“Coach Bombay: Haven’t you guys been training in the off-season?
Lester Averman: You know, I knew we forgot something.” – Mighty Ducks 2
So this is week one and I’m already a little nervous because I havent been on the Ice for 2 weeks.
I feel like I have gotten very fat and slow and until I get back on the ice I don’t know just how fat and slow I have got.
To counteract this since the 27th I have started my off ice training, this consists of 3 key areas. Firstly I run. At least 15k a week, usually 5k 3 times. I run to increase my stamina, but there is a difference to long distance training and hockey specific running. There is always a 10k that I am training for and I run these through the summer for charity. But once a week I will run a 5k specific for hockey. This is usually to sprint the lampposts providing a chance to build up short bursts of speed, representative of chasing down a player on a break away, or even having a break away myself. Or I could run at high speed for 2 minutes, the jogging pace for 3 minutes, to represent shifts on the ice.
I might also try some thing different I might have seen in research.
Next type is HIIT training in the form of a beach body workout. I have completed a few of them to date and this year I wanted to try a new one. Insanity Max 30. Currently I’m in my second week and hope that this will burn off the fat I have built up over the holidays. Once this is complete I plan to move back to my Insanity/P90x hybrid for the rest of the year.
Finally I have found a few stickhandling drills online that I plan on practising regularly. This one is from current NHL all star McDavid.
https://youtu.be/GQK1RBm8Vx4
The link runs from one of my favourite YouTube channels The Hockey Movement, if you look through his back episodes there is a wealth of hockey tips and tricks for all skill levels.
There has also been a lot of Hockey to watch over the holidays. The centinial Classic between Toronto and Detroit and the Winter Classic between Chicago and St Louis. I havent seen the Ceninial yet but I can say I enjoyed the Winter Classic enormously, I will avoid spoilers but will say this is an entertaining game if you haven’t seen it.
Also I really like the Road to… series that NHL have been making of recent years, a behind the scenes look at the teams in the games before the Winter Classic and Stanley Cup. It makes for a fascinating insight into the professional game we aspire to.
That’s how I have been keeping busy waiting, but while I am pacing up and down waiting for ice time, you can see me having fun on the ice by checking out my YouTube Channel Bergs Place on YouTube at
https://youtu.be/pqQVtgjfRR0
Bergs Place 