Slovak article about Slafkovsky’s special breath and vision coaching (with actual coaches)

This is the article from the Slovak newspaper Dennik N. I translated it with DeepL with few corrections. If you doesn’t understand anything, just hit me up 🙂

source: [https://dennikn.sk/3481484/slafkovsky-si-modernymi-metodami-zvysil-kapacitu-pluc-o-20-percent-prekvapil-ma-pokorou-hovori-kondicny-trener/](https://dennikn.sk/3481484/slafkovsky-si-modernymi-metodami-zvysil-kapacitu-pluc-o-20-percent-prekvapil-ma-pokorou-hovori-kondicny-trener/)

Author: Stefan Bugan

# Slafkovsky increased his lung capacity by 20 percent using modern methods. He surprised me with humility, says fitness coach

Few hockey clubs are as fortunate to have the spectator interest as the Montreal Canadiens. New Jersey is one of the best teams in the league, but only a few journalists are covering the action.

But Montreal’s hockey players are a big topic in the city all the time. Even during the summer, when they’re not playing.

The latest example with Juraj Slafkovsky sums it up nicely.

When Canada noticed Slafkovsky’s training methods with special goggles and an oxygen mask, this is what happened:

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* a text was written that tries to explain these methods;
* an hour-long podcast was created that discussed not only the methods, but also perennially debated topics in Montreal, such as whether Slafkovsky should have started in the NHL or in the AHL;
* the doctor, who is a Montreal fan, developed a Twitter thread in his spare time in which he quotes seven books;
* dozens of articles have been written that quote the text, the podcast or the doctor.

Most of the posts also produced some degree of exaggeration. Nicolas Cloutier of TVA Sports claims in the text that fitness coach Michal Břetenář, with whom Slafkovský trained with both goggles and an oxygen mask, is a “fitness guru”.

In his podcast, journalist Tony Marinaro promises in the caption that Slafkovsky is “already twenty percent better” thanks to these methods.

And doctor Stephen Morris on Twitter tells fans not to get excited because, according to him, it’s not at all certain that the methods will work.

The most interesting information from Cloutier’s text, however, is the claim that Slafkovsky has increased his lung capacity by twenty percent over the summer, a huge number for a top athlete.

Denník N reached out to Czech fitness coach Michal Břetenář to elaborate on what he and Slafkovský worked on and what effect it had. Břetenář works with Slovak Daniel Kičur, who is Slafkovský’s head fitness coach.

Břetenář was surprised by how the topic was discussed in Montreal. “It’s fun to see how the Czechoslovak tandem of Břetenář – Kičura has caught the attention of Canadian doctors and experts,” says the conditioning coach.

**What you will read about:**

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* what the strobe goggles and oxygen mask are for;
* what Slafkovsky surprised Břetenář the most during the joint training;
* how he reacts to doctor Stephen Morris’ claims that his methods may not work.

**I don’t understand why his weight is being addressed**

“He stunned everyone in training camp when he ‘destroyed’ a stationary bike. However, during the season I wondered if he was the same player. I could see that at times he was more tired than his teammates, and that’s why he had shorter shifts,” Tony Marinaro said in the podcast.

There was speculation about whether it hurt Slafkovský to put on muscle mass during last summer and come into camp a few pounds heavier.

“I don’t really understand why everyone is addressing his weight. It’s very easy and alibistic to say, ‘You’re heavy, you need to lose weight.’ If someone could analyse the context, they would see that this is not exactly the problem,” says Břetenář.

Slafkovsky’s problem was inefficient breathing. It is a more complex problem, which physician Stephen Morris tried to explain in one sentence as follows: “He’s trying to make his breathing muscles save energy, which then increases for the muscles in his legs.”

Břetenář says it’s more complicated than that. “The respiratory system needs to be looked at more holistically. It’s one of the systems of the human body that can be trained very well, but the right limitations have to be found. It may be small capacity, small expiratory rates, obstructive lung disorder or economy of breathing. However, a large tidal volume alone does not guarantee you anything.”

So Slafkovsky is trying to learn to breathe more efficiently. They are basing this on the data that came back to them during the measurements. “These were tests of the respiratory system, the circulatory system and the ability of the muscles to use the oxygen supplied. But I don’t want to be completely specific, we’ll keep something to ourselves.”

How does one change the way a person breathes? “Relearning ingrained stereotypes, and not just breathing stereotypes, is one of the hardest things in training. It takes time and utmost concentration. However, if one wants to, anything is possible.”

An oxygen mask was used to analyze his breathing, which is not exactly common even in the NHL. That’s why training with it has attracted so much attention and Slafkovsky has been compared to the movie boxer Ivan Drago, who trained with a similar mask.

“Thanks to this mask, we are able to see his experienced stereotypes in concrete figures. We can thus better detect when he breathes unnecessarily fast, when he breathes too shallowly, when he uses volume at the expense of speed, and thanks to this we can correct him directly during the exercise,” explains Břetenář.

The special goggles can help him to be quicker in the fast-paced NHL and avoid hard hits, which he took a few of during his first season. For example, the super-talented Eric Lindros had the same problem in the early days, and concussions eventually ruined his career.

“It’s the strobe glasses that change the visor and the blink rate. Thanks to them, he should be able to estimate distance more accurately, distinguish the speed of movement of opponents, react in time to dynamic changes in direction or orient himself better in space,” says Břetenář.

**We are interested in numbers, not studies**

We asked Břetenář what he had to say about claims by Stephen Morris, MD, that we don’t have enough studies to confirm that their method of breathing more efficiently will work.

The conditioning coach refers to measured data. “If no one has thought of it yet, logically there can’t be enough studies either. But Dan Kičura and I are interested in numbers, not studies.”

Slafkovsky’s lung capacity did indeed increase by twenty percent over the summer, according to him. “Yes, it’s true. Before his vacation it was almost twenty percent. I don’t want to say the exact figures, that’s our ‘medical secret’. I can’t even say if it will help him, because it’s one thing to improve something on ‘dry land’ and it’s another, but absolutely crucial, to transfer it to the ice. We’re just removing the things that are limiting him, thus increasing the chances of him performing better. If he can transfer that to the ice, it should make his job a lot easier.”

However, one has to be careful with claims that Slafkovsky will automatically be twenty percent better. Even Břetenář stresses that it doesn’t work that simply.

It’s hard to predict at this point whether Slafkovsky will one day live up to the potential Montreal saw in him when they made him a draft pick.

However, Nicolas Cloutier of TVA Sports reminded that Montreal drafted Slafkovsky precisely because they thought he would be best able to handle the periods when everything is not ideal.

“Montreal hasn’t had good draft picks in recent years, that’s why they didn’t pick Slafkovsky based on talent alone. Pre-draft interviews with him convinced them that he was the one who could handle the Montreal environment. He showed humility, but at the same time self-confidence. I didn’t understand the fans’ unhappy reactions because no one expected him to dominate the first season. More robust players mature later, he was expected to take longer from the start. They drafted him for his work ethic as well. Also, these summer workouts show that he will try everything to get better. He has an open mind,” says the Canadian journalist.

Břetenář has the same experience with Slafkovský. “What surprised me most about him was his humility and willingness to listen,” adds the Czech fitness coach.

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EDIT: added author name.

by holdenger