2023-07-13 05:10:08
The magic of science could help Juraj Slafkovsky finally unleash the full power of his 6-foot-3, 238-pound in his second season in the National Hockey League. Over the summer, the Slovak has already increased his lung capacity by 20%, an extremely significant leap for a top athlete.
Using state-of-the-art technology, fitness trainer Michal Břetenář invested in the development of the young power forward during the off-season. His priority: to allow Slafkovsky to master a “better economy of movement”. This, according to Břetenář, will take the first overall pick of the 2022 amateur auction to another level.
“Juraj has great strength,” said the Czech luminary during an interview with TVASports.ca. He approaches everything with maximum effort, which is difficult to sustain consistently. However, hockey is an activity that requires repeated efforts. It’s all about the muscle’s ability to contract and relax. We want Slafkovsky to be able to do everything 20 times, 30 times on the ice, but not at the expense of quality.”
To achieve the famous “economy of movement” that Břetenář refers to, several systems in the human body must work in harmony so that energy is expended efficiently. At Slafkovsky, some of these systems prevented him from working at full speed. One of them? The respiratory system.
Most of the time, Břetenář is working remotely on Slafkovsky’s development by communicating with the Slovak’s head coach, Daniel Kičura. However, during a stay of Slafkovsky in Prague, Břetenář took the opportunity to gather important data. He made the big guy take a spirometry test, which consists of evaluating the functioning of the lungs.
“Then we conducted another examination on a stationary bike and this revealed metabolic limitations,” says Břetenář. We measured the performance of heart muscles in muscle oxygenation in the human body using a sensor named Moxy.”
Armed with new information, Břetenář embarked on the long-term task of changing the way Slafkovsky breathes during physical activity. On the rink, Slafkovsky engaged in precise exercises with a breathing mask.
“The mask allows us to monitor breathing rate and volume with and without the puck,” says Břetenář. We can observe when the athlete holds his breath or breathes in a rapid and inefficient way. A variety of other irregularities may also be observed.
“These kinds of changes take time to embrace. However, if all goes as planned, it will help him perform more shifts and at higher intensity. He will recover faster and his first three strides will be more powerful.”
Within a few weeks, Slafkovsky made remarkable progress.
“We managed to increase his vital lung capacity by 20%, which is a very significant figure,” Břetenář points out.
I swear to the Terminator
You may have spotted a photo of Slafkovsky sporting opaque glasses on the rink on the web. A look worthy of the Terminator. Perhaps a nod to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous “I’ll be back” line, a promise to fans to come back stronger, more efficient from his injury suffered last year.
More seriously, it is one of the many tools used by Břetenář during the exercises carried out on the ice rink.
“These strobe glasses alter the field of vision and the blinking of the eyes, confides the coach. These glasses help Juraj improve his ability to judge distances and respond quickly to dynamic changes, in addition to enhancing his spatial orientation.”
Another gadget used: the NeuroTracker, a kind of cognitive training that trains the brain to distill visual information more quickly.
In short, nothing is left to chance. And in a league like the NHL where it’s all about fractions of a second, the difference between a turnover and an accurate pass is very small. Increasing the reaction time of the brain is the sinews of war.
But still it is necessary that Slafkovsky himself be open to this approach which, at first glance, may seem absurd.
“Genetics are always going to play a role, obviously, and Juraj has certain physical predispositions [qui jouent en sa faveur], recognizes Břetenář. But that’s only part of the equation. Humility, open-mindedness and a willingness to work on yourself are all necessary qualities. And I think Juraj has those qualities.”
Several disillusioned Canadiens fans have already quit on Slafkovsky after just one season in the NHL. The future will tell us if their reaction is reasonable and if the Slovak was the right choice for the first rank in 2022. One thing remains certain: the Slovak seems ready to explore all avenues in order to prove them wrong.
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