Girls hockey is a contact sport which means that players are going to get hit and knocked off balance. Having great single-leg balance is absolutely essential to being strong and stable on the ice. Without it, girls hockey players will be weaker, slower and more susceptible to injuries. My favorite exercise to use with my girls hockey teams and training groups plays a huge role in improving hockey-specific strength and preventing all kinds of injuries. It works equally as well for every player from 10 year old goalies and 17 year old forwards, and most importantly, it is fun.

The exercise is called, Single Leg Balance with Partner Pushes.

Here is a breakdown of how the exercise works:

Stand on one foot with your knee bent, hips back and chest up. You know that you are low enough when the knee of your non-balancing leg touches the calf of your balancing leg. Think of placing your back knee on your front calf and you will be in the right place.

Have a partner (teammate, friend, family member) walk around you while you are in this low position and have them gently tap you on your shoulders and back so that you have to fight for your balance.

They are not trying to knock you over - they are just tapping hard enough, and from enough different angles, that you need to work hard to keep you balance intact.

Start off holding this nice low balanced position for 10 seconds with taps and progress to holding for at least 30 seconds each leg.

The biggest reason Single Leg Balance with Partner Pushes is my most favorite exercise is that it is guaranteed to make all players better because it mimics what players are going to encounter out on the ice. Quite often, when girls are asked to balance on one foot, they stand up straight like a flamingo. This forces the small muscles of the foot, ankle and calf to do all of the work. These small muscles are quick to fatigue, which causes players to lose their balance quickly.

Getting and staying low is hard work. Players may complain that their legs start to burn or shake. This happens because they have not yet developed the endurance in those larger muscles of the leg (quads, hamstrings and glutes) to be able to sustain a low balanced position for a long period of time. These larger and more powerful muscles are much better suited to be used to maintain a low position than the smaller muscles of the foot, ankle and calf, but they need to be trained.

This exercise is hard work, and it will make every girls hockey player better. It may seem like a little thing, but I guarantee you that it will make a HUGE difference in the way players perform out on the ice.