Many girls' hockey players dream of playing like the 'pros' they idolize. They spend hours practicing the same moves as Olympians and NHLers and wear their same numbers. If they are emulating their heros on the ice, should they try to do the same off the ice? If a young female hockey player wants to 'play like a pro', should she 'train like a pro' as well?

A few years back, when I was fresh out of university and still relatively new to training young athletes, my answer to that question would have been 'NO'. Intuitively, it seemed like a bad idea to have girls doing the same workouts as elite players, as they lack the athletic experience and lifestyle patterns conducive to high-level training.

Although my first instinct used to be to say that girls' hockey players should not train like the pros, my mind has been changed. In fact, when talking about certain aspects of player development, my answer is unequivocally 'YES'.

Coaches, parents and players in girls' hockey seem to think that there is some 'mystery formula' that they must follow in order to get to the highest levels of performance. And there is - you have to 'train like a pro'.

But training like a pro does NOT mean that you need to lift huge weights or train until exhaustion.
In fact, it often means lifting no weights at all and working smarter (instead of harder).

I have had the opportunity to work with a number of world-renowned hockey strength and conditioning gurus and hundreds of elite male and female hockey players over the last 10 years and I have seen a pattern emerge.

It all started 6 years ago...

On the day after my college graduation, I started my internship with one of the world's leading experts on the off-ice development of elite hockey players. In addition to having the chance to work with the young players for upwards of 10 hours a day, I had the amazing opportunity to watch this guru train a group of professional players every morning. I not only got to learn about the advanced training techniques that allowed these athletes to reach the highest levels of success in their sport, but I got to see a true strength and conditioning guru in action.

On the first day that the summer training program began, a group of professional players that I had been watching on TV for years walked in at 7 a.m. ready to train. I expected to see these elite athletes perform complex exercises and drills that I had never seen before.

You could imagine my surprise when these professional athletes began doing the EXACT SAME WORKOUT that the group of 13 year olds would be doing later that afternoon! Sure, the speed and precision with which the exercises were executed was greater by the pros, but the exercises were fundamentally the same as those done by the young players!

Why were all the players doing the same exercises, irrespective of age and ability?

They were building and reinforcing a solid foundation of strength and stability.

I have recently begun working with the Canada's Under-18 Program and have had the opportunity to train the best young female hockey players this country has to offer. These athletes have been hand-picked out of a pool of 12,000 as the 40 best players in their age group. The training programs that we are using with these girls (most of whom have never done any hockey-specific off-ice training before) are extremely similar to the ones being used by the Senior National Team. Again, the weights and the speed may be different, but the same fundamental principles apply.

I realize that every player is unique and has individual needs that must be specifically addressed in order to reach their full athletic potential on and off the ice. That being said, all players must use the same muscles and movements to play hockey and will therefore have very similar needs in terms of building a solid foundation of strength and stability.
Every player must be strong and stable through their shoulders, core, knees and hips. Young female hockey players must put that solid foundation in place in order to progress to elite levels of performance, and the 'pros' must constantly reinforce these strength and stability needs throughout their careers in order to maintain an elite level of performance.

If Olympians and NHL players are diligently performing the same basic fundamental exercises year after year, shouldn't every aspiring player do the same?

Maybe 'training like the pros' isn't such a bad idea after all.