Relationship between sprint training and the initiation of skating in ice hockey players

Ice skating is a movement involves lots of muscles and skills. The explosiveness and the power are mostly launched by leg muscles and joints to start-off skating. Purposes: The purpose of this study is to find out if there are positive effects (significant improvement) on the start-off skating speed after launching the off-ice sprint training for eight weeks. There is a positive correlation between the movement of sprinting and start-off skating. Both of them require leg muscles explosiveness and the power to launch. Methodology: 18 participants from 13 to 21 years old, including 4 females and 14 males, with different skating levels, are invited to join this project. They are all from the school ice hockey training program. They were allocated to two groups: the control group – with a normal training schedule; the experimental group – with a normal training schedule with additional sprint-related training two times a week, 8 weeks in a row, with 48 hours of rest in between. Pre-tests and post-tests of an on-ice 30 meters skating test and an off-ice 30 meters running test be performed by both groups. Post-tests will be done 8 weeks after the start of the project. Running or skating time will be recorded by Brower Timing System. The results will only be compared to their previous ones. Results: No significant improvements in running and skating time in the experimental group then control group were found. Conclusion: Larger sample size should be used to test the effectiveness. Have to look for other alternate off-ice training method for ice hockey players to improve their on-ice start-off skating performance.