Kevin Neeld — Hockey Training, Sports Performance, & Sports Science

Hockey Speed Training: Lateral Start Progression

Most of our off-season hockey training programs have progressed to the final phase. With that, our speed training has reached the point where we’re merging away from static sprint starts and incorporating multi-directional dynamic starts.

We generally run a linear and lateral sprint progression in parallel throughout the off-season, meaning one speed day has a more linear start focus, and the other has a more lateral focus. This is another idea I borrowed from Mike Boyle, and it’s been great for “tissue unloading” (so we aren’t hammering the same structures over and over) and for reinforced teaching. At the end of our lateral start progression (before we move into strictly dynamic starts) we use a falling side lunge start. Check out the video below.

The idea is to force the athlete to decelerate then explode into a lateral movement. This follows several weeks of teaching our athletes how to rapidly move out of a lunge position into a sprint position. If you’re interested in more hockey speed training information, I break down exactly how I design/implement speed training for hockey players in Breakaway Hockey Speed.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Kevin Neeld

Kevin Neeld Knows Hockey

Kevin has rapidly established himself as a leader in the field of physical preparation and sports science for ice hockey. He is currently the Head Performance Coach for the Boston Bruins, where he oversees all aspects of designing and implementing the team’s performance training program, as well as monitoring the players’ performance, workload and recovery. Prior to Boston, Kevin spent 2 years as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the San Jose Sharks after serving as the Director of Performance at Endeavor Sports Performance in Pitman, NJ. He also spent 5 years as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with USA Hockey’s Women’s Olympic Hockey Team, and has been an invited speaker at conferences hosted by the NHL, NSCA, and USA Hockey.