I was surprised to find out my VO2 max is in line with typically the very top performers in the NHL draft combine. Turns out when I looked at my blood test results over the last 5 years my body naturally has an elevated red blood cell count (which vastly improves VO2 max performance). Apparently having a high RBC count can be bad for you but no doctor has ever expressed concern and just said my results were normal, even though I’m outside of normal range
Yes! Everyone is built differently. That's cool and you have an advantage over most athletes your age, naturally. Something similar happened to me too.
I've played tons of sports my entire life, but I absolutely hated running. About 3 years ago after moving to a nicer neighborhood I just felt a need to try running so I pushed myself to start. I became absolutely addicted to it. I run over 1000K a year now. A few friends asked me if I wanted to run a 5k and I placed very highly for a 40 year old. I freakin medaled in my age group in the 2nd 5K that I ever ran and I had no idea what I was doing with my running stride, training, proper sneakers, etc.
All I knew about was proper diet that literally took me years of playing hockey to figure out. That in of itself is of upmost importance as you get older - but thats another story all together.
I continued to run and later read a book called "The Lore of Running" which is considered the bible of running. Written by a physician and research scientist it gives you incomparable detail on physiology, training, racing, injuries, world-class athletes, and races. I read about how some people just naturally have a physiological advantage and I assumed I was in that category. You are too it seems.
Point is, a lot of hockey players and pro athletes just have it. You look at the bodies of Buch (very skinny) Ovy & Byfuglien (likely considered overweight), guys like Alexi Zhamnov who smoked a pack a day and during intermissions, Hasek & Daneyko (who I really like as a person, no disrespect) who were drunk all of the time, etc. You can't judge a book by its cover, in any sport but especially hockey. Its not all about big burly guys and jacked quads & pecs.
Of course its nice and all of the supplemental specified training will no doubt increase your performance on the ice. It takes a professional approach in all areas to maintain success in this league, especially these days. You could probably get away on talent alone decades ago. But some people have physiological (and mental I might add) advantages others do not. For those that don't they have to work twice as hard to keep pace.
That's why test data from the combine is so important. You can get a good idea of the baselines of the kids coming in before they become men and understand who possesses these inherent advantages.
If I recall Kakko tested very highly on the TPS squad, but im not sure if he was at the combine that draft.
