Hockey tournaments give you a great opportunity to play against teams you normally wouldn’t play against. They are also great for team bonding and can be the highlight of your season. But when you are playing four or five games over a three-day period, tournaments can be just plain tiring. With so much high-intensity competition crammed into such a short period of time, players need to make sure that they are doing everything they can to feel and play their best all weekend long. 

Follow these four keys to ensure that you have your best tournament possible:

1. Drink more water
This is by far the most important piece of advice I can give you about increasing performance in your next tournament. Hockey players just don’t drink enough water. While most do a decent job of sipping on their water bottles during the game, it is the amount of water that they drink in between games that is going to make the biggest difference in their performance. Once you are thirsty, you are dehydrated, and dehydration decreases performance. Make sure that players have a water bottle with them at all times and that they drink from it constantly.    

2. Warm up
In order to play your best in every game of the tournament, you have to do an off-ice warm-up. Most teams do some kind of warm-up before hitting the ice, but as the tournament wears on, it gets much more difficult to get players energized and excited for a 10- or 15-minute routine. But a proper off-ice warm-up for your hockey-specific muscles doesn’t need to be long. You can get an effective warm-up done in less than five minutes.  

Try this quick one minute warm-up sequence before your next tournament game: 20 jumping jacks, 10 squats, 40 high knees and 5 lunges on each leg. Instead of taking out the warm-up completely as the tournament wears on, go through that quick sequence a few times in the hallway or dressing room. It will make a huge difference on how you feel when you step out on the ice. 

3. Stay away from the snack bar
The rink snack bar is a “nutritional wasteland.” Typically, everything there is either deep-fried or pre-packaged. The best solution to tournament nutrition is to bring healthy options with you, but that isn’t always realistic. If you need to go to the fast-food drive-thru before or between games, make sure that you are making the healthiest choices possible. Stay away from deep-fried foods – they are hard for the body to digest and may cause an upset stomach during the game. Sugar-filled foods are going to give you an immediate shot of energy, but you’ll come crashing down minutes later and your performance will suffer. Try to avoid the “white foods” and go for the “whole grain” options that have much more nutritional value.  Making the choice to eat the healthiest food possible will help you to recover quicker and play better.

4. Stretch more
Hockey players don’t stretch enough. This can be a huge problem during tournament time because of the high volume of high-intensity games. It is unrealistic to expect players to go through a complete 20-minute stretching routine in between games. Performing a few hockey-specific stretches for the hip flexors, glutes and groin will go a long way to preventing muscle soreness and maximizing on-ice performance. Spend one minute stretching each of these key muscle groups after each game and you will not only feel better, but you’ll dramatically decrease your chances of getting injured. 

Take the time to address these four keys at your next tournament and you will be well on your way to raising the championship trophy overhead.

To get complete access to articles, videos and secrets that addresses the specific needs of female hockey players, click here. Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is the Founder & Director of Total Female Hockey and currently coaches the Toronto-Leaside Junior Wildcats in the Provincial Women’s Hockey League.