COMPHER WORKING WITH KANE TRAINER
Chicago-based Mack never played hockey; focuses on elasticity over strength
Avalanche forward J.T. Compher is among a dozen NHL players training this summer with a guy who has never played hockey, or even donned skates.
Heck, the guy doesn’t even believe in traditional weight lifting.
And yet, Compher and company believe in Ian Mack, a 32-yearold trainer currently teaching “Tomahawk Science” to 28 hockey players in Chicago, including Blackhawks star Patrick Kane.
“I worked out with him for a full month before I got on the ice,” Compher said in a phone interview. “Once I got back on the ice, I felt more explosive and better on my lateral movements — and even better on my edges. I can move quicker.”
Kane — a three-time Stanley Cup champion who won the Hart Trophy (media) and Ted Lindsey Award (peers) as NHL MVP in 2016 — trained with Mack last summer. This past season he had a career-best 110 points at age 30.
“I honestly think I feel better now than I did in my 20s,” Kane said in a recent interview with Forbes Magazine. “Not laughing at me, but (Mack was) very surprised at how little mobility and how little of my body I was actually using. He said, ‘You’re probably using 60 percent of what you’re capable of with your body.’ That really hit home with me.”
Mack, who has a degree in exercise physiology and biomechanics, focuses on elasticity over strength. While he has never played hockey, he understands how the sport breaks down the body and believes his training can prevent that and promote a player’s full potential.
Hips, Mack said, “is the Holy Grail” for hockey players.
“A lot of those guys come in and they’re a little weak or a little disconnected — or even a little restricted. They end up being pretty tight. We loosen them up,” he said.
Compher, who is from Northbrook, Ill., about an hour north of Chicago, drives into the city on most days with his sister, Jessie — a Boston University standout and member of the 2019 U.S. women’s hockey team — to train with Mack at Phenomenal Fitness. Mack doesn’t accompany the Comphers when they go to the Chicago Blackhawks’ practice facility to skate. By then, his work is done.
“He has an innovative way of thinking about off-ice training,” Compher said. “Where I’ve noticed it the most is my mobility through my hips, my low back, and I’m way more stable through the core. Adding on top of that is explosiveness; we do a lot of plyometrics, explosive movements.
“I still do strength training but with fewer weights than the normal hockey player — the way people have been training the last 1015 years. He does a really good job of building on what you want to work on as well as re-generating your body after the full season of skating, and how unnatural that movement is.”
Compher expects to reach a new level next season, his fourth in Colorado since leaving the University of Michigan as a junior in 2016. He signed a four-year, $14 million contract extension with the Avs on July 17.
“I wanted to spend the summer in Chicago and working with Ian made it an easy transition,” Compher said. “Patrick Kane spoke very highly of him and a lot of the guys that I talked to that live in Chicago in the summer were speaking really highly of Ian. I met him for the first time in May after the season and we started off June 1.”
Mack said he admires Compher because of his work ethic and relationship with his little sister, Jessie, who is the only female at the camp. And he sees the 24year-old more than living up to his new contract with the Avs.
“From his level of intensity, focus and competitive nature I imagine he’ll continue to get better every year for the foreseeable future,” Mack said. “He’s still very young. He hasn’t come close to hitting his prime, and he’s already a really good impact player for them, from my understanding.
“As a person and how he approaches his craft (and) his game I’d be shocked if he didn’t improve every year here coming up.”