The hockey stride has been described by bio-mechanists as biphasic in nature consisting of alternating periods of single leg and double leg support. The single support phase corresponds to a period of glide, while the double support phase corresponds to the onset and preparation of propulsion (Marino, 1977). Both stride rate and stride length have been investigated as a means of measuring/separating the skating velocities of high caliber and low caliber skaters. The purpose of this short blog is to investigate the research in order to answer the question: which is more important, stride length, or stride rate?
I’ve gotten several e-mails lately regarding our energy system work for our hockey players at Donskov Strength and Conditioning. Typically, during the off-season, players start with four weight room touch points/week and slowly move to three as ice touches start to increase (more can be found here). The plan is under-pinned by the high-low model famously pioneered by Charlie Francis. During a weekly micro-cycle, three high days are programed consisting of acceleration and sprint-based work, and two low days consisting of tempo runs. This will change ever so slightly three weeks prior to training camp when alactic capacity and lactic power work will be programed in preparation for training camp. A four-week snapshot can be found below.
Recently, there has been some fruitful dialogue by several close collogues regarding how best to lace up a pair of hockey skates for increased performance on the ice. The idea of leaving the first eyelet untied in hopes of producing greater speeds was reinforced in a December article titled “The NHL’s best young skaters all have something in common-how they tie their skates” in The Athletic. The purpose of this blog is to briefly outline the biomechanical considerations involved in this decision. Prior to moving forward, we must first define a hockey stride. According to Marino (1977) a hockey stride is:
When it comes to programming for ice hockey we must ask ourselves…what qualities matter most in sport competition? In other words, what qualities can we train off the ice, that make the most tangible differences on the ice? What abilities make great players great? In order to answer these questions, a good place to start is to look at some of the existing literature and attempt to see what correlates best with on-ice performance.
