Can you feel it? The excitement? Many of you are already back into your hockey season and even the NHL players will be back on the ice next weekend for the start of their camps. Although I have not done any face-to-face team training for a few years because my schedule at the Revolution studio keeps me pretty busy, I still get calls and emails from hockey coaches who are trying to help their players develop over the season. I think this is great! They want to invest in their players’ development and back when I was still working off-site with teams I charged $150/hour.
Here is the thing that many coaches don’t understand and I will probably get a few nasty emails from other trainers for telling you this, but most young players (under 16 years of age) just need the basics. They need to be stronger, they need to be quicker, they need to be more stable. Anyone can teach this. You get better return for your players by taking them through a 30-minute workout 2-3 times per week than you will from paying me $150 to come out once per week or twice per month.
I even thought this would make a great information product….Then I remembered an email I had received from my colleague and fellow hockey strength and conditioning coach Kevin Neeld – he has already created exactly this type of product. It is called Hockey Training University’s Off-Ice Performance Training, so I gave the program a thorough review before making any recommendations and here are my thoughts:
- I like it – and what I like the most about this very comprehensive product is the fact that Kevin includes exercise progressions. He does not just provide random workouts that don’t build on one another. You know how much I despise trainers who just try to make a workout hard for the sake of creating fatigue without taking the steps that will actually build a better athlete.
- Kevin has a proven track record so he has included the exercises that he uses in the gym with his junior, college and pro players. To make it even better he includes detailed exercise descriptions and pictures of each exercise. There are no videos, but there are good photos showing you what to do.
- Kevin and I agree that we are better off doing time efficient training that is effective rather than running the players around the arena until someone pukes. I think Kevin’s Hockey Training University program provides a better solution for youth hockey players.
- You will not have to blow your budget on a bunch of gimmicky training equipment your hockey players will get stronger and more stable by using their body weight and standard tools that you will find at any arena (benches, chairs, etc).
- The training manual is written for coaches. This is not a home training program for hockey players, although the could use it; it was created with the coach in mind. As a former US College hockey player Kevin understands the time demands on a coach so he has taken that into consideration.
You know that I don’t promote products that I do not believe in and I easily endorse this one. It is an instant download – so you do not have to wait for shipping and it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee. So if you are looking for ways to help your hockey players develop as athletes and win a few more games – follow this link and learn more about it –
Off-Ice Workout Plans for Hockey Coaches
Now to answer one more question – does Kevin give me kickbacks if you guys buy the product? Well, kinda – we both sell our online products through a company called Clickbank which allows anyone to become an affiliate to any product and subsequently earn commissions. I think I will earn about $25 for every training course sold. Although $25 is nothing to sneeze at – I am recommending the product because it is a good one and I know it will work.
Cheers,
Maria