START it UP - CNS

Hockey is lumped with other  “field invasion sports,” as if it shares the exact same neural demands as football or rugby. It doesn’t. It’s a sport where a hard projectile can travel faster than most athletes can process, manipulated via a one‑metre lever in a compressed space with 360° threats. That combination makes hockey one of the most Central Nervous System (CNS) ‑ hostile sports currently played. It is simply not football, and constantly copying and pasting sports science memes across to hockey is a seriously flawed practice.

Football clubs like Arsenal now use CNS‑priming warm‑ups that blend low‑load explosive work, scanning, and partner‑coordination drills to “switch on” the system without fatigue. That’s a great baseline. But for hockey, it’s not enough. This article builds the case—neuroscientifically and practically in detail—for full‑range CNS activation in hockey as an integral part of training and pre-match priming of integrated body systems.