Q & A Tips for explosive Hockey stride

Subject: Explosive Hockey Stride - Quick Feet

Question: I am a young teenager and play from a travel tier I team and the State Select Team! I'm 5'2" and 100 lbs and an aspiring NHL player!

I have been training out of a great book called "52 Week Hockey Training" ...

I was wondering.... the book doesn't have many drills that directly relate to the first 4-5 explosive steps. It has very goods drills but only a couple of them. Could you help?

Answer:A first thing that becomes the very foundation for any high exertion maneouvers for hockey is you need to be FIT. If you are not already doing this, you must be doing regular cardio workouts to get your lungs and stamina "ready". Running and stationary bike works real good for this.

You should also be on some sort of strength building program... You don't really need to go with HEAVY weights yet... But this is a great age to start, and to get to the 'show' playing professional hockey, training MUST become part of your lifestyle! It must be WHO you are!

A good tip if you don't have a trainer yet - is do lower body one day and then upper body the next (this will give your muscles a day to rest and repair!)

Again all this is a MUST for getting your body "ready" to be explosive... some people only do the stuff for "explosiveness" and wonder why it doesn't work -- you need ALL aspects of your body's CONDITIONING to make it work - every time you need it - not just when you are fresh - early in the game...

Lastly, and here's the part the you absolutely NEED to be doing after your body is ready--- do PLYOMETRIC drills and exercises... this will build up your explosiveness and if you do the exercises right - you will beef up your resistance to injury as well. (You can google "plyometrics" and find all kinds of ready info to go on that.)

A final tip - is do some exercising for at least 6 days a week! This is the kind of routine professional athletes have. Young bodies usually get fit quicker, and your muscles will create the right memory early to allow you to get through the sometimes tougher mid to late teen years, especially when it comes to staying motivated to do the workouts... - iof you are really serious, you may want to keep your fitness program going YEAR ROUND.

Again to excel in athletics, and especially hockey, it must be your lifestyle, who you are and not just something you do when you feel like it...

Make Sense?

GOOD LUCK WITH THE PUCK

Martial