Hope you are having a great week. Thoughts on the Chara hit from Tuesday night’s game? Personally, I think it is horrible that Pacioretty was badly hurt. My heart really goes out to him and his family/friends who had to watch that and worry whether he was okay or not. Just terrible! But, I think if that glass divider had not been there, we would not be talking about it. Chara is a big man so it was a hard hit, but I believe him when he says he was not trying to run Max into the glass. I think it was an unfortunate incident, but I don’t think Chara deserved a suspension. I do think those dividers need to be modified somehow. What about a move to European sized ice? Do you think that would slow the game down a little? Not sure what the answer is. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Last week we did some flexibility tests for hockey players, so here is your mini-test for this week – it is a little strength and power test for skaters and goalies. Now please read this WARNING first…. if you have crappy sore knees, then don’t do the single leg squat or the long jump. If you have not jumped higher than a blade of grass in the last 10-years, don’t do the standing long jump. If you are home with a disc herniation, don’t get off the sofa and try the core endurance test. If you have a shoulder impingement issue, push ups may not be the right thing for you right now. Please use common sense, you can hurt yourself by trying to do max effort if you are not accustomed to it. So this test is only for those of you who are training regularly 3-4 times per week including some sort of agility or plyometric training. Fair enough?
Secondly, I want to clarify that this is not all of the testing I do with players who train with me at Revolution, but I picked a few that I thought would give you a snap shot of where you are at, that you could do at home and that were relatively safe. Could I have included chin ups? Yes. Vertical Jump? Yes.
Okay, here is the video showing you how to do each basic test:
What I look for when I do the tests with non-pro players is a standing long jump of approximately your height, at least 9 core plank holds of 10s, at least 10 perfect single leg squats (perfect alignment, back position – everything – no crappy reps) and 10 perfect push ups for the women/20 perfect push ups for the guys. Again, that is not to say that once they get there I am happy and their training is over, but it is the starting standard we are going for.
I will give you some sample results from one of my hockey groups (high school age). At the beginning of the training phase only two players could do one good single leg squat, by the third month they were all doing perfect reps with 20lbs dumbbell in each hand. They were all hitting around 2.5 meters for their standing long jump after 3 months and they could all hold the 10s core plank for 10 reps (that is were we used to stop the testing, now I have bumped it up to 15).
Let me know how you do on the test below….
Cheers,
Maria
PS – sorry but one of you emailed me asking how long the Teen Sport Nutrition Blueprint FREE shipping offer lasted. I cannot find your email so I hope you see this. It runs until Friday, March 11th. Free shipping anywhere in the world – Teen Sport Nutrition Blueprint