Can you imagine if someone approached you with an investment opportunity that was guaranteed to produce positive results without costing you a dime? Sound too good to be true?

Well, it probably is, unless that opportunity is off-ice training, or physical activity, for your children.

For years, USA Hockey, through its American Development Model, has been encouraging hockey associations to increase the amount of dryland or off-ice training they offer for participants. More physical activity would help produce not only better hockey players down the road but more importantly, healthier kids.

“It’s really value added for your club because it doesn’t cost you anything but a little bit of time,” said Ken Martel, who serves as the ADM technical director for USA Hockey. “You don’t need fancy resources. You don’t need a gym, and a little bit goes a long way.”

The initial reaction for many is to hesitate when they hear the word off-ice training and kids in the same sentence. The truth is though it’s less about “training” at those ages and more about providing a foundation of physical activity for kids to be happy and healthy.

“A lot of people will recommend 60 minutes a day, and for kids, it’s probably a lot more than that,” said Martel. “This is a way for us to chip away a little bit. Introduce some quality movement skills, especially at those younger ages.”

Before or After

When parents or programs consider adding an off-ice component, it’s critical to remember that it doesn’t need to be a huge undertaking.

“It’s just incorporating a little more time,” said Martel. “At 10U/12U, it’s a couple of off-ice practices per week.”

Martel points to ADM Regional Manager Joe Bonnett, who has kids in their local association, as a great example. Bonnett’s team starts practice 45 minutes before they are scheduled to be on the ice. They do off-ice activities for 25 minutes, and then the kids have 20 minutes to get their equipment on.

The responsibility also doesn’t need to land on the team’s coaches. Bonnett worked with his team to put a parent in charge. He prepared the plan and gave the materials to a parent to run.

“You don’t need to make it mandatory, but you make it a lot of fun,” said Martel. “Pretty soon all of the kids and parents are like, ‘Oh, I have to be there!’”

If it doesn’t work to host the off-ice session before practice due to transportation issues, host it for 20-30 minutes after practice.

“We’re not asking people to make another trip to the ice rink or another trip to form together as a team,” said Martel. “Just tack it on a few minutes before or a few minutes after. It’s pretty efficient, and you can get a lot done with kids in that short amount of time.”

Re-defining Training

“I think a lot of people in the back of their heads when they think off-ice training, they think running, they think sweating,” said Martel. “Certainly, when you’re being physically active sweating is part of it, but it’s not just that. It’s actually building coordination skills, building fundamental movement skills, building quickness and agility skills at those younger ages. It’s not necessarily about going out and running laps around the building.”

People also tend to associate training or exercise with the goal of getting in shape. While we certainly want kids to have a good fitness level, the way you go about accomplishing it should be different for kids in that you can use a lot of games and activities where kids are starting, stopping and changing direction. 

“Do some activity based games or just fun things that are requiring them to work on their coordination,” said Martel. “Like throw and catch with your left hand with a tennis ball. Can you do a cart wheel with your right hand and with your left hand? Kinesthetic awareness and different things like that are important at those younger ages where we’re requiring better neural control over our body.”

As kids reach their teenage years, the focus of off-ice training becomes more about building the engine and developing strength, but at least to start, it’s about exposing kids to a variety of situations and challenges while being physically active.  

A High Performance Culture

For the players who have dreams of playing hockey, or any sport, at a high level, eventually off-ice training needs to be a part what they do in order to be successful long term.

“Look at your high school programs for example,” said Martel. “The high school coach is going to want the kids to do some weight training and some other things.”

“Those 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes of time that we start off with at the younger ages sort of build a culture that this is part of hockey practice. By the time they get to high school, this is just what we do.”

Starting players off with a simple and fun off-ice training program at a young age creates a mindset and an expectation that when they come to practice, there will be an on-ice component and an off-ice component.

Healthy, Happy Kids

The bottom line though is kids today aren’t getting as much activity as they need, and hockey can help fill that void.

“How much time does a kid get on the ice at the rink,” asked Martel. “Is it three hours a week, four hours a week? It’s really not a lot of physical activity time.”

“The school system used to provide a lot more physical activity on a daily basis, whether it was instruction from a qualified physical educator to the activity that’s done at recess. Things have changed quite a bit. Just to be a healthy, happy human being our kids need more sometimes than what they’re getting.”

Some research shows kids need 15 hours of moderate to vigorous activity each week. That’s more than double the typical recommendation of 60 minutes a day, which many kids and families in our sedentary society already struggle to reach.

“For us, it’s really just the mindset of providing more physical activity,” said Martel. “The physical activity doesn’t have to be on the rink.”