Stair Sprints
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
Find a staircase with 20-40 steps. Warm up at the bottom. Sprint up the stairs — drive each knee high, push off each step fully. Take one or two steps at a time — one-step drives the quad and hip; two-step drives the glute more. Arms pump hard in opposition. Walk down carefully — the eccentric descent is the injury risk, not the sprint up. Rest at the bottom 60-90 seconds before the next rep.
Why It Works
Stair sprints train explosive hip flexion and triple extension simultaneously — every step requires a powerful knee drive and full push-off, exactly like an exaggerated skating stride. Stairs also force the body into a forward lean automatically, grooving the acceleration posture. They are joint-friendly due to the reduced landing impact compared to flat-ground sprinting, making them excellent in-season conditioning.
Hockey Transfer
High-force, low-impact conditioning — builds the power-endurance of skating. The favorite alternative to sled push when you don't have a sled. Same vertical force production demand.
Coaching Cues
- "Drive knees"
- "Pump arms"
- "Sprint up"
- "Walk down for recovery"
- "Repeat"
Common Mistakes
Jogging instead of sprinting — every rep must be maximal effort. Running down the stairs — walk down every time. Ankle and knee risk is high going down fast. Low arm drive — aggressive arm swing adds 5-10% to stair sprint performance. Too many reps — 6-10 high-quality sprints beats 20 sloppy ones.
Progression / Regression
Weighted stair sprint (light vest) — adds load without changing the mechanics.
Stair step-up march — deliberate slow step-ups before adding sprint speed.
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Alactic/ATP-PC
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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