Strength And Conditioning Coach Mark Fitzgerald Will Improve Anaheim Ducks

If you are an Anaheim Ducks fan, you might remember the horror of last year’s Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals. The Ducks lost their edge the series to the Chicago Blackhawks on home ice. One of the things I noticed about that game was how tired the Ducks seemed. I felt that mentally and physically, they were out of gas and not even close to playing at the level we saw in the regular season (a season where the Ducks led the Western Pacific division).

It is very likely that the team was not in the best shape they could have been in, but the new hiring of Strength and Conditioning Coach Mark Fitzgerald could fix all that. The coach comes off of five years with the Toronto Maple Leafs and his most recent job was the Head of Performance and Nutrition of the Canadian Hockey League. His approach is what the Ducks need to bolster their endurance to prevent another Game 7 travesty. Coach Fitzgerald is lauded for innovative nutrition and training programs that he implemented back when he was working at the CHL. The key philosophy of Mark Fitzgerald that will aid the Ducks relates to stress management and burnout. In an interview Fitzgerald stated:

“I think one of the biggest keys to stress implementation is reading your athletes. This obviously comes with experience and being in the trenches and working with athletes every day and its crucial when it comes to getting the most out of your athletes….I find the visual assessment can tell you a lot about their last 24 hours. Complexion, body language and of course the eyes are great indicators or good or poor choices as it related to recovery.”

I don’t think that the coaching staff monitored the players well enough, nor did they implement the best training programs during the peak hours of the Western Conference Finals. Nothing else can explain how a team so strong in the regular season did so poorly when it truly mattered. The Ducks organization must agree. With Fitzgerald’s approach to nutrition, and most notably stress management, the Ducks will see a higher level of performance this coming season.