Sport Specific Training, NOT Sport Specific Exercises and Drills
What we do:
Injury prevention. Period. This is one of our ultimate goals with any athlete. You can have all the skills, technique and ability in the world, but it doesn’t do you much good if you are sidelined with an injury. For three years in a row, the Spruce Kings have had the lowest amount of lost man games due to injuries in their league. This is no coincidence, we have been doing their off-ice in-season training for the past three years.
Increase physiological adaptations to exercise. Every athlete needs a certain degree of each of these qualities.
Skill or Technique: Learning to move more effectively
Speed: Moving at a higher velocity or with a better rate of acceleration
Power: Speed multiplied by force
Force/Strength: How effectively you can move something
Muscle Hypertrophy: How big your muscle is, muscle size
Muscular Endurance: How many reps in a row you can do, localized to specific muscles or muscle groups
Anaerobic Capacity: Max heart rate, how much work you can do at max effort, global muscle fatigue
Maximal Aerobic Capacity: Max heart rate and true VO2 max, 8-15-min range
Long Duration: Sustained submaximal work (15+ minutes) with no breaks, changes, or drops (also known as steady state)
Sport-specific training. The degree to which an athlete needs each of the above qualities depends on the sport and position the athlete plays. THIS IS SPORT SPECIFIC TRAINING. The term “sport-specific training” has been thrown around a lot in the last decade, and most people now think of it as performing exercises with a “hockey stick grip” if they play hockey, or mimicking the movement patterns of their sport with added resistance and weight. The best trainers and coaches understand that performing these “sport-specific exercises” often lead to overuse injuries, negative neuromuscular adaptations and negative technique changes. There is a place for training with added resistance in the athlete’s movement patterns, but to do this correctly requires specialized equipment and very closely monitored volumes and technical skill by a very talented coach. This is why we train the specific physiological adaptations needed by the athlete’s sport, and leave the training of skill and technique to the athlete’s sport’s coaches.
General physical preparedness. We firmly believe all athletes need to incorporate a variety of movements and physical qualities not necessarily needed in the performance of their sport, but needed to increase recovery and prevent injuries so they can perform their sport better. Often the best athletes are those that play multiple sports. This is no coincidence. Partaking in a variety of sports helps to correct imbalances that are inevitable if you only play one sport. This is what we strive to do at the gym with any athlete’s training: reduce imbalances and consequently reduce injuries and improve performance. We are able to tailor the programming specific to each athlete’s imbalances and weaknesses, so the time spent in the gym can more efficiently induce the desired adaptations.