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Offseason Strength Training Guide

By Jamie MacDonald, Special to Minnesota Hockey, 04/21/15, 3:15PM CDT

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Cal Dietz knows athletes. As Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Minnesota, Dietz has been at “the U” since 2000 and has trained hundreds of athletes who have won both Big Ten and NCAA titles.

Dietz knows how athletes gain muscle. He knows how they fatigue. He knows how they can build strength and skills over the long and short terms. As a parent and youth coach, he also knows the youth athlete. We recently caught up with the author of dozens of training articles to discuss how young hockey players from 8U to 14U can improve their strength in the upcoming offseason.

Minnesota Hockey: Can young players work out safely and still gain strength?

Cal Dietz: Usually, just with the development and maturation process, kids will get stronger, especially if they’re active. When people ask me, What can I do? Well, minimum, let's do agility drills and good, quality running – cone drills, change-of-direction stuff. It could be running football patterns. Just running hard and putting in effort, kids will get stronger without doing weight training.

I get asked all the time, If you had to do one exercise, what would it be? And it would be running. It's not squats, it's not dead lifts. It's running.

MH: Are you a proponent of kids playing multiple sports?

CD: Absolutely. Of course. Skating is a skill. Running is a skill. Lifting heavy weights is still a skill. So, to me, we need to develop the brain, especially when they're young, to build many skills. When you specialize early, the ceiling on your skill development becomes limited.

MH: If they do go to a gym, what should kids be doing?

CD: I would just master the basic movements. You may not want to start with the complex movements like squatting. You do lunges and step-ups. Those are all excellent. The big thing is that kids may want to do more upper body, and maybe pull-ups if you can. But I like lunges and step-ups for kids of a young age.

MH: Some of the work you've done with addressing speed and the quality of work, the optimization of that work, is compelling. How does it translate to the youth hockey player?

CD: Well, I've had some advanced teams use that skill-optimization model in their practices – even coaches of 7- or 8-year-old players. Many people training want to be tired when they leave these training sessions, but that doesn't develop skill or any speed qualities because you have to be fresh. You cannot develop new skill if you're fatigued. It's impossible. It's the quality of the work that makes the kids truly better.

MH: With spring and summer approaching, what should be the goal of a youth player over the course of the next few months as it relates to getting stronger?

CD: I think if you want to get stronger, it's mainly about effort and keeping the quality high. Don't do so many repetitions that you fatigue yourself, but you want to try to move fast. Technique is important to learn first. Some kids learn technique really fast. Some kids, it takes four or five weeks. The ultimate goal should be to develop speed, strength and explosiveness. You can even develop strength by skating. If you're skating ability improves, you can make some huge changes in your game.

MH: Sometimes, you may see on-ice strength-training ideas, such as weight vests. Are there things you feel that people are doing that might not be truly beneficial?

CD: The hard part with young kids is that if the weight vest changes the skating stride and makes it worse, it's not beneficial. You actually have to develop motor patterns. Now, you may see a pro guy do it, but he can hold his form. That's not the case with a 10- or 12-year-old. You don't want to change the motor patterns.

MH: What are the parting words to leave with a young player over the offseason?

CD: Stay in touch with it. Whatever it may be – flip some pucks, try to do that once or twice a week. Give them a goal that's attainable and try to do that, at the least.

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