Top Two Mobility Exercises Hockey Goalies Are Not Doing – But They Should Be.

This is a guest post by Maria Mountain, M.Sc.
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Look at any of the spectacular saves on the highlight reel and you will see hockey goaltenders displaying their great mobility.  Does this happen by chance?  It shouldn’t be.  If you want to steal more wins for your team, then you must have amazing flexibility, so here are my top two techniques for hockey goalies to improve mobility and make those impossible saves.

Prone Hip Internal Rotation

If you play with the butterfly style, then you need hip internal rotation which means you must stretch your hip external rotators.  The stretch I will describe below is an active stretch meaning that the goalie will contract his hip internal rotators to help him stretch his hip external rotators.  This is a bit of a bonus because when you fire one muscle group, in this case the hip internal rotators, the opposite or antagonistic muscle group will reflexively relax, in this case the hip external rotators which are the ones we are trying to loosen up.

• Begin by lying flat on your stomach on your stomach with your legs flat on the floor.
• Pull your feet and knees together.
• Now bend your knees to 90 degrees.  Your shins should be parallel to the floor.
• Try to keep your knees touching as you pull your feet apart (keep the knees bent to 90 degrees).
• Pull the feet outward for five seconds and then relax.  Perform 15-30 repetitions.

Foam Roll

Do any of you stretch your muscles but find that your flexibility still does not improve?  The problem may not be that your muscles are tight, but rather your fascia may be stuck.  Fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds every muscle and it can get tight or get bonded down to the underlying muscle.  Unless you actually get the fascia moving you will have trouble making gains through stretching.

If you do not have a foam roll, get one.  If you are serious about your sport then you should have one.

• Use the foam roll for 5-10 minutes targeting your groins (right), iliotibial bands (top left) and even your lats (bottom left).
• When foam rolling, avoid bony prominences such as your hip bone.
• When you start foam rolling, it is not comfortable at all.  Start slowly and with only a couple of minutes.  As you improve the quality of your soft tissue it will get easier and you will not notice as many knots or trigger points in your muscles.

View video of these and more mobility exercises for hockey goalies here.

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Maria Mountain, MSc is a Fitness Coach and the owner or Revolution Conditioning in Ontario, Canada.  She works with Olympic, professional and amateur athletes who are committed to maximizing their performance while reducing the risk of injuries.

To learn more about training for hockey visit www.hockeystrong.com and register for the free hockey training mini-course or check out all her latest training articles at www.hockeytrainingpro.com.