How Do You Rate?
The SPARQ Hockey Rating is an index of hockey-specific athleticism. Our battery of tests provides a window into the Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, and Quickness that on-ice play demands. The rating is not an attempt to predict who will be the best hockey player. Instead, it is an objective tool intended to make all athletes better players.
Using Your SPARQ Rating
Athletic ability is just one piece of the performance puzzle. Hockey success depends greatly on technical skills, tactical play (on-ice decisions), and many intangible factors (motivation, leadership, team chemistry). Improving athletic attributes like speed, power, and movement coordination strengthens a player's foundation to prevent injury, ensure game-day fitness, and develop specific skills.
The Hockey Rating should serve as your tool to track the progress of off-ice training and conditioning. It will help you and your coach to build dynamic training programs suited to your strengths and weaknesses.
SPARQ Rating by Age or Position
The Hockey Rating is also a tool to compare yourself to other players on your team. It's a great way to benchmark yourself against kids your age or those playing the same position. Use it as a motivator to train for the next level or to plant a seed in the minds of coaches and competitors: I am a player and an athlete; I have an edge.
What's Behind the SPARQ Rating
The SPARQ Hockey Rating is calculated from your performance on six tests. Each test is scored progressively according to data norms compiled from years of athletic testing. Progressive scoring rewards elite performances comparatively more than average performances. Ratings upward of 65 represent an exceptional athlete.
This test battery was developed with the input of athletic trainers, sport scientists, and professional hockey strength/conditioning coaches. Their years of testing and collecting data on elite athletes have guided our selection of tests. We combined this experience with SPARQ's own field testing of thousands of athletes to arrive at a battery of valid tests that can be conducted practically, safely, and reliably with large groups of diverse athletes.
Some of the tests are used by the NHL to evaluate its entry-draft players. Other tests were selected to be very specific to the athletic demands of hockey. The Kneeling Power Ball Throw, for example, is a truer test of dynamic upper-body performance than the Bench Press which is a test of strength. Another example is the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test. Research conducted in the last few years across a number of sports has shown this test result to be a more precise indicator than VO2max of an athlete's ability to perform intense intermittent exercise. This suggests that a player's ability to dig deep in the 3rd period and have a productive shift is better revealed through the Yo-Yo's progressive shuttle test than by a brief, intense bout of cycling, as done in the Wingate test.
For an in-depth explanation of the philosophy behind the SPARQ Hockey rating, CLICK HERE.
