Jack Blatherwick
Be creative with contrast training
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Contrast training amounts to integrating strength or resistance exercises in the same workout with explosive activities like jumping, sprinting or skating. Evidence has been piling up in the last few years that this is an excellent way to improve quickness and explosive strength, which are among the highest priorities for hockey development. Following an all-out strength effort – which might be a hard set of one or two-legged squats, perhaps weighted squat jumps or resisted sprints – there is often increased maximum performance on the next set of unweighted jumps or sprints that follow an appropriate rest period. Some of the best shot-put coaches have had their athletes do a heavy set of bench press or throw an extra-heavy shot, then rest before training with a normal shot. The results have been consistently better performances. Coaches should be creative in implementing this concept because no one has all the answers, of course. We don’t know how much rest should follow an “overload” set before the normal training jumps or sprints. Many research studies have used four minutes rest; some have tried less rest; some more. Also, there is a fine line between fatigue or potentiation with the strength exercises: Too many reps or sets could cause fatigue that would lead to impaired performance or training. Too much intensity might have a negative impact, but that has not been demonstrated in published studies. In the November 2010 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Matthews and co-workers from the UK showed that a single 10-second heavily-resisted sprint on-ice, followed by a four-minute rest, resulted in a 2.6 percent improvement in a 25-meter skating sprint test. The straight-ahead sprint test was monitored with photoelectric timing cells, and has extremely high reliability (r=.0.997), meaning subjects would get virtually the same score any time they retake the test. These were English National League players, and during the ten-second “overload,” a partner resisted by turning his skates sideways and holding a rope attached to a harness on the subject. We have trained on-ice with weight vests for a few minutes, taken them off and “rested” while working on other skills, then worked on quick acceleration again. Off ice, we use plyotubes (sand bags) quite often for weighted jumps. They are easily thrown off and the next set of jumps is done without weight. What does a 2.6 percent improvement mean? It doesn’t sound like much, but small numerical differences in short sprints can mean a world of practical difference. If this were the 100-meter dash in the 2008 Olympics, the entire field of athletes could have won if they had done a 10-second resisted sprint, rested and then competed in the Gold Medal race. Well … maybe Usain Bolt would have run the last 30 meters. More to the point for hockey, we have administered a similar skating test at least 5,000 times to players at every age group. If an average “A” Bantam player improved quickness by 2.6 percent in a year of training, his new times would place him at the average of the National Select 16 camp. Now there’s a 2.6 percent improvement that is well worth the effort, and intelligent training can make it happen. Is contrast training a totally new concept? A half century ago, our coach told us that if we pushed snow shovels around the rink each day, it would make us faster. We knew that like all coaches, he was prone to grandiose exaggerations, but without that 2.6 percent improvement, I would have never beaten my grandmother in a race. Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
Poise must come first
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
You hear it all the time, usually a loud shout from an ignorant parent, “Move the puck. Pass it. Get rid of it faster.” None of this is necessarily wrong, but for youth hockey, poise must come first. Dean Talafous is a former NHL’er and college coach, and now the inspiration behind Total Hockey. His strongest suit as a player was great poise with the puck in tight areas, enabling him to control it until he saw a linemate open. In New York, that open man was often Hall-of-Famer Phil Esposito. Another great example of poise with the puck in traffic is Andrew Brunette, of the Wild. He’s made a living behind the offensive net, making his linemates better by controlling the puck until they get open for shots. It should come as no surprise that Talafous’ over-riding philosophy for Total Hockey is multi-tasking skills: visual (peripheral) awareness while controlling the puck and using the legs for a separate task. Dean’s recommendation for anyone who wants to be great is to practice puck control, and therefore poise and playmaking ability. So … does puck control and poise decrease the ability to move the puck quickly? Absolutely not. It’s just the opposite. Talafous experimented with two different teams in a pre-summer hockey camp, lasting for several weeks. With one team, the coaches never mentioned the word “pass.” It was all about stick skills and handling the puck with poise. With the other, they emphasized passing it quickly — even practicing one-touch passes at times. By the end of the camp, in games, the group that had emphasized puck control and poise was the better passing team. This would not surprise Terry Cullen, the longtime coach at Moorhead High School. Terry made a video on stickhandling drills on the ice and off. The youngster demonstrating the awesome stickhandling was his oldest son, Matt Cullen, now with the Wild. In the video, Terry made a statement that we asked him about later. In the video he said, “Stickhandling is the most important skill for young hockey players to practice.” He didn’t say skating and shooting were not important, but stickhandling was the highest priority. Why stickhandling? “Because no one can have fun at this game if they can’t handle the puck,” he answered. “And, the ones who have the most fun with the puck will probably have the most passion to improve other skills. Besides that, passing-receiving skills will be much better if players can stickhandle with their head up.” Was he right? Well, NHL coaches certainly think so. Wherever Matt has played, he’s been a quarterback on the power play, meaning he passes brilliantly; and when the situation dictates, he holds it long enough to find the open man. Matt and his brothers have left a lot of sweat on the turf in Moorhead, working on quickness and explosive leg strength. Their lower body workouts are legendary, but their highest priority has always been puck control. It takes a lot of practice hours to become proficient at stickhandling, but the one skill everyone should learn early does not take long. Practice puck protection using your body. Work on it on the ice and off. Learn to turn and twist (almost like small figure 8’s) the way NHL players do. Stick your butt out and use arms and legs to keep opponent sticks away from the puck. Even college or AHL players do not protect the puck with their body as well as they do it in the NHL, and this is an easy skill to acquire. It’s not just the biggest bodies protecting the puck. Martin St. Louis is one of the best, and when the Capitals play Tampa, it seems St. Louis grabs the puck, turns his back on our defenders and plays keepaway for most of his shift. Then a linemate gets open and the pass is right on the tape. Puck protection. It’s one of the most important skills and perhaps the easiest to learn. Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
Don’t underrate scrimmages
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
“There’s a lot of hockey learned in a scrimmage.” These were the words of the late Dave Peterson, coach of the 1988 and 1992 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Teams. He was conducting a clinic from the bleachers for youth coaches in upstate New York, and rather than have his Olympic team demonstrate drills, he just had them scrimmage. “Watch for things the players do that they wouldn’t have to do in a drill,” he told the coaches. “The anticipation, rink sense, preparation before they get to the puck — these are all learned in competition, and might not be learned in drills. Watch the way a puck carrier uses deception before passing, or the way a player without the puck, moves to get open for a pass — the way a defender sizes things up to decide how to handle a given rush. Each rush is a different situation in a scrimmage. If you’re doing 3-on-2 drills, each rush is the same, and defenders can compete without thinking.” Jack Parker has been the head coach at Boston University for almost 40 years, and is one of the most passionate teachers in the game. At a youth coaches’ seminar this spring, he was asked what he thought was the most important characteristic to look for in a potential college recruit. Without a pause he answered, “The ability to make a hockey play.” Then, as is Coach Parker’s way, he elaborated for an hour, mostly to say that youth coaches should not overrate their ability to teach the game. “Hockey sense is learned in competition,” Parker said. “Kids need to be given chances to think, not just told which cones to skate around. They are taught systems, but not taught how to make hockey plays. They might learn that on the soccer field. Competitive instincts might best be learned on the baseball diamond. We should not drill our young players to death.” Peterson began coaching when there was no intimidation from elite thinkers. No one in an office building across the country was telling coaches there should be a certain number of drill-oriented practices for every competition. The truly elite thinkers were players — the ones who had creative ideas on their minds and magic in their sticks. They wanted to scrimmage in every practice, because they knew this is where they acquired that genius. Besides that … practices were outside. Scrimmaging was the best way to keep everyone moving, and fingers from turning to icicles. But even today, if you ask great players about the most important factors in their development of rink sense, invariably they’ll point to competition of some kind. Many recall unstructured pond hockey scrimmages. Some talk about important games. Others think about scrimmages without scoreboards and referees — just hour after hour of playmaking. I saw a quote recently by Pat Micheletti (the former goal scoring phenom at the University of Minnesota) in which he said there is no doubt players of today are bigger, faster, and stronger. “But,” he added, “I’m not sure they’re as smart or skillful” as players from past eras. Hockey by the book can do that. It can stifle passion and reduce creativity. I asked a brilliant NHL playmaker this fall where he acquired his incredible anticipation, vision and rink sense. I wasn’t ready for the reply. “Roller hockey,” was his short answer. “Just scrimmaging with no rules.” Now there’s something that’s not in the elite thinkers’ book. And Dave Peterson’s clinic for youth coaches: not one drill to demonstrate how to skate, shoot, handle the puck — that’s not in the book either. Maybe the drill book isn’t the place to start when we want to develop hockey players who are passionate and know how to make plays. Come to think of it … what else matters? Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
Now that’s rink sense
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Chuck Grillo, scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins, passed on this story about Igor Larionov who played for San Jose at the time Grillo was Vice President of the Sharks.
At 5’9" and 170 pounds (soaking wet), Larionov was a genius among giants during a time when the NHL ignored the rules, and goons could actually compete (with the assistance of the referees). Today, goons are just a sideshow — one on each team who drop the gloves once a game to show off their ‘skills’ and then the show goes on without them for 59 minutes.
Larionov led San Jose to some of their greatest performances in the playoffs, and later played a key role with Detroit as they captured more than their share of Stanley Cups. Besides his reputation for exceptional two-way play, Igor was a brilliant, deceptive playmaker who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Of course, this had the added benefit that he knew where the goons were lurking at all times.
But, he missed one. “Just once,” his teammates would say. He was flying along with the puck, when all of a sudden, he was run over by a Mack truck — a big defenseman who had been waiting for this opportunity for years. Igor never had his head down, but for some reason he didn’t see this collision coming.
Larionov got up slowly and yelled at the ref — in Russian, of course — and wobbled back to the bench, still cursing. His teammates hadn’t seen him so mad at an official before, probably because he seldom got hit. The ref skated by during a stoppage of play, and said, “Igor, that was a perfectly legal hit. You just had your head down.”
Larionov just shook his head. Later, when teammates asked him why he was so irate, he said, “They had six skaters on the ice! The ref didn’t see it. I knew where the five guys were, so I wasn’t looking for the extra man.”
Sure enough, video replay showed there were six opponents plus the goaltender on the ice at the time. That brilliant computer we call rink sense had accounted for five and had already moved on to the next play.
Size was among the highest priorities in the NHL draft before they dusted off the rule book, but thanks to players like Larionov and many others, the game today is dominated by speed, skill, puck control and rink sense. You simply cannot beat smart players … unless, of course, you put six skaters out against them.
Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
“Conventional wisdom most often produces conventional results”
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- Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31
By Jack Blatherwick
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Bill Walsh’s quote (above) can be found with other excellent advice for coaches in his book, “The Score Takes Care of Itself.” Walsh refers to his insistence on drafting Jerry Rice, when the 49er scouts were saying his 40-yard dash times were not good enough.
It’s not as if Rice was slow, but for a few hundredths of a second — and perhaps the fact that Rice played at a small college, not a large football factory — the scouting staff warned against taking the receiver whose professional career eventually became what many call the greatest in NFL history. Walsh prevailed, and later said, “(Rice) had the heart of a warrior. Conventional thinking didn’t produce Jerry Rice.”
There are two great lessons here. Walsh won championships, because he believed, “When striving to go beyond conventional results, you must go beyond the conventional, and against popular opinion.”
Herb Brooks saw the weakness immediately in vanilla coaches who always went by the book. Brooks’ advice? “You’ve got to be willing to lose your job in order to be the best.”
Another lesson from the Jerry Rice draft is this: physiological tests, sprints, jumps, strength tests and even skating scores mean little compared to rink sense, competitiveness, character and work ethic. Youth associations, high schools or NHL teams would make a huge mistake judging talent by test scores or skating around cones, by shots taken or stickhandling without opposition.
The question that really matters is this: Does the player have a great impact on the game? If he’s a weak skater and can’t handle the puck around cones — if he tests poorly on strength tests — lacks aerobic endurance — has some extra body fat — but still dominates in a scrimmage…this player should be your first pick. The other qualities are trainable. In fact, if you can’t help him improve in these areas, turn in your coaching badge.
On the other hand, if the player has all the athletic ability and skill in the world and has little impact on the game, all you can say is, “Son, turn the clock back a few years and learn to compete.”
Well…I exaggerate. But, I of all people should exaggerate, because my rant each week is usually about building speed, quickness, agility, strength and other athletic attributes. In case anyone reads this column occasionally, it would be easy to infer that I believe physical improvement is the most important factor in development.
Absolutely not. Watch Pavel Datsyuk or Alex Ovechkin closely. Of course, they can skate, shoot, stickhandle, and they’d look pretty good skating around cones — about as well as a few thousand others in the world. Datsyuk’s superiority comes from his mind. He sees everything — even things happening behind him — and anticipates the next play better than most. Ovechkin’s goal scoring comes from his passion to beat defensemen and goalies, not cones. Trust me, he doesn’t even shoot very well if there’s no competition, and the more important the moment is, the better he shoots.
Rink sense, passion, the heart of a warrior. These must be the highest priorities for every coach as a new season gets under way. When judging talent, consider first, the impact a player has on a game. The cones, the skills and test numbers are objective information that might help improve physical skills and athleticism. But no coach should leave a youngster with the belief that this is the most important part of development. Hockey is a game played much more with the mind than the body.
Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.
