When it comes to designing an off-season training program, most experts agree on how to best develop strength, speed and power in young players, but there is always disagreement on how to best develop conditioning.
Ultimately, it comes down to choosing between being aerobically ‘fit’ (and slow) or being strong and powerful (and fast).
You can either possess a high level of endurance or game-breaking speed and quickness - you can’t have both. This summer conditioning program is solely focused on making players faster.
In order to build breakaway speed and an amazing ability to change direction, players must first focus on building a solid foundation of running in a straight line. The main purpose of tempo running is to start reconditioning a player’s running muscles after a long season of skating and to prepare their cardiovascular and neuromuscular system for the increased speed and agility demands of the higher-intensity interval training that will occur as the summer progresses.
How Fast is Too Fast?
Focus on performing the tempo runs with as good form as possible, instead of trying to go as fast as humanly possible. These runs should be done at 75-85% intensity - which is sometimes very difficult for young athletes to be able to gauge. My general rule of thumb is that players should be running as fast as they can without sprinting. Typically, once players transition from running fast to full-out sprinting, their forms starts to break down. It often helps for players to think about tempos as being a fast run instead of a complete sprint.
Another way to gauge whether you are running at an appropriate intensity is to look at how long it takes you to complete each tempo run. Each ‘run’ is designed to last about 20 seconds - depending on the age and fitness of the players. If players are completing the ‘run’ more quickly than that, they are running at too high of an intensity level and run the risk of injuring themselves.
Rest, Rest, Rest
In this beginning stage of the program, the rest intervals between tempos may seem like it is too long. Players may feel like they could decrease the rest time and get the conditioning portion of the workout finished more quickly.
Do NOT decrease your rest time!!!!
Remember what the purpose of tempo running is: to help players to recondition their running muscles and to build a foundation of cardiovascular fitness needed for the more intense interval training that will take place later in the summer.
Players may not feel like they need a great deal of rest between tempos now, but they will welcome the extra rest as the number of tempos increase of the course of the next few weeks. Trust me, it is only going to get harder.
Congratulations!
You have made it through your first week of the Complete Off-Season Training Program. Your first three workouts may have taken a little longer than the time I had outlined in the training manual. Keep in mind that you did have to learn up to 20 new exercises and were focusing on performing all the exercises as perfectly as possible. The exercises will stay (almost) exactly the same next week, so you will be able to move through each workout more quickly.
Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you at our session on Monday.
Your friend and coach,
Kim
