Over $70,000 was spent in 2004 on 3 pieces of specialized explosive weight training equipment, called VERT, which allows athletes to train for strength and power, explosively, at ten times the speed they would train with free weights. Traditionally, because of the effects of inertia and gravity, players had to do their strength training slowly and methodically. This equipment, the first of its kind anywhere in Canada, is able, through computerization, to make 16,000 changes through each range of motion, which varies the resistance but most importantly, enables even 12 year olds to recruit all their muscle strength rapidly without fear of injury. In hockey, when there is a split second race to the puck, it is not necessarily the strongest legs that get a player there first, but the player who can recruit his maximum muscle strength the quickest.


Lenny Krayzelburg, who won three gold medals in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, said this about VERT equipment, "It gives me a distinct edge I never had before. It is the toughest thing I've done". Comparing VERT to the use of free weights, he said, "You just never are able to start and stop (free) weights quickly enough to really work the fast twitch muscles so necessary in explosive strength sports. My improvements since the Olympics have been far beyond what I expected, and I'm using VERT to help me stay as far in front as I can."

Each player in the Pursuit program uses this explosive weight training equipment on a weekly basis.