Tuesday, 07. October 2025 |
Interview with Alexander Oblinger from the Rookie Bulls München
And Oblinger has plenty of that! With a total of 769 games in Germany's top league (most recently for his home club, the Augsburger Panther) and a total of two championship titles in 16 professional years with the Eisbären Berlin and ERC Ingolstadt, the latter together with our captain Patrick Hager, the Fuggerstadt native can look back on a long and successful career.
He owes this in part to his fitness, which became increasingly important to him at a certain point in his career. “My father-in-law showed me how to train properly at some point. This sparked a passion in me, and I noticed how I improved on the ice and in one-on-one battles,” he says. He also invested a lot of time in healthy eating and mental training.
“Everything is closely connected. For example, you recover better if you eat right,” explains the former forward. And this is particularly important when you increase the volume of your training. “But I had to learn all this myself first,” says Oblinger.
Another example: “My injuries led me to mobility and range of motion training.” Exercises from both training methods are now part of the fundamentals of his work.
“I wanted to pass on my love of ice hockey and my experience”
This cemented his desire to pass on the knowledge he had acquired after his active career to the next generation – as an athletic trainer. “I always wanted to share my love of ice hockey and my experience with young people,” he emphasizes. “This way, they can learn early on to work correctly and to a high standard in order to reach their potential more quickly.”
DOSB athletic trainer training in Cologne
In order to underpin his own findings scientifically and methodologically, Oblinger is currently completing the DOSB athletic trainer training course at the Trainerakademie Köln, which will last until the end of this year. He describes: “It is structured in different modules that cover everything from prevention, training, annual planning, and ‘return to play’ protocols for players who have been injured.”
But the training is ultimately only the beginning. “As a coach, I want to continue learning and improving so that I can make the girls and boys I train even better,” says the former pro.
Training structure using the example of a pyramid
Oblinger has been responsible for the Rookie Bulls' U13 age groups for several weeks now, but mainly for the U17 and U20 teams. “I want to work with the players to make them faster, stronger, and more resilient on the ice than others. But that takes time to build up,” says the Augsburg native. He explains the structure using the example of a pyramid. “The better the foundation and the broader the base, the higher you can climb.”
What does he mean by that? Oblinger explains: “In the U13s, you learn movement patterns and how to train and improve progressively; in the U17s, you want to compete (measure yourself against others); and in the U20s, you want to win. That's how you start to build up your training.”
Goal: Munich talents from the Rookie Bulls to the DEL
The entire Munich youth development concept in the area of athletics is designed to be consistent from the first day to the last. “We want to build performance and the requirements profile of a DEL player in a sustainable way. Because our goal for the future is for young players to make their way from the Rookie Bulls to the DEL,” Oblinger explains. He wants to help make that happen.
Agility, stability, strength, and endurance
To this end, the athletic coach is on site from Monday to Friday from noon onwards to work with the different age groups. “When the boys come home from school, I get started. The facilities here at SAP Garden are simply incredible,” he enthuses. “We spend most of our time in the weight room, but we can also use the Olympic Park. It depends on where the focus lies. Most of the time, however, we spend one to one and a half hours in the gym, and longer in the summer, of course.” Because that's when hockey players are made, as they say.
Oblinger outlines a typical training session for the U17 and U20 teams during the season as follows: "We start with a warm-up, which includes mobility and stability exercises. This is followed by strength training. During the competition phase, we always include speed training as well. On Fridays, there is also an activation session, and on Tuesdays, depending on the number of players, we have an endurance day." Overall, both age groups train four days a week, with Oblinger regularly incorporating jumps and sprints into his training.
Incidentally, when a player returns from injury, the former DEL star trains with them on specific movements on the ice before bringing them back into team training.
Discipline and consistency as the key to success
Oblinger takes a sustainable approach to his work. “Many people underestimate what you can achieve by training over a long period of time. But if you are disciplined in every training session and work consistently, for example in terms of range of motion, then you can really improve. And that then has an effect on your game on the ice; you become stronger in all your movements,” he emphasizes.
Oblinger also knows that this is not always easy and that not every day is the same. “You don't feel like training every day, that's just the truth. But that's exactly the point. It's important and you improve.” And the two-time German champion knows exactly what he's talking about!
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