Sport Specific Training

Ultimate Officials has taken great pride in knowing that we have conducted extensive studies of the movements referee's and linesmen take during a game, how often they make certain moves, and we have put together the most comprehensive workout plan that IS REFEREE SPECIFIC on the planet.

Here's a few myth's vs. facts we've also discovered:

MYTH: Running is a good exercise for refereeing, such as the ability to run a 2 mile run.

FACT: Hockey is a game that involves 2-3 sprints over short periods of time, followed by stationary standing, gliding, or slow movements. There is no such movement and/or movements in a hockey game that mimics a 2 mile run.

MYTH: The best cardio for hockey is High Interval Intensity Training (HIIT).

FACT: HIIT is much better than running, but it still does not mimic the movement patterns that a referee or linesmen undergo in a hockey game. Ultimate Officials has studied the best officials in the game, working the most intense hockey on the planet. HIIT is not the way to go.

MYTH: Using weight machines, with prescribed motions, is the way to build muscles for hockey.

FACT: There are two main strength patterns that referee (referee's only have one pattern) and linesmen must master, and weight machines, even most cases free weights, are of no advantage to the referee.

MYTH: To cut fat, you must eat less food and deny yourself.

FACT: To cut fat, you must eat MORE food.

MYTH: Following an off-season training regiment that hockey players follow is the key to becoming better on the ice as an official.

FACT: A hockey player regiment is better than what you'll find most people doing at the club (riding a stationary bike is in no way sport-specific for refereeing), but there is a more specific way to train.

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Linkorama: Matt Birk of the Minnesota Vikings trains with former Viking, Mike Morris, to work on the most sport-specific training for NFL players:

Star Tribune Article here

"When you play football, and you're out in space trying to block a linebacker, you need a different kind of strength than the kind you get in the weight room," Birk said.
Birk backs his truck out. The parking lot is long, and I steer while he pushes his truck its entire length. Then -- and this isn't quite fair -- I push Birk's truck with him in it, all the way back.

Twice.

Birk does this a third time, with Morris steering, while I go into the bushes and eject my morning Starbucks.

Birk and Morris find this a convenient time to tell stories. Birk, who attended Cretin-Derham Hall High, said then-Vikings offensive line coach Mike Tice sent him to Morris to get stronger. So Birk showed up and worked out with Morris and Vikings such as Todd Steussie in Morris' basement, and Birk became one of the great overachievers in NFL history -- a sixth-round pick who has been selected to six Pro Bowls.

Birk, after his first MILO workout, found he couldn't bend over to touch his knees. And he urinated blood for a few days.

"I asked him if he had gotten that looked at," Morris said. "He said 'No.' It went away. So I guess it was OK."

Morris shrugged, and we head inside for four sets of two different triceps lifts. I'm hurting now, but it's not really my muscles. It's that, while pushing the truck, my internal organs fought like divergent Middle Eastern religious sects.

I eject more Starbucks in the bathroom, then finish the sets. Birk hardly looks tired."

For Information regarding the most sport specific training for hockey officials, CLICK HERE