Kevin Neeld, Head Performance Coach of the Boston Bruins National Hockey League (NHL) team, joins the NSCA Coaching Podcast to share about strength and conditioning practices in the NHL. Neeld connects with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, on his path to working in professional hockey, the involvement of strength and conditioning at the annual NHL Draft Combine, and the partnership between the Strength and Conditioning Association of Professional Hockey (SCAPH) and the NSCA. The discussion includes perspectives for aspiring coaches about working in professional hockey, on-ice and off-ice training, and the recent growth of performance staffs.

Connect with Kevin on Instagram: @kevinneeld or Twitter: @KevinNeeld| Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

Show Notes

“The shift on off-ice development and preparing for a potential combine battery takes a back seat to making sure that you’re ready to play the next game, as it should. In contrast, we have players that maybe have not played a game in three months. So there’s a lot of context that needs to be considered when interpreting the test results of the players that are at the combine.” 9:08

“What we see in some of these conversations that come up regularly is that a player might be really fast on the ice and really underdeveloped in their speed and power qualities off the ice. To me, that may be a player that you really want to take a strong look at because if they have a four-cylinder engine, and they’re beating eight-cylinder engines in races, then you increase the size of the engine. It’s likely that they’re going to continue to scale up in a positive direction.” 15:35

“It’s more of a three-pronged approach of marrying what literature and research-based evidence says along with the coach’s experience along with the values and preferences of the athlete.” 33:10

Hour 4 - Ward of the State