Randy Rhoads asked:




Hockey fitness for 8-11 year old kids may seem like something unimportant but it’s not, and in reality, it’s something every parent and coach should be working into young players’ hockey schedules. Not only will training help the kids perform better on the ice, boosting their confidence and in turn their love of the game, but instilling a love for fitness in kids at a young age will help to ensure they grow up to be healthy adults as well. Here are three extremely important things to consider when it comes to fitness training for young hockey players.

It has to be fun or there isn’t any point…
You absolutely need to find a way to make fitness training fun for the young players or else all it’s going to do is sour them on the game and they won’t see the results from it that they would if it was enjoyable. Make working out or doing dry-land training a fun experience and the kids will excel. The best way to do this is to have the kids workout as a team, or at least with one other teammate. Make it a competition or a fun challenge and they’ll jump all over it.

Remember that kids aren’t adults…

8-11 year old kids (and young teens as well) aren’t developed enough to work out the same way that kids 15 and over, and adults do. In fact having a young kid do the same workout as a fully developed teen or adult is actually detrimental and will hinder them more than it will help them. It’s still massively important for kids to start training early, and it has huge benefits for them on the ice and in life, but you have to be sure that the workouts they’re doing are right for their age group.

Follow a program designed for hockey…

If you don’t have a coach or a trainer with specific knowledge in fitness training for kids, specifically training with hockey in mind, then your best bet is to follow a program. You can hire a trainer to design a program, but that can be very costly. The other great option is to follow a pre-designed hockey specific program.