April 4, 2011
Q&A with ... Tim Insko, athletic trainer, and strength and conditioning coach at RIT
by Staff Report/
Tim Insko is in his second year as the head strength and conditioning coach and athletic trainer for the Rochester Institute of Technology men's hockey team. During those two years, he has contributed to two regular-season Atlantic Hockey championships, a league playoff championship and last year’s Frozen Four appearance.
Prior to arriving at RIT, Insko spent three seasons working with the USA Hockey Central District bantam camp in Ames, Iowa. During that time, he attended Iowa State, obtaining a second bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in athletic training, along with a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies.
From 2000-06, Insko was a strength and conditioning specialist at Performance Therapies, P.C., in Coralville, Iowa. He administered strength and conditioning programs for high school, college, professional and Olympic athletes while assisting the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL. Insko received his first bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1999 from the University of Iowa. He is certified by the National Athletic Training Association, National Strength and Conditioning Association and National Academy of Sports Medicine.
What are the first things you tell players who are working with you for the first time?
I like to educate our players on why we’re doing what we’re doing (exercises, pace, weight, reps, etc.) and I encourage them to ask questions. If I can’t explain exactly why something is in our program, it isn’t in our program. I also explain that almost anything is adaptable based on specific needs. We have a lot of players at various stages of developments so different needs are always addressed with the individuals. I maintain a very open-door policy.
What’s an often overlooked part of a strength and conditioning regimen?
I think three major areas are often overlooked. First, entirely too many people confuse abs with core and therefore do not train the core at all. Without true core stability, athletes lack the ability to generate maximum force throughout the kinetic chain. Second, athletes and coaches alike tend to ignore proper muscular activation patterns and relationships among different muscles around particular joints. Ignoring those patterns and relationships leads to inefficiency, lower force production and increased risk of injury.
Finally, technique as it applies to speed, agility and explosive movements are often overlooked for a variety of reasons (i.e. to use more weight or just get through a drill). Again, this tends to produce sub-par results and increases the risk of injury.
If you had a list of a few top exercises to help young players improve their conditioning and injury prevention, what would they be?
I could list exercises all day long that I consider important, but most fall in the following categories:
1) Proper warm-up and stretches to address specific, individual needs. A proper warm-up is a must to maximize workouts and reduce injury risk. I also assign stretches based on individual needs.
2) Speed and agility development.
3) Explosive movement exercises. These may be Olympic lifts, plyometrics, isokinetics or other lifts performed at a high rate of speed.
4) Injury prevention exercises. Particular areas of emphasis in hockey players are hips and shoulders.
5) Dynamic core stabilization. This component maximizes all the others.
6) Cardiovascular conditioning. Important for both performance and injury reduction
What are some of the most common mistakes players make while training on their own?
When athletes train on their own they tend to focus only on the muscles they can see in the mirror, the biggest prime movers, and exercises that have known average and “comparable” weights (i.e. bench and squat). They also tend to pay less attention to proper technique.
What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in your field over the last five years?
Over the last several years I’ve witnessed an interesting dichotomy develop in strength and conditioning. On one side, you have strength coaches who ignore injury prevention entirely. On the other you have strength coaches who incorporate injury prevention strategies into their programs.
The non-injury-prevention camp rationalizes that the risk of injury is low enough that the potential gains are worth that risk. The injury prevention camp believes that an extra few percentage points of force production isn’t worth the increased likelihood of missing games. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic continues to play out.
Nutritionally speaking, what are your biggest do’s and don’ts?
First and foremost is proper hydration and balance of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats). A well-balanced diet is much more beneficial than trying to cram a bunch of supplements down your throat. I generally tell my athletes to steer clear of supplements because most are unproven and unregulated. In addition, too many athletes take in way too much protein at the expense of other important nutrients. People often forget how protein-heavy the North
American diet is already. Athletes do need more calories than non-athletes, but balance must be maintained.
What do you work on with players to decrease their recovery time between games?
Following Friday night games we always do a cool-down routine consisting of light biking or jogging followed by dynamic and static stretching. All players also take in some type of recovery drink. When we’re at home, players have access to our cold tub following games and practices.
On game days, we do a mid-day dynamic warm-up and stretch prior to a good meal. Additionally we always have treatments and rehab on Sundays. I also spend a lot of time observing the players and communicating with the coaching staff to identify early signs of fatigue/overtraining. I then adapt our training to address those needs.
How does a strength and conditioning regimen near the end of the season differ from one at the start? The middle?
At the beginning of our season we are still in our maximum power production phase, which is a little more taxing than the rest of our season. As we get into conference play we back down to a maintenance lift for most our players and continue to address specific areas with individual players.
Because the college hockey season is only around 40 games and played on weekends, we can still make some improvements throughout the season. Toward the end of the season I include a lot more short workouts and changes in scenery, and I monitor fatigue a lot more closely.
During the offseason, what are some strength and conditioning things younger players can do on their own to improve their performance on the ice?
Early in the offseason, I think it’s imperative to get away from the ice for awhile. Stay active, but do something else to recharge the batteries. After that, a varying combination of strength training, speed/agility work, cardiovascular conditioning, skill development and competition should be implemented.
At RIT, our players go through multiple training phases that include all of those components and build on each other. Most of our players also have opportunities to workout with and compete with higher- level players (NHL, AHL, etc). I’ve found that to be extremely helpful to our players and encourage that to younger players as well.
