Off-Ice with Adam Francilia: Counter-Rotation Series Summary

Connor Hellebuyk was presented with the 2020 Vezina Trophy this week and joined us shortly after on the InGoal Radio Podcast to talk about his development from literally training at local stick ‘n puck session for junior tryouts into the top of the NHL goaltending world this week. While Hellebuyck is quick to credit many, part of that transformation came from his work with Adam Francilia which began in 2017.

Francilia has generously shared some of the work he does with his many pro goaltending clients with InGoal Members, including the Counter-Rotation Series of exercises designed to help goaltenders stop this common error that causes unnecessary delay in movement through both strengthening and re-patterning neuromuscular firing patterns. We love it because it highlights the direct correlation between the work goaltenders do off and on the ice.

If you’d like to learn more about counter-rotation, a great place to start is Carter Hart’s excellent pro-read where he calls himself out for making this common error that causes delay in movement that will also challenge your ability to remain square as you push to move laterally.

Although we have already presented all the exercises in this series, we recognize that working through six separate videos to guide your workout is not the most convenient way to work. And so, while we strongly encourage you to watch each video separately first to understand the correct form — a hallmark of Francilia’s teaching is a relentless attention to detail — today we present one summary video while has taken the essential movements from the series and combined them into one series you can follow along as a reminder when you are training.

You can include the series in your regular workouts a few times each week. Francillia recommends 2-3 sets of each exercise with the following number of repetitions:

• Horse Stance Dynamic 90-degrees 10 reps each side
• Single leg kneeling abduction 8-12 reps each side
• Supine lateral ball roll 5 each way
• Prone lateral ball roll 5 each way
• Single Leg Rotation Hold 7 each way
• The tube hold. 3 each way