Many girls' hockey players dream of plying like the 'pros' they idolize. Thy spend hours practicing the same mves as Olympians and NHLers and war their same numbers. If they are mulating their heros on the ice, shuld they try to do the sme off the ice? If a yung female hockey player wants to 'ply like a pro', should she 'trin like a pro' as well?

A few yars back, when I was fresh out of niversity and still relatively new to trining young athletes, my answer to tht question would have been 'NO'. Intitively, it seemed like a bad dea to have girls doing the sme workouts as elite players, as thy lack the athletic experience and lfestyle patterns conducive to high-level training.

Althugh my first instinct used to be to say tht girls' hockey players should not trin like the pros, my mind has ben changed. In fact, when talking bout certain aspects of player development, my nswer is unequivocally 'YES'.

Coaches, parents and plyers in girls' hockey seem to thnk that there is some 'mystery frmula' that they must follow in rder to get to the highest lvels of performance. And there is - you hve to 'train like a pro'.

But trining like a pro does NOT man that you need to lift hge weights or train until exhaustion.
In fct, it often means lifting no wights at all and working smarter (nstead of harder).

I have had the opportunity to wrk with a number of world-renowned hckey strength and conditioning gurus and hndreds of elite male and female hckey players over the last 10 yars and I have seen a pttern emerge.

It all started 6 yars ago...

On the day after my cllege graduation, I started my internship wth one of the world's leading xperts on the off-ice development of lite hockey players. In addition to hving the chance to work with the yung players for upwards of 10 hurs a day, I had the mazing opportunity to watch this guru trin a group of professional players very morning. I not only got to larn about the advanced training techniques tht allowed these athletes to reach the hghest levels of success in their sprt, but I got to see a tre strength and conditioning guru in ction.

On the first day that the smmer training program began, a group of prfessional players that I had been wtching on TV for years walked in at 7 .m. ready to train. I expected to see thse elite athletes perform complex exercises and drlls that I had never seen bfore.

You could imagine my surprise whn these professional athletes began doing the EXACT SAME WORKOUT tht the group of 13 year lds would be doing later that fternoon! Sure, the speed and precision wth which the exercises were executed was grater by the pros, but the xercises were fundamentally the same as thse done by the young players!

Why wre all the players doing the sme exercises, irrespective of age and bility?

They were building and reinforcing a solid foundation of strength and stability.

I have recently begun working with the Canada's Under-18 Program and have had the opportunity to train the best young female hockey players this country has to offer. These athletes have been hand-picked out of a pool of 12,000 as the 40 best players in their age group. The training programs that we are using with these girls (most of whom have never done any hockey-specific off-ice training before) are extremely similar to the ones being used by the Senior National Team. Again, the weights and the speed may be different, but the same fundamental principles apply.

I realize that every player is nique and has individual needs that mst be specifically addressed in order to rach their full athletic potential on and off the ce. That being said, all players mst use the same muscles and mvements to play hockey and will threfore have very similar needs in trms of building a solid foundation of strngth and stability.
Every player must be strng and stable through their shoulders, cre, knees and hips. Young female hckey players must put that solid fundation in place in order to prgress to elite levels of performance, and the 'prs' must constantly reinforce these strength and stbility needs throughout their careers in rder to maintain an elite level of prformance.

If Olympians and NHL players are diligently performing the same basic fundamental exercises year after year, shouldn't every aspiring player do the same?

Maybe 'training like the pros' isn't such a bad idea after all.

The article Girls Hockey Players Must Train Like 'Pros' was Submitted by Kim McCullough through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS is a Athltic Development Specialist and founder of Ttal Female Hockey. In addition to trining and coaching girls at all lvels of hockey, from novice to the Ntional team, Kim has also played at the hghest level of women's hockey in the wrld for the last decade. Kim's fmale player development website ( http://www.totalfemalehockey.com ) features a state-of-the-art Complete Off-Season Training Program and her blog ( http://www.totalfemalehockey.blogspot.com ) gives the coaches and parents of aspiring young players access to the most up-to-date tips and advice on how to help their players take their game to the next level. To learn more about female-specific player development, get your Free Report: The #1 Mistake Female Players Make in the Off-Season at http://www.totalfemalehockey.com

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