Kilpatrick takes Ultimate Fighting to ice

As luck would have it, less than a year later the Ohio State women's hockey player found herself using the same training techniques used by Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters to gain an extra edge on her competition.

"Normally, (my brother Jimmy and I) were just doing hockey training specific to the sport," Jenna said. "We decided to do something different."

Jenna, a freshman forward from New Prague, Minn., and Jimmy, a senior forward at Colorado College, said they began working with personal trainer Mike Vaught at Gold's Gym in Shakopee, Minn., and soon learned that he is an ultimate fighter. Last summer, Vaught created an offseason training program for the Kilpatricks with roots in Ultimate Fighting that translates well to the game of hockey.

"The way that they fight is similar to the way hockey players play," Jenna said. "They're on for 30 seconds or a minute and then they get a rest period. It's kind of similar to a shift in hockey."

Jenna said the workouts consisted of exercises with timed intervals rather than ones based on repetitions.

After the exercises, they were given the chance to throw some punches with Vaught. Jenna said she often had a little sibling motivation for this drill.

"At the end, he would let us box. It wasn't in a ring, but we would put on the pads and gloves and do little combinations," Jenna said. "There were a few times when my brother was giving me a hard time, so I would take it out on the boxing and I almost hit (Vaught) in the face."

Ultimate Fighting, a form of mixed martial arts that combines boxing, karate, Jiu-Jitsu and other forms of fighting, has increased in popularity in recent years for its raw style and prominent fighters. Jenna, who is currently in pre-business, has learned first-hand it is their workouts that make ultimate fighters some of the best-trained and conditioned athletes in the world.

"There were days when you just wanted to kill him," Jenna said of Vaught's workouts. "Adam Hauser, who was a goalie with the (University of Minnesota) and is now playing in Europe, would train with Mike too. He would always go before us, so we could always tell what kind of day it was going to be depending on how dead Adam looked."

Jimmy recently eclipsed the 100 career-points mark for fourth-ranked Colorado College. Despite the grueling nature of their training, both Jenna and Jimmy said they felt stronger coming into their respective hockey seasons.

"(The boxing) was one of the most tiring things I've ever done, because it's a full-body workout," Jimmy said. "(Mike's) a hard worker and his work ethic was probably the biggest thing we got out of it."

As Vaught tries to make a name for himself in the ring, Jenna is attempting to do the same on the ice at OSU.

A heralded recruit coming out of high school, Jenna played on the varsity team for six years, led her team to three Minnesota state high school tournament appearances and finished with 483 points, the second-highest total in Minnesota history.

Although Jenna is remembered in her home state for her goal scoring and passing abilities, her toughness has always been a part of her game.

When asked if she had ever nearly fought in a game, she said, "more than I would like to admit in my high school career. I (have never been) thrown out for fighting, but I have gotten penalties for punching in front of the net."

In 2007-08 with the Buckeyes, Jenna played in all 32 games and tallied seven points. She might not be putting up the numbers she would like, but the team has been impressed with her competitive drive, something she and her brother developed at a much younger age.

"She's always intense," said Rachel Davis, a sophomore defenseman. "She has the constant desire to play, and it is really something other people can learn from."

Every team must fight through adversity from time to time. If the Buckeyes ever find themselves in that position during the next few years, it just might be Jenna who shows them how to roll with the punches.

Frank Blechschmidt can be reached at blechschmidt.3@osu.edu.