Why Bad Posture Is Good For Female Hockey Players

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

In order to play hockey properly, you’ve got to have bad posture - but that doesn’t mean that you want to have bad posture away from the rink as well. Girls hockey players need to have bad posture on the ice, but they need to address it off the ice if they are going to prevent injuries and take their game to the next level.

You have to have a certain degree of bad posture in order to stickhandle and catch passes effectively.  If you kept your shoulders back and chest perfectly upright when you are out on the ice, you would limit how far you could reach your stick out away from your body.  But you don’t want to have bad posture off the ice as well. All the sitting you do, in front of the computer, the TV or at your desk, only makes your bad hockey posture worse and sets you up for potential injuries.

As a result of spending most of your day with your shoulders rolled forward, your chest muscles get really tight and the muscles in the back of your shoulders get really weak.

You only need to spend 2 minutes each day focusing on your posture off the ice and it will make a huge difference in preventing shoulder injuries and increasing your performance.

1)  Chest Stretch:

First of all, you need to do a chest stretch. Stand in front of a doorway and reach back to grab onto the inside of the door frame with your arms straight. You should feel a stretch in your chest and shoulders. Hold for 30 - 60 seconds and perform this stretch at least once a day.

2) “Stick Em Up” Shoulder Strength:

After you have stretched your chest, you need to work on strengthening the muscles between your shoulder blades. Stand against a wall with your elbows tucked in by your sides and your hands pointing up towards the ceiling. Reach up over your head until your arms are straight keeping your entire arm in contact with the wall. Now pull your elbows back down towards your sides by squeezing your shoulder blades down and together, like you are trying to put them in your back pockets. Make sure you are keeping your entire arm against the wall as much as possible. Perform at least one set of 20 repetitions each day.

Spending an extra two minutes per day working on your posture will help you avoid injury and take your on-ice performance to the next level.  A little bit of stretching and strengthening each day goes a long way.

© 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