a glimpse back at the top goalie training posts from 2011 and today I am going to share what I think will be some of the top training trends for 2012.

Before I get into that I also want to remind you to look back at this article about adjusting your mindset so rather than think of everything that could go wrong, you think of everything that could go right.  In the article I urge you to write your goals down, it is the first step to making you accountable and making the goals real.  The second step is sharing them with your community.  For you maybe that is your family, your friends or your teammates, I don’t care who it is, but tell someone.  Tell someone who will ask you 2-months down the road – ‘hey how are you doing with that goal of yours’.

So to show you that I ‘walk-the-walk’ I am going to share my complete list for 2012…here it goes….

• Hire a coach to work with me at Revolution Sport Conditioning so we can impact more athletes with my proven trainings systems and to allow me to focus a little more on the long-term development of the business.
• Keep working toward my Mission of helping 10,000 goalies win more games with fewer injuries – my goal is to add 4,000 goalies to my email list which means they took the first step of taking on the 14-day flexibility challenge.
• Increase the number of online training program sales by 25% – I will accomplish this by adding some premium offerings – the first one will be a premium version of the UGT and the second will be to expand my Elite Goalie Strength & Conditioning program.  You will learn more about these projects soon.
• My personal fitness goals:
  • Deadlift 225lbs for 4 reps
  • Chin Up x 10
  • Run sub 1:50 half marathon
• Climb a Munro in Scotland
• Drink a Guinness at Bono’s hotel in Dublin
• Save my $$ so I can give Paul a big surprise – like a surprise trip to Toronto or something like that….shhhhhh – don’t tell Paul!
• Read 30-minutes each night between 7-7:30pm.  Mondays/Wednesdays read about business; Tuesdays/Thursdays read about training
• Consistently schedule out my daily tasks the night before.

So that is my list and I will let you know how I do with it.  There are a few things on there that I know I can do, but a few of them are pretty huge.  Can I really deadlift 100lbs more than my body weight?  I have no idea, but I would like to try.  Can I add 4,000 goalies to my email list (that would be more than double the number that I added this year) – no idea, but if I work at it I don’t see why not.

What is on your list?

Top 5 Trends in Goalie Training for 2012

1. Concussion prevention will become an even bigger topic in 2012.  Right now the focus is on equipment and rules, but I predict that off-ice training will start playing a role as well.  There has been some suggestion that strengthening the muscles that control the neck may reduce the incidence of concussion as it decreases ‘whiplash’ effect when a player is struck.
2. Mainstream fitness clubs will jump on the ‘functional training’ bandwagon – about 7 years behind us independent trainers.  I predict that failure to do this will kill some of the big box clubs as members who are actually interested in improving their fitness move to the small group training options at private studios or Crossfit-style training spaces (more on this in a second).  So hopefully the Kettlebells, TRXs and Free Motion equipment will no longer be roped off in your fitness club as the sole domain of their  “Master Trainers”.
3. I predict that CrossFit will continue to flourish (for now).  Not familiar with Crossfit?  This is the topic for an entire post in itself, so stay tuned for that.  Basically, CrossFit is the result of the functional training pendulum swinging to the far extreme.  So you will see a police officer, high school football player and my Mom doing clean and jerks with a car axel using the worst technique imaginable while a coach yells, “good job, you got this!”  See the video – you won’t believe it ’til you see it.  I am generalizing here and I am sure that there are some CrossFit coaches who move away from the traditional philosophy to train members based on competence and sound physiological principles rather than the ‘workout of the day’ model.

      4.  Goalies (and skaters for that matter) will realize that long-steady-state cardio (i.e. running or riding the bike for 40-60 minutes at a steady pace) is great for cardiac rehab after a heart attack, but has no place in goalie training.  Short duration, high intensity interval training will become the standard for energy system development in this sport.

     5.   Finally, I predict that you will continue to surprise yourself and your teammates with your development as a goalie.  You will continue to take consistent steps toward improving your goals, even if they are small steps – like signing up to do the 14-day Flexibility Challenge in the top right corner of this page.  Your desire to be better and your willingness to take consistent steps toward that goal using the best goalie training info available is what sets you apart from the competition.  Although other goalies may be better than you right now, they are standing still while you are steadily gaining on them and one day in the not-so-distant future you will surpass them.  I predict that sharing your successes will motivate me to post even more goalie training techniques to help you succeed at higher and higher levels.

Best wishes for all good things in 2012 – look for a post later this week crushing the ‘bulking up myth’ which has some goalie training programs promoting the use of light weight and high repetitions – do you make this mistake?