| Off ice hockey drills are something that any young | | | | Luckily, many of the things kids enjoy doing anyways |
| hockey player can make great use of in trying to | | | | are the kinds of things you can build their dry land |
| improve their game. Unlike weight training, which can | | | | workout around. By nature kids tend to run and jump a |
| be detrimental if started too young, dryland training is | | | | lot, which can be easily moulded into hockey specific |
| something that is of little to no risk to young players, | | | | training. Have your young player do shuttle runs or |
| and can result in great advances in their fitness and | | | | timed intervals to build their speed and their |
| abilities on the ice. | | | | cardiovascular endurance. |
| The first and most important thing is to make sure the | | | | Plyometrics builds explosive power, and it's almost |
| young player actually wants to be participating in this | | | | entirely based around jumping motions. So work in |
| training. For older kids who are playing high level rep, | | | | some good plyometric exercises into your young |
| forced workouts may be fine if it's part of the teams | | | | players workout, like box jumps. They're incredibly |
| policy, but for younger players, forcing them into off-ice | | | | effective and can be a lot of fun, especially if the kids |
| training they don't want to be doing could sour them on | | | | do them in groups or as a team. Again, the key is to |
| hockey rather than make them into great players. | | | | make sure the kids are enjoying themselves as well |
| The next key is to realize that these aren't | | | | as benefiting physically. |
| professional athletes, they're young kids. So workouts | | | | Finally, plan the workouts well. Designing the workout |
| should be challenging, but not so intense that they | | | | yourself might seem like a good option, but it isn't. Most |
| become un-enjoyable. If at any point the player seems | | | | parents aren't trainers and most parents don't |
| to be really struggling, or experiences any kind of pain | | | | understand what makes a good hockey specific |
| or discomfort, it's probably time to ease up or stop all | | | | workout regime, and more importantly, they don't know |
| for the day all together. 'No pain, no gain' might apply to | | | | how to tailor such a workout regime to the needs of a |
| pros, but not to young kids. | | | | young athlete, which is of top importance. |