Two Weeks, Two Scores: John Hayden’s Short But Sweet Journey From NCAA to NHL

March 11 was a good day to 22-year-old college student John Hayden, but it was the week after that made a remarkable difference in his life. After scoring a goal for his college team, he was signed with a two-year contract with Chicago Blackhawks. At his first game, he scored yet another goal. Steve Volek, John’s strength & conditioning coach from the past two seasons, shares some insights about the training decisions that played an important part in John’s success.

“As a strength coach, I want to give feedback that helps players perform at their highest level. Therefore, I use Firstbeat’s system to measure player’s performance, training load and recovery. One of John’s specialties is that he can push himself to whatever level is needed. That can be concretely seen by his TRIMP (Training Impulse) values. For example, when his levels were close to the maximum, I knew exactly how to approach recovery after each game. John was “all in” about the data provided by Firstbeat and was very coachable when it came to adhering to specific training decisions that helped him to get the most out of the lift and be more prepared for demanding games.”

Steve has been pleased with both the data provided as well the customer support provided by Firstbeat.

“Firstbeat’s Ben Jensen has been handling our account since 2015, and his help has been unreal. Whenever I had any concerns or questions I was promptly taken care of whether it was breaking down data or talking about different software features. I’m proud to see that the precise training decisions based on personalized, measured information about heartbeat data, can help support the success of a young talent such as John,” Steve portrays.

Firstbeat congratulates John and wishes him the best of luck for his journey in the NHL.

Read more about performance and recovery monitoring in team sports

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