According to a 2020 article by Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight, an NHL coach’s average tenure is just 2.4 years.
Half of the story is how fired coaches are rightfully or wrongfully held responsible for their teams’ underperformance.
The other half, less frequently discussed, is the toxicity associated with the 32 most coveted job in hockey coaching.
For healthy adults, the three main pillars of wellness are sleep, nutrition and exercise, in that order.
Unfortunately, the routine of being an NHL (or AHL, or junior) coach is real good at throwing those three pillars out of whack.
Let’s look at them in reverse order.
Exercise
NHL coaches work over 12 hours on a game day and close to eight hours on practice days. Like other busy executives, it’s hard to find time for exercise on a given day, and even more difficult to commit to a specific workout plan throughout the season.
Whenever unforeseen events occur, the daily workout often becomes the first thing to come off the schedule. As a result, it’s not rare for first-time NHL coaches to fall victim to the freshman 15.
Nutrition
Big eaters, frequent eaters and stress eaters are especially vulnerable.
At away games, an undisciplined coach can have five full meals without having done any exercise:
Breakfast at the hotel
Post-morning-skate lunch at the hotel
Pre-game dinner at the hotel or rink
Post-game pizza at the rink
Post-game meal at the hotel or on the plane
Those who follow their players’ feeding schedule and then engage in the sport’s ritualistic alcohol consumption will assuredly pack on the pounds, regardless of what they put on their plates and how often they hit the treadmill.
Sleep
When it comes to exercise and nutrition, NHL coaches are generally left to their own devices. But when it comes to sleep, members of a coaching staff are actively undermining each other.
The most harmful game played by head coaches with their assistants is “who can get to the rink the earliest.” In my experiences with the Toronto Maple Leafs circa 2018, it results in everyone waking up at 5:30AM just to avoid being shamed upon arrival to the team’s practice rink.
The second-most harmful game, by the way, is “watching clips late at night.” Sleep experts tell us not to use screens shortly before bedtime, but even on practice days you can bet on NHL coaches reviewing video on their laptops until close to midnight.
The National Sleep Foundation advises that healthy adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. During the season NHL coaches are lucky to get more than six.
The NHL grind gradually sucks the vitality out of very smart, very motivated and very wealthy people, especially when the losses start to pile up.
Does the head coach of your favorite team look like this in his post-game media scrum?
To find some solutions to this slow-drip torture, I talked to Jesse Bieman, an Ontario-based personal trainer who works with minor hockey, university and pro athletes.
Jesse had never worked with high-level hockey coaches and was surprised to learn about the demands of their schedule.
After a 45-minute conversation, we came up with a list of quick tips that’ll help coaches avoid occupational hazards.
Exercice Tips:
Be consistent - better to do 30 minutes every day than two hours a few times a month (and be sore for a week afterwards)
Build energy - Short intervals on a stationary bike (8x20 seconds with 10 second breaks in between) and low-rep compound exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges) leave you feeling energized rather than drained over time
Pull instead of push - Movements such as flys, pulls and planks address the under-worked posterior chain and reverses the rounded shoulders posture associated with laptop use
Nutrition Tips:
Try intermittent fasting - as an AHL coach, I changed how often I ate and skipped breakfast or dinner instead of using willpower to control what I ate. The 18-6 fast worked for me (no weight gain) and it may work for you as well
Limit alcohol intake - my Marlies colleagues and I would most often wind down with a club soda instead of a beer after a game
Don’t eat like a player - again, it’s eating too often, especially after the game, that gets you
Sleep Tips:
Evaluate your game day needs - after lunch, put the laptop away and invest in yourself either with a nap (if you haven’t been sleeping well) or with a short, energizing workout (if you have)
Skip the morning skate - if you’re the head coach, let your assistants run the skate and sleep in until nine or 10 AM so that you can be at your best at 7PM, optics be damned
Build excess capacity - instead of forcing assistants to get to the rink at 6:30AM or watch clips late into the night, find ways to improve workflow so that everyone is rested, ready and willing to finish the 82-game regular season, then go all-in during the playoffs
Reply to this email if you’re a coach looking for more tips or an initial consultation with Jesse Bieman.
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