How Hip Strength Drives Hockey Skating Performance
This article was originally posted on hockeytraining.com
The hip is a powerhouse joint, essential for generating skating power, mastering edge work, and maintaining stability on the ice. Among the many muscles that support the hip, two stand out as key drivers of skating performance: the glutes and the adductors (groin).
In this article, we’ll dive into the critical role these muscles play in your skating mechanics and explore effective training strategies to boost your power, enhance stability, and reduce the risk of injuries.
The Glutes’ Role in Skating
The glute max is the largest muscle in the body and has three functions:
Hip extension - Bring the leg backward
Hip external rotation - Rotate the leg outward
Hip abduction - Bring the leg sideways away from midline
In the hockey stride, the push off leg performs three movements simultaneously - hip extension, hip external rotation, and hip abduction. This means that stronger, more powerful glutes will translate to a more explosive push off with every stride.
A recent study¹ found that glute strength, along with jump variables, could predict skating acceleration and change of direction performance. But, in order to reap these benefits, the glutes need to be trained just like any other muscle instead of being an afterthought.
Training Your Glutes the Right Way
Any legit off-ice performance program is rooted in a few foundational strength and conditioning principles; one of which being progressive overload.
Progressive overload is the idea that when you stress the body by lifting heavy, sprinting fast, or conditioning hard it adapts so the next time it encounters a similar physical endeavor it isn’t as stressful.
The good thing about this is that the body is constantly getting better. The bad thing is that if you don’t continue to increase the stress applied, your body will adapt so much that it plateaus.
So, in order to counteract that, good performance programs should try to increase the stress week over week and month over month in a few different ways:
- Lift more weight for the same number of sets and reps
- Lift the same weight for more sets or reps
- Lift the same weight for the same sets and reps with a slower eccentric tempo
- Lift the same weight for the same sets and reps with a higher concentric velocity
- Lift the same weight for the same sets and reps over a greater range of motion
- Any combination of the above
Progressing accessory movements, like glute strength, gets overlooked too often. Athletes are constantly trying to set personal records, but seem to focus on compound lifts and explosive movements. Serious players should make sure that they’re constantly progressing accessory movements too.
Progressive Overload for the Glutes
The two most effective ways to consistently progressively overload the glutes are to:
Increase load/resistance/band tension
Progress the difficulty with the same load/resistance/band tension
Increasing load via band tension can be as simple as it sounds. It’s easy to understand that if you’re using the same band tension today and six months from now, the exercise isn’t accomplishing the same goal. Companies sell packs of mini-bands that increase in tension depending on their color (you will also find 5 bands in our Hockey Speed Kits).
A secondary option to increase load is to tie down a superband so you can stand inside while performing these movements. Not only can you use a thicker band to progress over time, but you can also use the same band and step further away from where it’s anchored to increase the tension.
Band Resisted Elvis
If you only have one band tension available, progressing the difficulty of the exercise is a great option as well.
Here’s an easy progression you can follow, performing each exercise for 3-4 weeks before progressing to the next:
Lateral Mini-Band Walk
Mini-Band Elvis
Mini-Band 90-Degree Step
Mini-Band Elvis to 90-Degree Step
Mini-Band Backward Facing Circles
The Adductors’ Role in Skating
Even though the glutes are the main driver for hip extension, external rotation, and abduction, the adductors (groin) are equally as important in the skating stride.
During every push off, the adductors are fully stretched to allow for a long, powerful stride before contracting to bring the leg back under the hip and/or across the body for a crossover.
Due to this constant eccentric contraction, the adductors can become overstretched, which can lead to adductor strains. Performing adductor strength exercises in shortened positions can bring tension to the muscle, shortening it back to its proper position/length.
3-Way Medball Groin Squeeze
(This is also the reason why you shouldn’t stretch your adductors if you’re sore, because they’re likely sore because they’re already overstretched! Do these instead!)
Medball groin squeezes are excellent for reducing pain, but strengthening the adductors in their lengthened position is key to minimizing the risk of strains before they occur.
One highly effective exercise for this is kneeling adductor isometrics (example video below), which target the groin muscles in their lengthened state, building strength and resilience. However, it's important to perform these exercises further away from games. Since they challenge the muscles at their longest position, they can lead to soreness, making proper timing essential for peak performance.
Lateral Kneeling Adductor ISO
Take Action: Strengthen Your Glutes and Groins Today
In a perfect world, glute strength and adductor strength would be perfectly balanced with a 1:1 ratio. While there are methods to measure this, they are often costly and not easily accessible for individual athletes. So, as a rule of thumb, aim to perform one set of adductor-strengthening exercises for every set of glute-strengthening exercises to maintain your current ratio.
(Note: If you’ve experienced an adductor strain in the past—or are recovering from one—you may need to dedicate more time to strengthening your adductors to restore balance and prevent future issues.)
Fortunately, glute and adductor strengthening exercises can be performed at a low enough intensity to allow you to start immediately without worrying about soreness impacting your on-ice performance—provided you manage your training volume appropriately.
To build strength effectively, align your training with the intensity of your weekly schedule:
High Days (Strength Days): Perform 3-5 sets of 6-12 reps for one glute exercise and one adductor exercise. These sessions are focused on building strength.
Low Days (Activation Days): Perform 1-2 sets of 6-12 reps for one glute exercise and one adductor exercise. These sessions emphasize activation and recovery.
If you’re new to this approach, start with lower training volumes to minimize soreness and gradually increase over the first few weeks. Once your body adapts, you can progress by adding load or increasing exercise difficulty. By alternating volume and intensity throughout the week, you can safely and effectively build strength while reducing injury risk.
If this sounds great but you’d prefer a done-for-you program that eliminates the guesswork, check out our Hockey Training Programs. These programs take the mental stress out of planning your sessions while ensuring you reap all the physical benefits of structured, effective training.
¹Thorborg, K., Rathleff, M. S., Petersen, P., Branci, S., & Hölmich, P. (2021). Isometric hip adductor strength testing using a handheld dynamometer is reliable. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(10), 2865-2871.
