Uncategorized

COVID-19 has been a unique challenge for the medical and performance staffs of professional and elite sports teams. Players went from mid-season form to a total shutdown within days and left many amateur and pros without access to ice for extended periods of time. Now in a time when the NHL Draft Combine is typically…

By Dr. Michael Del Bel (PhD) In recent years, there has been quite an increase in the emphasis on skating technique among NHL athletes, with expanding media coverage on the issue. For example, it was recently reported that the Ottawa Senators train with a renowned figure skating coach, with an emphasis on edgework, balance, and stability.…

Apex Hockey is excited to partner with the Clinical Biomechanics Research Unit of the Human Kinetics Department at the University of Ottawa on a collaborative project. Researcher Jean-François Plante is a Master of Science candidate studying performance predictors in ice hockey skating. JF also carries an exceptional hockey background, having competed at major junior (Quebec…

McGill University in Montreal, Canada has been the home to cutting-edge hockey research for the past few decades. This research being conducted by the Ice Hockey Research Group (IHRG), led by Dr. David Pearsall, has been asking some very important hockey-related questions over the years. These questions have led to innovative testing methods and insightful…

2019 NHL All-Star Skating Competition: Why Kendall Coyne Schofield’s performance was no fluke. One of the many highlights from this year’s 2019 NHL All-Star Skills Competition was including some of the top talents from the Canadian and American Women’s National Teams. Not only did these elite athletes compete, in some cases they were simply dominant.…

By Dr. Brent Smale Analytics is taking the hockey world by storm and every team is trying to get that upper edge whether it’s in regard to scouting, tactics, or performance benchmarking. One company that is at the crux of all this is Sportlogiq, which is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Sportlogiq was founded by former…

By Dr. Brent Smale You are most likely familiar with the concept of range of motion and how it represents your flexibility. It’s also commonly known that you can reach certain positions all by yourself, but a slight push gets you reaching just a little further. This is the concept of active and passive range…

By Dr. Brent Smale It’s been estimated that 20% of ice hockey players per team experience a concussion each year (Tator, 2009) and scarily, this number is likely under-reported, especially in youth hockey (Williamson and Goodman, 2006). Therefore, it’s crucial that players, parents, and coaches are aware of how concussions occur and what precautions can…

By Dr. Brent Smale Arguably the most basic skill in skating is starting from a static position and accelerating forward, oftentimes with maximum effort. The two most common techniques are the open hip start, where the skater’s pelvis is facing the line of progression and rapid hip extension initiates the movement, and the crossover, where…

By Dan Bittle, MSc (c) Preface: Inspiration for this post originates from an excellent article written by a fellow contributor to the SimpliFaster blog series, Cameron Josse. Check out the original article here. Hockey, like many other team sports, is a dynamic game of read-and-react situational play. Training and developing our clients to enhance change-of-direction…