Ice hockey: agility and power on skates

Ice hockey requires athletes to have an incredible mix of quality attributes: players must have the agility and balance of a gymnast, the strength and power of a rugby player, and the hand eye coordination of a shooter.
If we consider that the most important competition is the National Hockey League (NHL), which lasts from October to April and has 82 games, we understand the importance of athletic training. Let's know hockey more closely: its history, equipment and training.

From grass to ice: history of hockey

The term "hockey" seems to derive from the French hoquet, the curved stick used by Breton shepherds to guide the flocks. A way to have fun during the time spent on pastures, the shepherds tried to play skill games with the stick and some other objects: stones, pebbles, pine cones and later balls and records.
In this way, the first forms of this sport come to life, played on grass and then on ice.

Despite everything, the foundations of the modern game were found in North America: immigrants brought with them a multitude of games similar to modern hockey, including shinty, Irish hurling and lawn hockey widespread especially in England. These games were adapted to be played also on ice, taking inspiration from another sport such as the lacrosse played by the native tribe of the Iroquois.

The development of the modern game took place in Montreal, Québec. On 3 March 1875, the first documented match was played at the Victoria ice rink in Montréal. In 1877, McGill University students drafted the first seven rules and established the first team, McGill University Hockey Club, in 1880. The game became so popular that it soon became popular at home and abroad. In 1893 the teams in Montreal were about a hundred.

In the same year, ice hockey landed in the United States, with the first match played between the universities of Yale and Johns Hopkins. The American amateur league was founded in New York in 1896, while the first fully professional league was the International Professional Hockey League.

How to play ice hockey

Ice hockey is a multifaceted and complex sport, and discovering it in depth requires dedication and passion: here are some highlights about the playground (or track), the equipment, the actual match, the team, the referee, the most common penalties and the almost-equally-common field brawls.

The playground

The playground, more correctly known as the "track", is a rectangular icy surface with a length of between 56 and 61 metres and a width of between 26 and 30 m. All around the track there is a balustrade above which, in order to protect the public, there is a Plexiglas protection; behind the doors there is an additional safety net.
A semicircular door area is marked around the goal, while two blue lines divide it into 3 zones of equal size: the attack zone, neutral zone and defence zone.
The neutral zone is divided in half by a red line: the half way line. At the centre of it, i. e. at the centre of the runway, is the starting point, surrounded by the hiring circle. In total there are five engagement circles, all with a radius of 4.5 m: one in the centre and two in each of the defensive zones.
On the outside of the balustrade, at the level of the neutral zone on the long side of the field, there are the benches of the two teams, while in front of them there are the timekeepers and the "punished bench". Unlike many other sports, the track also runs behind the doors and is smoothed out, to allow the disc to scroll at high speed.
In the NHL the track is slightly smaller, 56 m long and 26 m wide, and has a slightly different division of the areas. This normally results in faster and more aggressive play.

The equipment

Due to the physical and "rough" nature of this sport, a complete protective equipment is prescribed in order to avoid injuries. In addition to special ice skates and the stick, it also includes a helmet with visor, gloves, neck, larynx and mouth protections, and the gumshield. In addition, special protections are provided for the shoulders and chest.
Since the goalkeepers are exposed to greater risks, they often have to carry discs at very high speeds and they have special equipment: in addition to special "goalkeeper skates" and a slightly thicker stick, they carry a helmet equipped not with a simple visor, but with a grill mask, leggings, glove - that of the hand holding the stick - equipped with a "shield" and a "grip glove".

The match

An ice hockey match normally lasts 60 minutes (three times - also called "third parties" - for 20 minutes). Since every game break involves stopping the stopwatch (it's about actual minutes of play), a game actually lasts about twice the actual time. Intervals between times last 15 minutes.

The team that scores the largest number of goals wins, unlike many other sports in ice hockey there is no draw: if at the end of a match the result is still equal, an extra time of twenty or five minutes is played, which ends immediately with the goal of one of the two teams (with the mechanism of sudden death, equal to the golden goal football). If neither team has scored at the end of the overtime period, the game will be decided on with a penalty or, depending on the championship, the overtime may continue. Usually 3 points are awarded to the winning team in the set time, 2 to the winning team after extra time or penalties, 1 to the losing team at extras or penalties and no points for those who lose in the regulatory time.

The team

An ice hockey team consists of a maximum of 22 players, 20 players in movement and 2 goalkeepers. During a game, a maximum of 6 players can go down on the ice at the same time. The rule is that there are 5 players of movement and one goalkeeper, but in special situations, the goalkeeper can be replaced by a sixth moving player. In early ice hockey there was also a sixth movement player in the position called "rover", able to perform both the task of attacker and defender.

In a team there must be one captain and two alternative captains. As a mark of recognition, they bear on their chest a capital "C" or "A" respectively. The captain is the only one who can ask for explanations on the decisions of the referees. Motion player changes are possible not only during game interruptions, but can also be "flying". The change of all players of movement is possible and is called "line change".

 The referee

The referee is one of the match officials. There is a distinction between "match officials" and "off-ice officers". The match officials are the referee or the two referees (Officials) and two linesman (Linesmen), in total they are either three or four. They wear black trousers and a black white-black vertical striped mesh. The first referee bears a red band on both arms as a sign of recognition. The referee has general control over the game, players and other officials.
The linesmen, on the other hand, have control over line fouls (offside and forbidden release), are in charge of engagements and assist the referee.

Off-ice officers include - alongside the speaker and timekeeper, a score judge (possibly with assistants), a video-replay judge, who can be summoned to show the images of the actions to the head-arbiter in case of contested decisions, two assistants to the bench points and two goal judges, who sit immediately behind the doors and report the goal to the public with the ignition of the game.

Penalties

Penalties are decided by the referees. The most common are: obstruction (interference), tripod (tripping), high-sticking (high-sticking), stick hook (hooking), delay of play (delay of game), slashing, irregular charge (charging), back loaded (checking from behind), elbowing, too many men on ice, misconduct, excessive hardness (roughing), hold (holding), cross check, hold the stick.

Each penalty is indicated by a particular gesture of the referee. The duration of the penalty is at the discretion of the arbiter (but within certain limits). When the referee finds an irregularity to be punished, he raises an arm. The duration of the lesser penalty is 2 minutes. The longest penalty is 5. The disciplinary penalty lasts 10 minutes. The latter can also be of a duration of 20 minutes. The maximum penalty is the match penalty (normally 5 minutes + 20 + final expulsion).

Penalties of 2,5 and 10 minutes are discounted by the punished bench player. His team plays 4 vs 5. For major penalties, the question is different: the player sits on the bench, and his team plays without the man for up to 5 minutes. For the remainder of the penalty time (or for the rest of the match, in case of penalty matches), the player may not go down on the ice, but his place is taken by a team-mate, and the teams return in numerical parity.

The only player who never sits on a punished bench is the goalkeeper. In case of a minor penalty or the first disciplinary penalty, he remains on the pitch, and the penalty is discounted by a team-mate who was on the ice at the time of the penalty, chosen by the captain. In the event of a higher penalty or a second disciplinary penalty, the goalkeeper is immediately expelled and excluded for the rest of the game.

Field brawls

Although the fight is officially prohibited by the regulations, in North America professional level combat is not officially tolerated, although it provides for a penalty of 5 minutes for each player, while at the amateur level (NCAA and some youth leagues) players receive a penalty of 10 minutes or a suspension.

More than brawls, however, the physical clashes between players are semi-organized fights, regulated by an informal code of honor and with players (enforcers) who have among their roles to start them and carry them forward.

Players who start a fight must throw sticks on the ground and remove their gloves, exchanging shots rigorously with bare hands, usually until one of the two (the battles between more than two players are not allowed) falls to the ground.

The episodes of fighting between players have increased over decades: in the 1960-61 NHL season, there were one for every five games, while in the 1987-88 season each match had an average of 1.3 fights. Afterwards the percentage dropped slightly, and today the average is one fight every two games.

Adam Gopnik, author of the New Yorker, proposed a historical explanation, which involved ethnic and social divisions in late 19th century Montreal involving Scots, British, Irish and French.

Ice hockey training

Hockey is considered to be the fastest team sport in the world: it has been calculated that professional players can skate up to a speed of 48 km/h. The hand-eye coordination is almost miraculous.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck will be.Wayne Gretzky (The Great One)

Speed and agility go hand in hand with power. The strengthening of the lower limbs is central to the excellent performance in this sport: ideal training should combine strength training and sprint activity. Preparation for this sport must be complete and develop all the skills mentioned above. In this way, performance will be optimal and the risk of injury will also be reduced.

Technogym's Skill Line is the reference solution for athletes and sport champions all around the world, as it allows the specific training required in professional sport performance & peak athletic preparation.

Stamina and endurance

These two terms that are often confused or used as synonyms. In fact, they correspond to two distinct characteristics. In ice hockey, you need to train both of them.

Stamina is the ability to sustain long lasting stressful efforts, in the physiological sense of the term, optimising the use of available force. Practically perform an exercise to the maximum extent possible to the end. The higher the intensity rhythm you can maintain, the higher the level of Stamina involved.

Endurance is basically cardiovascular resistance, i. e. the ability to make a certain effort or exercise, for a certain period of time optimising the use of oxygen and therefore of heart and blood vessels designed both to transport the valuable vital gas.

Running or rowing for 5 km requires resistance. But to do it at its maximum speed all the time or however for a good part of it, depends on the stamina.
It's easy to understand how cardiovascular endurance is essential in a sport like ice hockey where games sometimes last more than two hours. The power and speed required must be constant, however, so the player has to resort to stamina.
An example of a useful exercise performed on Skillmill: sprint the duration of 30 seconds, applying a high resistance followed by a resting phase of 2 minutes. Repeat ten times to obtain maximum results.

Acceleration, sprints, direction changes

We have repeatedly mentioned the speed and speed of ice hockey actions. On Skillmill it is possible to vary the resistance "on the fly", simply with a lever: in this way the athlete quickly switches from a rhythm of walking to a slow race to a sprint, without having to adjust the tool.
With Skillmill it is then possible to train the agility required by a sport such as ice hockey, we think about the fast changes of direction that you make: examples of exercises recommended on this tool are the lateral race with crossing of the legs, the long knee race and the kicked stroke.

Power

In ice hockey, speed is zero with no explosive power that you have to concentrate on your legs. Skillmill allows you to increase the power of the lower limbs by pushing backwards on the platform. Recommended exercises include lower, upper and lateral thrusts and traction.

The physicality of this discipline obviously also presupposes the strengthening of the upper body.

Training the mind

HALF OF THE GAME IS MENTAL. THE OTHER HALF IS MENTAL. Jim McKenny

Mental training is also considered to be very useful for improving performance in ice hockey, and agility in players must also be a psychological, not only physical. The legend of hockey, Wayne Gretzky, points out that the greats of this sport are those who know where the disc will be. Players who expect the game, knowing how to read it quickly.
One of the best techniques of mental preparation is the visualisation which consists of imagining yourself in every possible game situation.