Hockey Fitness:Year-Round Conditioning on And Off The Ice
By Don MacAdam, MPE and Gail Reynolds

The enemy of all hockey players is fatigue. Regardless of how strong you are, how fast you are or how much skill you possess, fatigue can rob you of your ability to play effectively. Hockey Fitness: Year-Round Conditioning On and Off the Ice emphasizes the importance and the uniqueness of hockey fitness.

This $12.95 paperback is divided into three parts: Part I- The Conditioning Story, Part II-Hockey Conditioning Principles and Programs, and Part III-Designing Your Own Conditioning Programs.

Part I explains what a hockey player can expect from following a conditioning program and covers types of training, individual differences in training, and what can inhibit conditioning (these can include such variables as nutrition, environment, stress, injury and attitude).

Part II of Hockey Fitness has specific training routines to improve muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, speed and quickness, and stamina and recovery. All of these areas include on-ice and off-ice drills. In the chapter "Other Training Tips", useful drills are outlined for hockey coaches showing how to use precious ice time to increase effectiveness in training sessions. There are also specific drills for goaltenders, defensemen, centermen and wingers.

Part III deals with designing your own conditioning program. The key to any program is testing. You must be able to know what your goals are and whether you are on the right track in reaching those goals. A sample Fitness Appraisal Record is included to help identify areas that need improvement.

Don MacAdams, one of the authors, is a coach within the Edmonton Oilers development system and has played hockey professionally and coached for more than 15 years at both university and professional levels. He earned his masters in physical education from the University of New Brunswick. Gail Reynolds, co-author, runs her own fitness consulting company and has published several books and articles on fitness and conditioning. She has also spoken at many Canadian Amateur Hockey Association clinics and at the York Symposium for elite coaches. Gail earned her masters in exercise physiology and psychology from the University of Western Ontario.

Hockey Fitness has been endorsed by Dave King, the head coach of Team Canada and by the late Bob Johnson, coach of the Stanley Cup champion Pitts- burgh Penguins. Also, Jacques Demers used many of the techniques described here while coaching the Detroit Red Wings.