3 Keys To Developing Hockey Speed For The Female Game

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Speed kills in girls’ hockey.  But exactly how can you use off-ice training to get faster, quicker and more agile on the ice?  It’s not as complicated as it may seem.  Extra power-skating sessions will help and so will making sure that you have your skates fitted properly to match your style of skating, but training off the ice is the single easiest and cheapest way take your on-ice speed to the next level.  There are three key ingredients that are absolutely essential to having a proper off-ice speed training program in place for aspiring girls’ hockey players.

1) Single-Leg Balance:

Single-leg balance is the most fundamental component of speed and is essential for the development of power and quickness.  However, most young hockey players struggle with the concept of getting and staying in a low balanced position while skating.  Girls’ hockey players are no exception and, in many cases, are even worse at it than the boys.  The girls always seem to want to stand up straight on the ice - a phenomenon I like to call the “flamingo effect” - and bend over at the waist, instead of at the knees and hips, in order to get low.  This dramatically decreases the length of their skating stride and their ability to generate power.  The sooner girls master the concepts of single-leg balance, the faster they will be able to develop their speed, which will allow them to separate themselves from their ‘flamingo-like’ peers.

2) Lower Body Power:

In addition to developing superior single-leg balance, girls hockey players must also develop their lower body power if they want to take their speed to the next level.  This means that they have to be able to create and control a great amount of force through their legs and hips.

Unfortunately, most young players are taught how to create explosive power without first learning how to control that power.  This is like teaching a player to skate as fast as possible without ever teaching them how to stop and change direction.  It is great to be fast and powerful, but if you don’t have the ability to stop on a dime and regenerate that explosive power each and every time, your overall speed is going to be limited.

Furthermore, if we neglect to teach players how to control power properly and move directly to teaching players how to produce as much force as possible, they will be more likely to get injured, as their bodies will not be adequately prepared to deal with the tremendous amount of force that is produced every time they stop, start, shoot and save.  We need to start by teaching players how to stop properly before we teach them how to go as fast as possible. 

3) Foot Quickness:

The third key component of off-ice speed training is foot quickness.  We’ve all seen those players who look like they have tremendous speed because their feet are moving really fast.  But just because a player’s feet are moving fast, it doesn’t mean that they are skating fast. 

In fact, those players with short choppy strides are actually wasting a lot of energy because they not generating maximum power with each stride and therefore have to take more strides to travel the same distance.  A player can have very quick feet, but if they aren’t creating a lot of force with each ‘push’, they will not be able to maximize their speed.  This is the main reason why I consider foot quickness to be the third critical component of speed.  Being fast is NOT just about moving your feet as fast as possible.  It’s about combining your ability to generate a lot of power with each stride with your ability to be quick on your feet. 

Developing superior single-leg balance, the ability to create and control power, and amazing foot quickness with off-ice hockey training what will allow girls hockey players to take their game to a whole new speed and level this off-season.

© 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