Juraj Slafkovský’s absence at the Montreal Canadiens’ summer development camp did not go unnoticed. Indeed, it quickly surfaced that the Canadiens’ prize prospect was doing his own summer training in Říčany, a small Czech town near the capital of Prague. He was also wearing some special spectacles that drew everyone’s attention.
The sunglasses were at Michal Břetenář’s behest. Břetenář is a strength and conditioning coach who specializes in integrated physiological training. Using knowledge of physiological systems, insights from modern sports medicine, and sports nutrition, Břetenář has worked with many illustrious Czech and Slovak athletes across the sporting spectrum, including former world number one tennis player Karolína Plíšková and Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick. He specializes in hockey though, and counts many names familiar to North American hockey fans among his clientele, including Martin Réway and Jiří Sekáč.
Contacted via email, Břetenář was very kind to answer some questions from Eyes On The Prize concerning his training philosophies, Slafkovský’s own goals and ambitions, and what he sees in his protégé.
What are the specific attributes/requirements that you’re looking for in a hockey player?
This is hard to say. Regardless of sport, the foundation is the same for [every athlete]. Once that foundation is established, we can then work on sport-specific training. We also have to factor in the fact that every athlete has their individual strengths and weaknesses. We have to find an individual’s specific limits and then work on gradually going past them.
There’s also a mental element, where we know that the mind is more important than the body when it comes to delivering a singular performance. Rather, training determines how quickly an athlete can recover after a performance. Therefore, for hockey, we focus on improving the ability to perform repeated maximum efforts, achieving rapid return to physiological homeostasis — that is, a stable baseline body condition – and encouraging conservation of motion.
How does your targeted approach differ from a traditional strength-based off-season regimen, or one that focuses on increases in maximal lift or muscle mass?
Strength is just one performance parameter. Developing strength enhances an athlete’s capabilities, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee the ability to reach those capabilities repeatedly. An athlete relying on strength alone will be hard-pressed to perform 25 shifts at the same intensity in one game, let alone maintain a consistent level across three games within five days. Instead, we strive to find the hypothetical ideal for metabolic function, and while we can’t talk in detail about our methodology, it’s continuously refined based on old and new experiences, as well as collected data.
VO2 max (the maximum rate of oxygen consumption attainable during physical exertion) is commonly used in hockey circles as a measure of aerobic fitness. Slafkovský was exempted from the Scouting Combine in his draft year. Based on your testing this summer, how do you think he would have fared had he participated?
To be honest, I don’t view VO2 max testing as a measure of fitness. The value only represents an assumption about the size of the athlete’s engine, with no direct inference regarding their training level or ability to recover. Further, [evaluating] the VO2 max test involves many variables, not all of which directly correlate to [how hockey is played].
For example, VO2 max test values are often normalized based on the athlete’s weight. However, normalization doesn’t change the fact that the base value for a heavier athlete might be higher than a lighter athlete. In fact, normalization puts a player like Juraj at a disadvantage, because he will look worse compared to a 70-kilogram (154-pound) player even though his base value is much higher.
A lot of people don’t understand what that VO2 max number actually means and how it was obtained, and this leads to mistakes and oversimplifications. It doesn’t surprise me that some players and coaches completely reject it. However, that’s also a mistake. If we understand what influences VO2 max — that is, the functioning of the respiratory system, circulatory system, and how the muscle works when oxygen is available — then we can more precisely design targeted individual training sessions and address the weakest link in the chain.
Your website says that “fatigue is a brain-generated emotion.” What is the gap between a mental perception of fatigue and actual physiological limits?
What the body can handle and what the mind can handle often differ significantly, and again, it varies heavily from individual to individual. Someone may deliver a superb performance due to strong internal motivations, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are well-trained — and vice versa as well.
When talking about rest and recovery, do you have to factor in the travel, length, and frequency of an NHL season versus a European one, as well as any potential international tournaments on the calendar?
Regardless of schedule, the key remains to properly prepare the body during the summer and build upon that during the season. Without consistent effort throughout the entire [competitive] season, success in any competition is not possible. No one lives on summer training alone — a summer foundation may allow them to survive the season, but they are not truly living. As a note, when we talk about continuing to work throughout the entire season, it does not only refer to training.
What led you to incorporate Senaptec’s strobe glasses into your training?
The coach’s greatest skill is drawing from multiple other sports and learning how to apply that knowledge to their own sport. It’s essential to be open-minded as a coach. There is no single truth or approach. Here, the stroboscopic glasses change transparency and blinking speed. Thanks to them, the athlete should be able to estimate distances more accurately, better distinguish the speed of the opponent’s movements, react more promptly to dynamic changes in direction, and have an improved sense of spatial orientation.
Did Juraj come to you with a specific concern or goal in mind?
The goal is always the same — to continuously be a little bit better than last time. We tested his respiratory system, the heart muscle, how well his muscles can utilize oxygen, and his rate of recovery. We’re working on improving the first three of these elements through respiratory manipulation, and we’re also targeting what our measurements show us to be his current weakest links. Finally, we’re also aiming to ensure that Juraj has the highest possible economy of movement and a high comfort zone, so that he will be able to focus solely on the game itself.
Are you targeting multi-year progression or immediate gains? Can incremental steps really create a dramatic improvement?
I’m not interested in the short term. From the outset, we set up everything for an entire year, and we build upon that during the season so that we don’t have to start from scratch the following year. Regular work is the only way to maintain continuous progress. Of course, while we are doing well and Juraj is making progress, we are cautious. Improving in training is one thing, but transferring it to the ice is another matter. At the professional level, small details make all the difference, [but mastering these small details] usually takes the most time to achieve.
Slafkovský is not yet 20. How much more growth is possible?
Juraj will keep improving as long as he continues to work on himself. The same rules apply to the first overall selection as they do to the other [223]. The greater you invest in yourself, the more it will repay you.
