strength and conditioning
a programme aimed at getting you into top shape for hockey part 6: the best hockey year of your life
INTRODUCTION The new year is always a great time of year with regards to
training everyone approaches it with a breath of fresh air, a seemingly new-found determination, and feeling that what wasn’t achieved last year will be possible this time around. A new year, a new you!
CAN IT BE ACHIEVED? Well let me tell you a little secret, all of this IS possible.
You can achieve what you didn’t last year, you can play better hockey, be quicker, stronger and most importantly remain injury free. The bad news is (of course nothing comes without a price) that it isn’t going to be easy. If you can accept this and are prepared to put extra
hours in the gym doing the stuff you’ve always avoided doing because you didn’t know how, it seemed hard or because you had no motivation, then you are going to be one step closer to being the hockey player you’ve always wanted to be. Many of you will be starting playing again by the time
you read this article which is all the more reason you try to complete the below programme at least once, ideally twice/three times a week. We all know how it feels to start training again after the holidays – muscles hurt that we didn’t even know existed and the last thing you will want to do is go to the gym and do yet another session. But trust me this session in the words of Oasis ‘is gonna be the one that saves ya’!
NOTE I am aware that some of you may be new subscribers and
will be reading these articles for the first time and so for you I am going to re-cap on what has been discussed previously. In doing so I will choose one exercise for each body part that I believe will have the most benefit and give you, as a hockey player, the biggest improvement. The result will be a core/strength programme which will put you in good stead for the games ahead. This will also bring everything together nicely and is a progression for those of you who followed the programmes I set last year.
OVERVIEW Are you strong in the muscles that need it the most? Sport
specific fitness is essential especially when it comes to a sport like hockey, where the demands of the game are pushing fitness levels higher and higher. By building a strong core you are giving yourself a better chance of improving your athletic performance whilst remaining injury free.
CORE This refers to the muscles deep within the abdomen which
connect to and stabilise the spine, pelvis and shoulders. We want to get these muscles strong not only so you are more able to stabilise the spine but also so that this increased efficiency can be carried over to hockey-specific movements like lunging into a tackle, squatting down when stopping a ball at a penalty corner and so on. Additionally an improvement in muscular imbalances will ensure that your back is better supported which is critical to remaining injury free in hockey, where the back has to cope with an undue amount of stress. The core works optimally when the both the front and back muscles are working simultaneously. For this reason the core exercise I have chosen: the front plank.
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GLUTES & HAMSTRINGS If you’ve ever watched an Asian team play you’ll know
speed is the essence of their game. They have strong legs and this transfers into their ability to being fast. Your hamstrings (three muscles at the back of your legs) and glutes (more commonly known as the bum) are responsible for producing these movements used when sprinting. When you strengthen these muscles you improve your running speed and explosiveness. To work on these muscles I have chosen two excercises: single leg raise stability ball roll in.
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ROTATION Hockey is one of the most notorious sports for requiring
stabilisation, strength and power through some form of rotation. Pushing, hitting, reverse stick shooting and tackling >>
with Sarah Thomas
Olympic hockey player Sarah Thomas continues her exclusive strength and conditioning programme for iMPROVe.
In part 6 she recaps what we learned last year and sets out
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