When you have the drive and determination to become one of the players any coach is happy to have in the line-up, but you don’t have access to a qualified and proven hockey strength coach, what should you do?
I know several of you are pondering this exact question right now as the off-season approaches and you start making your plans.
For some of you it is the cost for private training that puts it out of reach. For the most part, when it comes to a professional trainer, you are going to get what you pay for. If you find a trainer who offers to do it for $20-30 per hour you are either getting a trainer who has trouble hanging on to clients, so they need to drop their prices to entice new ones or they are just starting out or trying to build up their roster. In that case, you could stumble upon a diamond in the rough (or not).
So if money is the issue, here are some ways you might still be able to train with that top trainer in your area…
- Ask if you can get a discount if you train with a friend, be prepared for them to say no – it takes time to create custom programs.
- See if they have small group training, this will typically cut your rate by 40-50% and still offers a great training experience. Look for groups with a player to athlete ratio of 4:1 or 6:1.
- Do they have another strength coach on staff you could train with who costs a little less? For example, my rate at RevCon is $150/hour, but you can train with one of the other coaches for $85-105 per hour and I still create the programs myself.
If money is still an issue OR geography is an issue…
So let’s say you cannot manage $48 per hour for small group training OR you live in a place where there simply are not any good hockey strength coaches, then you need to figure something else out.
Is there a town within an hour drive where you could go once every two weeks to work with someone? If they created a program for you and showed you how to do it, could you do it from home or the local gym?
Still can’t make it work…
Oh no! All your hockey dreams going up in smoke! – – no not really.
There are still plenty of options thanks to the interwebz.
- My friend Kevin Neeld created the Ultimate Hockey Transformation program
- The HockeyTrainingBlueprint is designed as a pro-style off-season program for skaters
- For goalies, you want either the Ultimate Goalie Training 3.0 or the brand new Shutout Academy
- Or you can sift through all the information (or misinformation) on the internet and put something together for yourself
Whichever you decide is right for you and your off-season hockey training, just don’t let your finances or your location be a reason you don’t prepare to the very best of your ability.
Happy Training!
M
PS – This past summer I trained a guy who was literally from North Pole, Alaska! He found a way to get it done! #NoExcuses.
