I thought this was funny (I don't know who this is but I cracked up when I saw rule #1):
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5 Off-Season Hockey Training Mistakes"
#1. Too much mobility work
Mobility has somewhat become a buzzword on social media these days and seems to have gained popularity only in the past 3-5 years or so. Which is kind of funny, all of a sudden everybody from your average couch potato to an NHL all-star should be on a full mobility system.
How come not before then, there was plenty of research?
I believe its popularity, along with activation work, is somewhat of a fad. Sure mobility and activation have their place and can they be affective? Absolutely! Does everybody need it? No, no they do not.
But when we talk mobility, it’s kind of a tough thing to define isn’t it?
Everybody seems to have a different definition of this and some cannot even define it at all and when asked will back up a little bit an unconfidently say something like “Well, like flexibility right?”
Kind of.
Mobility is best described as an intersection between three qualities:
1. Flexibility
2. Technique
3. Strength
Flexibility is a part of the equation because you need to have proper flexibility in order to perform the full range of motion through a given task. Therefore if you have flexibility issues it can either positively or negatively affect your mobility.
Technique is a part of the equation because a person’s technical skill may be poor enough as to present itself as an issue of mobility. For example, many people when in the hole of a squat (below parallel) tend to also bend over at the upper body and come out of the hole kind of in a squat / good morning motion. Mobility guys might jump all over this and look for tightness’s in the posterior chain when all the client might need is some proper technical coaching.
Lastly strength plays a large role in the topic of mobility because it is strength that is allowing you to remain stable throughout a range of motion. If you’re not strong enough to keep a fully postured back throughout a deep squat then that is a strength issue, not a flexibility issue. In another example, if you can’t lie on your back, extend your legs perpendicular with the ground and touch your toes this may be a weakness in the abdominals in order to bring your upper body off the ground and not a tightness in the back preventing you from moving.
So now that the intersections of mobility are a little clearer we can talk about the most important principal of all the principals of training, which is the principle of specificity.
Specificity is the principle of training that states that sports training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce a training effect. Meaning, anything and everything you guys do in and out of the gym in order to improve performance should be connected to improving your hockey performance in some way. In a far out example of an improper use of training specificity would be a power lifter running marathons in order to get better at power lifting, doesn’t make sense, not specific to the sport.
This also goes for mobility. More is not better.
Mobility is totally sport specific just like your training is. Do hockey players need to be as mobile as gymnasts? Of course not. Should hockey players be more mobile than a power lifter? You bet.
You’ve seen me talk about mobility in the past in reference to speed development for hockey players, BUT, what you didn’t hear me say is “more is better”. Because more is not better, more can actually be worse. Sprinters lower body’s are actually quite tight and this actually plays to their advantages because these guys are loaded like springs. Same goes for power lifters, it is actually advantageous for a power lifter to be tight (within reason obviously) as opposed to super loose.
Now as a strength and conditioning coach, would it be wise of me to un-tighten the sprinter and power lifter to the extent of a gymnast? Absolutely not! Why? Because that is not specific to their sport and can have negative outcomes.
Same goes for hockey players guys. If you’re one of these guys who is focusing way too much on total body super mobility you are only going to be getting better at mobility, not at hockey. When in hockey are you going to need to be crazy flexible? Almost never?
This is also important for time management. If you can only spend 4-6hrs per week on your off ice hockey development and you’re doing half hour “Mobility and activation” drills prior to every workout you are not wisely using your time. This time could be better used doing more strength work, conditioning work or skill work.
Once you have adequate mobility for hockey you need not reach for the stars in the world of mobility.
