Olympic Lifts for Hockey

Do you want to be a better athlete?

Learn about the strength demands of your sport and I guarantee working on your gym performance will give you better tools to use when it’s game time. Conventional training in the gym is great for those who want to get in their best shape, especially when it’s beach season.

However, when you’re an athlete, you’re a different breed and you need to step up your game on the field, ice AND in the gym.

This is where learning the Olympic lifts and complementary movements come in. They are designed to increase your strength, power, speed, reactivity, flexibility, and mobility. Now take those athletic qualities, add a pair of skates to the equation, and you get one tough player.

Remember that it takes more than just going to the gym every day and practicing your sport a few times to improve. You need to have training goals specific to you that have been outlined by your coach, scouts, and your strength coach.

You need to consistently train in your sport to develop your competition skills and techniques; by improving your mechanics and increasing the speed and amount of force you can develop, your performance CAPACITY will increase.

The rest is up to you during practice.

Think of it from this angle, if you’re an artist and you’re using crayons, I’m sure you can make some pretty pictures; but if you get a new set of paint brushes, brilliant paints, and fresh canvas you will have the CAPACITY to create a masterpiece every time you show up. The caveat being: if you suck at art it doesn’t really matter how good your tools are.

So for you athletes out there who have the spirit and determination to excel, take the time to become proficient with the Godfather of lifts: the Olympic lifts.

The Snatch and the Clean and Jerk are full body exercises that maximize explosive power, speed strength and strengthen your core.

They translate to the ice to make your first step faster and more powerful; to increase your foot speed and coordination. Pulling from the floor, the posterior chain is called into play to dominate movement.

The power needed to drive the weight of the bar up is achieved through a pull from the upper back and a triple extension through the ankles, knees, and hips. This drive is the meat and potatoes of the lift; if you achieve good explosion and triple extension, the bar goes flying and you get results.

What results? Well, increased power, increased vertical jump, increased strength, increased explosiveness, and after a while, you’ll likely lay down some serious muscle mass too.

All of that and you’ve only gotten halfway through the lift…

So what’s next? You have to catch the weight.

For the Snatch, this means an overhead squat. With the bar over your head and your arms fully extended and elbows locked with a wide grip, you will develop amazing shoulder strength, flexibility, and stability. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes will be on their way to developing amazing lower body strength.

If your butt doesn’t get close to the ground, after a few weeks of training, you’ll notice that it’s getting lower! The increase of mobility and flexibility will come with time and proper technique. The next drive is from the hamstrings to get you “out of the hole” at the bottom, and the quadriceps and glutes will help you explode to the top of the lift.

For the Clean and Jerk, the pull and the triple extension are the same except for the hand position on the bar; instead of holding the bar as wide as possible, the hands are just outside of shoulder with. The catch position is a front squat instead of an overhead squat, and the Jerk involves a push press, which is often accompanied by a split of the legs to catch the weight overhead.

The benefits are similar to the Snatch; however, athletes can lift more weight with the Clean and Jerk. More weight is good, but you MUST build your way up to it!

The Jerk is especially important for developing upper body explosiveness. This is crucial for hockey players and any athletes in contact or combat sports. That final push coordinates your entire body, releasing the energy through the hands. Whether you’re working along the boards, in front of the net, or if you’re a boxer, a running back or any type of athlete, developing the upper body power is a great tool.

So what are you waiting for?

Trade in your bicycle for a Maserati (Our hockey program) and see what it can do to help your total performance. Get the tools to be faster on the ice, stronger with the puck and in the corners, bigger and harder hits, and longer, healthier careers.

Competitive, Elite & Professional athletes like P.K. Subban trust us to help them have the qualities to be a dominant player and top of their performance.