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Mixing Up Practice Content: Part II

By Andy Blayock, 05/22/18, 2:15PM CDT

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The second part of a series dedicated to breaking down why effort in practices hits plateaus, and how to avoid them.

Part I Refresher

To start with, since it has been a while, here is a link to Part One.

In that article, I discussed somewhat recent scientific research where the results are possibly the opposite of what you’d expect with respect to a certain question. That question may be phrased as something like if I want to get better at a certain task, should I practice that precise task a large amount, or should I practice the same amount but covering a bunch of subtle variations that are all quite similar but not exactly the same task?

I already told you the answer is the opposite of what you’d expect, so I think you can guess what the research has said. To make sure your guess is correct, here is the answer. Even for the exact task in question, you are better off not practicing that exact task over and over and over. Instead, mix up the task with different variations. The trick though is to not change the task too much.

An example to illustrate the concept is free throw shooting in basketball. Here, instead of always shooting the distance entailed by the free throw line (approximately 14 feet from the center of the basket), one may practice 12 feet, 14 feet, and 16 feet from the center of the basket. This is a great example because in many dynamic sports such as basketball (or indeed what most readers here care about, hockey) one can see value in using a variety of practice conditions due to the unpredictable nature of the sport. However, a free throw is super predictable. It's always the same. Yet, variety in practice still helps you get better faster.

So, how can we use subtle variations in practice to get better at hockey?

Part of the answer is that we already do. In fact, it explains the advantage of certain drills such as ones we place in the category of “edgework”. Let's say that on-edge balance is a skill we want to develop which will be tested in many complex and integrated techniques, but possibly not in a strong enough way within those tasks to create a specific on-edge balance adaptation response. What can we do to make it improve?


Designing drills for maximum movement can help stave off boredom.

Focusing on the Fundamentals

We can shed all the “excess baggage” and make on-edge balance the whole task. This is a different way of experiencing the on-edge balance challenge and this will cause a strong adaptation response for skaters who have not already worked on and adapted to this focused challenge. When the on-edge balance is strong, that opens the door for other more integrated hockey tasks (crossovers, heel-to-heel turns, c-cut based separations on deceptive hand-skills moves, etc.).

What about for players who have already adapted on-edge balance for say a forward inside edge? How can we keep the adaptation response high for those skaters while still working on on-edge balance? We can do it at high and low speeds. We can change how we get in and out of the “inside-edge hold” portion. We can make it an integrated challenge adding some element of puckhandling.

With those examples, we can see how we can mix up practice content while keeping our focus on very fundamental levels of hockey development. However, it is even easier when getting away from fundamental skills as with more complex movements because there are more things to change that modify the task.

Below, I provide a few examples, but it is worth noting that they barely scratch the surface because there are so many components to hockey skills that can be adjusted so as to modify the “whole” task. Please don’t think these examples are all there is.

Cone drills are a little bit more complex or what we’ll call “integrated”. Integrated skills involve “sub-skills” that can be worked on in and of themselves but, in this case, are being worked on together. With cone drills, we have a sequence of skating maneuvers and stringing them together is a form of integration. Also, all of that skating demands both on edge balance as well as some way of generating force or a “stride”. Some turns are not “strides”, but strides are used before and after those turns to maintain speed. This simultaneous use of balance skill to maintain stability and proper stride to generate and maintain speed is another form of integration. Of course, adding hand skills to skating skills is integration as well.

Cone drills can be set up to create the integration of lots of physical skills, but generally, don’t offer much in the way of read-and-react challenge. The game itself integrates both physical and read and react skill and many drills can as well. Here are some examples of what can be done with integrated skills to mix things up.

1.       Make the task overwhelming so the challenge is to just make it through without making a mistake. For advanced players, this may require beyond-comfortable-speed (over-speed) execution of skating and puckhandling tasks together.
2.       Dial back the challenge level and demand a specific focus (place the minds focus on what the hands are doing leaving the skating to automatic control, or vice-versa).
3.       Throw in unexpected variety. One way this may be achieved is by having skaters at different points in the drill intersecting with one another so they will need to improvisationally avoid each other.

For simpler tasks, the resistance can be tweaked. Here are some examples.

1.       Tasks can be done with a heavier or lighter puck than normal. For working on shooting, this is a great analog to shooting free throws at a slightly shorter distance or slightly longer distance than the usual roughly 14 feet.
2.       For skating, a weight vest (preferably with adjustable weight for a few different “settings”) can alter the resistance level.
3.       Players may also push or pull a teammate or the net.

Some additional ideas can be created away from the ice. Actually, this is where most of the opportunity to mix things up is because you can only bring so many things onto the ice without angering the arena manager.


Treadmills can be key in simulating on-ice movement.

Creating Comparable Off-Ice Training

Consider shooting in shoes. This is typically considered 2nd best to shooting in skates because it is tricky to transfer the results onto the ice. This is especially true for younger players where the stability of shoes allows them to generate more force that doesn’t immediately show up when they go back and try to shoot on ice. However, once over a certain hump, shooting in shoes is just different enough to fit the picture we are creating here. Likewise, with stickhandling in the basement or garage with a ball. It is different than a puck, but that is good. We would not want to do either of those too much without practicing with a puck and on the ice, but as a supplement they are great.

The same ideas apply to the Crossover Flywheel and Skating Treadmill. Skating on plastic has a different resistance profile than ice, plus the settings of each device lead to a dynamic training protocol that can hit many different versions of the same “overall task”. This keeps the adaptation response high unless both of the following are true.

1.       Skaters are not spending much time on the ice in the midst of training on those devices.
2.       Those devices are being used with limited variety in the settings.

We’ve talked about the risks and advantages of treadmill training. Those risks are real and should be accounted for. But, if they are, treadmill type training and skating on plastic in general, are a great way to mix things up.

Skating on the streets in Rollerblades or even playing roller hockey can be as well if used in the same way (and if the differences in stride mechanics that can result from the Rollerblading task are accounted for).

I have provided many suggestions, but the real answer is creativity. Don’t let practices become boring. In addition to the obvious reduction of fun, boring practices also slow the rate of development. Use creativity as a coach to modify the challenge while being true to the core task. In the end, your players will enjoy the game more and be better players for it.

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