What the research says

Erector spinae activity across three ways of taking the same shot

Wrist shot on the floor

47.3%of maximal contraction

Standing in a garage, the low back works at less than half of its maximum. It is the easiest shot to repeat, and it is also the one that asks the least of the trunk.

Wrist shot on the ice

59.5%of maximal contraction

Same movement, same players, but the surface gives way. The trunk has to hold the body in place first, and only then turn it.

Slap shot while skating

73.6%of maximal contraction

The shot taken in motion is the most demanding of the six measured. It is the only one of the three that actually happens in a game, and it is the one that decides what has to be trained off the ice.

The stick is not what shoots

Twenty men and twenty women, half of each group rated as skilled, took wrist shots and slap shots with three shafts of different construction and stiffness, over a force plate, filmed at high speed and clocked on radar. Puck velocity did not follow the stick type: it followed skill level and overall body strength. The authors even attribute the differences in shaft bending to the placement of the bottom hand, not to what the stick was made of.

Wu, Pearsall, Hodges et al., 2003, Sports Engineering 6, 31-39

Accuracy is decided in the base, not in the hands

Twenty-four players each took ten successful wrist shots at four targets, recorded by eight infrared cameras at 240 frames per second. The predictors of accuracy that stand out are a better stability of the base of support, cancelling momentum at the right moment, proper trunk orientation and a more dynamic control of the lead arm through the whole movement. Three of those four markers sit below the shoulders.

Michaud-Paquette, Magee, Pearsall, Turcotte, 2011, Sports Biomechanics 10(1), 12-21

The trunk is the engine, and it works harder the more real the shot gets

Twenty-two college players took shots in six conditions, with electrodes on the rectus abdominis, the external and internal obliques and the erector spinae. The erectors rise clearly as soon as the shot moves from the floor to the ice, and again when it is taken while skating. A separate team, in different athletes, set trunk rotational strength against the rotational medicine ball throw: the two travel together, with correlations of 0.68 to 0.79. That is what makes the rotational throw the first drill of two sessions out of three.

Oh, Jeong, Chung, 2025, Journal of Clinical Medicine 14(6), 2090 · Rodriguez-Perea, Morenas-Aguilar, Martinez-Garcia, Chirosa-Rios, Garcia-Buendia, 2024, Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 64(1), 30-36

The upper body is the relay, and it is measured on the bench

Twenty professional and semi-professional players, average age 23.3, took five wrist shots and five slap shots 11.6 meters from a radar gun, then went through a bench press with power measured at 40 and 50 kilos, a one-repetition maximum and a handgrip dynamometer test. The correlations run from 0.29 to 0.72 for the wrist shot and from 0.16 to 0.62 for the slap shot. Bench press power at 40 and 50 kilos and the one-repetition maximum are the ones that stand out, not grip on its own.

Bezak, Pridal, 2017, Acta Gymnica 47(2), 78-83

Twelve weeks of pucks move the radar

Sixteen players aged 13 to 14 went through twelve weeks of shooting, six with a lightened puck then six with a weighted one. Shot speed rose by 7.4% on the long-hand snapshot, 8.5% on the short-hand snapshot and 13% on the wrist shot, accuracy by 14% and bottom-hand grip strength by 8.7%. Heavy pucks produced the largest effects on speed, both loads improved accuracy. The coaching benchmark of 200 pucks a week at home is not a research result, but it is the order of magnitude a block like that asks for.

Novak, Loskot, Roczniok, Opath, Stastny, 2022, Journal of Human Kinetics 82, 191-200

Warm-up, 5 minutes

The same four movements before every session, in this order. The light throws against the wall are the dress rehearsal for the main block: they wake up the rotation before you ask it for speed.

É1

Thoracic rotation in a lunge

6 per side

Long step forward, back knee toward the floor, hands behind the head, then turn the shoulders toward the front leg and come back. The pelvis stays facing forward, only the upper back turns.

Key pointIf the pelvis goes with the shoulders, you gain no range, you just move it. A stiff rib cage always gets paid for somewhere, and it is almost always in the low back.

É2

Empty stick swings

2 x 10

Stick in hand, no puck. Take ten full wrist shots in slow motion, exaggerating the weight moving from the back foot to the front foot, then ten more at normal speed.

Key pointWatch your feet on the first ten. If the back foot stays loaded to the end, the shot will be taken with the arms, no matter what you lift at the gym afterward.

É3

Light throws against the wall

2 x 8 per side

A 2-kilo ball, side-on to a concrete wall, two steps away. Throw without forcing, pick the ball up, go again. Half the effort of the main block, no more.

Key pointThis is a warm-up, not a set. The point is that the first real rep of the day is not the first fast rotation of the day.

É4

Scapular push-ups

2 x 10

In a plank position, arms straight and elbows locked. Let the chest sink between the shoulder blades, then push the floor to spread the blades as far apart as you can. Only the upper back moves, never the elbows.

Key pointThe movement is an inch, maybe two, no more. These are the muscles that hold the shoulder blade against the ribs, and every bit of trunk force passes through them before it reaches the stick.

Day A · Rotational power

30 minutes58 explosive throws25 pucksrest 60 to 90 sec

Warm-up5 min

Throwing block10 min

Cable6 min

Shooting and core superset9 min

Throwing block, always first

Rotational throw against a wall

4 x 5 per side

A 3 to 4 kilo ball that does not bounce, side-on to a concrete wall, feet shoulder width, two steps from the wall. Turn the back foot, let the hip go first, and drive the ball into the wall as hard as you can. Pick it up, reset, go again.

Key pointThe order is the only lesson in this drill: foot, hip, trunk, arms. If you see the ball leave before the back heel has turned, you are throwing with your shoulders and training exactly the fault that caps your shot.

Explosive chest pass

3 x 6

Facing the wall, ball held at the chest, knees bent. Sink a couple of inches, then push the floor with the legs and release the ball the moment the legs finish extending. Pick it up and go again.

Key pointA throw that comes only from the arms travels a third of the distance. It is the same chain as a shot in motion: the legs give, the arms only deliver.

Cable block, 60 sec rest

High-to-low cable chop

3 x 8 per side

Cable set above shoulder height, standing side-on, both hands on the handle. Pull diagonally down toward the opposite hip while turning the trunk, arms nearly straight, then come back slowly, resisting the way up.

Key pointThis is the path of a slap shot, under resistance and in slow motion. Keep the arms long: as soon as the elbows bend, the shoulders take over and the rotation disappears.

Superset, 60 sec rest between rounds

Wrist shot at a target

25 puckssuperset with A5

On a shooting pad or a sheet of plywood, net five meters away with something to aim at in one corner. Twenty-five wrist shots, unhurried, each one set up as if it were the only one.

Key pointThese twenty-five pucks come right after the throws, while the chain is still awake. That is when a new movement gets written in. Count your hits out loud, it forces you to look at the target instead of the puck.

Anti-rotation hold

3 x 30 sec per sidesuperset with A4

Standing side-on to the cable, knees bent, handle held in both hands against the breastbone. Press the arms straight out in front of you and hold without letting the trunk turn a single degree.

Key pointA trunk that produces rotation first has to know how to refuse it. That refusal is what gives the arm a fixed point to pull against: without it, the force goes into the twist instead of into the puck.

Day B · Upper body and grip strength

30 minutesno throwing90 sec rest on the press

Warm-up5 min

Press8 min

Superset9 min

Grip8 min

Main block

Bench press

4 x 6

Shoulder blades pinched and feet on the floor, bar coming down to the lower chest, a crisp push back up. With a growing player, two or three reps stay in reserve on every set, and a partner stands behind the bar.

Key pointThis is the one strength measure that research links directly to puck velocity, on the wrist shot as much as on the slap shot. The bench press does not shoot, but it decides how much of what the trunk produces reaches the hands.

Superset, 60 sec rest between rounds

Horizontal row, elbows tucked

4 x 8superset with B3

Seated at a low cable or bent over with dumbbells. Chest tall, elbows brushing the ribs instead of flaring out, a one-second pause when the hands reach the stomach, a slow return.

Key pointThe bottom hand does not push the stick, it PULLS it toward the body while the top hand resists. It is a pull, not a press, and it is the back that does it.

Hammer curl and wrist extension

3 x 12 of eachsuperset with B2

Twelve hammer curls, dumbbells held thumbs up, elbows glued to the ribs, two seconds down. Go straight into twelve wrist extensions: forearms resting on the thighs, palms down, only the hands rising and falling.

Key pointGo light. The wrist extensors are small and they get hurt before they get tired. They are what keeps the blade closed on the puck in the last inch of the shot, the inch that decides whether the puck rises or stays on the floor.

Session finisher, the grip

Farmer carry

3 x 20 meters

A heavy dumbbell in each hand, arms at your sides. Walk twenty meters keeping the chest tall and the shoulders pulled back, without swinging the arms. Set the dumbbells down, rest 60 seconds, go again.

Key pointPick a load you could not hold for thirty meters. If you finish the twenty meters thinking about anything other than your hands, it is too light.

Bar hang

3 x maximum

Pull-up bar, overhand grip at shoulder width, feet off the floor. Hang as long as you can without swinging, shoulders active rather than dangling at the end of the arms. Write down the time.

Key pointThis is the tracking test of the program as much as it is the last drill. Bottom-hand grip strength rose by 8.7% in twelve weeks in players your age who simply shot a lot, and it reads here in seconds.

Day C · Weight transfer and shot speed

30 minutes30 explosive throws50 pucksrest 60 to 90 sec

Warm-up5 min

Throwing block8 min

Shooting block12 min

Legs5 min

Throwing block, always first

Side throw from a staggered stance

3 x 5 per side

Same wall and same ball as on day A, but with the feet staggered as in a shot: front foot toward the wall, back foot half a step behind. Load the back foot, then throw by driving the weight onto the front foot.

Key pointThe difference from day A is in the feet, and that is the whole lesson of day C. A shot is never taken with parallel feet: it is taken by moving from one foot to the other, and it is that move being loaded here.

Shooting block, the heart of the session

Empty slap shot, slow then full speed

3 x 5

No puck. Three reps in slow motion, stopping the stick halfway to check that the weight has already moved onto the front foot, then two at full speed. Five reps per set, three sets.

Key pointThis is the same path as the day A chop, without resistance and at full speed. The slow reps are not a warm-up: they are the only moment where you can see your own movement order before speed hides it.

Fifty wrist shots, four corners

50 pucks

Net five meters away, a target in each of the four corners. Shoot in sets of ten: ten top left, ten top right, ten bottom left, ten bottom right, then ten calling the corner out loud before each shot.

Key pointThe last ten matter most: calling the corner forces you to decide before you shoot, and it is that decision, not the movement, that is missing in a game. End the set if you start pushing the puck instead of shooting it.

Session finisher, 5 minutes

Explosive step up

3 x 6 per leg

A 16-inch box, bodyweight only. Place the whole foot on the box and drive up as fast as you can without pushing off the back foot, then step back down and go again.

Key pointA shot in motion is taken on a leg that is pushing. It is the same front leg as in your shot, and if it climbs slowly here, it will give the shot nothing either.

Progression over 12 weeks

Period	Goal	What changes
Weeks 1 to 3	Learn the transfer	A 3-kilo ball, regular pucks, the whole shooting block taken slowly enough to reset the feet before every rep. Get filmed from the front once a week: the back heel has to have turned before the stick reaches the puck.
Weeks 4 to 6	Add speed	A 4-kilo ball, one extra set of rotational throws, a heavier bench press with two reps still in reserve. The puck count does not change, what has to rise is the quality of the last five in every set of ten.
Weeks 7 to 12	Weighted puck	Half the pucks in every session become weighted pucks, the other half stay regular, and you always finish on regular ones. That is the structure of the twelve-week trial that raised wrist shot speed by 13%: six lightened weeks, then six weighted ones.
In season	Maintenance	Two sessions a week, one set less on every throwing drill. Keep day B intact, it is what maintains the strength, and keep at least twenty-five pucks per session: shooting volume is lost faster than strength.

The rules you do not break

Space

A concrete wall for the throws, a net and a shooting pad for the pucks. Never toward a window, a garage door or someone walking by.

Ball

A ball that does not bounce. A hard ball comes back off the wall as fast as it left, and it comes back at your face.

Order

Always the throws before the strength work, never after. An explosive throw needs a fresh nervous system, not arms that are already full.

Rest

Sixty to ninety seconds between throwing sets. A throw taken out of breath is no longer a power throw, it is cardio with a ball.

Weighted puck

Nothing weighted before week 7, and never two sessions in a row entirely on heavy pucks. Always finish the session on regular pucks.

Pain

Pain on the inside of the elbow or in the wrist that lasts more than 48 hours, pull the weighted pucks and the wrist extensions, and keep the rest.

Growth

With a growing player, never a maximum on the bench press. Two or three reps in reserve on every set, and a partner behind the bar.

Measuring progress

Test	What is measured	Target
Rotational throw, distance	Three throws per side with the same ball, measured from the front foot to where it first lands, keeping the best on each side	The distance goes up, and the gap between the two sides stays under 10%. The rotational throw tracks trunk rotational strength closely, with correlations of 0.68 to 0.79, so a weak side here is a weak side on the shot.
Hits out of 25	Twenty-five wrist shots at a fixed target, same distance and same corner every test, counting the hits	A gain in the order of 14% over twelve weeks, roughly two more targets out of twenty-five if you hit twelve today. That is the figure observed in players aged 13 and 14 who simply shot a lot, with pucks of two different weights.
Bar hang	Maximum hang time, overhand grip, no swinging, a single attempt per test and always at the same point in the session	A grip gain in the order of 8.7% over twelve weeks. It is not a strength feat, it is the sign that the bottom hand still holds the stick late in a game.

The gym sheet

One page to print and fold into the bag. The three days, in order, with the doses.

Shot power

12 weeks · 3 sessions of 30 min

Warm-up, before every sessionThoracic rotation in a lunge 6 per side · Empty stick swings 2 x 10 · Light throws against the wall 2 x 8 per side · Scapular push-ups 2 x 10

ARotational power

Rotational throw against a wall4 x 5 per side
Explosive chest pass3 x 6
High-to-low cable chop3 x 8 per side
Wrist shot at a target25 pucks
Anti-rotation hold3 x 30 sec per side

30 minutes · 58 explosive throws · 25 pucks · rest 60 to 90 sec

BUpper body and grip strength

Bench press4 x 6
Horizontal row, elbows tucked4 x 8
Hammer curl and wrist extension3 x 12 of each
Farmer carry3 x 20 meters
Bar hang3 x maximum

30 minutes · no throwing · 90 sec rest on the press

CWeight transfer and shot speed

Side throw from a staggered stance3 x 5 per side
Empty slap shot, slow then full speed3 x 5
Fifty wrist shots, four corners50 pucks
Explosive step up3 x 6 per leg

30 minutes · 30 explosive throws · 50 pucks · rest 60 to 90 sec

SpaceA concrete wall for the throws, a net and a shooting pad for the pucks. Never toward a window, a garage door or someone walking by.BallA ball that does not bounce. A hard ball comes back off the wall as fast as it left, and it comes back at your face.OrderAlways the throws before the strength work, never after. An explosive throw needs a fresh nervous system, not arms that are already full.RestSixty to ninety seconds between throwing sets. A throw taken out of breath is no longer a power throw, it is cardio with a ball.Weighted puckNothing weighted before week 7, and never two sessions in a row entirely on heavy pucks. Always finish the session on regular pucks.PainPain on the inside of the elbow or in the wrist that lasts more than 48 hours, pull the weighted pucks and the wrist extensions, and keep the rest.GrowthWith a growing player, never a maximum on the bench press. Two or three reps in reserve on every set, and a partner behind the bar.

References

Every number on this page comes from one of these sources. The links lead to the original text.

Wu TC, Pearsall D, Hodges A et al. (2003)
The performance of the ice hockey slap and wrist shots, the effects of stick construction and player skill
Sports Engineering, 6, 31-39
Forty subjects, three shafts of different stiffness: the source of the finding that puck velocity follows skill and body strength, not the stick.
Read it
Michaud-Paquette Y, Magee P, Pearsall D, Turcotte R (2011)
Whole-body predictors of wrist shot accuracy in ice hockey, a kinematic analysis
Sports Biomechanics, 10(1), 12-21
Twenty-four players in motion capture: the source of the four predictors of accuracy, including base of support stability and trunk orientation.
Read it
Oh S, Jeong T, Chung Y (2025)
Effects of support surface and shooting action on muscle activity of trunk muscles in ice hockey players, a cross-sectional study
Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14(6), 2090
Trunk electromyography across six shooting conditions: the source of the three figures in the comparison block and of the rise in the erector spinae.
Read it
Bezak J, Pridal V (2017)
Upper body strength and power are associated with shot speed in men's ice hockey
Acta Gymnica, 47(2), 78-83
Twenty players on radar and on the bench press: the source of the correlations between upper body power and puck velocity.
Read it
Novak D, Loskot J, Roczniok R, Opath L, Stastny P (2022)
Training with a heavy puck elicits a higher increase of shooting speed than unloaded training in midget ice hockey players
Journal of Human Kinetics, 82, 191-200
A twelve-week trial in sixteen players aged 13 and 14: the source of the progression structure and of every percentage quoted in the tracking tests.
Read it
Rodriguez-Perea A, Morenas-Aguilar MD, Martinez-Garcia D, Chirosa-Rios LJ, Garcia-Buendia G (2024)
Influence of trunk rotator strength on rotational medicine ball throwing performance
Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 64(1), 30-36
Trunk rotational strength measured against the rotational ball throw: the source of the 0.68 to 0.79 correlations and of the throwing test target.
Read it

This program is not medical advice. If joint pain persists, see a physiotherapist or a kinesiologist before continuing.

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