Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 82 - Mark Fitzgerald

Episode Date: July 10, 2018

Mark Fitzgerald is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Anaheim Ducks. Fitzgerald previously worked with the Canadian Hockey League as the Head of Performance and Nutrition coach and owns Elite Training Systems, a high-performance training center that caters to athletes from all sports. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

I used to love playing those video games back in the day. Oh yeah, Blades of Steel? Yeah, Blades of Steel. Yeah, NHL? Yeah, the NHL series was amazing. Yeah. The best part was just getting into the fights. Oh yeah. How old are you?

I'm 41. Okay, I'm 39. Yeah. Right around the same type of stuff. Yeah, what's that, um... Oh man, one of the names is slipping my memory. Yeah, what's that? It's a... Oh, man. One of the names is slipping my memory. Video game-wise?

No, no. In real life. Bob Probert and the guy from the Rangers. Ty Domi? Ty Domi. Little guy? Yeah, those guys used to kill each other. Head like a pumpkin?

Yeah, those guys used to kill each other. Oh, yeah. They've been in something like 15 or 16 fights. And I heard they fought each other at bars and've been in something like 15 or 16 fights and i heard they like fought each other like at bars and all kinds of stuff the uh another guy that played on new york was colton or or his name yeah like in hands like frying pans he was with us and with me in toronto for a year great great guy but just those guys are a little screwy yeah he just lose it oh yeah no one would go near him on the ice when he played with us

guys would skate away from him really incredible because he's just uh too ferocious yeah it's just the intimidation factor that's that's the uniqueness of hockey right like you can get punched in the face right you know it's it's almost accountability if you're a rat or if you're a piece of shit you're gonna get sorted out sorted out. We're here today with Mark Fitzgerald. We're at the Anaheim Ducks practice facility. We're inside the gym right now, and Mark has been a strength coach here for the last seven years or so? Four years.

Last four years. And we're going to talk to him about some hockey, talk to him about his career, kind of how he got into it, and all that good stuff. But the first thing that we've got to talk about, because it's such a big part of hockey, is we got to talk about the fighting. Yes.

Why is, so like in the NFL, when they fight, a lot of times if someone throws a punch, they're gone. Right. I kind of see the same practice in the NBA too. You're out of here. But in the NHL, it's been part of hockey for such a long time. Um, why, why is it part of hockey? I mean, I know I love it.

I think it's awesome, but yeah, I do too. I think, I think, you know, we were talking about it before. I think, you know, it's an old school game. It's, it's a, it's a sport that is almost demands accountability, you know? And I think, you know, when you, you know, when you suit up at this level that, you know, you're going to be held accountable for your actions. So if you punch somebody in the face, you're going to get punched back. Right.

You know, and I think it's part of the reason that I think the game is the way it is and it's played the way it is. You see, you know, it's a very respectful game and I'm not saying that the other ones aren't, but I think the fact that that accountability exists, it almost sets the tone for the sport, you know, and I think the, the days of, you know, having fighters on your team and stuff like that is kind of, you know, making its way out, but you're seeing guys that don't typically fight, fight. And it's because, Hey, you got to hold guys accountable. And our team has probably, the last three years, I know we've had the highest fights in the NHL

because our team likes to do that. But it creates a presence on the ice, too, that people, when they know when they play us, that you're going to be held accountable. So maybe it's a little bit like, say, something like basketball where the Detroit Pistons used to just beat the crap out out of michael jordan right it's kind of send a message like we're going to be physical and uh however physical you think you can be we can be more physical yeah and i think a lot of times it's it's known as being a heavy team you know you're a heavy

team it means they're you're gonna we're gonna lean on you and i think that's i kind of like that you know because of you know i played football and stuff and i played hockey too but you know that i like that mentality because it's just it creates something in the gym you know obviously my part of the job or my part of the my role in the team and you know i can i can use that as a as a to give me some more leverage you know right yeah i noticed uh you know i haven't been a huge hockey fan over the years, but I have followed it. And I remember, you know, the days of like Wayne Gretzky and stuff, some of these guys needed like protection, right? Because they would Michael Jordan them, they would beat the crap out of them and they would, uh, you know, try to hurt them or try to

do this. Right. So then they would bring in what they call goons and the goons would handle it. Is that kind of the way, does it still work that way a little bit or not as much not as much i mean i think i think we're getting away from you know those goons who you know and this is no disrespect to any of them but some of them couldn't play to the level that the ones that do play now you know you're getting these guys that can fight but they can play too you know like we were talking about before there's no bad teams in the NHL anymore you know and if if your only job is to fight you better be able to play too or else you're not gonna you're not gonna stick so you're seeing more guys that are better hockey players that can also fight whereas before it was guys that could fight and hopefully play hockey you know how important is the skating side of things

like do you have to be like a phenomenal skater to be a great hockey player i think it depends it's a it's a tough question but skating is paramount if you can't keep up to the game especially the way it is now it's faster than it's ever been you know the guys are bigger and stronger than they've ever been and the speed at which the game is played is incredible yeah you'd look at teams that were in the Stanley Cup final, Vegas, Washington, even teams like Nashville, Winnipeg, that are just, they play the game at such an incredible pace that if you can't keep up, then it doesn't matter how tough you are. Yeah.

One of my favorite pro wrestling scenes of all time was Stone Cold, week in and week out, would come in with a truck, or he would just have these different things he'd like run over cars and he's doing all this crazy stuff for a long time but uh any any and he went to the ring like with a coors light truck and all these yeah he's spraying vincent man with the alcohol with the beer or whatever yeah yeah yeah and vincent man slipping in and everything but one of the other things he did, too, is he drove a Zamboni into, when they went to one of the places in Canada,

and the fans went absolutely, they lost their mind. Hockey is a unique sport. You know, you're on the ice, it's cold. You showed us the rink that they practice on and stuff like that. How does that make it so different from some of the other sports? I realize, like, sometimes football can be kind of cold um but you know depending on the time of year and stuff it's not going to be like how cold is it in that ice rink there yeah you know what it's uh i think first and foremost skating is very unnatural you know so it's one

of those things in terms of point yeah it's it, it's when you're Canadian, at least, I mean, you're upstate New York. So you probably had the same influence. Like you're put on skates at a very young age and you're, you know, for being Canadian, the culture of hockey is you start young, you know, you got to wake up early when it's cold as hell. It's a winter sport, you know, and you get to the rink and that's just part of it. I think that's, that's kind of accepted, I guess, for the most part, our rink and that's just part of it i think that's that's kind of accepted i guess for the most part our rink here is a little colder just because we are in california so they have to keep the ice you know at a certain level i think it's a little bit easier to do that in the east just

because it's not as warm as it is here right um but yeah the skating is taught from such a young age uh which has good and bad parts to it with especially now with all the early sport specialization people but i think the skating is paramount and it's there are more and more really good skating instructors so there's kids at younger ages getting a lot more quality instruction so that's why i think you're seeing the speed of the game pick up more and more and more people are paying attention to it because they realize that where before maybe eighties, early nineties, hockey was about size, you know, grip and grab, you know, like nasty heavy hockey. And now it's, you know, don't get touched,

don't move the puck, skate your way out of problems. And I think that's, that's kind of the evolution that you're seeing, which, which is cool because it, I think it allows guys in my position to have more of an effect you know i remember back in the day playing uh the video games like some of the hockey video games and the first one that i played was a nintendo one there was blades of steel but even before blades of steel there was just a game i think might have been just called hockey yeah and you could pick like a skinny guy a medium guy and a fat guy yeah and you know the tech mobile yeah yeah the fat the fat guy had the power shot and it was good for like fighting and stuff but you didn't want to load your team

up with a bunch of fat guys you wanted you want a couple guys in there that are pretty uh pretty sleek yeah what what are some attributes of a hockey player uh that that go that go into making a great hockey player yeah and i mean you know, you know, I think in football, you can kind of chunk guys into skill positions, big skill, big boys, you know, whatever in hockey, it's a little different. I mean, yeah, there's the forwards, the defensemen and goalies, but realistically it's, it's athleticism. You know, if, if I have a guy that is, you know, showing good athleticism and to me, that means he's, he's showing qualities of a good athlete, you know, if I have a guy that is, you know, showing good athleticism, and to me that means he's showing qualities of a good athlete, you know, power development, certain level of strength, mobility, flexibility, agility, you know,

his ability to change direction and under control, all those sorts of things. What you're seeing now with hockey and a lot of other sports is they're just playing the same sport 12 months a year. And there's no exposures to other sports and there's not a whole lot of other exposures to other stimulus. And you're getting these kids that are having groin and hip pathologies at 16, 17 years old. Wow. You know, so what makes a good hockey player now I think is an athlete, number one, is possessing those qualities. You know, we're looking for someone who's lean, muscular, just like any other sport. I think our guys, you know, the skating is such a huge component of it.

So, you know, getting that quality instruction for your skating stride, learning what your individual skating stride is and how it works for you. Some guys are 6'4". Well, you know, the 5'9 guy's stride is going to look different from the 6'4 guy, you know. So I think, you know, really developing all those components of athleticism and every strength coach or trainer's components may be a little bit different. But for me, it's those basic ones. When you do that and then, you know, you let the coaches at this level coach because they're the best in the world at it, you know. Flexibility must be a huge part of it.

You know, like, you know, thinking about like a sport like football where, you know, the running back is running and he's running towards the sidelines. He's got to cut back. A lot of time that's where you see the injuries. Somebody will drape on his shoulders and his leg will slide out. Well, they're on turf or they're on grass and uh you know their leg doesn't really slip that much you know it doesn't it doesn't have that much play and that could be part of the reason it could be worse but i'd imagine in hockey sometimes if your leg's going one way you're on ice and you're in trouble might just continue going that way right yeah and we see a lot more than anything is over use you know because we are on the ice so much, we have, we were talking about the games earlier,

82 games. And sometimes that means, you know, 10, 12 games in a month with, you know, back-to-back games where we travel. And obviously we're a California-based team, so we've got a lot of air miles. And anywhere we go is a three to five-hour flight. You know, so all those things being considered, we end up seeing overuse injuries. And, you know, I wouldn't say say tissue injuries but just positional injuries too it you know rounded forward thoracic spine mobility decreases all of a sudden your shoulder gets put in a bad spot and you get body checked by another you know half ton truck on the ice that you're smashing into

plexiglass that isn't overly pliable you you know. So when you talk about stuff like that and the velocity and the viciousness of the game, the injuries that we see most are just overuse and positional ones, you know. And you're not seeing as many as the catastrophic ones unless there's a, you know, an uncommon collision or something like that or a bad hit. I think more than anything, it's really controllable injuries in terms of, you know, too much volume, too much skating or, or whatever the case may be not taking care of your flexibility, mobility. And that's a big focus for us in the season.

Can't get away with cheap shots in hockey, right? I mean, well, I mean, not as much in foot in football, you know, you'll see, you'll see a cheap shot here or there. And yeah, the other guy tries tries, you know, the other team tries to get them back wherever they can. The guy, you know, might get blindsided or something. But they have a lot of equipment on. And in hockey, a lot of times it's taken care of. You're going to get a cheap shot back your way or you're going to end up getting your ass kicked in a fight or something like that. Exactly.

That's what we talked about, that accountability piece, which is good because it takes those cheap shot guys right out of the game, especially if they don't want to answer the bell. What's some attributes in here, in the gym, that is there anything that you see transfers over really well into somebody having a really powerful, uh, like slap shot, or is it one of those things like you kind of just either have it or you

don't. Yeah. I think, I think like anything, those on ice, you know, sports specific skills can be improved upon, but I think you're looking for those same attributes that we've talked about

earlier, grip strength. You know, I think that's a very under, under trained, uh, tool to begin with. I think a lot of people don't put enough stock in it. In my opinion, talking about it earlier grip strength you know i think that's a very under under trained uh tool to begin with i think a lot of people don't put enough stock in it in my opinion a lot of people just think if their grip doesn't wear out when they go to do a certain exercise that their grip

is fine yes and you know but you can never have too much grip no no and i think you know i you i look for ways to challenge the grip in almost any exercise and now now that's not to say that, you know, challenging the grip is going to take away from the benefit of the exercise, but when we build it up, you know, whether it's a towel, fat grip dumbbells, you know, whatever the case may be, I'm always looking for ways to challenge the grip. I think that's definitely one, just teaching about grip. You know, we had our kids in for development camp not that long ago and, you know, just a simple handshake and how to position your feet when you it's not it's not about being a dick and squeezing somebody's hand it's more just how do you create that that clam you know that vice grip of a handshake yeah you know and it's

some of these young guys they don't know that and even some of our older guys they just take it for granted like you said oh my grip's fine i can hold i got a a dead fish handshake from 50 cent and i'll never forget it i'm like i'm never listening to music again you're off the team seriously you're off the team yeah exactly i teach my six-year-old like from from the time he was three years old to shake people's hands and look them in the eye yeah and it's and it's a again you can say whatever you want but it's i think it's important and i think it's important to realize that that's part of what you do and it goes back to the training thing too yeah you know there's grip strength I think now with with because our guys skate so much and because we play so many games movement quality is also a

huge focus of mine so you know whether it's we get off the plane in a city where we're moving we're having a tissue session you know rolling out moving around activation whatever you want to call it and then all the guys will get in the pool with me we'll do some you know water aerobics and right not aerobics but you know what i mean yeah movement stuff you know 15 minutes water the restorative effect of water when we're in the gym on a typical practice it's just nice to do something different yeah yeah let's get out of the gym yeah and our guys enjoy it and it's if i can create more buy-in in any way shape or form i'm going to try I'm going to try to do that, right?

Because we're with them so much, right? We're together every day more than I see my family. I see this family, right? So it's one of those things that, you know, the movement quality. So how can we make sure that we're hinging well, squatting well? You know, so especially during the season, we'll lift predominantly after games. You know, so we'll play a 7 o'clock game on a friday night we'll lift at 9 30 at night oh right after the game 20 30 minutes that takes some discipline right there yeah and

like i said before our group is phenomenal and they're bought in i think they see the benefit of it you know and um it's one of those things that sucks to get started yeah but once once you do it and especially if you do it with other people. Yeah. And I think, too, with the team culture, our leadership, our management, we've built in that expectation. Right. Hey, this is where we're going to get our work in. This work that we put in now for 20, 30 minutes is going to help us down the line.

I'd imagine you probably account for that, too, for the next day. Yes. So people roll out of the facility at 1030. You're not saying, hey, be here at 4 a that too for the next day. So people roll out of the facility at 1030. You're not saying, hey, be here at 4 a.m. the next day. Right, yeah. So we give them adequate rest. You know, we wouldn't practice till 11 the next day. And then that next day, if we don't play, it's a movement session again.

It's a wake up in the nervous system a little bit. Some guys will go on the ice, you know. So it's try to manage intensity load, just like any other sport or lifter or whatever, right? You take care of all those variables. I'm obviously big on nutrition just because it's an aspect that I can control. We feed the guys every day, supplementation. Yeah. What's some of that look like? Honestly, that's probably one of the bigger parts of my job is to make sure that, you know, know again controlling things that you can right is is implementing is that something that you specifically uh reached out to take care of or was or is that

kind of just uh part of the job or did you kind of go above and beyond you think a little bit um i mean i think i don't hear that many coaches talk about it that in that way yeah and hockey is different you know some teams will have nutritionists and stuff like that we have a nutritionist now who's phenomenal uh she's new this year we had one last year too not not as not as full-time but this one is now kind of full-time so um it's it ends up being my job because old school just falls on my lap you know what i mean so i've taken a big interest in it because I've experienced with it before and in my previous job so it was something that I know how important it is and it's again it's a variable you can control so you know what we're serving them for breakfast you know smoothie bars omelet station you know what they're choosing from and why and then taking

opportunities during those meals to educate and this is why we're serving this food. These are slow carbs. This will help you sustain energy, burn body fat, whatever. So we put little info cards in front of each thing, what it does and why we're eating it. And then on the road, it's tough. NHL is known as the Never Hungry League because there's always food around, always.

NHL is also known for pizza post game you know if you're on it sounds ridiculous and i tried to fight it my first year and i lost horribly um but when you're on the road you order pizzas after games right because i mean what i did end up getting is drink your shake first then have some pizza or have them together yeah if choose. No, you know, I always thought that was a good idea. And that's really smart because you're augmenting the meal. So if you have, let's just say you want to eat a lot and you have five or six slices of pizza, you did consume a lot of fat. You did consume a lot of carbohydrates, but you really didn't get in a great amount of protein. There's a decent amount from the cheese, I guess. But if you had a protein shake or something like that, that's going to bump your protein up by 50 grams right there. Yeah. And our guys, I think, are seeing the benefits of it too.

Right. Getting a good quality protein in right after the game. We're seeing less and less pizza actually get eaten. Right. I think it's just more habit. Yeah. And they are hungry, of course. I think it's just more habit.

Yeah. You know, and they are hungry, of course. The last time they really ate real food was pregame meal, which is, you know, 3.30, 4 o'clock that day for a 7 o'clock game. So they are hungry. Right. And it's, as you know, it's good to eat real food. You know, even just for your palate and whatever. The shakes are great. But after the 79th one, they can maybe get a little, you know, maybe even before that.

You're like, okay, 82 pizzas. Yeah, seriously. You're like, well, what are we going to do about these 82 pizzas? Yeah. Yeah. Nutrition plays a huge role. And, and, uh, something I think that's great is you're, you're sitting down and you're communicating with them, you know, why they're eating it. And over a period of time, what happens is they start to feel better from eating those foods. And over a period of time, what happens is they start to feel better from eating those foods. You maybe have, you still have options out in front of them. That's a big factor because if you pull away, if you take away too much from people, then they start to get pissed.

But if you're like, you know, if you're adding to what they do, eat more vegetables, eat more fruit, eat more avocado, you know, eat more of this, then their mindset is different. They're like, okay, he said to eat more vegetables, eat more fruit, eat more avocado, you know, eat, eat more of this. Then, then their, their mindset is different. They're like, okay, he said to eat more, you should eat more meat. You should eat more protein. Uh, rather than you saying, Hey man, we can't have, you can't have ice cream. Can't because that's all they hear. Like, wait a minute, I can't have ice cream. Like shit, man. And his schedule's hard. The stress is high. Well, you know what it is too and i my opinion just from working with athletes for a long time is that they're smarter and they're more informed than they've ever been you know because it it speaks to information good or bad and it also speaks to a lot more good coaches you know we were talking about a couple before like there's a lot

of smart guys out there there's a ton and women too, you know, and no longer, in my opinion, can you think of yourself as the guy because there's so many other guys. And I love, you know, networking with guys like you and learning from anybody that I can because it's those little tidbits. It's those, you know, how'd you get over this hump? What'd you do in this situation? What little warmup exercise can I steal from you? You know, and not steal but borrow you know whatever you want to call it um there's so much information good information out there that you know as a coach it's you got to be having those conversations I learn stuff from my players

all the time who are you training with in the summer oh yeah what do they do oh yeah okay I'm gonna come visit you and learn from your coach oh he'd love that you know and I think I've always been of that you know more open-minded because this our field is so expansive that you can't I don't know you can't think that you're in a bubble because it's it's always changing and there's a lot of bullshit too don't get me wrong but there's also a lot of really good stuff you know and over the past couple years I whenever we travel I try to make time to go and visit other coaches and go and sit in their gyms and shoot the shit and ask questions. Is there anything really specific with the diet that you try to have them follow?

Or is it kind of like, hey, let's make sure we're getting enough protein, a good amount of complex carbohydrates, that kind of thing? Yeah, I think the most part with the diet is we call it the athlete athlete's plate and it's nothing revolutionary. And I'm sure I stole it from somebody, but it's more about every time you eat, what does the plate look like? And it means, you know, there are variables. It doesn't look the same all the time. Like don't eat 35 chicken breasts a week, you know, like the, you know, these guys make good money, you know, try some other things, you know, so what is your protein source look like? You know, we measure it. Okay. The size of your hand is roughly six to eight grams of protein. Perfect. You know, some guys' hands are bigger than others, thickness, whatever, excuse me. So

eat for your body size as well. If you're a smaller guy and you have some body fat to lose, okay, then, you know, you have to eat just the palm of your hand, you know, whatever. So we try to make it easy in terms of what the plate could look like, but realizing that there's a number of different things that could be on the plate. You know, we teach that athletes, we teach that kind of the model of it doesn't have to be the same food all the time and nor should it be, you know. And our young guys are getting a talk today from our nutritionists and the deck that we put together is, you know, eat the rainbow, try new foods.

You get a lot of these guys that we just get drafted that are immature and they don't want to try new foods. And it's my job to say, hey, snap out of it. You're a big boy now. You want to play in this league. You've got to expand your palate a little bit, you know, and it's it's that's probably the one of the tougher jobs, because depending on where you get these kids from, it's that's probably the one of the tougher jobs because depending on where you get these kids from it's um maybe they don't have access to really good sushi or you know bison or ostrich or you know whatever so it's a lot of just teaching which it's hard to kind of like recharge your palate after it's been so damaged for so many years with uh mcdonald's and you know milkshakes and sour patch kids and burritos yeah these things are

so flavorful and so robust but what you learn is when you start to eat uh spinach and kale chicken uh steak bison elk and so on you start to you start to learn over a period of time that these things also taste amazing yeah and on top of that the second that you get the opportunity to eat like a blueberry or strawberry or raspberry you're like holy shit this this has a lot of flavor in it i think too it's giving them it's giving it information but giving them options that they don't even know they like you know cold pressed juice my focus with probably more than diet than anything in, well, I guess diet plays a role in it, obviously, but is the immune system. There's 22 to 25 guys.

We're around each other in confined spaces. A lot of shit going back and forth. You know, so I always try to maintain the immune system. You know, supplement vitamin C, garlic, make sure our foods are rich in garlic, you know, sea salt, always have those options around. And the cold pressed juices, I think are a good one too, with a greens juice, a hydration focused juice, you know, beet, ginger, to have those options when we travel, to have them in our fridges here, you know, it's again, is it going to solve anything or whatever? No it's another piece you know if they have a ginger shot in the morning maybe

it'll just give them that extra little bit of immune defense you know to help them survive that day hey you know what even some of it's just mental it came from coach he knows what he's talking about and it makes you feel better right yeah the other the other side of uh of some of that is is um you know some people will think oh man he's recommending fructose like what is he you know what is he doing but i think people don't understand you know a lot of the information that's about fructose is normally about high fructose corn syrup and it's about you know all these foods that are saturated and it's not necessarily just talking about cold pressed juices and apples and oranges

And it could You could look people can look at it one way or the other but we're talking about professional athletes that have a high output And we don't want to be too restrictive of what they're consuming Plus I think to you know, you talked about the blend the balance, you know ratio stuff and it's to me, you know we had our, our, our heart rate monitors and fatigue monitoring system on our athletes this past week. And some of these kids are burning 3000 calories in four hours. So if they're not putting a copious amount of food back in, is there some of that just on the ice? Yeah. Wow. You know, not just the ice, maybe, you know,

but even still, that's an, I was even surprised at ice, maybe, you know, but even still, that's an incredible, I was even surprised at that high level, you know, and that it speaks to their fatigue and it speaks to, I guess it makes sense. It's a lot of, it's, it's a lot of legs and arms, you know, it's both, you know, it's your whole body the whole time. And, you know, depending on what we do off the ice, you know, it can, you can really tax guys so if you're not and again it goes back to you know in hockey the last couple years has been a big no no gluten-free everybody's gluten-free it's like well I try I don't eat a lot of gluten in my own diet just because I don't eat a lot of one thing you know it's variety it's

is gluten bad for you well yeah if you eat nothing but gluten okay you're probably gonna have some problems eggs are a great source of protein, if you eat nothing but gluten, you're probably going to have some problems. Eggs are a great source of protein, but if you eat 60 to 80 a week, you're probably going to have some problems. So I think it's, again, teaching variety. Instead of having eggs today, have oatmeal with some protein in it and some nuts and berries. Switch it up. Yeah, switch it up. And I think that's what I try to do as well with our nutrition is to make sure there's variety and that the variety still fits our macros, but it fits our profile of what we want our guys to eat.

But you can, you can fill that profile with lots of different things. And that's, I think how you get buy-in is if you make it chicken and broccoli every day and brown rice, you're going to get a lot of, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. You're going to get a lot of guys. You're going to go like, I'm not eating that. I'll go eat my own stuff. It's gotta be convenient. Yeah. The, uh, you know, another thing that, uh, it's going on in, um, in all sports right now is people are looking at brain injuries. How, how do we,

uh, protect the brain? How do we protect it in such a physical sport? Yeah. You know what? I think it's, you know, you see our box there, the iron neck, you know, I think in terms of what I can do to help that. Love that piece. That's a great piece. I'm a huge fan. Mike Jolly was just in not that long ago, took us through it, passionate guy, it was great stuff. You know, it's a tricky one. We have a great staff of doctors who are, you know, in my opinion, leading the way in a lot of that stuff. Their information that they're feeding down to us is phenomenal.

So it gives us that advantage in terms of helping guys get back from if guys were to have those sustained those injuries. I think a lot of that too feeds back to nutrition. It feeds back to quality of life, quality sleep you know a lot of our education during the season is sleep related uh we did some sleep tracking and stuff but it really didn't tell us anything we didn't know our guys have a hard time going to bed after a game well yeah you're jacked up you just played in the best league in the world like you're gonna be you know it's hard to calm down sometimes so you know try to teach sleep hygiene you know are you getting good deep restful sleep you know you're all these guys in hockey pregame nap which I'm okay with as long as you can control the time you know at 20 to

40 minutes max you know I've taught them how to do caffeine naps slug a coffee go to sleep wake up and you feel like a million bucks right it doesn't always work but depends on how you buffer the caffeine. But, you know, a lot of it speaks to that. If you put the good habits in prior to a potential injury like that, I think you have an athlete who's more prepared to recover faster from it. You know, supplementation, there's some studies around creatine and what have you. So, you know, looking into doing more stuff like that. But really, I follow our doctors because they're the ones that are doing the research, their hands,

getting their hands dirty. Um, I think, uh, the more and more information, and we talked about the speed of our game now, I think it speaks to, can athletes move well? If you have an, if you have a guy that can't move, you know, can't rotate through his thoracic spine, or he can't, you know, get out of a situation the right amount of time, then he's going to put himself in a situation where he could get hurt, you know. So I look at it as the more physically prepared they are, the less chance they put themselves in those bad positions, you know. So that's kind of what I focus on as opposed to reacting to it. I try to be proactive in nutrition, sleep, and movement. And I think those are, is it a recipe to fix stuff

probably not like you know you get two big men crashing into each other right shit's gonna happen but i feel like if i if i can control those variables and i put my guys in a better position to be successful and to be safe you know a lot of your job just requires you to listen right because a guy will come in and like you said it's uncommon these these people are smashing into each other all the time it's common for them it's common for you uh but it's like an uncommon thing to put your body through yeah and so somebody you know you have somebody working on a deadlift and i'm like coach like i don't know what happened but like somebody jacked me up in my kidneys or something like you're not going to be like well you still got a deadlift because it's on the program you're going to find something else for the day that's you know you speak hey take a day off 100 how about that and you you

know we we use utilize some technology and heart rate tracking and stuff like that but which is great and it's it's a great piece to have but my my value as a coach in my opinion and my assistant that i work with is we read guys and they come walking through our doors in the morning it's with is we read guys and they come walking through our doors in the morning it's yeah bad body language no I know eye contact not talking to your teammates you know you're not doing your regular routine why what's going on do you have a bad game the night before would you get shelled did you lose a fight that's embarrassing right like that's you know whatever the case may be are you fighting with your wife there's one of your kids sick right you know so my

my opinion it's my job to go over and say hey how's it going what's going on yeah all right without I know I'm not an ass kisser but I'm also not a you know mega or blow horn and whistle in the face guy because it doesn't these guys don't listen to that name well on these athletes too they're just gonna say I'm doing good and you have to kind of stop them and look them in the eye and say, no, I'm asking you, like, how are you doing, you know? Because they're always just going to blow it off, right? They're going to be tough.

Oh, yeah, it's ego, right? I mean, this is a testosterone-filled environment. And, you know, honestly, God, that's why I still lift, you know, and it's to keep up with the testosterone in here. I'm older than all these guys. Do you sometimes lift with them? Uh, in the summertime I would, but not during the season, but they know that I do, you know, myself and our video coach are good friends and we, we lift on the road. And I mean, obviously I'm going to lift. That's what I love to do, but it's a big part of it. Everybody in my company lifts. It's pretty cool.

I mean, it's also one of those things though they know that i lift you know post videos about it and whatever and i do that purposefully because i want them to see that i'm not just you know talking about stuff i'm doing it too you know and um they laugh and it creates good conversations you know and they tell me that i do too many arms and you know whatever but or too we're too much bench maybe, I don't know. But it creates conversations too. And they know that they can, I think it opens a door for trust and whatever. And it makes those shitty conversations or tougher conversations easier. What are some of the most common injuries that you see? And you know, specifically with hockey? Yeah, I would say shoulders are, are, are high. You know, you get AC joint separations, you get a lot of hockey players with ugly shoulders a lot of that's maybe from holding the stick and being out of place and then people slamming

into you and everything else you put yourself in a rounded upper rounded back or sorry rounded upper back position bad posture especially after game 40 you know we're seeing guys come in and you know we have to make sure that our thoracic spine health, our scapula health is all dialed in. You know, you get these guys who are young. They get drafted at 18. Some of them are lower just on the initial stages of puberty, aren't even really developed muscularly yet. And then what do you do at 18 years old in the gym if you're on your own?

How old is the youngest guy you have now? Our drafted kids are 18. if you're on your own. How old's the youngest guy you have now? Our drafted kids are 18. And then typically if a guy comes to us, he's going to be 19, 20, 21. That would be our youngest guy.

Our oldest guy will be 36, 37. But, you know, it's definitely the shoulders, AC joint separations, labral stuff in the shoulder, knees, you know, more MCLs, you get hit from the side, skating or what have you. Hips are, hips I wouldn't say are an injury. There was probably more of a prevalence of injury to the hips. Labral tears probably eight years ago. Now we've, with the training is kind of caught up and, you know, abdominal health and all that kind of stuff. You're just seeing hips that are overused, right? So you have to make sure that you're doing your hip mobility,

you're doing your hip dominant movements, hip hinging, glute firing, all those types of things. I think, you know, those are probably the hot spots. Are you able to use some power lifting, bench squat, deadlift? Yeah, I mean, we trap bar a lot because, again, like you said. Trap bar is easier to teach too. 100%. We use the in-tech bars are great

because our guys are you know one of them six some of them six four some of them five nine like just gives us a better um platform and then as opposed to being closed in right what i thought what i i do use all those movements still we just add variety to them we'll bamboo bench quite a bit because shitty shoulders and yeah you know messed up range of motion will trap bar squatting depends on the guy do a lot of single leg work um just because of you know this this game is played on the single leg and typically the squatting will take a toll on our guys so i got to really manage fatigue as well yeah that's a big part of it it like uh might just simply cost too much right to squat.

It's minimum effective dose is my in-season philosophy. Even off-season too is, you know, what does this guy really need? His power bucket is overflowing, but he can't move. Okay, so we better spend some more time moving. You know, so it's, and even with my hockey athletes, it's, I'm seeing more and more that little less volume and more movement because of the amount of games and the amount of ice time you know it's it's not adding up to more lifting in my opinion you know it's more movement based and a little less volume how is this uh how did this whole thing get started in the first place like uh how'd you even get into lifting uh you know what for me it was uh I got

two older brothers um and one of them, my middle brother, the one that's closest to me is, uh, someone I'm really close with. And he, uh, he kind of dropped a 45 bar on my chest around grade eight. And, uh, he said, Hey, good luck, get it off your chest. I'll be back when you get it up. Um, you know, so I'm, I'm super fortunate. We got a similar story there. Yeah. I've heard your story too, obviously. But, yeah, he introduced me to it. And, you know, he was a guy that I obviously looked up to, still do. He's a captain in the fire department now back home.

You know, we're still very close. And both my brothers were karate growing up, so they kicked the absolute piss out of me too, which was fun. Like, hey, check out this new move. You're like no running down the hallway a lot of wwf at the time my dad would take us to the wrestlemania events in toronto and the hotels like like pay-per-views basically it's deadly and then the live ones where the local guy would fight a bear it's random um but yeah so he introduced me to it and

you know i had the heart the heart family's big up there in canada alberta yeah yeah um and wrestling was huge too i think i think i've always kind of you know followed like kind of like your brother did this show like that's that's my era you know you follow hulk hogan you follow onto the andre the giant macho man like i lived and breathed that when i was little and you know you see the physiques and you like, you know, like The Rock. I'm a big fan of him too. And he's an Under Armour guy as well, which is kind of neat. You know, so it's that kind of build and that kind of, it's always fascinated me.

Yeah. You're like, what is this? How do you do that? You know, and my brother had a good build on him too, again, which helped me, you know, why I looked up to him so much. And he started playing football and it kind of just bled into hey you need to lift weights if you're going to play football you know so i was a bigger kid and i always i played hockey too but i knew i wanted to play football it's just a big deal you know and it's sad to see you know football is disappearing

you know in a lot of ways because the head injuries uh less people are not as likely to get their kids involved in sports as much as they used to and uh you know sports were a great way it was like a transport system to health you know it was like hey play football but we're not going to tell you that you're exercising yeah you know but you have to like you have to lift you know to even be good at any of these sports everybody recognizes that but no one really tells you that until you get into it yeah and you know what when i started playing football in grade nine i went to a i was raised catholic but i went to a public high school just so i could play yeah which was a big no-no in my family but i did it anyways um and it was such a release for me

you know like as a kid i was pretty introverted and whatever, and it was a release. I had some amazing coaches at the time who were all police officers, so they'd swear. They were real with us, and they made us accountable and made us tough to all these suburban kids. It was so cool that I was exposed to that. In high school, I was lucky enough to have another great coach who really taught me more about like performance lifting olympic lifting stuff like that and I ended up going to play football at a university because of that you know and I got an opportunity to you know I'd shit grades for a long time and then realize that if I got my grades up I could keep playing football right you know whereas in hockey

if you're not drafted at 16 your career is unfortunately at that time was pretty much over you know so my career in football was doing this or my opportunity to play in football was increasing and all my buddies were done with hockey you know so it was a weird time and i kind of got attached to working out and the football stuff helped and then got to university and just kind of fell in love with it um But I also didn't think I'd get a job as a strength coach. You know what I mean? I just figured I was going to do the police or fire and, you know, I'd do this on the side or whatever.

And I got done at university and I was supply teaching and trying to be a cop at the same time and started training some hockey players and some football players. And I was talking about this the other day. It's funny because all the stuff that I was training was just football training right but it wasn't anything new but at the time a lot of the hockey trainers were doing fluffy functional training whatever that is and nothing wrong with that whatever to each their own but my training was more traditional you know so we would lift and then we go to the track and sprint and people

Oh, no, we go ride the bike for 60 minutes. No. No, we're gonna sprint, you know So I think with that kind of new stuff with the young athletes in my area It led to some notoriety in terms of like hey this guy's doing something different, you know So I kind of took advantage of that. I mean the town that I'm from would be 130,000 people and there's 12 hockey rinks, you know, so it's hockey and hockey's crazy, you know? So I got my name in with some, some high level people. And one of them being, uh, Adam foot, he used to play for the, uh, avalanche and Olympic champion, gold medal, Stanley cup champion, a couple of times

known for his fitness and his aggressiveness. And not bad to have a gold medal in your back pocket, right? Right. So I got attached with him and started working with him. And that kind of opened the floodgates and opened a ton of doors for me in terms of, you know, working with hockey players and hockey world is so small, which is good and bad. I've been fortunate to be on the good end of it and, you know, given opportunities and what what have you but i think initially it was football that helped me get into hockey which is really you know kind of strange because it's the method of training that we're using wasn't mine it was just what i've learned right you know being on the track lifting and whereas the hockey world was still in the boatsuit balls and balance boards

which again it's fine it's just I looked at it as building athletic qualities. I didn't care about hockey. It was more these guys are lacking power development, force development. They don't know how to put their feet into the ground and sprint. By teaching how to do that, that's going to translate well to the ice. I think that was a – Have you noticed that? The faster the guy is maybe off the ice, the faster they are on the ice?

There's research that backs it up now with, you know, 10-meter sprint times and what have you and how it correlates on the ice. And, again, I just took what I learned from football and track and field and kind of applied it to these hockey guys and, you know, saw a big uptake because they were lacking a lot of those things. A little bit like Louie Simmons with powerlifting. He took what he saw from Olympic lifting, implemented a lot of it into into powerlifting and there you go yeah yeah it's i mean i'm not going to compare myself to louis but he's uh he's the man but it's i i just think i took a different approach to it because i recognize that you know at the time hockey was heavy in the aerobic side of training like the guy that i mentioned adam foot would ride the bike for 75 minutes at a

disgusting pace you know and up and up and down and intensities and whatever and it's incredible but you take him out to the field and sprint and that would be really challenging for him right you know get him to push a prowler all of a sudden that's really challenging well you should be able to do those other things more so than ride that bike for that amount of time or at least it should be periodized in a way where it goes maybe from the bike to the track and to sprinting and to rate of force development types movements you know what i mean so that was you know and i'm not the only one that was doing that i think there's other really good coaches out there that work with a lot of hockey guys that took that same approach how many uh hockey teams are there in the NHL? There's 31 now with Vegas.

So there's like 31 strength coaches basically. And basically anybody I've ever talked to that, you know, that gets in a position like that you're in, there's always, you know, like a burning desire to want to learn and to want to expand and do better. But there's something special about exercise that happens. It gets your brain locked in to where there's not like a drug. There's not anything else you can do or take. You can't play music for it. You can't outsource it.

Exercise and like those old days of you playing football and having some of these mentor coaches and stuff where they're making you run these suicides and they're making you do all these things. There's something about that that gives you a mental edge on a lot of other folks that allows you to really hone in on a singular focus towards doing one thing. Was that the case for you? Yeah. You know what? I think as a kid until I really started playing football, I was kind of lost, you know, and I'm not being dramatic about it, but I was just more of like didn't really know what I wanted to do, you know? And I think I remember my guidance counselor who was probably, you know, had the right intention. She said, well, why don't you pick up a trade and go to college? I said, my dad was a carpenter for 50 plus years, retired now could, you know, build a house, could basically do anything.

I guess the last thing I want to do. Yeah. But I'm, you think I'd be good at any of that? I'm completely useless. I can lift a lot of stuff for him, but I can't actually do anything creative or constructive with it. So when she told me that, I said, no, I'm not doing that. I said, that's, I'm terrible at that stuff. Right. You put me in trade said no I'm not doing that I said that's I'm terrible at that stuff right you put me in trade school I'm gonna hurt somebody you know hurt myself right um you know so that that was I'll never forget it and I'll never forget the conversation I'll never forget sitting at her desk and listening to her what her expectations of me were her her thought of me was I'm like that's not who I want to be you know and and it was right around the time where football was getting a little bit she also did a great service to you making you

think about like who do i want to be there you're like i don't well i didn't have an answer for her so she's just trying to help yeah and looking back i was immature you know i thought i could still play in the you know major league baseball and not you know i still thought i'll go play football professionally yeah no i'll be in the nfl yeah no big deal cfl well um you know so it was it was an eye-opener and it was almost a kick in the ass of hey you better start putting effort into x y and z and i started paying more attention in school i had three or four of my teachers come to me that i thought i was cheating because my grades went up that significantly. You know, I was like a, you know, 60 percent student because I didn't care and I didn't try.

But I knew if I did put effort into it that I'm not a dumb guy. You know, it was just more of like I don't know what I want to do. And the football thing, all of a sudden I got, you know, a couple of recruiters from schools started to come visit me. And we had a really good high school team. And I was part of that. So I got, you know, I was lucky to be kind of grouped in with those kids. And, you know, when I sat down in front of the first coach that recruited me, I said, you want me to play at university? And he said, yeah.

And it was kind of like one of the, just like the guidance counselor, a light bulb that said, I want to do that. You know, that's something that I want to do neither of my brothers had done it you know all my buddies around me were doing it you know so it was like I want to do that too and it was it was a big step for me because getting away from my home you know I went to school in Quebec which is about a six hour drive from where I live so it was a lot of my buddies went to the same schools together, but I wanted to go out on my own, meet new people, you know, kind of reinvent myself a little bit and see what I could do with football and see what I could do with school. And

it was, I'm glad I did what I did and chose the not so safe route, I guess, or the uncommon one, because it led to a lot of good things. You know, it led me to get comfortable doing things that I wasn't, you know, comfortable with and, you know, put myself in situations where I had to go meet new people. You know, obviously football makes that easier because you're with a team and what have you, but I think that was a big one for me, you know, just to get me out of my shell a little bit. And, you know, now I do public speaking and stuff like that. And I'm very comfortable with it. And people say that I'm pretty good at it, you know, pretty decent at it at some point.

You're like, huh? Yeah. You know, and I remember in high school that I would have anxiety attacks about getting in front of people. Like, but now it's, I really enjoy it. You know, I really, and I think that comes across when I do it I'm not saying I'm an expert in anything but it's just more of I really enjoy doing it so people see that and they feed off that you know I think it's I'm glad that she had that intervention with me because I don't know what I would have done otherwise and I think my parents are Irish

immigrants in Canada and they just wanted me to work right they just they wanted me to be okay they wanted me to have money they wanted me to have what I needed you know I used to work for the the city or the town of Whitby in the summer times where you know I'd go around and I was a big guy so I would pick up the sewer lids for these guys who couldn't pick them up and do stuff like that and they they would have been happy with me working there and it was another one of those things where like, no, nothing wrong with that type of job, but I can do more than this. I need to challenge myself and put myself in situations where I can use my intelligence because I know I'm smart.

I know I work hard. And I think what all that football stuff did too was it helped me build the mindset of you won't outwork me you know there's there's no way that you're going to outwork me with this because what i lack in intelligence i'm going to back up with determination perseverance those are always big pillars in my head of you know i'm i'm most likely not going to be outworked you know and there's there may be guys that there's a ton of people who are smarter than me, especially in this field, but they're not going to outwork me.

You know, so I'll make it up on that end. I think that's where, you know, football and just that mentality has helped a ton. You've got three young kids at home. Yeah. All under the age of, what did you say, six? Six, yeah. What has that been like, you know, having kids and having this professional career at the same time?

Yeah, you know what, it's, I'm lucky with my wife. You know, she's someone who, you know, unfathomably believes in me. You know, and I think that's, she believes in me, she believes in what we're doing. And, you know, when I first said, hey, you know, the Anaheim Ducks called. And, you know, she started looking at houses. You know, she was excited first more than anything. You know, so that told me that this was, you know, if it worked out, this would have been. She's like, California?

Yeah, exactly. It's like, awesome. Yeah. How much do these places cost? Yeah. And, you know, we sat down and we said, you know, this is going to be a great little adventure for our family. Who knows how long it'll last? You know, pro sports pro sports it's a lot of time you're hired to be fired or you know you're there until the next guy comes along which is I'm okay with that because I know

I know who I am I know the people around me that I trust I'm lucky enough to my kindergarten buddies are the same guys I I call friends now, which is pretty rare. You know, and I think the support at home and having the kids live here and experience this, you know, kind of a different culture and different country. And I think that's, you know, my six-year-old has gone to two new schools. He has to go in and meet people. He has to go in and talk, you know, and he's a very outgoing kid and life of the party type of kid and very respectful. And I just think that is such a, we kind of talked about a kind of a cool attribute. You threw them and throw them into a new situation and say, hey,

go meet people, you know, and we were talking about maybe moving from where we are now. And he said to my wife, oh, that's okay, mom. That means I'll keep my friends here and I'll meet new friends. And to have that mentality at six years old was like, okay, he gets it. Or at least I think he does. And I think it also reinforces family because we spend a lot of time together because we don't have a lot of external friends here so far. I mean, we've only been here a few years and the season is so busy that there isn't a whole lot of external friends here so far i mean we've only been here a few years and the season is so busy that there isn't a whole lot of time to get out and meet

people but it means we spend so much more time together you know and i think that stuff is so special because you're not being pulled in six different directions it's when i'm home i'm home you know i don't have anything else to worry about other than the team so it's nice in that respect where you you know the time you do spend is quality which is cool if you uh own your own business when you're home you won't be home no your freedom will you'll have less freedom rather than more yeah and you know my business is back pick your poison you know business is back in canada you know you have several gyms right yeah we have three gyms now and I'm lucky that the staff that I do have, I've kind of separated myself from the gym a little bit and still give the overarching plan and keep the company in the direction I want it to go.

But I'm thankful for that, too, that I don't have to kind of run my own business right now because, as you know, it's everything. You have to devote it to it. So it's one of those things where I feel like right now we're in a good spot. I'm excited for the next phase of time here, but I'm also excited for the time beyond that, as to wherever we're going to go, if we're going to stay, and know that, you know, whatever we do, it's going to be a positive move, you know.

So it's the beginning of July. What's the schedule of July what's the schedule look like from here? So the rest of this week we just got some some players in town doing some training we actually head back home on Friday to Canada for three weeks so I got some business stuff to take care of a lot of family time seeing some friends a couple concerts so a little bit of downtime and then back here to begin August and it's go time you know it's about six weeks out and everything starts to kind of ramp up at that time and

there's a season like 30 weeks long or how many is yeah basically you play a couple games a week and there's yeah we start October 3rd and we finish April like 10th roughly and then playoffs start so it's all the preseason stuff yeah preseason seven preseason games um it's a long year but I mean it goes fast it does go fast there's points that it gets slow but that's my stomach by the way that's it uh yeah so it's it's definitely a long year but man it's already flown by you know I can't even believe it's definitely a long year, but, man, it's already flown by. You know, I can't even believe it's July. It's hard to compensate. Where can people find you?

Yeah, social channels, it's at Fitzgerald ETS, and then the gym is at Team ETS. They kind of feed us all of our locations, and mine is just a personal one. I'm not super active at on but you know look definitely will communicate with people and what have you very cool that's all the time we got this is a special uh podcast today that we're doing from los angeles we got a bunch more of these coming up and also uh this is the first podcast we've done without andrew so we got my boy chris griffin Griffin filling in for today, doing some work.

Really appreciate you guys watching. Appreciate you guys listening. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. See y'all later. Thank you. A lot of fun. Yeah, appreciate it.