Мэргэжлийн багууд тоглогчдын хурд, хүч болон бэртэл гэмтлээс эдгэрэх явцыг хянахын тулд хүчний тавцан дээрх үсрэлтийн сорилыг ашиглаж эхэлжээ.
NHL-ийн тоглогчид мөсөн дээр сагсан бөмбөг эсвэл хөнгөн атлетикчдийнх шиг үсэрч хөдлөх нь ховор боловч үсрэлтийн сорил нь тэдний хурд, хүч болон бэртлээс эдгэрэх явцыг үнэлэх хамгийн үр дүнтэй арга болж байна. Hawkin Dynamics болон VALD Performance компанийн тусгай хүчний тавцангууд нь тоглогчийн үсрэлтийн өндөр, хүч гаргах чадвар болон хөлийн тэнцвэрт байдлыг нарийн хэмждэг. Энэхүү сорил нь NHL-ийн Scouting Combine-ийн үеэр тоглогчдын ирээдүйн хөгжлийг таамаглахад чухал өгөгдөл болдог бөгөөд тухайлбал, Бекхэм Эдвардс 20.9 инчийн үсрэлт үзүүлж, Детройт Ред Уингс багт сонгогдсон байна.
Бостон их сургуулийн дасгалжуулагч Кен Уиттиер Матти Бенирс, Чарли Макэвой, Уилл Смит зэрэг NHL-ийн тоглогчдын бэлтгэлийн хөтөлбөрийг боловсруулахдаа энэхүү үсрэлтийн мэдээллийг ашигладаг. Тоглогчдын хүчээ хэрхэн зөв хуваарилж, хурдаа нэмэгдүүлэн, шаардлагатай үед зогсолт хийж байгааг хэмжих замаар дасгалжуулагчид бэлтгэлийн ачааллыг оновчтой тохируулдаг. Энэ нь тоглогчдод мөсөн дээр илүү тэсрэлттэй, тогтвортой хөдөлгөөн хийхэд тусалдаг байна.
Түүнчлэн, энэхүү сорил нь тоглогчдын ядаргаа болон бэртлийн эрт илрүүлгийн систем болж өгдөг. Бостон Брюинс багийн тоглогч Таннер Жанно болон Алекс Стивс нар үсрэлтийн дасгалууд нь тэдэнд мөсөн дээрх хөдөлгөөний итгэл болон хурдны тэсрэлтийг өгдөг гэдгийг онцолсон юм. Хэрэв тоглогчдын үсрэлтийн хэмнэлд өөрчлөлт орвол хүчний тавцан нь үүнийг шууд илрүүлж, дасгалжуулагчдад тухайн тоглогчийг амраах эсвэл бэртлээс бүрэн эдгэрснийг батлах боломжийг олгодог.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
It happens on occasion. A defenseman goes airborne to glove a flying puck. A goalie leapfrogs an inbound forward to avoid a head-on collision.
But hockey players rarely jump on the ice. Certainly not to the degree their counterparts in basketball, volleyball or track and field do.
Yet the movement that is unusual in one sense is critical in another. In hockey, consider all a jump can do:
- Forecast a prospect’s development
- Predict a player’s on-ice acceleration, speed and braking
- Influence an injured player’s return to play
- Track in-season player fatigue
- Guide performance coaches on how to design workout programs
“It’s an analog for how you move your body,” Ben Watson, founder and CEO of Hawkin Dynamics, said of a jump. “How you produce force is going to determine how fast you skate, how fast you jump, potentially how hard you can shoot a puck.”
A common playground maneuver, then, could be hockey’s most important movement.
Simple and insightful
The countermovement jump does not require complicated instruction: place hands on hips, descend to load the jump, explode as high as possible, land on both feet. Neither time nor space need be abundant. Try it to see: at your desk, in your kitchen, at the bus stop. If a hockey writer can do it, so can you.
For Watson, this seemingly nondescript motion is a treasure chest of information.
Hawkin Dynamics, based in Westbrook, Maine, specializes in force plates. So does VALD Performance, an Australian company. When athletes perform countermovement jumps on force plates, the devices measure metrics such as jump height, propulsive power and leg-to-leg symmetry.
“The ability to control how you interact with the ground and how you produce force through the ground,” Watson said, “really does determine how fast, how strong, how powerful you can be.”
As a player crouches into the countermovement jump, force plates measure eccentric force, or how hard he or she can brake. In this phase, the player is pulling potential energy into his or her quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes.
Once the player completes the downward cycle and initiates the jump, force plates measure his or her concentric force, also known as propulsivity. Tendons and muscles stretch and release their energy to launch the player to maximum height.
The countermovement jump using force plates is one of the tests at the NHL Scouting Combine. On June 6, the Sarnia Sting’s Beckham Edwards set the standard with a 20.9-inch jump. The Detroit Red Wings drafted Edwards in the fifth round later that month. The forward’s jump may have played a part in Detroit’s selection. More importantly, it gave the organization an early data point in the 18-year-old’s development curve to assist in career projection.
By the time of the combine, most players are familiar with force plates. The USHL uses Hawkin Dynamics’ devices. Players can supply college teams, for example, with their jump files as part of the recruiting process.
“It can help them get discovered,” Watson said. “It can help the teams make decisions on whether they think an athlete has developed enough at a certain age.”
At Boston University, force plates are important tools for associate head strength and conditioning coach Ken Whittier. As he designs programs for his clients, including NHLers such as Matty Beniers, Charlie McAvoy and Will Smith, Whittier evaluates how they develop force with their countermovement jumps.
If, for example, a player produces high concentric force but low eccentric force, Whittier would recommend flywheel squats to focus on better braking. On the flip side, he would suggest explosive step-ups to improve low concentric force. A player strong in both categories could accelerate after a puck and slam on the brakes once they retrieve it to avoid an opponent.
“I might have someone who’s the strongest guy on the team. He can deadlift 500 pounds,” said Whittier. “But if it takes him all day to pick up the weight, does that translate to sport? It might in terms of making him stronger. But there’s also maybe a rate of force development need where he needs to express high forces in a shorter window of time.”
Whittier often prescribes jumps themselves. In the initial three-week offseason phase, Whittier wants his players to jump off a box and stick the landing to emphasize deceleration. In Phase 2, they’ll proceed to one-off jumps over hurdles. In Phase 3, it would be a series of jumps over hurdles.
Variations include hopping on one leg, bounding from one leg to another and two-legged trap bar jumps. Sprints are also required.
“A balance of jumping, bounding, hopping and sprinting are the main methods,” said Whittier, “to get someone faster.”
How well a player jumps in the gym often correlates to on-ice performance.
‘Feels like you’re flying’
Tanner Jeannot is 6-foot-2 and 221 pounds. Boston Bruins teammates believe the 29-year-old forward is the team’s strongest player. But strength and size do not necessarily propel strongmen like Jeannot into motion without an emphasis on acceleration.
“For me, it’s always been explosiveness,” Jeannot said. “Getting out of the corner to the net. Stopping and starting on the penalty kill. A lot of it’s stopping, accelerating. That’s where you can train most off the ice.”
One offseason training sequence Jeannot enjoys is a heavy squat followed by hurdles, an explosive box jump or a band-assisted jump. By the time Jeannot advances to the jumps, he launches with pop, just how he likes it to be when he’s on the ice.
“It feels pretty good,” Jeannot said. “It feels like you’re flying.”
Alex Steeves, Jeannot’s teammate, recalled jumping and bounding since he started training seriously at 13 years old. Thirteen years later, one of the forward’s favorite progressions starts with weighted lunges or deadlifts. He then transitions into either an unweighted jump or unweighted bounds. The purpose is to feel springy.
On the ice, once he’s applied his jump work, Steeves feels more stable, explosive with his initial strides and agile with directional changes. There is a mental advantage too.
“You’re getting stronger, more powerful, more explosive fast,” Steeves said of jumps. “It’s also what works for me and what gives me confidence. Because the fittest guy on the ice, if he doesn’t have confidence, he’s going to be no good. There’s some amazing players who are in amazing shape because they’re professional athletes. But it’s their confidence that really differentiates them and empowers them to do things that other guys don’t have the confidence to do. For me, the offseason’s always been where I build my confidence.”
Players like Jeannot and Steeves serve their employers by being healthy. The countermovement jump can help with that.
Early warning system
An NHLer’s jump height typically does not change over the course of a season. But pro athletes excel at compensation.
Consider a tired player coming off three games in four nights with travel. To reach his normal jump height, he might descend two millimeters lower on a countermovement jump in search of greater elasticity. It would be a subconscious adjustment.
This means nothing in isolation. But if teams require their players to perform daily countermovement jumps upon check-in, force plates would identify an exception. A performance coach would spot the discrepancy and suggest to the head coach, for example, to keep the player off the ice that day.
A two-millimeter jump difference is impossible to spot with the naked eye. Force platescapture it right away.
“Within that small moment of time we’re measuring as they’re producing force through the plate, what can we determine about how they produce that force? That’s where the deeper insights come from,” Watson said. “Because now we’re looking at their conditioning at a neurological level. Are they overcompensating?”
If significant overcompensation occurs, it could signal a ligament strain, for example. The medical staff could recommend shutdown. In that case, following rest and rehabilitation, force plates could assure the player that returning is safe.
“You hurt yourself. We understand you’re hesitant to come back,” said Watson of a sample conversation between performance coach and player. “But with your jumping, your asymmetry is back to where it was. You’re jumping just as high. You’re not any weaker on that injured side.”
“Sometimes,” Watson continued, “that’s the last piece the player needs to have that confidence to say, ‘Hey, I can actually go out there and put it down.’”
Training camps open soon. This is the time of year when most players are healthiest and strongest. It is their window to prove to their employers their offseason jump work has paid off.
“The ultimate goal is to have it help you and benefit you on the ice,” Jeannot said. “That’s where you hopefully notice it the most, feeling explosive in your starts and stops and quick bursts.”
