Is Your Summer Hockey Training Right or Wrong?

By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

As an aspiring female hockey player over ten years ago, I thought that I had found “the secret” when it came to off-ice training.  No other girls’ hockey player I knew was working as hard off the ice as I was, and I knew that my dedication to off-ice training would give me a serious edge over my competition and allowed me to stand out from the crowd.  A decade later, I truly believe that it was my willingness to push myself to be the best player possible off the ice that allowed me to take my game to the next level on the ice.  But another consequence of my dedication off the ice was a career filled of injuries and frustration.  My primary purpose is to make sure that other aspiring female hockey players don’t make the same mistakes I did on their way to the next level, so I wanted to share with you what I did right and what I did wrong on my way to the elite levels of women’s hockey.

RIGHT:   I Was NEVER Out-Worked.

I may have been over-trained and over-tired for most of my high school and college hockey career, but my decision to never be out-worked really paid off on and off the ice. Whether it was in a drill or in the classroom, I would never compromise on giving my best effort.  This is what allowed me to go from learning to skate at the age of 13 to playing Division 1 women’s college hockey five years later.  This is also what helped me to go from being on the fourth line and buried on the bench, to being the leading scorer and team captain while at college.  Your willingness to out-work the competition no matter what will give you more opportunities on and off the ice than you could ever imagine. 

WRONG:  I Thought That “More Was Better”.

Playing through injuries, training when I was completely exhausted both physically and mentally, and always pushing myself to my absolute limit.  This is what I did for 11 of my 15 years playing hockey.  I always had the “warrior” mentality -  that you had to play through pain no matter what.  I honestly can’t remember playing a single game in women’s college hockey without serious back pain and a serious dose of painkillers.  I truly believed that you never stayed down on the ice unless there was no physical way that you could get up.  I thought that having a lingering headache after getting hit in the head was something that you could play through.  Miraculously, I never missed a single game in college, despite the fact I had two shoulder separations, two concussions, constant back pain, and a host of other nagging injuries.  I thought that the only way to get better was to play more and train more.  And while my willingness to work harder and longer than anyone else took me pretty far, it ultimately cost me the ability to perform at the highest level due to all my injuries.

Off-ice training is absolutely critical for any female hockey player who wants to take her game to the next level.  But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it.   Aspiring girls hockey players need to be willing to work harder than their competition off the ice, but they also need to step back and think about how they can work 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