Dallas Stars AAA Hockey

There is so much conflicting information out there about strength training for young athletes. You don’t know whether it is even appropriate for your daughter to strength train, never mind what types of exercises she should be doing. You want to make sure that your daughter doesn’t miss out on any opportunity to reach her full potential, but you definitely don’t want to risk her getting injured while training in the off-season.

Let’s set the record straight on the most common myths about strength training for young female hockey players.

Myth #1: With no body checking, strength training isn’t necessary.
Anyone who has ever seen a girl’s hockey game knows that ‘no body checking’ does not mean ‘no body contact’. Sure, female players don’t need to worry about being able to take a big hit, but they’ve got to be able to win battles in front of the net and win races to the puck. And the easiest way to do this is by building their overall strength.

Myth #2: Strength training at a young age will lead to injury.
You are worried that your daughter will get injured while strength training - and you are not alone. Most parents avoid getting their daughters involved in a strength training program because of safety concerns. In my 10 years of using the exercises in Total Hockey Strength with my young players, not a single athlete has been injured.

Young athletes tend to get injured when they are trying to lift too much weight or have bad lifting technique. But Total Hockey Strength doesn’t require players to lift anything other than their own body-weight! Your daughter won’t step into a gym or touch any training equipment - and she’ll get stronger than she’s ever been.

Myth #3: Strength training will make my daughter ‘muscle bound’.
It is physically IMPOSSIBLE for your daughter to become ‘muscle-bound’ using this body-weight strength training program. Even the most elite female hockey players in the world do not build big muscles (and still look feminine) and they are using the most advanced weight training techniques around! I can guarantee that the exercises in Total Hockey Strength will not cause your daughter to develop big muscles, but they will make her a stronger, faster and better player.

Myth #4: Male players strength train. Female players don’t.
This is the one that bothers me the most. And this is why:
Society leads us to believe that females should not become strong and powerful.
Take a second and imagine one of those ‘ideal’ women from the beauty magazine trying to win a battle for the puck along the boards (pretty funny isn’t it?).