Firstbeat Coach Profile: Doug McKenney – Buffalo Sabres Ice Hockey

In this series, we’ll be introducing you to some of the coaches and staff taking advantage of the Firstbeat Sports solution to monitor training and recovery. We’ll get their personal view and experiences of how they use Firstbeat in their sport.

Buffalo Sabres has been using the Firstbeat Sports software since 2009. Read the interview of Doug McKenney to learn about their user experiences.

Name: Doug McKenney
Sport: Ice Hockey
Role: Strength and Conditioning Coach
Team: Buffalo Sabres

Why do you use Firstbeat Sports Heart-Rate Monitoring and Reporting Software with the Buffalo Sabres hockey team?

Firstbeat is an integral part of our overall dissection of each players’ on and off-ice work.  We use it to determine the frequency, intensity, time and type of workouts which will produce optimal performance. The feedback during and following workouts allows us to educate our coaches and players in many areas. The exciting part about this company and the software is that it is still growing and providing us with more as we go forward.

What specific feature or data point is the most useful to you as a Strength and Conditioning coach and why?

We use this software on a daily basis, so we have been able to utilize almost every aspect of data in one way or another. Probably the most important feature is bout/shift recovery responses from the HR curve and the TE to gauge overreaching or deconditioning of the athlete.

Other comments or ideas about Firstbeat Sports?

This group has been excellent to work with, they are willing to problem solve with us and answer any questions we may have. We are very pleased with how this has moved us closer to where we want to be in terms of the training our athletes.

Thanks for your help, we value the input from our elite coaches and consider your input critical to our success!

Webinar Recording: Training Load Monitoring in Ice hockey

Guest speaker Coach Doug McKenney shares his insights on what variables to look at, how to communicate the results to the players and how to individualize training programs based on the collected data.

Watch the recording

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