Dragon Flag
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds drills like this into your personalized off-ice program, week by week. Your first week is free.
How to Do It
Lie on a sturdy flat bench, head at one end. Grip the edge of the bench BEHIND your head with both hands. Brace the core. Drive your feet up to the ceiling so your body is vertical — only shoulders and upper back contact the bench. Lower your ENTIRE body as one rigid line — feet, hips, and shoulders all descending together. Stop the descent 1-2 inches before your feet touch the bench. Pause. Reverse direction. The bench is your anchor only — body never relaxes against it. Shoulder blades stay planted. 3-6 strict reps per set. Quality only.
Why It Works
The dragon flag is the single most demanding anti-extension movement in the strength world — popularized by Bruce Lee and used by every elite gymnast and combat athlete. Unlike a plank where you hold a static position, the dragon flag requires the entire body to move as ONE RIGID PLANK through an enormous range of motion — from vertical down to nearly horizontal — while the rectus abdominis fights gravity's attempt to break the body at the hip. For hockey, this builds full-trunk-rigidity strength at a level no other exercise reaches: the kind of bombproof core that lets a player absorb a hit while accelerating, hold the puck on the boards under contact, or fire a slap shot while being checked. The catch: it's brutally hard. Most players need 6-12 months of progressions to earn a clean rep.
Hockey Transfer
The single hardest anti-extension movement in strength training. Builds rectus, spinal stabilizers, AND lats in one move — full-body trunk strength under maximum lever load. Bruce Lee's signature. Earn this exercise. If you can't hold a 60-second hollow body hold, you're not ready — work that progression first.
Coaching Cues
- "Lie on a bench"
- "Grip behind your head with both hands. Lift body to vertical (shoulder blades stay planted). Lower the WHOLE body as one straight line — no breaking at the hip. Stop just before touching"
- "Then raise back up."
Common Mistakes
Breaking at the hip on the way down — body must stay straight as a board; if hips drop first, regress. Touching the bench at the bottom — that's resting; stop 1-2 inches above and control the eccentric. Skipping the progressions — this exercise will break your lower back if you cheat the prerequisites. Holding the breath — exhale through the hard portion; brace doesn't mean Valsalva.
Progression / Regression
Straight-arm dragon flag (hands gripping a fixed point in front of you instead of behind head) — even harder lever. Or weighted dragon flag with ankle weights.
Tucked dragon flag — knees bent to chest during the descent. Earn 15+ reps before extending the legs. Prerequisite: 60-second hollow body hold.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Strength/neural
Put it to work
on the ice.
The Elite Hockey Drills app builds exercises like this into a personalized off-ice program — created by a sport scientist and former national-team coach. Your first week is free.
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