“Power development is extremely plane-specific.” – Eric Cressey

Research has shown that sagittal plane power production doesn’t carryover to frontal/transverse/rotational power nearly as much as people would like to think. To develop power outside of the sagittal plane and have it carryover to sport, you need to specifically train it.

The sport of hockey is a great example of this. The skating stride in hockey is a frontal plane dominant movement that is extremely single leg in nature. Goalies live in the frontal plane by explosively going post to post.

So how do you develop this hockey specific/frontal plane power? It’s not rocket science  train both frontal plane power and single leg strength.

Frontal plane power: Lateral bounds

One of the ways we training frontal plane power is through a simple lateral bound. The lateral bound allows for specific frontal plane power development, something that you don’t get from traditional power exercises like cleans or snatches.

Frontal plane power: Cross-Behind Side Toss

You can also develop a great deal of power outside of the sagittal plane with medicine ball work. Generally speaking, many different med ball exercises are phenomenal for developing power in non-traditional ways. A Med Ball Side Toss are great at accomplishing this.

Single leg strength: 1-leg Squat

Finally, single leg exercises are also key when developing strength and power in the frontal plane. At first glance, many people believe that single leg exercises are performed in the sagittal plane, but in reality you are asking the hip to perform quite a bit of stabilization in both the frontal and transverse plane. A true single leg exercise like the 1-leg squat (completely unsupported) or split squat variations (single leg supported) are two of my favorite single leg exercises.