To say that most girls’ hockey players hate push-ups is an understatement. When I tell my players that we are going to do push-ups, I usually get eye rolls, groans and excuses in return.

I want to share a little secret with you…it’s not their fault. When it comes to being able to do perfect push-ups, the odds are stacked against young female hockey players. So once you know what you are up against, I am going to show you how to beat those odds.

The main reason girls’ hockey players struggle with push-ups is poor posture.

Before we get to how you are going to fix that problem, you have to realize that in order to be able to play hockey well, you need to have bad posture. Think about it - you would never be able to handle to puck or catch bad passes if you were always standing up perfectly straight with your shoulders pulled back. Players have to let their shoulder rolls forward slightly in order to be able to reach for loose pucks and stickhandle outside the frame of their body.

Players may need to have bad posture on the ice, but they need to work on improving their posture off the ice so that they can avoid shoulder injuries and back pain.

Push-ups are actually a great exercise for improving posture - when they are done properly.

In order to do the perfect push-up, your body must be in a perfectly straight line through the entire movement. In order to maintain this position, players must be able to keep their core tight (I tell them to think about tightening up as though I was going to punch them in the stomach), squeeze their butts (that one usually gets a few giggles) and squeeze their shoulder blades together as they lower themselves down towards the ground. If you can keep your body in this perfectly straight position throughout the movement, you take the load off of your “weaker” arms and rely more on your “stronger” chest and core muscles to perform the movement.

When most players do push-ups, they rely too much on their arm strength and not enough on their core strength and stability. Their lack of core strength and stability can be easily seen by the position of their body throughout the push-up movement. Players either let their butts come way up into the air or they let their hips sag down to the ground - both are indicative of weak core muscles.

You need to have slightly poor posture in order to play the game effectively, but you also need to counteract that bad posture by practicing basic strength movements like push-ups.

So now that you know what you are up against, you know what you have to do.

–> Practice your push-ups.

It doesn’t matter if you can only do 2 perfect push-ups or 20. The point is to get better at them as the season continues. This increased strength will not only help you win battles in the corner and shoot harder - it will help you to prevent shoulder injuries.

How many perfect push-ups can you do? Let me know where you are starting from in the comment box below and we’ll keep track of your improvements over the course of the season as you practice, practice, practice.

~ Coach Kim