Nothing earth shattering, but here are a few thoughts on training ice hockey (or any athlete) during the in-season period.

1. I think 2 lifts a week is more then enough if you are programming well. If we really wanted to I am sure we could arrange things so that we could train 3 or 4 days a week. But in my opinion, in-season the goal is to train as much as necessary not as much as possible.
2. Intensity remains high, volume gets reduced. We still lift heavy, we just don’t perform lots of sets and reps.
3. Keep lifts short and to the point. The team does a thorough warm up prior to practice and then comes into the weight room to lift two times a week. Because our warm up is already complete, our lifts generally don’t take longer then 30 minutes. The team comes into the weight room, grabs their cards, and starts.
4. Pick exercises that have little chance of causing muscle soreness…no one wants sore/heavy legs on game day.
5. Collect data daily and look for trends throughout the team and potential red flags with certain athletes. We measure training load (average HR x time on ice) and wellness (subjective questionnaire) on a daily basis. We also measure readiness (vertical jump) and get a bodyweight every single Monday.

As I said, nothing earth shattering but something that was running through my head and I decided to write down.