Keeping fit allows NHL referees like Kevin Pollock to keep their jobs

The human body wears down over time – especially if you have a physical job.

Kevin Pollock has one such job. He’s a National Hockey League referee, and he’s 45 years old – older than any player in the league.

He’s not the oldest official. And he knows that if he takes care of his body, he’ll be able to continue with his chosen profession for a long time to come. That means a tremendous amount of work to stay in shape in order to be able to keep up on the ice, especially with the warp-like speed of today's NHL.

Pollock acknowledges the difficulty he and other officials face in accomplishing this goal each year.

“The demographics of our staff are getting younger,” he said in a recent interview, prior to the start of his 15th season as a full-time NHL official. “I go to training camp with these younger officials who are in fabulous shape, and it’s a pride thing. We want to push ourselves to be as close to their fitness level as possible.

“The NHL is the highest level an official can achieve, and if you let your fitness slip, when you get out on the ice, it’ll show. You won’t be in a proper position to make the call, or you won’t be able to get to the net to call a goal.

“It’s a livelihood issue.”

It used to be that hockey players – and officials – took summers off in terms of their physical fitness. They would show up at training camp in September and spend two or three weeks working off the 10 or 15 pounds they had gained during the offseason. Even up until a couple of years ago, Pollock’s summer fitness routine consisted largely of riding a bike, adding more mileage each time he went out.

No more. He’s recognized that he’s an elite athlete, and he must train accordingly prior to a training camp that now lasts only four days.

“The expectation of us coming to training camp is that we’re in the best possible shape and we’re going to prove it in our fitness tests,” he said. “And if you don’t, you’re going to have to answer some tough questions as to why you didn’t prepare the way you should have.”

The accountability – for fitness as well as for on-ice performance – is something Pollock welcomes and embraces. He gets help with his preparation from Wayne Burke, the head of strength and conditioning at Shift, a gym in Guelph, Ont. When Burke began working with Pollock, he quickly recognized that the referee needed to improve his mobility. Skating, cycling and sitting on planes (to get from one game and city to another) have one thing in common – they limit a person’s hip mobility, which can lead to lower back stiffness. And that’s what was starting to happen to Pollock.Burke crafted a program for him that included resistance training, mobility exercises and movement skills and drills. The goal was to help Pollock learn how to jump and land, stop and start, and change directions.

“Those types of things lend themselves to better movement quality, more strength and, overall, a better athlete,” Burke said, explaining that Pollock’s improved mobility and stability is also a major factor in keeping him healthy.“Teaching him how to do these things helps prevent injuries and keeps him on the ice. It helps him to be able to do his job longer, which was one of his main goals, to continue to be a referee well into his 50s.”

That’s a goal Pollock has set for himself as he reaches new peaks in his career. He worked his 1,000th NHL game last March, then had the longest postseason run of his career highlighted by his first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.

“It was a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve always aspired to do a final, and I got close many years in the past but wasn’t able to reach that last step, that pinnacle. To finally get through, it was amazing. It was everything I thought it would be, and more.”