Chasing the Dream of Women’s Pro Hockey: Preparing for Draft Day

Part 2 of a series in which Melissa Boufounos, a 22-year-old from Montreal, Canada talks about her journey to play women’s professional hockey

With only a few days to go before the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) draft, anxiety and excitement are kicking in full force. On Thursday night, I will learn my fate—which team I will be trying out for in September.

While there are six teams in the league, I have indicated the Greater Toronto Area for my preference on where to play. This means I will most likely be drafted by Toronto, Brampton, or Burlington.

Leading up to the draft, I’ve been training for the upcoming tryouts, which has been no easy task. Whoever said athletes had it easy, has never been an athlete.

Juggling a full time day job, coaching a 3-on-3 team of teenage girls, playing in a men’s league, on-ice development, and fitting in two-hour sessions at the gym in between doesn’t leave much time for a social life. My best friend, and neighbor, hasn’t even seen me in over a month.

Unfortunately, this struggle is something female hockey players have to deal with. They do not have the luxury or chance to make millions of dollars a year to play professional hockey. They have to hold full time jobs in order to support themselves and their families.

“I think it is a tough juggle for the players to balance the training, practice, and especially the travel schedule with their real life,” said Dan Lichterman, former Toronto coach. “Many players make a huge sacrifice to make it to practice late at night or have to leave for a road trip on a Friday morning and not return until late Sunday night. The commitment level of the players is huge.”

Training Regimen

Once I was cleared to work out again after my back injury, I started doing sessions once a week on a skating treadmill at the Skating Lab in North York to regain the strength I had lost in my legs after a month of being idle.

Not only was the cardio aspect intense—I threw up after six of the eight sessions—the 15-minute warm up off the treadmill was all geared towards enhancing speed, agility, and quickness. Also, the trainer watches your stride as you skate and corrects your form so you learn how to get the most out of every single stride.

After eight sessions on the treadmill, it was time to add more off-ice training to my weekly routine. I went to Total Package Hockey in London, Ontario where I met up with Nick Petrella, a strength and conditioning coach. Nick put me through a grueling two-hour evaluation so he could create a specially designed training program for me.

“Based on the evaluation it was apparent that we needed to work on your endurance and strength, but at the same time be mindful of previous injuries and try to improve the strength of the muscles affected by the previous injuries in order to avoid developing muscle imbalances,” said Nick.

“In reference to the endurance, we needed to improve your aerobic endurance, focusing more on your anaerobic power.”

Nick created a four-day program for me with each day focusing on a different area of my body. The overall goal of the regimen is to improve my athletic performance through power.

“Power is a combination of speed, quickness, and strength. If you are able to be more powerful, you will likely have improved your speed, strength, and quickness,” explained Nick.

“In order to prepare you for the upcoming season we develop a training plan in phases. Each phase has a different goal, but the ultimate goal is improving your power. Phase 1: Endurance, Phase 2: Strength, Phase 3: Power.”

Next: Workout by Days