Infinity Walks will progressively develop coordination, enhance and accelerate learning, and can improve visual and cognitive skills. It’s time to incorporate them into your training.

It’s Thursday afternoon. You pull up your internet browser and start searching for new drills, techniques, and ways to do things. And while there is nothing new under the sun, there are some drills you just haven’t been exposed to yet, ones that can help your team, and so your searching continues.

As coaches, we have all been there. We are all searching for that perfect drill, the magic bullet. What if I told you that drill does not exist, but there is a drill that can progressively develop coordination, enhance and accelerate learning, and can improve visual and cognitive skills.

For nearly a decade, I have dedicated myself to finding the magic bullet. That one drill that makes everyone a better hockey player, one that my best players are the best at. Then, one afternoon at a conference geared towards high school track and football coaches, I was introduced to Infinity Walks.

Introducing Infinity Walks

Before going further, I did not come up with this drill or discover it. It was invented by Deborah Sunbeck, Ph.D. Other coaches revealed it to me and I use it. The purpose of this article is to expose the readers of The Coaches Site and hockey coaches around the world to this drill and give my opinions and experiences with it.

Now, in simple terms, Infinity Walks are a figure 8 pattern that athletes walk or run while keeping focus on a target. There are limitless progressions or regressions to Infinity Walks, which may be utilized by players at the U6 to professional levels. While walking this figure 8 pattern, athletes must use their peripheral vision to see cones they are walking around, all while keep eyes on the target in front of them.

The below video is my personal, classic set up for Infinity Walks. I use two cones and a ball. I have players alternate sets of catching and throwing with their right and left hands. Typical timing per set is 15-60 seconds. Reminder, I work at the college level. Highly consider regressing when you begin with younger players. The link in the section below to Infintywalk.org will give you an idea of the original drill and where you may want to start.

Video 1. My classic set up for Infinity Walks. In my setting, college hockey, all my players are ready for this. However, if you are at the AAA or below level, consider not passing a ball back and forth.

Like most coaches, I am a master thief. I stole this drill from Dan Fichter, a phenomenal Athletic Performance Coach from the Rochester, NY area. Dan regularly incorporates brain training into his workouts and taught about Infinity Walks at a conference, The Track and Football Consortium.

Sitting in the back of the room at this same conference was Cal Dietz. Cal is the Associate Director of Athletic Performance with the University of Minnesota, working with Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey. He is also the current Strength and Conditioning Head Coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team. I will expand later on Cal’s modifications and advancements to the drill.

Going Deeper And Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

As mentioned, Infinity Walks were invented by Deborah Sunbeck, Ph.D, a clinical psychotherapist, in the mid 1980s, nearly 40 years ago. Some of Dr. Sunbeck’s criteria for creating Infinity Walks include:

• Allowing a person to progress on their own
• The drill be easily run by non-professionals as well as professionals
• Following the nervous system’s normal progression of growth by progressing steadily

She notes that Infinity Walks may be applied to any stage of development, to any age group, and with modifications. During Infinity Walking, a key process is the communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and the therapeutic adaptations that occur as a result. Studies have shown that learning ability could be dramatically improved by initiating left and right brain communication that normally only occurs during fun, exciting, and new experiences.

From her website, “Dr. Sunbeck welcomes competent and respected licensed professionals in all fields of clinical expertise to ‘spread the good word’ about Infinity Walk, and to do so in a way that enables their listeners to gain more knowledge about the complete method if they so wish.”

To learn more, please visit the website InfinityWalk.org.

The Brain (Neurology) Always Wins

If I have learned anything in the last decade, it is that elite players have elite nervous systems. They have the ability to communicate between their eyes, brain, and muscles in ways that sub elite players cannot. Their neural processing (senses like vision, hearing, and touch, which communicate with the brain) are on another level.

What Infinity Walks offer is a way to improve neural processing to all players, at all ages. Coaches will discover their best players, regardless of GPA or other perceived intelligence markers, will be the best at this drill.

Off Ice Infinity Walking

Now that you have a better understanding of the drill and the benefits it offers, I want to show different methods, variations, and progressions I use it with.

Video 2. Infinity Walks, throwing a ball right hand to right hand (or left to left), and adding 1 to a number called out by the thrower. Adding in math now makes athletes think and respond to a verbal stimulus.

Video 3. Infinity Walks, throwing a ball, adding 1 (math), and turning around at a cone. The head turn allows athletes to practice shoulder checks as well as losing sight of a target and needing to reorient.

Video 4. Infinity Walks, throwing a ball, moving a ball around the waist, math, and turning around at a cone. The progression here is catching a ball, moving it around the waist, and then throwing it back. Anytime a body part crosses over the midline of the body, such as in moving an object around your waist, it causes an increase in neural processing. The athlete now has more to do and think about all while responding to verbal stimuli, using peripheral vision to see the cones, and reorienting themselves every time they lose sight of the ball thrower during the head turn.

Video 5. Infinity Walks, moving a ball around the waist, adding 1 to the number of fingers held up by a partner, turning around at a cone, and switching the direction the ball is moving upon a verbal cue. In this progression, the player has to keep their head up even more because the numbers to add to are coming from a visual cue versus verbal. Keeping your head up, always good for hockey. In addition, a verbal cue is given for when to switch directions of the ball moving around the waist.

Video 6. Infinity Walks, throwing a ball, starting at a high number and keep subtracting 3 (math), and holding a dumbbell or other weighted object. The goal in this progression is to challenge the hips, footwork, and balance by offsetting players with a dumbbell. This will be an added challenge to their vestibular (balance through the eyes and inner ear) system. The math portion is made more difficult as players subtract 3, starting at a higher number such as 97. They are to rattle off numbers as quickly as possible: 97-94-91-88-85-82…..

On Ice Infinity Walking

Infinity Walks on ice will reveal the true power of the drill. While some of the above off ice variations may not be possible to perform on the ice, the same ideas behind them may be applied.

Infinity Walks on ice will improve the attributes listed below. Again, a magic bullet.

• Skating
• Passing
• Stick handling
• Keeping heads up
• Reorienting after losing sight of the puck, off a turn
• Peripheral vision or being able to see more of the ice during stressful moments in a game
• Responding to visual or verbal cues
• Ability to learn new drills, skills, or systems later in practice

On a road trip to Tempe, Arizona a youth team was on the ice and I caught them performing this drill. I am unsure of whether or not the Coach is familiar with Infinity Walks, or if it is a common drill they perform. As you may see from the below video, most of these players should continue with this variation of Infinity Walks before progressing. Some may even need to regress to completing the drill without a pass from a partner.

Video 7. Youth Hockey players performing Infinity Walks on ice, during practice.

Coaches may be as creative as they want when progressing or applying variations to Infinity Walks. They may use one, two, or any sort of combination to the progressions and variations below.

• Passing back to a partner
• Stick handling
• Math off verbal cue (start with simple addition or subtraction and progress)
• Math off visual cue (addition or subtraction off of partner’s hand)
• Turning around at one cone
• Forehand only
• Backhand only

Infinity Walks: When to Incorporate Them

Now that you understand the what, the why, and the how, let’s turn our focus to the when. The challenge with Infinity Walks will be the logistics for your team. For example, what age and level is your team? Do you have space in a lobby, weight room, or concourse/mezzanine to perform the drill? Do you have enough cones to efficiently perform them? Etc.

Like speed work, Infinity Walks should be performed near the beginning of practices or workouts. Refer back to my first article on The Coaches Site, Sprint Based Hockey: the Cutting Edge for Hockey Coaches. I discuss the optimal window for speed and skill development. In terms of sets, reps, rest periods, and frequency, treat Infinity Walks like a sprint or any other high intensity drill.

Off Ice

When performing Infinity Walks off ice, they may be performed:

• Beginning of workout, as a warm up
• During rest periods of sprints or other demanding exercises
• Within a circuit of a workout, as an exercise or station
• Before practice, during an off ice warm up
• Before games, during an off ice warm up
• In the morning or afternoon of an evening game, to prime the nervous system

Infinity Walks should be about 15-60 seconds long. When first performing the drill, especially with youth players, this time may be longer as they will most likely be slowly walking and not passing anything back and forth. The more complexity added to Infinity Walks, the shorter the duration of each set.

On Ice

When performing Infinity Walks on ice, they may be performed:

• Beginning of practice as players step on the ice
• Beginning of practice as a warm up drill
• As a station during skill work
• During rest if performing sprints

Similarly to off ice, keep Infinity Walks to about 15-60 seconds long, depending on the variation and intensity. With more complexity and intensity, shorten the duration of each set.

Some of the magic to Infinity Walks are seen on ice. Coaches want players who keep their heads up and can see the ice, players who see their teammate or opponent cutting back door.

Well, as the drill becomes more complex and stressful, their field of vision will narrow in response to the stress. As a result of their vision narrowing, they may trip over a cone. Perfect! This feedback will enhance their peripheral vision while under stress and increase their ability to react to verbal or visual cues, like a teammate communicating or reading a defender.

You want players to mess up and have to look down at cones or get math problems wrong. This shows they are being stressed, which will cause a need to adapt and overcome. Once athletes perform a variation or progression with ease, it is time to increase the difficulty.

Infinity Walks With a Team

The final thought you may have at this point is how to perform the drill with a team. An on ice example was already given, video 7. If you do not have enough cones, simply add more players per group.

What has been successful for me is:

• Groups of 3-4 players
• 0:15 seconds per set (0:30-0:45 rest)
• All players go in order (1, 2, 3, then 4) each set
• Alternate arm you throw and catch with each set (if applicable)

Recently on a road trip, my women’s team performed Infinity Walks in the parking lot of an outlet mall. The game was later at night and this was a morning workout to get their legs moving and brains turned on.

Video 8. Infinity Walks, with women’s college hockey team on road trip. 3 players per group, rotating on a whistle every 0:15.

Video 9. Infinity Walks, with women’s college hockey team on road trip. This is a very advanced variation. Players add 1 to number displayed on partner’s hand. Turn around at one cone. Ball moving around waist, switch direction ball moves on the whistle. 0:30 per set, whistle is random by coach.

Many ice rinks have an ‘upstairs’ which is open for fans to walk around. This is a great place to go and perform Infinity Walks.

Video 10. Infinity Walks, with women’s college hockey team. Another advanced variation, like Video 9. Here you can see the athlete forgetting to turn around at a cone (do to complexity) and they slip (focused on hand and math, lose sight of cone).

Video 11. Infinity Walks, with women’s college hockey team. This is to show where players from Video 10 were performing them. Perhaps your rink has a similar space.

With any large space and a few cones and balls or pucks, you may perform Infinity Walks with a team.

Video 12. Infinity Walks, at a private gym with high school aged players. 3 players per group, rotating on a whistle every 0:15.

Cal Dietz’s Advancements (The GOAT Drill)

As mentioned near the start of the article, Cal Dietz from the University of Minnesota was at the same lecture and heard about Infinity Walks. Cal then progressed and modified the drill and I have stolen some of his ideas. I steal a lot from Cal and it is only right that I share some of his advancements.

Remember, Cal works with high level, recruited, NCAA Division 1 athletes. I do not suggest you start a team out with these variations. Cal believes this drill is so powerful, he calls it the GOAT Drill (Greatest of all Time).

Video 13. Cal Dietz Infinity Walks advancements. Skipping while holding a weight.

Video 14. Cal Dietz Infinity Walks advancements. Through hoops, ball moving around the waist, and resistance.

Video 15. Cal Dietz Infinity Walks advancements. Through 3 hoops, over hurdles, scrap rubber on the floor, ball moving around the waist, partners blocking field of view. Again, an advancement I do not suggest for first time players to this drill. Regress to a more basic version first.

Video 16. Cal Dietz Infinity Walks advancements. Part 2 of a 4 part video series explaining Infinity Walks.

Stories From Using the Drill

Videos and explanations are great, but testimonials speak loudly. The more years I perform this drill, the more stories I have such as the ones below.

Just as Fast, But Bad at Infinity Walks

One summer, for a week, a high school age hockey player came and trained with my college players. Off ice, this player was just as fast or faster than the college players in a straight forward sprint.

However, once we performed Infinity Walks, the difference in level was so abundantly clear. Despite being just as fast, the high school player could not keep their head up and kept looking down at the cones. They could not rattle off math equations or perform the figure 8 pattern nearly as fast. In other words, despite being fast in terms of sprints, this player’s neurological capacity to process multiple stressors could not compare to my college players.

The Best for a Reason

As previously stated, the brain always wins. Elite players have the ability to communicate between their eyes, ears, brain, and muscles and neurally process at the highest level. The best men’s player I have ever coached performed Infinity Walks the best, there is no other way to word it.

In the below video this player is performing Infinity Walks and I am rattling off numbers at a rate that they can not possibly add to. That is the point though. I want to create as much stress as possible for the player to deal with. The goal is to make them screw up, otherwise the stimulus is to easy and their body will not adapt to anything.

Video 17. Infinity Walks with advanced athlete.

Assignments Get Blown, Stick to Your Systems

One day while performing Infinity Walks with a player, they shared something interesting. This was a more advanced athlete where I rattled off numbers to add 1 to at a rate they couldn’t possibly keep up. The player shared where they saw the most benefit. They said as a defenseman, they are going to make a mistake while in the D Zone whether it’s getting beat out of the corner, or losing sight of a cutting forward.

What Infinity Walks help them with is not focusing on the number they missed (if I say 3, 4, 2, 5, 2, and they only add 1 to two or three of those numbers), but going right to the next number and staying focused. When a mistake happens in the D Zone they cannot pout, drop their head, or be overwhelmed with stress at that moment. They need to stick to their systems, reorient themselves, make a decision, and react immediately.

By creating a stressful situation with an advanced variation of Infinity Walks, players practice the skill of keeping their head up (because a ball is being thrown at them), not getting tunnel visioned from the stress (their peripheral vision must stay wide to see the cones), and communication (when more numbers are being stated for them to add or subtract to).

If You Did Not Know You Had Issues, You Will

Balance, stability, and coordination come from the vestibular system. Simply put, your vestibular system is your ears, inner ears, and eyes working together to give you balance. If you have athletes who have recently had a concussion, migraine, or vertigo symptoms, they may be made worse with Infinity Walks.

I have had several athletes overs the years who get motion sick after doing Infinity Walks because they entered the drill with a weakened vestibular system. If this is the case, they need to consult a vestibular therapist or regress back to the most basic Infinity Walk as prescribed by Dr. Sunbeck.

It is when an athlete reports feeling motion sick that you realize how powerful of a stimulus this drill really is.

Infinity Walks

Infinity Walks are a magic bullet. They progressively develop coordination, enhance and accelerate learning, and can improve visual and cognitive skills. A final reminder, I did not come up with this drill. However, I immediately recognized the benefits and hope other coaches do too.

Depending on the level you coach, start slow and progress the drill slowly. Treat Infinity Walks like sprints and plug them in at the start of workouts or practices. Use them off ice to warm up for practices and games.

Finally, be creative, experiment, and make it fun. There are plenty of exciting variations and progressions, which will benefit players, waiting to be discovered.