The More is Better Fallacy

The easy road leads to a hard life, but the hard road leads to an easy one. And so it is with hockey training. There are hundreds of different training facilities and opportunities for youth and high school hockey players. Many of their programs are time intensive and equally trying on a family's wallet. These programs offer more. They offer more training options, classes, sessions, routines, etc. Many offer programs that skate 5x a week. Some parents have their kids skate even more.

Believe it or not, but this is the easy road of hockey training. It is the 98% path, the path of mediocrity, and ultimately underachievement. It is a path that almost everyone these days seems to be traveling. The fact of the matter is that the human body can only take so much stress before it begins to break down. Studies have shown for instance that the power output measured in watts on a resistance bicycle will start to decrease after only 10 seconds! Lactic acid builds and breaks down the body's ability to go 100%.

For those unfortunate players that go into tons of different camps, AAA teams, and the like, they confuse more with being better. You might ask, what is the alternative? What is the hard road you have neglected to mention thus far?

The hard road is what I preach and what I expect from my players in my hockey camps. It states that every drill (that is designed for speed or quickness) will be done at 100% and that adequate rest will be given to players so that they can truly go 100%. It is much easier to continuously skate at 95% than to go 100% - 100% requires just as much physical pain. The pain is shorter, but more intense. But it additionally requires that an athlete have mental toughness. It requires a tenacity to improve and to persevere and to continue to skate at 100% through the final 20 meters of drill when your legs want to quit. This doesn't occur in the all consuming training schedules that are being sold to parents today. Instead, trainers are satisfied with 95% or they look the other way when their player's skating form begins to deteriorate.

The hard road also requires rest and recovery. It's impossible to go 100% every day without rest, diversity in training modules, and proper nutrition. Yet, many youth parents get sucked into the more is always better fallacy. They figure that the more practice their players get, the better they will become. Sure, this is true if we assume that every increase in training hours does not result in a decrease in quality. Unfortunately, this simply isn't the case.

Remember, practice makes permanent. A lot of youth hockey players are learning to train at 90%. Is that really the best way to develop youth players? No. The best way to develop a great hockey player is to teach 100% training, but to do so this will require a reduction in training schedules. That is what Fortis training is all about - 100% training with proper understanding of the need for athletes to rest and recovery.