Ice Hockey Beginner

Hi!

I am an 18 yo boy who decided to do his best to play ice hockey and hopefully join the college team. Well, as I am not living in a country like USA & Canada or Russia, it is really not much difficult to do this when you like this sports.

The problem for me is, currently, I can't say I am fit and I really need to keep myself improving before getting onto ice and all I have is a "free gym" that belongs to the apartment I live where there is treadmill, exercise bike, that "space walk" thing and some dumbbells.

I am 5'9" at 165 lbs and what I want is simply start growing up with the following skills,

* Balance
* Explosive power
* Strength
* Agility

Please do not hesitate to add if I need another crucial one. Could you please share your ideas and advices on what can be done to learn and get better in ice hockey off the ice?

There is no free place where I can skate and I simply need to wait till our school rents the place. When this happens in March, I will be able to skate something like 40mins a week for 1.5 or 2 months... As long as you are not a hockey player of a team, it is unlikely that you can have chance to skate without paying really important money.

That's why I want to train myself to get better on ice quicker.

I know I can't be a NHL star starting to play hockey now, but I will push limits and at least, get over the standards of my country(Turkey). Any kind of practice help will be appreciated!

I used to play hockey in my late teens and, although a bit younger than you, things probably haven't changed much.

Really, there's no substitute for practice on ice. The ability to skate and shoot is a different subject matter entire. My friends who still play usually just follow standard weightlifting routines. You have to remember that weights are merely complimentary in this respect.

In your case, however, what you wanna do since you're ground zero I would recommend you start off with a SL5x5 routine because you wanna develop strength and mass. Focus on compound lifts with your dumbbells here (goblet squats, dumbbell presses, military press, etc.). Second, you wanna focus on HIIT. These are very important for getting explosiveness. Once you have access to your ice rink, of course, you can perform them there. Finally, workout with friends - this is very important because (the way you describe your experience) the ability to play and perform as part of a team is far more important than individual strength. You need to be a great team player...

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot for this, I've been reading about for hours and this SL5x5 seems really good to me.

But, don't I need to do anything else except this program off the ice? Would that be enough for me for the next 12 weeks, what program claims to be a "trial" version, at the end of which I could be able to squat really big weight? Or, this program provides me with the condition I need? I will need to be skating as hell for 6-7 mins in a game and lifting is just enough to do this?

The trainer really tells much about the stuff, actually, even more than he has to. But my point here is about hockey so I wish to know if there is need to add something to this, or simply, working this way for a few months would be enough? That's what I am curious about.

Moreover, very soon I am planning to buy myself a pair of rollerblades to have the feeling of ice before stepping onto it, which I believe would help me a lot on settling on the ice.

And ONE important problem for me about skating is... I always tend to skate inside edge and the way I glide, when it should look like \ / becomes ( ) which takes my balance and speed away. All I hear about this is, "It will be better as your ankles grow, no worries" but I skated over 20 times and this is just same, while newbies(I mean, real first time skaters) can glide smoothly with correct feet movement.

As I had no close shop around, I needed to buy my skates online. My feet are quite OK in them, with my toes and heel just in the right place. But, when I move my ankle right to left, it moves without skate. I don't know if this is a gap which should already exist.

I am planning to start this SL5x5 and open to any other kind of advice that would help me become a better hockey learner/player.

No, in addition to weights you should also aim for HIIT as I said. Once you get to practice on ice, or roller blades, you can focus on endurance. Aim for at least 40-60 minutes on a daily basis. Maybe even more if your form is as bad as you say. As a comparison (not sure what the standards in Turkey are) but in Sweden where I come from most hockey players start playing at the age of 5 and 6. So this is what you're competing with.

As for SL5x5 - it's primarily for strength. You can always implement circuit training after big lifts, of course. For instance heavy bench press followed by a super-set of incline dumbbell presses and dumbbell rows (8x3). Or something like that.