The majority of adults who set a new year’s resolution probably said that they were going to exercise more in 2009. Even though most hockey players don’t have a problem with not exercising enough, they still need to set off-ice training goals for the second half of the season if they want to take their game to the next level.
You might already be on the ice almost every day of the week and may think that you don’t need to get any more exercise to be fit for hockey.
Wrong.
Off-ice training will dramatically increase your on-ice performance, even when you start it half-way through the season.
Unlike what happens on the ice, you usually have complete control over what you choose to do (or not do) off the ice. Ten years ago, girls hockey players who trained off the ice were hard to find. Now it is a necessity if you want to get to that next level.
Setting your goals for off-ice training for the next 12 weeks are just as important as the on-ice performance and nutrition goals that you may have already set for yourself. In fact, they can have an even more dramatic effect than you might think, since most girls hockey players don’t do any off-ice training during the in-season. You can set yourself apart from your competition simply by dedicating yourself to working out off the ice in the second half of the year.
So what will your workout goals be for the second half of the season?
- To be able to hold a perfect front plank position for 2 minutes?
- To be able to do 20 perfect push-ups?
- To do your first chin-up?
If you set your weekly goals properly, you should be able to achieve any of these BIG goals in the next 12 weeks. You aren’t just wake up one morning and be able to rattle off 5 chin-ups.
You are going to have to work for it.
Set a deadline for when you are going to achieve your workout goal and then put together your action plan to get there.
That might mean that you shoot for doing 5 perfect push-ups this week.
And then 10 in 2 weeks.
And then 15 in 4 weeks.
I guarantee you that getting stronger, faster and fitter off the ice will move you closer to any of the BIG goals you have set for yourself on the ice.
Set them and then work hard to achieve them.
What is your off-ice training goal for the next 12 weeks?
Work Hard. Dream BIG.
~ Coach Kim
Originally published on Total Female Hockey Club [1].