Chris Bolinger, MS, PES, CSAC, USAW
As more competitive and demanding levels of hockey have become popular at younger ages, the day-to-day work to rest ratio for these young athletes has significantly decreased. The in-season practice and game schedules alone have put these children in a position where they don’t get enough recovery. Add the intense and physical nature of hockey into the equation and you have a recipe for tight muscles, restricted movement, and the beginning stages of what can become myofasical pain syndrome.
The biggest issue with training today is how we assess our athletes. We tend to only look at variables that are directly related to performance. The big four are speed, strength, explosiveness, and conditioning level. This model does not take into account that the ability to perform is not separate from the ability to move free of limitation or restriction. These restrictions can impair skill development and increase the likeliness of acute and chronic muscle and tendon injury.
Over the past decade, the most well known experts in the field of sports training, rehabilitation, and strength and conditioning have compiled a mountain of evidence that would suggest that quality of movement is the most important part of a training program. My own professional experience would support this notion. This is especially true when athletes are young and still developing their motor skills.
It only makes sense that the appraisal of movement competency should be the starting point for any athlete’s Off-Ice training program. We call this a Kinetic Chain Assessment.
A skilled professional trainer uses this assessment to look at the mobility and stability of joints throughout the body and identify imbalances. It is up to the professional to determine why the flaw or flaws in the movement pattern exist.
There are generally two reasons why an athlete can’t preform a movement correctly:
1. They have poor neuromuscular efficiency. In other words, the brain doesn’t completely understand how to properly orchestrate the symphony of electrical impulses that activate the right muscles at the right time. This is common in children because their nervous system isn’t fully developed.
2. They have overactive (tight) or underactive (weak) muscles, which limit normal range of motion. This is common for young athletes who live in the ice rink and spend very little time foam rolling and stretching. I seen overactive muscles begin to develop in children as young 8 years old.
This valuable information is used by a professional trainer to develop an overall training program. The trainer will determine what exercises the athlete is ready to begin attempting and which muscles/areas need corrective attention.
Remember, if your athlete is old enough to train, they should have a Kinetic Chain Assessment.