Managing Individual Responses in Elite Ice Hockey

Thursday August 27th, 2026

Marko Haverinen, Head of Performance at Tappara, shows how the club uses physiological monitoring to manage training load, recovery and player development through a demanding season. Hosted by Firstbeat’s Joel Wenning, the webinar covers in-season submaximal fitness testing, return-to-play protocols, and how Tappara combines external and internal load data in daily coaching decisions.

Aimed at S&C coaches and sports scientists in ice hockey and other team sports. Includes a Q&A on individualizing training within a team and a first look at Firstbeat Sports’ new live data view.

Timestamps

1. Introduction and Tappara Performance Hub (00:00)
2. Aerobic endurance demands in elite ice hockey (03:44)
3. Heart rate recovery and individual differences (05:15)
4. Submaximal fitness testing in-season and in return-to-play (07:49)
5. External vs. internal load monitoring (19:10)
6. Long-term development: U18, U20 and pro load comparison (21:38)
7. Case study: multi-overtime playoff game demands (25:49)
8. Using internal and external load for coaching decisions (29:40)
9. Key parameters Tappara uses and how to introduce them to coaches (35:56)
10. Daily workflow: live data, feedback and reporting (40:12)
11. Adjusting training load through the season (46:13)
12. More games, Champions League and the need for individualization (52:57)
13. Microcycle planning: matching worst-case demands, polarized weeks (57:51)
14. Reference data and real-time insights in Firstbeat Sports (01:03:00)

Frequently Asked Questions

Key takeaways from the webinar with Marko Haverinen, Head of Performance at Tappara.

What is the difference between internal load and external load?

External load is the physical work an athlete performs, such as movement load, meters skated and accelerations, measured with GPS or positioning systems. Internal load is the body’s physiological response to that work, measured with heart rate and TRIMP values. Both are needed because two players can complete the same external work with very different internal responses. At Tappara, Marko Haverinen’s staff monitors both to understand how each player is actually coping with training and games.

How can you monitor aerobic endurance during the hockey season without VO2max testing?

Maximal VO2max tests are too demanding to repeat during a busy game schedule. Tappara instead runs a submaximal fitness test every 4 to 6 weeks as part of the warm-up, taking only a few minutes. Heart rate during the submaximal test correlates with VO2max and with high-intensity skating efforts in games, which makes it a reliable way to track aerobic fitness in-season. The same test is used in return-to-play protocols after injury.

How does a heart rate based return-to-play protocol work in ice hockey?

After injury or illness, the player repeats the submaximal fitness test to assess aerobic capacity and readiness. Training load is then increased progressively, first off-ice, then on-ice individually, then in team sessions, until the player approaches pre-injury baselines. Because actual game demands are higher than training, Tappara ramps up the load carefully with continuous heart rate feedback before clearing the player to play.

What are the most useful metrics for hockey coaches and athletes to track?

Start simple. When Tappara began monitoring, the staff focused on just two metrics: TRIMP for training volume and TRIMP per minute for intensity. External load, movement load and heart rate recovery were added later as coaches became comfortable with the data. Firstbeat Sports also provides reference values from typical professional ice hockey data, so a player’s numbers can be compared to benchmarks instantly.

How do you make sure training intensity matches or exceeds game demands?

The principle at Tappara is “train harder than you play”. By tagging and analyzing drills, the staff has built a bank of exercises with known internal and external load, which makes it possible to select drills that match or exceed game intensity. Both average game demand and worst-case peak periods are tracked, with special attention to playoff demands, which are higher than the regular season.

How should training load be distributed across a week with three games?

Tappara uses a polarized approach. Games and hard on-ice sessions are the biggest metabolic load days of the week. In a three-game week, the days between games are kept light and used for recovery work and short, intensive sessions, and there is less time for team training, so the emphasis shifts to recovery and individual adjustments. This keeps players from becoming chronically overloaded and lets them peak at the right time.