Hockey Calendar Training

Are you considering the hockey calendar in your training? Not many people are aware of it, but like there are different seasons in a year, there are different phases of hockey training. Each phase has a goal to ensure that your body can recover, develop, and maintain the qualities you work towards so you can ultimately become a better and more effective hockey player. The different phases can be broken down into the postseason, offseason, preseason, and in-season.

Postseason

The season is an absolute grind, and your body takes a toll. This phase of the training cycle is a period of rest and recovery, but not completely. As you look at the higher levels of hockey, elite players are using this time for maintenance on their body so they will be ready for the offseason training phase. Training doesn’t just stop. The postseason training period has 3 components: passive recovery, active recovery, and postseason training. Passive recovery should begin immediately after the season and should last no longer than 7 days to avoid detraining effects. Following a week of passive recovery, 1-2 weeks of active recovery should take place with non-hockey-related activities. After active recovery, the 2-3 weeks of postseason training should commence. Training should incorporate mobility, general resistance, and cardio/endurance training to get the body ready for the offseason training phase.

Offseason

This is the most important phase of the calendar year, because this is where the most development takes place. It’s roughly 3-4 sessions per week over 12 weeks following the postseason phase and before preseason training. The offseason incorporates every training component: mobility, speed and agility, power and strength, and energy systems. You should also be working on individual skill on the ice to really make that jump as a player. The important thing to keep in mind is to focus on movements. The squat, hinge, upper body push/pull, and core should be balanced across your training program.

Preseason

Preseason training happens around the time camp kicks off and lasts 2-3 weeks. This phase is made up of mobility, power and strength, speed and agility, and energy systems training consisting of 2-3 workouts per week and 2 days of speed and agility training. Since you will be back on the ice with the boys, the primary goal is to maintain the physical developments that were acquired in the previous phase so that on ice performance is not affected. Volume should decrease, but intensity should remain high, but in smaller doses and movements should be balanced. A good weekly plan to follow in this phase is (Day 1) max strength maintenance (Day 2) heavy power, (Day 3) and light power. Mobility exercises should be performed daily to ensure you’re ready for the demands of training camp.

In-Season

Like the preseason, the training goal is to maintain the physical qualities developed during the offseason. Volume should be low but there should be around 2-5 sessions per week, working on mobility, strength maintenance, power, and light power where the training sessions are shorter. This time of year is a bag from practices, travel, and games, but you need to make sure that you’re performing some form of training (mostly mobility) daily to stay ready for competition.

As you can see, it takes nearly 365 days of the year to be the player you want to be. It’s not meant for everyone, and that’s why so few ever make it to the top leagues. Training year-round is daunting which is why you need to be committed to being great and have the right program in place so you can know what to do. Our programs here at Line 1 Hockey, take everything into consideration when creating our programs for you.