Happy Monday! Here are a few thoughts bouncing around in my head after a week of reading, podcasts and other continuing ed. Enjoy!

1. Power is sport specific – I don’t think it matters how strong and powerful you are if you can’t express it in the right direction. Learn to change direction. Develop more power in a horizontal manner not just vertically. Throw med balls in various planes.
2. I’m not completely there yet, but I am starting to treat hockey players like an overhead athlete when it comes to pressing. This past year we have focused all our pressing on more ‘shoulder friendly’ movements like landmine presses, dumbbell bench (incline as well) press variations instead of using a barbell, push ups, etc. We’ve also tried to make sure we are always doing more pulling then pushing (approx. a 2:1 ratio) and really pushing to get strong on the chin up.
3. One of my goals going forward is really doubling down on diaphragmatic breathing and trying to tie it into more and more of what we do, whether its traditional crocodile or 90/90 breathing, adding it into our stretching, or adding it into our activation work. This may be one of the few things where more is probably better.