Quick answer
Yes — hockey players should sprint in the off-season, and it is one of the best things you can do for on-ice speed. Sprinting trains the exact quality that makes a fast skater: the ability to put huge force into the ground in a fraction of a second. Short, all-out sprints of 10–40 yards with long rest build acceleration, power and stride length far better than long slow jogging, which trains almost none of the qualities hockey actually uses. Warm up properly, keep the reps short and fully recovered, and run 2–3 sprint sessions a week through the summer. Do that and you will step onto the ice in the fall noticeably quicker.
Key takeaways
- Sprinting builds force production — a top-speed stride can drive 5–6 times your body weight into the ground, and more force means a longer, more powerful skating stride.
- Short sprints with long rest beat long slow cardio for hockey: the game is played in 5–15 second explosive bursts, not steady 30-minute efforts.
- Forward sprinting balances out a skater's body — skating loads the outside of the thigh heavily, and running recruits the inner quad and hamstrings that keep your knees healthy.
- Train acceleration (the first 10–15 yards) and top speed (20–40 yard flying runs) as two separate qualities.
- Rest is part of the workout — power sprints need near-full recovery (roughly 2–3 minutes) so every rep is truly maximal.
- Always warm up with dynamic movement and build-up runs before you sprint at full effort — cold sprinting is one of the fastest ways to pull a hamstring.
Why do sprints make you faster on the ice?
See it in action:
Skating speed comes down to two things: how far you travel with each stride (stride length) and how many strides you take per second (stride frequency). Once a player is past the early youth years, stride length is the quality you can move the most. And the way you lengthen a stride is not by reaching — it is by producing more force. A stronger, more explosive push moves you further with every stroke.
Sprinting is the most concentrated force-production tool most players will ever use. At top speed, each foot strike can send 5–6 times your body weight into the ground in well under a tenth of a second — nothing in a normal gym program asks your legs to fire that hard, that fast. That force carries straight to the ice: more force off the ground equals a longer, harder push off the blade.
Coach Joel's tip: Don't confuse "tired" with "trained." When I run sprint work with our academy players, the goal is quality, not exhaustion. If your last sprint is slower than your first, you have stopped training speed and started training fatigue. Cut the session there — the fast reps are the ones that make you fast. The fastest players I ever skated with treated a speed day like a shift, not a punishment: a handful of truly explosive efforts, then done.
There is a second, quieter benefit. Skating is a lateral, toe-out movement that hammers the outside of your thigh season after season, so the inner quad and hamstrings fall behind — a common source of nagging knee pain. Forward sprinting points the toes straight ahead and pulls those neglected muscles back in, so it doubles as injury-proofing. That does not mean lateral tools have no place — a slide board is excellent for edge strength and in-season maintenance — it means forward sprinting should anchor your summer, not more of the same sideways grind.
Sprints vs long slow cardio: which builds hockey speed?
Hockey is not a marathon. A shift is a string of short, violent efforts — a hard forecheck, a race to a loose puck, a shot — broken up by gliding, changing and sitting on the bench: brief maximal bursts on top of a steady aerobic base. Long, slow, continuous running trains the base but does almost nothing for the bursts, and hours of it can even blunt your explosiveness. Build a reasonable aerobic base early in the summer, then spend the bulk of your speed work on short, maximal sprints. Here is how the two approaches stack up:
| Quality | Short sprints (10–40 yd) | Long slow cardio (20–40 min jog) |
|---|---|---|
| Stride length / power | Large gain | Almost none |
| Acceleration | Large gain | None |
| Matches game energy demand | Very closely | Poorly |
| Aerobic base | Small gain | Large gain |
| Injury / joint cost | Low if warmed up | Moderate (repetitive) |
Read that as a priority list, not a ban on jogging. A little easy aerobic work early in the summer is fine and useful. But your fast, explosive sessions are what buy on-ice speed, so they get the priority when you plan the week.
Acceleration vs top speed: train both
Coaches lump all fast running under "sprinting," but two different qualities live inside it, and hockey needs both.
Acceleration is the first 10–15 yards — the explosive start out of a stop, the jump on a loose puck, beating a defender to the outside. You train it from a dead stop or a falling start, with a hard forward lean and powerful, driving steps. Cue: "push the ground away behind you." Most game-breaking speed lives here, because hockey rarely gives you room to reach full flight. When I played, the plays that decided a shift were almost always won in the first three strides — getting to the puck first, not out-skating anyone over open ice.
Top speed is what you hit after about 20 yards, when you are upright and turning your legs over as fast as you can. Train it with flying runs — a gradual build-up into 20–40 yards of all-out effort. A speed chute adds resistance here: the drag forces a harder push without wrecking your form, exactly the stride-length quality that carries to the ice. Cue: "tall and relaxed — sprint through the finish, don't lean at it."
Coach Joel's tip: Split them across the week instead of cramming both into one session. Fresh legs on day one for pure acceleration off the line, a top-speed day later in the week with full recovery between reps. When you mix heavy acceleration and top-speed work in the same tired session, you get a decent conditioning workout but you rarely get faster. On the ice that speed shows up as the extra half-step that gets you to the puck first, and you only build it on fresh legs.
Sample weekly sprint program by age
Younger players need less structured volume and far more play; older players can handle real resistance and higher intensity. Use these as starting templates for two off-season sprint sessions per week, and progress by adding a rep or a little distance — not by chasing exhaustion.
| Age group | Sessions / week | Sprint distance | Volume & rest | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U10–U12 | 1–2 | 10–15 yd | 4–6 sprints, full recovery (~90 sec) | Tag games, relays — keep it play |
| U13–U15 | 2 | 15–25 yd | 5–8 sprints, ~2 min rest | Light broad jumps, hill sprints |
| U16+ / adult | 2–3 | 15–40 yd | 6–10 sprints, 2–3 min rest | Chute or sled, broad jumps |
A simple 16+ off-season week looks like this:
- Day 1 — Acceleration & power. Falling-start sprints, 5 × 15 yards, 2 minutes rest between reps. Then double broad jumps, 4 × 3, resting until fully recovered.
- Day 2 — Top speed & capacity. Flying sprints (build-up into all-out), 5 × 30 yards, 90 seconds rest. Optional finisher: 5 × 15-second maximal efforts on a bike or hill with 45 seconds rest to sharpen repeat-sprint capacity.
Younger players simply run the top row of the table: a handful of short, fun, fully rested sprints inside a game. There is no need to formalize plyometrics or resisted running before the mid-teens.
How to warm up and set your rest ratios
Sprinting sends enormous force through a cold muscle, so the warm-up is not optional. The first thing I check before any player sprints is whether they have actually raised a sweat and run some build-ups — not just swung their legs a few times. A good pre-sprint warm-up runs about 10–12 minutes: easy jogging, then dynamic movements (leg swings, lunges, high knees, A-skips), then three or four build-up runs accelerating to about 80% before you ever go full speed.
Rest is the other half of a real speed session. Because these sprints are maximal and short, you need almost full recovery between them or the reps get slow and you drift into conditioning work.
| Goal | Work | Rest between reps | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acceleration / power | 10–20 yd, all-out | 2–3 min | Full recovery keeps every rep truly fast |
| Top speed | 20–40 yd flying | 90 sec–2 min | Near-full recovery protects form |
| Repeat-sprint capacity | 15 sec efforts | 45–60 sec | Short rest trains the game's recovery demand |
Cue for every rep: "if it's not fast, it doesn't count." Stop the session when speed drops, cool down with easy movement, and let 48 hours pass before your next hard sprint day.
Drills to build off-season speed
Work through these on grass, turf or a flat driveway in good shoes. Quality over quantity every time.
- Falling-start sprints (acceleration). Stand tall, let your body fall forward, and catch it by exploding into a 15-yard sprint. 5 reps, 2 minutes rest. Watch for: standing up too early — stay leaned for the first 5–6 steps.
- Flying 30s (top speed). Build up over 15 yards, then hit an all-out 30. 5 reps, 90 seconds rest. Stay tall and loose.
- Resisted chute sprints (stride power). Attach a speed chute and run 5 × 20 yards, focusing on a hard, complete push each step. Rest 2 minutes.
- Double broad jumps (explosive power). Two maximal broad jumps in a row, landing soft. 4 × 3 reps, full recovery. Builds the same leg drive a sprint start uses.
- 3-point-stance starts (reaction & first step). Start from a hand-down stance and fire into a 20-yard sprint on a partner's call. 5 reps, 75 seconds rest.
To keep pushing force production without piling on volume, the speed and power combo pairs resisted running with power tools so you can rotate the stimulus through a long summer. And on the shooting pad, a stick weight during warm-ups keeps your hands sharp while your legs do the speed work.
Common mistakes
- Jogging for "conditioning." Long slow miles build a base but won't make you quicker. Fix: keep aerobic work early and light, and make short maximal sprints the priority.
- Skipping the warm-up. Cold full-speed sprints pull hamstrings. Fix: 10–12 minutes of dynamic work plus build-up runs before any all-out effort.
- Rest that's too short. Sprinting again while tired trains fatigue, not speed. Fix: take 2–3 minutes between power sprints so every rep is fast.
- Chasing exhaustion. If reps are slowing down, the speed session is over. Fix: stop when quality drops, not when you're wrecked.
- Only training laterally. Piling on sideways work all summer deepens the imbalance that skating already creates. Fix: anchor the off-season in forward sprinting and use lateral tools in moderation.
- Too much volume for young players. Kids don't need structured plyos and sleds. Fix: short, fun, fully rested sprints inside games until the mid-teens.
FAQ
Do sprints actually improve on-ice skating speed?
Yes. Sprinting builds force production and stride length, the two qualities that most directly transfer to a longer, more powerful skating stride. A stronger, more explosive push off the ground becomes a stronger push off the blade, which is why faster runners so often become faster skaters after a focused off-season.
How many days a week should hockey players sprint in the off-season?
Two to three sprint sessions per week is the sweet spot for teenagers and adults, with at least 48 hours between hard days so your legs are fresh. Younger players (roughly U12 and under) do better with one or two short, playful sprint sessions folded into games.
Are sprints better than long-distance running for hockey?
For building speed and matching the game's demands, yes. Hockey is played in short explosive bursts with recovery in between, so short maximal sprints train the right energy system. Long slow running still has a place for building an early aerobic base, but it shouldn't be the focus of your speed work.
How long should I rest between sprints?
For all-out acceleration and power sprints, take 2–3 minutes so every rep is truly maximal. For top-speed flying runs, 90 seconds to 2 minutes works. Only short, repeat-sprint capacity work uses brief 45–60 second rests, because there the goal is to train recovery under fatigue.
What warm-up should I do before sprinting?
Spend about 10–12 minutes: a few minutes of easy jogging to raise your temperature, then dynamic movements like leg swings, lunges, high knees and A-skips, then three or four build-up runs accelerating to roughly 80%. Never go straight from standing to a full-speed sprint — that's how hamstrings get pulled.
Should young kids do sprint training?
Young players can and should run fast, but through games, tag and relays rather than structured plyometrics or resisted sprints. Keep sprints short (10–15 yards), fully rested and fun, and save formal sled work and broad jumps for the mid-teens once their bodies are ready.
Summary
Sprinting is one of the highest-value things a hockey player can do in the off-season. It develops the force production and stride length that turn straight into on-ice speed, it matches the game's short-burst energy demand far better than long jogging, and forward running helps balance a body that skating loads unevenly. Warm up thoroughly, separate your acceleration and top-speed work, keep the reps short and fully rested, and run two to three sessions a week through the summer. For the on-ice side of the equation, pair this with our hockey skating tips, fuel the work with smart hockey nutrition, and back it all with the right mindset in our guide to building hockey confidence. Browse the Off-Ice Training hub and the Hockey Training hub for more. Show up in the fall a step quicker — that step is built one honest sprint at a time.
