Off the Ice
Underneath all five layers
Not a layer of play, but every layer above depends on it: kit, conditioning, practice, the mental side, culture, and how to watch.
The 6 documents in this section
EquipmentHockey gear does two separate jobs: it keeps you out of hospital, and it decides what your body is able to do on the ice.Conditioning and RecoveryMost of what follows is reasoned from one demand: repeated near-maximal efforts of roughly thirty to eighty seconds, separated by two to five minutes sitting down, for sixty minutes…Practice and DevelopmentBuild every hour around one thing, and find out whether it worked. One thing you are working on, a way of finding out this rep whether it worked, and difficulty set just past what you…The Mental GameThe mental side of hockey closes the gap between your worst performance and your best. It does not raise your best.Team Play and CultureHockey substitutes players during live play, out of a roster you did not pick, which means almost everything you do on the ice depends on somebody you cannot see doing what you…How to Watch HockeyAlmost everything that decides a hockey game happens away from the puck, and the camera that follows the puck is training you to miss it.