If you’ve been to any training site, you’ve probably seen many different programs for athletes in a variety of sports. One that you probably haven’t seen covered is field hockey.
Now I’m not going to bore you with getting into the specifics of the “demands of field hockey” since if you are reading this you probably want some training ideas you can use right away. Recently I’ve been doing a good amount of work with a field hockey goalie. Here is what her last lower body power/strength workout looked like:
1. Full Body Dynamic Warm-up- Just used a variety of exercises from the dynamic warm-up/mobility index.
2. 5-10-5 Pro Agility From a Push-Up Position
One of this athlete’s particular problem is getting up off the ground and moving laterally. So this just seemed intuitive to do. Basically she does the 5-10-5 pro agility shuttle that they do at many of the football combines, except she starts it from the bottom of the push-up position. She pushes herself up, and goes right into the drill.
3. Turn Step Drill
This one is going to be hard to explain. Hopefully I can get a video of her doing this and post it. I came up with this drill in talking to her coach about the fact that she takes a false step when she is coming back to the goal. I set this up using 2 cones about 10 yards apart. She runs to the first cone and steps, turning her body 90 degrees before running back to the first cone. She then alternates turning different directions each time. This drill is actually more simple that it sounds it is just hard to describe. If anyone has questions on it I will get a video of it up for you to see. She has improved with her step with this drill DRAMATICALLY since doing it.
3. Kneeling Jumps with MB Toss 5X3
I got this drill from Chad Wesley Smith (elite fitness systems contributor). Chad actually has an article at http://elitefts.com that has a video of this exercise.
*She gets complete rest with all of these drills. She doesn’t begin a set or rep without being completely rested.
4. Box Squat 5/3/1 set-up (3’s week)- 80/3, 85/3, 90/3
If you haven’t looked at Jim Wendler’s 531 book, I would advise you do it. It is a great set-up for your big lifts and is simple to track progress with.
5. SB Hip Lift Hamstring Curl 4X12
6. Front Plank 3X45 seconds
That’s it. I cut back on some of her lifting volume to accomodate for all the power training done prior to. She has told me that she has felt better with her movement while doing drills with pads on, so I am going to assume for now she is getting carry-over with these drills.
This same athlete this past summer box squatted 255. This was only after about 9 months of training and having never done the exercise prior to working with me. This past season she was conference player of the week twice. Now creating more of a speed/power focus should really take her to the next level for the fall of 10′.
Post any questions about this workout or other aspects of training for this sport or others.
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Mensinger Performance and Fitness Systems 
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