Off-ice hockey training — dryland — is everything you do to get better away from the rink: strength and power work, shooting reps, stickhandling, and conditioning. A good off-season plan runs 4–6 days a week and splits roughly into two lower-body strength days, two conditioning sessions, and daily skill reps of 20–30 minutes. The skill work is what shows up first when you get back on the ice; the strength work is what holds up in the third period.
This guide covers what to train, how to structure a week, and the part most players skip — knowing whether it's working.
Why dryland decides your season
Ice time is expensive, scheduled, and finite. Your driveway is none of those things. Over a summer, the hours available off the ice outnumber the hours on it by a wide margin, which means the off-season is where the gap between players actually opens up.
The catch is that dryland is unsupervised. Nobody's watching, nothing's measured, and it's very easy to spend three months busy without improving. That's the problem this guide is really about.
"The hockey gods can't tell the difference between an on-ice or off-ice rep. It's just a rep."
— Coach Lance
The four pillars of off-ice training
1. Strength and power (2–3 sessions/week)
Hockey is a lower-body, rotational sport played in a half-squat. Train accordingly:
- Squats, split squats, lunges — skating stride power
- Deadlifts and hip hinges — posterior chain, the stride's engine
- Lateral bounds and skater jumps — the actual movement pattern of a stride
- Rotational core work — med-ball throws, anti-rotation holds. Every shot is a rotation.
- Grip and forearms — underrated, and directly tied to shot power
Younger players (roughly under 13) should be doing bodyweight work and movement quality, not loaded barbells. The strength will come; joints don't get a second chance.
2. Shooting (daily, 20–30 minutes)
The highest-leverage dryland work there is, because it's the skill that transfers most directly and the one you can genuinely do anywhere.
The 10,000-shot challenge — about 100–150 shots a day, five days a week — is the standard summer target. It sounds enormous and takes about 25 minutes if you're organized.
Spend the time across all four shots, not just the fun one. Coach Lance's diagnostic:
"Is most of your time at home with a pile of pucks ripping forehand shots? Do you spend the same time on your backhand as your forehand? Almost everyone says no — their actions aren't lining up with their goals."
— Coach Lance
→ 7 Hockey Shooting Drills You Can Do at Home · How to Shoot a Hockey Wrist Shot
3. Stickhandling and hands (daily, 10–15 minutes)
A ball and a flat surface is the whole setup. The goal isn't fast hands — it's fast hands with your eyes up.
That distinction is the difference between a drill and a skill. Jovan Moore describes what it should feel like: "I was stickhandling, looking up, seeing different targets on the ice… eyes open at the same time."
Practicing with your head down builds a habit you'll have to unlearn later. Josie Hemp had to: "I've struggled with keeping my head down — stickhandling and shooting with my head down."
4. Conditioning (2 sessions/week)
Hockey is intervals: 45 seconds hard, two minutes off. Train that shape — sprint intervals, bike sprints, shuttle runs — rather than long steady-state jogging, which trains an energy system you don't use.
A sample off-season week
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Mon | Lower-body strength · shooting reps · stickhandling |
| Tue | Conditioning intervals · stickhandling |
| Wed | Upper-body + core · shooting reps |
| Thu | Conditioning intervals · stickhandling |
| Fri | Lower-body strength · shooting reps (accuracy focus) |
| Sat | Long skill session — shooting volume, off a pass, game-speed |
| Sun | Off. Genuinely off. |
Adjust the strength volume to age and training history. Keep the skill work daily — it's the part that compounds.
The mistake that wastes an off-season
Doing all of the above and having no idea whether it worked.
This is the honest failure mode of dryland training, and it's almost universal. You put in three months of reps, show up to tryouts, and find out then. By which point the summer is spent.
Coach Lance is blunt about it:
"You don't make any progress unless you track it."
— Coach Lance
The reason players don't track it isn't laziness — it's that most of what matters is genuinely hard to see. You can count reps. You can't easily see whether your release got faster, whether your accuracy improved or you just remember the good ones, or whether your head is up as much as you think.
What to actually measure
Four numbers cover most of the shooting side:
- Release time — how long from decision to puck gone. The number goalies care about most.
- Shot speed — the one everybody wants, and the slowest to move.
- Accuracy — did the puck go where you called it?
- Head-up rate — what percentage of reps did you keep your eyes up?
They improve at different rates, which is worth knowing up front so you don't quit early. Accuracy moves first — it's mostly attention and mechanics. Head-up rate moves next once you commit to it. Speed moves slowest, because it depends on strength and stick flex.
Coach Lance's "miss circle" is the low-tech version: film 10 pucks, draw the net over the video, mark where each shot went. That cluster is your miss circle, and shrinking it is the whole job.
"A PWHL or NHL player's miss circle? They're hitting the post or the crossbar. That's how good you can get."
— Coach Lance
The high-tech version is Heads Up Shooting, which measures all four metrics with your phone — no sensors, no radar gun, no filming and guessing. Your phone becomes the radar gun, the target, and the coach.
Either way: track something. A summer of measured reps beats a summer of remembered ones.
Train on numbers, not vibes.
Make this off-season count.
Download Heads Up Shooting free on the App Store — or grab lifetime access for $175 and train all summer.
The rest of the guide
- How to Shoot a Puck: A Beginner's Guide — start here if you're new
- How to Shoot a Hockey Wrist Shot — the shot to master first
- 7 Hockey Shooting Drills You Can Do at Home — the daily rep plan
- How to Measure Your Hockey Shot Speed With Just Your Phone — without buying a radar gun
- Best Hockey Training Aids for 2026 — what's worth buying
Frequently asked questions
What is dryland training in hockey?
Dryland is any hockey training done off the ice — strength and power work, conditioning, shooting reps, and stickhandling. It's how players develop between seasons and around limited ice time.
How often should hockey players train off-ice?
Four to six days a week in the off-season: two to three strength sessions, two conditioning sessions, and daily skill work of 20–30 minutes. Skill work is the part that should stay daily, because it compounds.
What are the best off-ice exercises for hockey players?
Squats, split squats, and deadlifts for stride power; lateral bounds and skater jumps for the actual skating pattern; rotational core work for shooting; and interval conditioning that matches a shift's work-to-rest ratio. Younger players should stay on bodyweight movements.
Does off-ice shooting practice actually help?
Yes. Off-ice reps build the same mechanics and muscle memory as on-ice reps, which is why the 10,000-shot challenge is almost always done in a driveway or garage. What matters is the quality of the reps and whether you're tracking whether they're improving.
How do you know if off-season training is working?
Measure something. For shooting, the four useful numbers are release time, shot speed, accuracy, and head-up rate. Accuracy improves first, then head-up rate, then speed. Without measurement, you find out at tryouts.
