The Importance of Lifting with Control

Don’t get caught up in the hype!

You can find a lot of videos online of players lifting a shit ton of weight. While that may seem impressive, it’s actually NOT. I think it’s only impressive when they lift it correctly. But even then, it can take us away from what we’re actually trying to accomplish.

I think Dan John says it best, “the goal is to keep the goal, the goal”.

What that means (at least to me) is the goal for us is to improve our on-ice abilities. We’re trying to become better hockey players, that’s our goal. So for us to try and lift as much weight as possible has now taken us away from our goal. It shifts from trying to get better at hockey to trying to lift more weight.

Don’t chase numbers in the gym

Don’t think that I’m saying that I don’t want my athletes to be strong or that I don’t think improving one’s strength won’t help them skate faster or be stronger on their skates because that’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying is that at a certain point you no longer need to be focused on gaining more strength. 

Strength is only part of the equation. You need to focus on building speed, power, endurance, etc. It takes many athletic qualities to improve one’s on-ice abilities. Not only do you need to improve everything previously mentioned, but you also need to improve the skills of the game, like shooting, passing, stick handling, on-ice awarness, etc. If you place too much focus on one component or another, you’re going to be doing yourself a disservice.  

In the video below, I have my athlete deadlifting with the trap bar. He does a tremendous job controlling the weight during both the concentric (lift) and the eccentric (lower) portion of the exercise. The reason that his control during the exercise is so important is that it allows him to get the appropriate adaptation that we’re trying to achieve. If he’s out of control, then this exercise becomes him just lifting the weight to the lift the weight. 

It’s easy to get caught up in the stupidity of trying to lift heavy but you need to remember that we’re hockey players first and weightlifters second.