‘One day better’: Anthony Donskov puts family legacy to work in training elite athletes

‘One day better’: Anthony Donskov puts family legacy to work in training elite athletes
By Alison Lukan
Sep 5, 2019

With NHL training camps just around the corner, many fans are excited for the season to begin. But for the athletes who play the game, “offseason” is a misnomer. The summer months have been full of preparing for the upcoming season, and one hub of such training is based in central Ohio, built by a member of a family that continues to strengthen its legacy in hockey.

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First family of hockey

Back in 1990, when Paul and Debbie Donskov moved from London, Ontario, to Columbus, Ohio, with their three young sons, Misha, Anthony, and Matt, hockey barely registered within the community’s consciousness.

“It was a shock,” Misha said. “London is a big hockey town. I was playing AAA hockey for the London Jets, a few players on that team went on and played in the NHL. We had a lot more ice time, coaching, access to ice, facilities … (in Columbus) there was almost nothing … just one rink at Ohio State.”

But Paul, who had raised his children in the sport, building backyard rinks every winter and taking them to skate at the local barn, sought to rectify that. All three boys remember their father spending countless hours creating a foundation for youth hockey in central Ohio.

“Paul paved the way for a lot of the success (in central Ohio hockey),” AAA Blue Jackets president Ed Gingher said. “There’s so many who have helped pave the way, and the Donskovs have been a part of every step of it. They are one of the ‘first families.’”

Drawing on his coaching experience in Canada, Paul led the lone local high school hockey team, became the vice president of the Capital Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), and partnered with other community builders to provide opportunities for those who wanted to play and/or coach youth hockey.

In May 2000, Paul founded “Donskov Hockey Development,” originally known as “The ‘OV’ Hockey School” in honor of his sons’ nickname from junior hockey. Originally just a weeklong hockey camp for youth players, the company has since expanded to include coaching education and consulting, and the camp celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer. For each of those years, no matter where life has taken them, each of the Donskov boys has returned home to be part of leading the week’s activities on and off the ice.


Matt, Debbie, Paul, Misha, and Anthony Donskov at the 20th annual Donskov Hockey Camp. (Courtesy of Anthony Donskov)

“We do it in many ways to be together as a family but also to work the family business and then give back to the community in terms of the hockey piece,” Matt said. “Every year we come back for that vacation/workweek.”

Show up at the rink during camp week and you might see Misha leading on-ice drills while others provide individual coaching. Or Anthony speaking to players about what it takes to be a quality player and a quality person. Or all three leading dry land exercises. All the while Paul and Debbie, along with other family members, serve as event emcees, work the registration table, and if you’re lucky, you’ll see Debbie don her white gloves to carry the “OV Cup” out on the ice for every championship game the last day of camp.

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Understanding that commitment, it should come as no surprise that each of the sons holds a deep passion for the game of hockey, nor should it shock you that each has forged a unique path in the sport itself. Misha is currently serving as the director of hockey operations for the Vegas Golden Knights, and Anthony and Matt have turned their love of the game into a new dream realized in central Ohio, Donskov Strength and Conditioning (DSC).

Passion project

Just as his brothers did, when it came to hockey, Anthony first focused on playing. He spent four years competing at Miami of Ohio and two seasons in the (now defunct) Central Hockey League. But as his career on the ice came to an end, another realization was growing. Anthony loved watching his father coach and teach and he’d felt the impact of other coaches including former Miami strength and conditioning coach Dan Dalrymple (now with the New Orleans Saints of the NFL).

“I knew I loved coaching, I loved the process of coaching, but it really for me wasn’t until after university,” Anthony said. “I found out playing four years of college hockey that the process of preparing was something I loved. There are some people that don’t like the weight room in terms of ‘I get it, I know what it does for me, but it’s not a place that blows my hair back.’ I loved it.”

So back to school Anthony went. He got a master’s degree in exercise science, authored the book “Physical Preparation for Ice Hockey” and is currently in the final stage of his doctorate in kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario. His thesis will be on ice hockey in “terms and measures of biomechanics and return to play parameters for players who have suffered injuries.”

Anthony also got to work. Starting in the early 2000s, armed with a trunkful of kettlebells, dumbbells, and other training equipment, the middle Donskov child started with in-home training for two clients. Word of mouth slowly grew his client base that came to include the then-burgeoning AAA Blue Jackets program.

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“At the start, Anthony would come here to the Ice Haus and we’d go up (to the top of the bleachers) and he would lug in all his stuff,” Gingher said. “It’s been fun for me to see (what Anthony is doing) because our businesses started right about the same time and we’ve grown together. He’s been a great partner to us. A lot of our success goes through that gym.”

Eventually, there was enough demand to have a brick-and-mortar storefront. First came a 600-square-foot space in Worthington, Ohio. Then in 2012, DSC underwent two significant improvements. First, Matt joined Anthony to run the business operations side and provide coaching services. Second, the gym moved into a 3,000-square-foot space where it resides today and provides training for the entire continuum of athletes from beginner to intermediate to advanced.

Among current clientele, there are those who have known the Donskovs for quite some time. New Albany’s Kiefer and Kole Sherwood, who play in the Anaheim and Columbus organizations respectively, attended Donskov Hockey School camps growing up. They remember Anthony coming to their house to teach them the basics of proper training in their middle school years and then training at the gym during their years in the AAA program.

“I remember that very clearly,” Kiefer said. “He taught us some of the fundamentals of strength training. It was very simple stuff, but stuff that taught us a base of what we are now whether it was balance, or agility or speed.”

There are also veteran players who have found a fit working with Donskov.

Last summer, Mark Letestu (Winnipeg Jets), who has 560 NHL games under his belt, was living in central Ohio and looking for a training partner. Google searches for “hockey training in Columbus” didn’t turn up a lot of results, but after hearing about DSC, Google searches for “Anthony Donskov” turned up a good bit of information.

“I checked him out,” Letestu said. “For me, when I think of trainers, I think of their education level, how long have they been doing it, and who is their clientele. Do they train other pro hockey players? If they do, they are good enough for me.

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“I went in, did a mock interview to see what (Anthony’s) all about, and from there, it was pretty easy to see the level of passion and knowledge he has. It was a pretty easy decision to go train there.”

But what is training with the Donskovs like?

The ins and outs of a training plan

For Anthony, the goal is for each athlete to have his or her DNA “in their program.”

The training relationship at DSC always begins with an evaluation that ensures any orthopedic issues, strengths, weaknesses and goals are communicated and understood by both athlete and trainer. Throughout the training season, progress toward those goals will be measured at regular intervals by key performance indicators (KPIs) that the athlete can look at on individual profile cards.

“What set Anthony apart is he allows you to take ownership of your program,” Letestu said. “It’s not a dictatorship. He asks me about my goals, what I want and then he’ll design something for me.

“His level of knowledge and his personability have me put ownership in my own program and makes me a little more motivated to come to the gym than maybe other places where you’re being told you have to get out of bed rather than you’re motivated to see what you’ve created with him. Results come from that.”

Specific to professional hockey players, the first two weeks of offseason work focus on “tissue remodeling.” This is when training is about unwinding the body from overused movement patterns, healing from the demands of a full season and preparing for the work ahead. Anthony describes it as “yoga on steroids.”

From there, offseason training is organized into four-week “blocks” where each week consists of at least three days of 90-minute sessions at the gym (depending on the volume of on-ice work) that follow a microcycle of “gain — go — grow.”

“Gain” is about maximum strength work that includes slow and heavy lifting complemented by a focus on acceleration and appropriate plyometric movements. “Go” day is all about speed — moving things fast with minimal ground contact time. “Grow” day, strategically placed on Fridays to allow for a weekend of rest and recovery, focuses on endurance and work capacity.

Woven throughout the workouts are elements of competition — which breeds intent — and sometimes “camouflaged work” where fun, say a game of tag or sprinting tic-tac-toe, can change up a day at the gym.

And the process is very scientific in nature — always seeking out to find variables that need to be adjusted or considered differently. Every step along the way, each athlete’s effort is measured in quantitative and subjective KPIs, which drive the necessary specialization and individualization within the workout protocol. Players wear heart rate monitors. Gym wires measure bar velocity. Every exercise receives a grade (“+,” “-,” “=”) from the athlete in terms of how it felt for them, and throughout a session, you’ll see coaches checking in on overall comfort and exertion levels with each athlete.

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Was something too easy? Was the effort load too high? The answers drive refinement of an athlete’s next session.

“Everything is tailored to a specific purpose and cause that translates on the ice,” Kiefer said. “Anthony’s main goal is to get us ready to hit the ground running come training camp time.”

And results are tangible. Olympic silver medalist and former Buffalo Beaut Lisa Chesson is one of the players whose jersey adorns the Donskov gym walls. She credits DSC with making her stronger and getting her through an MCL injury last season.

“I had stronger muscle surrounding my knee,” Chesson said. “I believe that helped stabilize (the joint) better and helped that recovery. And then, I was able to receive physical therapy at DSC and (Anthony and Matt) helped modify my program (as I recovered). Altogether, it just helped me get back a lot quicker.”

The difference

But is what Anthony is doing revolutionary? How different are strength and conditioning coaches across the league? Those who have worked with him cite a few things that make DSC unique.

When Blue Jackets director of high performance Nelson Ayotte joined the Columbus NHL organization, one of his first stops was a visit to Anthony’s gym. He was impressed with the facility and more so the person.

“I used to think it’s what we do with the players (that makes us unique),” Ayotte said. “But the human component becomes more and more obvious and important as I get older into this trade. The human connection (between athlete and coach) is really, really important, and I think one of the greatest strengths in Anthony is to connect with his athletes.”

For Anthony, such connections are based on what he calls a cooperative approach, and it’s part of why he’s invested time studying not just physiology but also psychology, philosophy and communication. Gingher says this approach, coupled with Anthony’s knowledge of having played the game, allows him to not just select activities that relate directly to hockey and then tie every activity to a purpose but also to truly connect to the “modern-day player” who wants to know “why.” A history of having played isn’t rare in training circles, but Anthony’s application resonates with his athletes.

“It’s not good enough to say, ‘do this.’ The athlete will say ‘Well, why? How does this relate to the game?’” Anthony said. “Knowing the game allows you to communicate better with the players. It also allows you to talk specifics in what they are doing on the ice in certain capacities.

“When you can break that down to the fundamental level, and let athletes know why they are doing certain exercises will help, you start increasing that trust factor, you start opening up conduits of communication. That blossoms into a relationship that is no longer one-sided.”

“I think with both ‘Anth’ and Matt you can just consider them friends,” Chesson said. “You can talk to them about whatever you need to, and they are there for you. Whether it’s strength training, or just chatting, they are there. And I think that’s pretty important — just to have that one-on-one connection. They just want you to get better and they will do whatever it takes to help you achieve your goals no matter what they are.”

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‘One day better’

Just as the Donskov household has been the crucible of so many successes, the family remains as a foundation for each of its members today. In addition to glowingly speaking of one another — “best friend” is an adjective used frequently — the three brothers speak almost daily. It was one of those conversations that wove itself into the fabric of not just the family but also of DSC.

It was early in the gym’s formation, and in an email dialogue, Anthony asked Misha about leaving a legacy. “I try and get one day better every day!” was part of Misha response.

The saying is now the most prominent of all the items on the walls of Anthony’s gym.


Misha Donskov’s words on the wall of Donskov Strength and Conditioning. (Alison Lukan / The Athletic)

“It’s about the aggregation of marginal gains,” Anthony said. “Small things lead to big things. Life works like that, so does nature. You want to be good at anything, you have to keep coming back to it. ‘One day better’ represents that thought process regardless of activity, regardless of discipline, regardless of path that you choose, it’s up there (on the wall) for a reason because it’s important to us.”

While it took the saying a while to crystallize, the theory behind it encapsulates how the Donskovs have made the impact that they have in hockey, particularly in central Ohio. Twenty years ago, Paul and Debbie were providing opportunities for kids to learn to play the game; today, Anthony and Matt are providing the types of services that can help develop — and continue to support — elite talent within central Ohio.

“For children or young men or women or girls to get their game to the next level, people like Anthony are going to help that,” Letestu said. “As far as education level and passion for his athletes and for the sport, I think it would be very tough to find another person at the level or so much better than Anthony.”

(Top photo: Kiefer Sherwood, Anthony Donskov: Courtesy of Anthony Donskov)

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