5 Critical Mistakes Girls Hockey Players Must Avoid In Off-Ice Training

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Back when I was 15 years old, I started doing off-ice training in hopes getting an edge on my competition and becoming the best female hockey player possible.  But I had no idea that the training I was doing was completely inappropriate for me as a aspiring girls hockey player.  Doing the wrong kind of off-ice training from the time I was 15 is what eventually caused one of the discs in my back to explode and forced me into retirement.  

Four years ago, I woke up, sneezed, my left leg went completely numb, and all of a sudden, the two things that I loved most - playing hockey and training young athletes - were almost taken away from me.  I could barely walk, I could hardly coach and skating was completely out of the question.  But it wasn’t just a sneeze that made my back explode - it was over 10 years in the making.

Here are the 5 big mistakes I made and that girls’ hockey players need to avoid on their way to the elite levels of women’s hockey:

Mistake #1 - Lifting Too Much Weight:

When I first starting training off the ice, I was working out with guys who were already playing major junior and college hockey. I didn’t want to be seen as the “weak” girl - so I was always pushing myself to lift more weight than I should have been in a desperate attempt to “keep up with the boys”.  Trying to train (and keep up) with future NHL stars and men’s college hockey players when I was 15 years old seems crazy now - especially since I had absolutely no experience with off-ice training.  Lifting too much weight was especially dangerous, especially when coupled with mistake #2…

Mistake #2 - Using Poor Form When Lifting:

Lifting too much weight with bad form is a recipe for disaster for any athlete. I always thought that lifting more weight was more important than lifting the weight with perfect form.  To me, higher weights meant I was stronger - when in reality, I was just cheating my way through the lifts, using completely improper form in order to try to move a bigger weight. 

Mistake #3 - Using Too Many Machines:

As a young player, I remember taking great pride in how much weight I could push on the leg press machine. I would struggle and squirm trying to lift that weight, but it wasn’t pretty.  I would have been much better off focusing on single-leg body-weight strength exercises, instead of huffing and puffing away on those stupid machines.  Now my philosophy on machine-based training is simple: girls hockey players should NOT be training on weight training machines.  Instead of having an athlete perform abdominal crunches or chest presses on a machine, we should be teaching them how to move and control their entire body in free space.  Think about it - when was the last time you saw a hockey player execute a skill or movement on the ice while fully supported by some bulky machine or by using only a few muscles at a time? In order to excel on the ice, players must master fundamental movement patterns off the ice that integrate coordination, balance and strength - and that can't happen while sitting on a machine.

Mistake #4 - Never Taking A Day Off:

I genuinely believed that every day I took off, another aspiring female hockey player would be training her hardest, and when we met up on the ice, she would beat me. It’s illy I know - but that’s the mentality that drove me to be my best on and off the ice each and every day.  But I can also count on two hands the number of days I took off from on-ice or off-ice training the entire time I was in high school and college. Again, I was dedicated and committed. But I never gave my body the chance to recover, and that’s what ultimately led to my body breaking down and my early retirement.

Mistake #5 - Not Building A Foundation of Strength and Stability First:

This is probably my biggest mistake of all.  I now know that if I had built up the foundation of core stability and single-leg strength that I needed to excel at the elite levels of women’s hockey, before I started throwing big heavy weights around, my career would have been much longer and more successful.  But I had no clue back then. I thought strength training meant weight training. All hockey players, no matter their age or ability level, must build a solid foundation of body-weight strength and stability before they touch a weight.  Period.

So there you have it - the 5 biggest off-ice training mistakes I made as an aspiring girls hockey player.  I had no idea that the off-ice training I started doing to get an edge on my competition was completely inappropriate for me as an aspiring girls hockey player.

Please don’t make the same mistakes I made.  You need to train hard to make it to the elite levels of women’s hockey, but you also need to train smarter.

© Total Female Hockey 2008

Kim McCullough, YCS, MSc, is a Athletic Development Specialist and founder of Total Female Hockey. In addition to training and coaching girls at all levels of hockey, from novice to the National team, Kim has also played at the highest level of women’s hockey in the world for the last decade. Kim’s female player development website features a state-of-the-art Complete Off-Season Training Program and her blog 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