Hey! Hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving if you live here in Canada-land. Mine was pretty quite – I told you all about it HERE – and as promised, here is a photo of my ‘frozen turkey roll’ dinner.
The weather stayed beauty for the entire weekend (a little cloudy on Sunday morning) so I got out for a great run in the afternoon and when Paul got home from his parent’s cottage yesterday we got out for a nice bike ride. This is really the most beautiful time of year. If you have never been to Canada – come in the Autumn!
EOTW: How To Hip Hinge
This one comes from the email bag – I had a question from a Dad who was having trouble teaching his son how to hip hinge. In other words his son always wanted to get low by bending his knees, but not get his hips back, which robs him of the most powerful skating muscle in the body – the glutes.
So this video really shows two things – how to hip hinge for exercises like the deadlift or kettlebell swing – those are not squat movements – and a little on-ice trick to help skaters get into a better position on the ice with both knee flexion and hip flexion.
It is not a perfect position (ideally I would like to see a bit more knee/hip flexion), but it will get most players skating with better knee bend and hip flexion than they currently are. Anyone else amazed at how many players skate around with almost straight knees?
If possible get a video of yourself skating during a game – I bet you will be surprised at how straight your legs are.
Nitrous for your skating speed
The next time you are on the ice, get into the ‘ready position’ I show in the video (you could even get a little bit lower) and then focus on powerful strides through the full range as you skate a length of the ice – amazingly fast isn’t it? Like hitting the nitrous button!
So now your task is to do that every time you step on the ice. Then try to do it for all your shifts in the first period, then for the first half of the game, then 2/3rds and ultimately the full game. It will be more tiring especially at first, but you will get used to it and the difference I your speed will be noticeable.
The burning in your legs will be well worth it when your coaches and teammates are complimenting you on your new-found speed.
Here’s how to do it…
If you cannot see the video in the player above, no worries, just click on the link below…
http://youtu.be/_1whA3-74Wk
How much? How many?
The hip hinge is just a skill practice – do 1 set of 10 reps every other day to learn that pattern flawlessly, then progress to the Kettlebell Deadlift.
Happy training gang – make sure you get in your high intensity interval training this week to work off that turkey 🙂
Cheers,
M