Train for Speed. Not Fatigue.

Last week, we talked about the Endurance Zone - a training environment designed to build the capacity to handle more work over time.

This week, we're moving to the opposite side of the spectrum.

The Speed Zone.

If the Endurance Zone is about building the engine, the Speed Zone is about increasing horsepower.

Building Speed & Explosiveness

Every coach wants faster players, The challenge is that speed isn't developed the way most people think.

You don't get faster by skating longer.

You get faster by skating faster.

That's why speed-focused practices look very different from endurance-focused practices.

Instead of accumulating a lot of work, these sessions focus on producing the highest quality effort possible. A training session focused on speed could include: 

• Sprint race
• First-step acceleration drills
• Explosive skating work
• Small area competitions
• Short bursts of maximum effort

The goal is simple: move as fast as you can.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR SESSION

What Might An Speed-Focused Practice Look Like?

A coach might run a 60-minute practice like this:

10 Minutes
Warmup and skating prep

15 Minutes
Acceleration and first-step drills

15 Minutes
Sprint races and explosive skating

15 Minutes
Small-area competitions

5 Minutes
Cooldown

Notice what's missing. 

There isn't a lot of long-duration skating. There aren't endless repetitions. There isn't conditioning for the sake of conditioning.

Every drill is designed to maximize speed, power, and explosiveness. Plenty of rest between intervals because those intervals are high output.

AVOID THE TRAP

Here's where coaches often make a mistake. They find a great speed drill and run it for too long. The problem is that speed can only be trained when players are fresh.

Once fatigue builds, players slow down.

Technique changes. Explosiveness drops. And the quality of the training starts to disappear.

At that point, players aren't training speed anymore.They're training fatigue.

That's why speed practices tend to be shorter and lower volume than endurance sessions.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The fastest players in hockey rarely separate themselves because they work harder.

They separate themselves because they can produce more speed, more power, and more explosiveness when the game demands it.

That's what the Speed Zone is designed to develop. And like every training zone, it works best when it's used intentionally.

BUILD SPEED WITH HELIOS