In episode 244 of the Glass and Out Podcast, Skating Coach and Global Skills Showcase presenter Jill Plandowski shares common skating misconceptions, what the prime age for improving a player’s skating is, and why proper mechanics allow players to play with freedom of thought.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Best skaters to watch/what makes them special
4:00 How off-ice training has evolved skating
6:30 The prime age to develop skating
8:10 Speed lives in the ankle
11:00 Evaluating skating
15:00 Tuning up a player’s skating
17:40 Skating misconceptions
24:40 Development cycle and using video
26:40 Journey to coaching
30:40 Learning from teaching kids in school
34:50 Progression based teaching
38:10 All players need to skate backwards
42:20 A defencemen’s play depends on backwards
45:10 Learning from coaching elite players
49:45 Collaborating with teams/coaches
54:30 Process for evaluating skills
58:00 Developing relationships with players
1:04:00 Halifax in the off-season
1:06:30 Global Skills Showcase presentation
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Jill who would you pay money to watch skate o probably McDavid what makes in your expert opinion what makes McDavid such an exceptional skater oh he’s so efficient I love the way he crosses his feet um he’s got a textbook stride I love the way he us his arms and his
Legs off his posture but uh the way he crosses his feet are so efficient and so fast it’s fun to watch I actually got in to watch um some of the Red Bull practices in August and they were awesome so I got to see Mar McDavid
Crosby McKinnon all in one ice sheet and it was fun you couldn’t um you had to surrender your phone but uh it’s all up here it was fun I enjoy practices more than even games I know that sounds horny but um like when my husband like when he
Was with Tampa they had such a good team we’d go for January meetings and all the wise would like to go to the the uh outlet mall and I’d be like Steve can I go to practice so I’d sit and watch practice so um I just love like you only
See on TV just see the highlights you you see the goals but I love seeing the footwork that led up to the goal so that’s what I like to watch if if if if we took uh if we turn Conor McDavid into a pie chart or frankly any of those
Players mckin and marar who you just referenced and and part of the pie chart was things that can be taught or acquired and then the other part is just pure DNA SL Talent how much of what those players are doing right can be transferred to most players and how much of that is
Just in your opinion like can you identify the parts say that that’s just god-given so I think when you look at skating you have to break it down into you’ve got your technical that’s what I can teach you um you’ve got your office which is what um your trainer can help
You with and there’s different offs sprs you know Springs of the trainer and um then there’s your genetics you get to blame your parents so there’s a combination of all of that stuff that breaks makes up your skating I think there just freaks of nature in almost all three of those
Categories but um that’s the best way to describe it because theyve um they’ve got the posture and how things move off their posture down pat um they’ve got The nce Shining like their their hips their knee length is all is long and that’s one of the things you look for in
A good skaters often have that long um thigh bone um they’re really low they get a POS angle and they’re just obsessed in the gym all of those guys like I just hear stories of like McKinnon and Crosby in the summer and they work so hard so they’ve and obviously they’ve got the
Genetic gift too so I think they’re just freaks in all those areas or off the charts I should say in all those areas yeah well you know uh this past weekend it was hockey Day in Canada and um on Elliot Freeman and Jeff Merck’s 32 thoughts podcast they were out in
Victoria and they interviewed James Patrick who’s who’s now the coach of the Victoria Royals in the Western League longtime NHL and I can’t recall what the exact question was but you know I think they were saying like the skill level of players to that he’s coaching versus
When he played he made the comment he’s like man he’s like you know shut it out the skating aspect and said man like you know now all these kids can skate they’re so talented um they’re they’re so skilled I hadn’t really considered that like when you talk talk about the office and
What’s happening in the gym like obviously players were you know they were squatting in the 90s but there seems to be like what might be that evolution of what’s Happening off the ice between 30 years ago and today that’s influencing just obviously the skating ability but I guess the overall
Speed of the game let’s just um understanding the science behind what makes you skate better um it’s just education it’s just evolving um I met with a friend who’s a she’s a doctor and she’s a movement mechanics um phenomenal at movement and uh for 3 hours on Friday and we talked
About maybe having a program for like u5s if if what I’m doing and queuing them and it’s not they’re not still not able to make the movement and I’ve demoed it and I’ve tried in several ways sometimes there’s something um blocking that movement from happening so we’re
Going to develop a just a basic overall movement pattern program just to try to um Target those kigs young before they’re too far along in the process and you know you can wreck we hear these kids wrecking their hips at 17 18 because they’ve they’ve stuck their butt up when they
Skate and they’re not using their glutes so they’re hurting their hips so just I think if they could move use those move learn those movement patterns just a little bit younger if they have any issues then we could probably save an injury from happening but um so yes there’s technology and
Training that goes into skating and um then there’s the equipment changes equipment’s getting lighter but in the end of the day like that I think it can evolve quite a bit more but like you can only move humanly so fast but I think there’s a big difference between well there is a difference
Between skating fast and playing fast yes and if you ask a coach they want you to play fast and I think what proper skating mechanics allow your brain to calm down it gives you freedom of thought so you’re no longer like ooh in your head processing ah can’t turn that
Way can’t TCH that way it just calms everything down and allows the brain to take over because you your brain is so important and hockey um so I think proper mechanics allow you to skate fast but yes it also allows you to play fast by giving you freedom of
Thought I love that yes you mentioned you know the movement patterns that we might want to instill in in young players and you also touch on um you know when players are perhaps too far along in their development for some of these mechanical tweaks to to take hold
Um when is that sort of Arc where maybe again through your lens you look at and say hey like if if these call them fundamentals aren’t in place by this point it’s going to be really tough to maybe build on those well what I was talking about early is more injury
Prevention sure you know movement patterns that can hurt your your hips and your um unlocking the ankles like I was um kind of more talking about that I think if a player’s really dialed in you can make changes at any age but I in the winter when all the older guys are off
Playing Junior and pro I try to hit as many U1 kids as I possibly can because I find they’re old enough to be ready for me sometimes you NES are a little young they look at me and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time or money or my
Energy um but you 11 for me is the age I can just add and add and add and uh give them better movement patterns and set them up because there’s so much that they don’t get in their minor hocke minor hockey practices coaches don’t feel comfortable doing the stuff I’m
Doing most coaches I I want to dive into that um first and you I wouldn’t be able to ask this question of too many people but I I can of you so um the the only sports team that I have like an emotional connection to is the University of Alabama football and
That’s promly because Nick s was the coach and I you know my own little Sports nerd mind of become a huge fan of him and he just retired recently but there’s this great story that some of his assistant coaches have shared and that’s that in in NCAA football they have um these development
Camps so players will come in for a couple of days it’s you know I guess no different than like a hockey school but for a lot of these kids it’s um it’s their opportunity in advance them taking a visit to get in front of the coaches
For the coaches to meet and see them and they talked about how Nick sabid could go around in the warmup and he would just watch the player’s ankles particularly the flexion and they would say like he could pick out a future NFL player in two minutes just based on watching them in
Warmup watching their posture and specifically their ankle flexion of who was going to have the speed and power to play at that at that level I’ve heard you reference that you know speed lives in the ankle and I just be curious can you does that analogy working hockey to
Point well I could pick up if they’re a good skater but I don’t know their brain by just watching practice but it’s a tell it’s a tell I definitely do the eye test like some people like I will put all video kids and just to confirm what
I’m seeing and to show them but for me especially with my skating background we’re so I’m such a visual coach um I would do the eye test and I would look at their posture um how their arms and legs legs P move off the posture like their stride angle are their arms
Working the mechanics working um I’d also look at how they’re balanced on the blade and and see where that lies I can tell a lot from that um and I’d also look at how well they cross their feet um and how well they trust their outside edges because that can determine your
Evasive skating your crossovers your punching you’re sliding all that sort of stuff so but good mechanics does equal speed and um often really good skaters just make it look so easy that they’re actually not moving very fast so I don’t get too into timing them and and whatnot
Early on I would just do the eye test and watch how their mechanics are moving and and break it apart that’s the fun part I actually love doing stride stuff so it’s a it’s like a puzzle it’s like a puzzle yeah I bet well I guess that
Being said like if I signed up um for you to be my skating coach and you’d never seen me play or step on the ice before in the first five minutes of us being on the ice together what would you get me to do to sort of get a good eye
Test or evaluation I’d um I’d warm you up and then I’d just watch you skate fast on natural without me telling you anything oh I’m I’m getting I’m getting like I don’t even want to think about that God without me telling you anything let’s agree that you’re never going to
Evaluate my skating ever it’s funny in my iPad under I have a a section called projects some of these projects I would eat up a lot of band within your project when we um we have the boys you know in the summer we’ll have a look just for
Fun I’m like name this project and they can’t even recognize some of them but um and I would just video you um skating fast and then we’d go through um your balance We Get Your Balanced you’re so gliding balance gliding striding and I would just break it down from the feet
Up and um video again and we’ put it side by side so you could see the changes so you’d believe me and uh usually it can make some good changes the hard part is knowing they’re going to go off like little kids will go off and do 10
Hours um before they see you again like in a week some of them will skate you know seven eight nine hours so it’s I’m always trying to come up with ways to give kids cues so that they can teach themselves when they’re not with me and
I’m always like guys you have to be your own coach so my teacher the fiz head teacher and me um comes out and I’m always trying to give them keywords things that stick visuals so when they’re not with me they can remember what did she say again yeah so I think that’s really
Important is it fair to say that you could maybe make and I’m sure in all aspects of of playing hockey and all the skills required but specifically with skating you know just based on what you just said like is it kind of like golfing in the sense that you still got
To get on the Range like just because you learned something once doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have to maybe not relearn it but you’re gonna have to revisit it and I because I think so often I just think of parents like you go you take your power skating uh one
Week of power skate in the summer you’re like oh no that’s done for the year didn’t I check my skating box and but I’ve kind kind of made of Mostly because I have to but I’m here on Halifax and i’ I’ve you know a lot of
People go off and do a camp every weekend and they’re all over the world and good on them they’re making lots of money doing that I’ve made a conscious effort to or not effort but just a conscious decision not to do that um that just wouldn’t work with my family and I
Wouldn’t be able to see them play my own kids play but I get so much joy out of knowing I can start a kid in U1 and see them weekly and now they’re off playing Junior and pro and I know I’ve had them since they were young I just find that
You develop better connections and all that other stuff and I can watch them on the weekends and they get so happy when I show up to their game and their parents send me videos when they see them doing something as opposed to doing a oneof and maybe seeing them the next
Year like I mean I do travel to work with some teams but I do watch their games and stay in touch with them but um I guess for me I just couldn’t do that um with my husband’s scouting job so somebody needs to be at home but I’m on
Every morning I was on every morning at 7 or 6:30 I was on at noon today go back on after we get off here and then I’ll do ones in the evening but they’re all local kids so I run into them at the grocery store I can um see them driving
In their car so I don’t know it’s just that’s just a choice I’ve made that’s uh you know that’s noted and and I think that that’s um in that same vein and I was going to ask but we had um Bruce Cassidy on the show earlier in
The year and Bruce is a big golfer made this analogy and he talked about with an NHL season now because they’re so limited on practice and there’s you know the science would suggest that there’s a real benefit to rest but he he kind of shared that one of the things that
They’ve adapted to in Vegas and I don’t sense that this is unique to them was that instead of putting the emphasis on hey if we if we practice it has to be all the players on the doing team stuff it’s recognizing that you know getting it keeping a feel for the puck that
Doesn’t require like five on five drills that might just be a player and same thing with skating that you know maybe there’s an emphasis and I think some teams are going to that now it’s like the skating coach isn’t somebody that comes in during training camp or development Camp it’s somebody that’s
There on an ongoing basis just to keep and and I wonder how much of this relationship is again not to go back to golf but we can if anybody that golfs knows when it just doesn’t feel right and it just helps that it’s probably it’s not a you know 180 change it’s a
Couple of degrees and I would think that skating is probably very similar in that it’s just the boys all call it I need my tuneup there you go yeah exactly exactly tuneup especially if they’re gonna go on with Nan Sid and the crew the competitive crew here in Halifax
Sometimes they’re like can I go on with you the day before yeah like sure come on over and we’ll find ice and uh the ones from away that I that I go on with but um because that’s intimidating even for them they just want to make sure
They’re on their sure top of their game um yeah there’s a whole curriculum that I would do just balance Glide stride just a tuneup Edge work just all the basic stuff and and if you you have to do it all the time it’s like anything like you can’t change mechanics um in
One day you’ve got to work on it all the time so these groups I have once a week I’ll spend heavy stride in the beginning but then we’ll just do like five 10 minutes just for repetition and I’ll do different um stride skills like different ones that give you similar results just to
Switch it up a little bit there’s like 10 things I can do to work on stride or it’s endless actually but um I’ll make sure I keep that as a focus for a part of every lesson yeah it is it’s just like the golf you have to have those
Basics they don’t change and the the interesting thing is when the young kids see me in the summer they happen to stroll in the rink and I might be on with like an AHL player and player they’re like we do that I’m like I know
Yeah I do the same thing with them that I do with you they love that it’s so cute well so you you talk about what things haven’t changed so I would again this is just you know my own experience with coaching so I can recall when I was coaching Junior Hockey
You you’d spend a lot of your Summers you know trying to make extra money you go work at hockey schools and you get connected with other coaches but I can recall you know the way that I was t taught to teach stride and I think that we could probably find examples of this
For different you know goal tending for sure I’m sure for playing defense just things that were taught one way and nobody probably ever stopped to ask like why do we do it that way it might make make there’s Common Sense would indicate There’s A Better Way case in point when
You’re taught to stride that you move your arms forwards and backwards and you like rotate your thumbs up and then I can recall we had um uh Dr braco out of Calgary who’s a you know a skating my my son plays the braco arena okay yeah exactly Mike brao Dr
Mike braco and Calgary so his whole thing was he did he published this thing on our site and it was like no like you should skate with you know your your your body’s momentum going uh East West vers versus forwards and back and I can remember we posted this and it was like
There were some people in the community the skating community that were really offended by the suggestion but he backed up with science he’s like literally he’s like watch McDavid watch mckinn and he kind of broke it down I remember watching that I’m like huh this just makes all kinds of sense because this
Does feel more natural so is that yeah well when you walk your toes face front but when you skate they don’t they they’re out to the side yes right and so what I like I said I like to give kids simple cues from behind it looks like
Your leg is making a triangle so it’s that 45 degrees so I’m like so I talk to the little young kids all about triangles because that gives the visual of back now you have to open the hip to use the whole side of the blade to push
But it’s more of a triangle so your toes out to the sides so your arms have to mirror it so it’s kind of I also say triangles it’s kind of more lined up here but you can’t see it kind of makes more of this
Motion and it has to match so I just try to give those keys and and I like look and I’ll I’ll show them a picture picture in it you can see that nice triangle of the arms and you can see the nice triangle but it is more side to
Side um to allow that weight to get over that leg because you more you can’t have this arm mode here it’s got to come through to load up that leg well it’s it’s it’s just so funny to me that you know when you say that it makes all kinds of sense
But again I feel like that probably that way of teaching kind of hung out there for a real like it passed its expiry date but because nobody asked why so be C like is there any anything else that changes has changed well I would say maybe any advice you were offer to
Coaches to say hey here’s some maybe like misconceptions or areas that you’ve observed that is just again probably not anybody trying to intentionally do wrong they’re just like yeah I hear a lot of coaches one thing that’s changed that we’ve we’ve realized um you’d hear coaches for years bend your knees bend
Your knees I can bend my knees and not being a very good skating stance but it’s we’ve learned more about the posture and how actually you get into your ankles so that positive Shin angle which means you have to like stick your butt back what would some of the cues be
For that like so when you talk about like positive posture without without drawing it out start moving start I’ve worried we’re going to rearrange the furniture in your office here um well you have to have that nice forward tilt to get your weight over the balls of your feet so so
Knee past the toe or or behind the toe no just line up but you can get nice and low you don’t want to go over because then you’ll start hinging and go the opposite direction but you can get and low positive Shin angles knee over the
Toe so for years coach would just say bend your knees bend your knees I’m like H it’s not bend your ankles and get into your skating posture so that would be one um another thing that I find has really changed in the last 10 years two
Is the use of outside edge for um things like punching um just and slide stopping like that’s kind of new in the last 10 years learning how to punch SL slide stopping I would say that I’m with you there what is slide slide stopping so you’re sliding on one foot and opening
It up and pushing off the same foot you’ve slide on instead of crossing over like you know how defensemen we don’t want them to cross their feet yes so sliding I’ve got lots of it on my Twitter feet Yes but sliding and pushing out without Crossing I sliding slide stopping that’s
Kind of a new one so we’ve learned how it’s important or beneficial not to cross your feet so learning how to slide and stay open and push as opposed to crossing over and getting stuck there once you cross everyone in the rink knows what you’re going to do
You’re stuck there for a moment in time but if you can slide and have your foot come right underneath your body and push off um we’ve learned that’s how that’s beneficial I think there’s been a lot of development and evasive moves too um which is kind of my toolbox as a former
Competitive skater um a lot of coaches will look at it and they like might even be able to do it but they don’t know what the footwork is to make it happen and I see them doing skills with it but they haven’t broken it down to the footwork and so it’s just
Chance if the kid can do it whereas I um I pride myself on just working on I’m not proud of myself but I I feel like I work on the technical footwork that allows that skill to happen when you go off to a skill coach so like I don’t
Even love the word yeah I don’t even love the word power skating um I’m more like I feel like I’m more of a technical skating coach um and I think that’s another way things have evolved too is just um using technical skating into evasive moves like I watched um
Last year there was um I’ll do inside sea steps and outside seeps and I we were crossing and I didn’t outside seep and they’re like will I do this in a game I’m like I’ll show you so Tage Thompson last year did a had a goal where he outside SE stepped
And then did a move and had a beautiful goal he obviously had learned the footwork that’s just not going to happen if you’ve never done that before I just can’t see that ever happening but that’s an example of using your footwork in a tight situation to um make something
Happen well I I have a question before we get to that can we acknowledge that the term power skating was probably born of whoever names like Gatorade flavors like berry blast or something somebody just threw like I don’t know doesn’t make a lot of sense maybe but I let’s go
I like technical skating coach or I think skating coach is probably yeah just fine but in your role like you know use the example of Tage Thompson and great example because a young player or prospect that had a bit of a longer Runway to reach sort of stardom and I I
Would again without knowing him personally I’m going to bet that he probably spent a lot of time uh working on the technical aspects of his game not just skating but in all aspects but I think we know that you know all that starts with skating what’s your sort
Of your development cycle like are you watching video of players and then breaking it down and then trying to evolve from there or or some of the stuff are you like you kind of maybe see this coming or you’re trying to adapt certain things that you would have
Taught into how the game a little a little bit of I’ll watch a game and it drives my kids crazy because they’re like can you not turn that off because I’m like you rewind a lot when you’re watching a again no but I’ll like all
Like oh if he had just done this move this would have happened or if he could have just so you’re trying to watch it and see how they could have been a little bit more efficient um and sometimes it’s just like oh if you just
Had done um a punch delay instead of a like just little tiny things or a weight shift here or weight shift there what could have happened or I I am not admiring what they are doing and I just take note of it and I have a bank
Of like hundreds of things for every footwork type because I just find the kids they’re so visual like their brains actually need to see it and if I can show them how they use it in a game it just gives you the more Buy in factor
And in fact like there’s so much to teach I’d rather stick with things that I know are going to happen in a game like there’s lots of things I can do for and I’m not opposed to any of those sorts of things or Edge development but
It’s there’s just so little time and so much to teach um I try to focus on the stuff that I know that’s translatable for sure you mentioned um fed teacher so maybe a good segue take us back to your your your own um yeah and then obviously going to
School and then um how you got here um where’d you grow up in the Anapolis Valley about an hour outside of Halifax and I’m a triple gold level competitive skater of my junior competitive test and I was kind of to the point do I move away like figure skating is just so
Narrow and uh I also like school so I chose going to school and got into coaching but um figure skating they kind of hook you young like I probably started coaching at 12 because you have is that part of the curricul CU like my my son does cancade for example and all
The young coaches I was one of those young coaches but I think at a young age I loved learning figuring out how to adapt because to me it was competitive to make sure that my kids in my little group even though I was 12 i’ would come
Up with any way that I could adapt to make sure they could do the skill we just bark it I’m like do not embarrass me and lose this race yeah so I would you know if you’re teaching just a just a simple Le skill um yeah I just loved
Adapting and and motivating these little kids I still remember how excited I’d get coaching on Wednesday so four o’clock before my own I session so they hook you really young and then I was in a small town Brothers dad coach hockey so a lot of the dads would ask me to
Come out as a teenager and I’m sure my brothers were just mortified but I’d go out and I would just do some simple stuff that um you know Crossovers and just a little bit of stride little bit of edge work you know probably nothing too much back then but then I got more
And more into it when I I ended up um going to aadia and becoming a doing my fette degree and becoming a fette teacher and I was asked to do more I did my hockey lab with Tommy Coolin and I did a power skating lb with his wife who
Was my choreographer so you know and I played on a competitive Ball Hockey League I I was kind of more of a gritty figure skater I probably would have been a hockey player had I been 10 years younger because it really wasn’t a thing when I was growing
Up and so then when I I coached all through University and then when I was teaching fizet I was coaching but I still did lots of power skating too and then um late 90s I met my husband who through a friend who played hockey at aadia and um he had been coaching with
The Thunderbirds and then started with was starting with the sabes so we got married in 2000 and I had kids right away three and three years and then my my um and I was coaching figure skating like heavy and still some power skating all through that actually all the kids were born in
Silver in red dear Alberta we moved out as soon as we got married we went to Alberta and I coached a lot there just thinking you know with his swing if we’d see each other more because he was on the road so much and uh so I gave up the fizzed
Teaching after six seven years and then um just uh still was in the coaching but when my oldest was four well actually when he was three we moved back to Nova Scotia we thought that might be a better spot um he started Timbits at 4 and so all the dads
Were guys I grew up with and they’re all looking at me like you’re going to coach them right I’m like guys guys so I had switch my H to my hockey skates full-time and I ran the Timbit program because my kids are two years even though they’re only three years apart so
I’ve spent six years at every level IP novice Adam with the old names and I swear it was the best um best teaching I could have ever had do you look at where you’re at today in your career I’m curious do you if you remove that experience of working with kids that age
And perhaps sort of early on in your career how much has that impacted what you do today or maybe your ability to just be a better teacher oh it’s everything because you learn even my husband said he became a better scat once he had kids because he has a better
Appreciation of how it t how long it takes to chire and what is what is changeable and what is not and like how to teach things he just says he’s way better scouted than he ever was before kids once you have your own and you just
See how what the process of you know that’s going to knowing that’s going to come or that can be changed or um but it was funny like we would I’m like okay so I’ve got these 50 kids and uh I’m like well let’s do I’ll
Warm them up and then I’ll do stations I remember writing out these little cards for the dads in doubt just read the card because they thought backward skating oh you just skate backwards I’m like no no no no no there’s like several steps before you can do it so just read
The card I remember meeting with them and the teacher you have these cards I could you could you replicate these cards I’d love to see what this steps would be oh and that’s and I’m living this right now I’m living this right now and I I think about this all the after
Every practice thing if I had have gone through this experience I would have been such a better coach in Junior and that was my my can skate background and my C power skate background learning the progressions like a lot of people will say oh we’re going to skatee backwards
You’re going to make C’s and I’m like no you’re not if you make a c your heel faces that way you’re not going that way we’re going to make a question that’s what I mean like there’s so much stuff that like I just learn and never
Question and now I look at and I watch the kids do it and I’m like I and I don’t I don’t have all the answers I just I get stuck in these points where I’m like all of a sudden I watch I’m like no this isn’t the way to not only
Teach it but articulate it I know I’ve learned through coaching and being on the ice with a lot of the dads who didn’t have the same background I’m like there’s such a faster way to get the end result than what some of these coaches are teaching kids they’ll wiggle their
Bum for the year and I’ll tell them like just lean back and start using Rhythm side to side and you start skating backwards so if you just start adding and like when you skate forward you push this way when you skate backwards you actually push this way so it’s a
Question mark so your heels face the direction that you’re gliding because if not you get this wobble because you’re making these seas and not going anywhere so that’s just an example of you know using my skating background my teaching background and background in biomechanics and um just years of being
In the trenches has made me a better Coach then after it was so hard with three kids in um competitive hockey in a small town so 11 years ago we moved into Halifax yes and my kids went to a little hockey Academy it’s no longer in existence but it was called Mariton
Hockey Academy and Nathan McKinnon’s dad is one of the founding no dads so Nathan would always come back every spring and hang out with the boys and go for a skate with them it’s quite cute how cool is that yeah so before he went to Shad
He went to this hockey Academy so I got to my kids went there for three years and um worked with awesome coaches Danny McKinnon with the pen Elite and John Greenwood’s now with St Mary’s and myself and my husband would jump on and another coach named Sarah white and so
We just would work and they just gave me full Reign like okay you get them like 25 minutes still and then we would do stations and a lot of those guys have gone on they’re the AHL Junior like really really good players and um for three years I got those kids three times
A week and I had two groups so it was an awesome um opportunity to develop a curriculum as well you know you you talk about for example um Pro progressions is that when you look at just the way that you do it is is that a
Case of you kind of nail one and you’re like hey this is it that’s fully baked or is that constantly or throughout your career has that constantly been maybe a work in progress of how if you know for example if we were to go back to that
Time when you were teaching at the Academy is it does what you do today just mirror that exactly or have there been some evolutions and how you’ve taught Big Time Evolutions I’ve taken the best from that but I’m just always learning I’m always talking like how do
You evaluate what what is like this is stays in the toolbox and this maybe gets thrown out and we’re bringing something else in I’ve got some pretty good critics at home yeah to run stuff we’re gonna talk about what like what dinner time is like at the pl house household
Later yeah you know if I’m like like what that’s not gonna happen that not they’re uh I would be quickly told if something they didn’t think something was usable um I think I just I feel like I’ve got a good sense of the game but that’s always been
Evolving as my kids have gone through at every level and um you know just I’m always learning so of course I’m always changing and adding things like this morning I had a little group of u1s and we were doing footwork for for surfing so we were doing the power pushes and we
Were angling so I had them Surfing by the end of the hour we started with some backward skating in our Glide platform backwards and backward edges but we did some um surfing patterns well I know their U1 coaches aren’t teaching them that angling and how to surf as
Defenseman but I do it for everyone because my own son um didn’t become a defenseman till um like second year you5 so I don’t want to I don’t want to pay yeah like just a couple years before his Q draft year he became a defenseman
So I don’t want to pay kids like I want them to be able to play every position and and I know like I think I read a St that once that if you had a 30 second shift about 5 seconds is going to be in transition so you’re going to be using
Your backward skating so I just I’m a big believer in that and um I like to make sure they’re complete skaters so that like I said it gives you freedom of thought um you know I try to anything new like um just different defensive footwork
I’ll try to teach them even at a young age because I know they’re not learning Kickbacks in their minor hockey practice but I’ll teach them how to you know pivot without crossing their feed and things like that as well so I’m always changing and always trying to add more to my curriculum I
Guess so you that’s a great can you repeat the stat that you just I think it was in a 30 second shift 5 Seconds transition think about every transition from front to back or a lot of guys will open up skating backwards to receive a puck they’re going to skate backwards
Almost 5 Seconds of a of a shift so you better feel comfortable like think of even on a power play like usually there’s only one D at the high level right so somebody else got to feel comfortable in that position and get going well I I I’d be love to get your
Take on this so I have um now a lot of what I’m about to say I can’t recall where I I first heard the information so this is uh this is not this is not science but a number of years ago I remember hearing a statistic that said
That in an average 60-second shift in the NHL a player will change direction between 25 and 30 times that made sense to me I’m like okay I could see where that’s factual and I can recall um probably this would have been when I was sort of
Just um you know Circa 2010ish and you were just seeing the shift in how teams played especially defensively and I remember somebody saying that Scott they somebody I knew that knew Scotty Bowman had said you know we should never see forwards skating backwards he’s like I don’t think that’s
A good and I’m like and at the time I was like huh that’s Scotty Bowman and I I have no clue if he ever said that but I remember hearing it at the time and I was like huh like I wonder if that’s if that’s something worth
Investing in because it sure seems like more and more forwards are having to skatee backwards I watch the game now hockey is starting to resemble more like I would say basketball’s going where it’s like everybody’s got to be able to shoot the three everybody’s got to be
Able to defend in the post like it just seems like it’s it’s a group of five and you better have the ability to do everything well if you’re GNA turn 20 times you’re changing direction so yeah you better be able to figure out feel comfortable on one foot backwards for a
A you know a moment to make that transition um transitions are huge and that’s what changes the game right like the transition is who can get up well I’m so curious and I what what sort of just got me down this Rabbit Hole was when you mentioned that your your your
Son and I and I believe it’s Oscar Oscar yeah plays in the queue I I am more more and more convinced and gosh this will be hard to do because of course winning at U1 is should should Trump development but I’m like if we were really doing it right
Kids in the same way that we rotate a kid in into goal kid like no kid should be a defenseman or a forward or a Winger or anything else at U1 like that decision should come much later and we should just put kids in a position where
It’s like gosh you are forced to learn all these I sure he blends to a whole host of other things too oh I agree um even my youngest son Jack’s peee coach was Tom Lee he’s an awesome coach his son cam Lee plays in the KHL right now and
Uh played college and uh so my son Jack was one of the top scorers in PB triple when they’re little back in the day and uh I think he played at least seven games as D that year and it might have cost us he was one of our top scorers on
The team might have cost us a game but I just thank him so much for doing that to moving moving these kids around and not worrying about if they won or loss because of you know you’ve got your couple goal scorers per team back then and um you know everyone score but
Um I’m thankful because it helped him learn the whole game and I just wish more coaches would do that instead of wins loss just let them learn the game I agree and and yeah and I know one of my sons I think I watched almost every practice I don’t think he skated
Backwards one practice in one of the years unless it was a like a you know two onone or something they and he was a Ford at the time and I’m like oh my gosh these kids don’t even they’ve never skated backwards the year didn’t do anything yeah yeah like just no backward
Edges no backward skating no backward crossovers like I don’t know you can’t TR transition fast if you don’t skate backwards you’ve got to feel comfortable skating backwards man so I can recall so as as a especially as a young coach um the assistant coach is always put in charge of the defense I
Didn’t know anything about had to learn skating backwards is a big part of that and I can recall like again just having this Eureka moment where I’d be looking at our practice plans and I’d be like it just hit me and I’m like oh my God like
We you know we’re going to go in when we break down the tape of a game I’m gonna spend most of my time harping on our defenseman and complaining about their Gap and how they’re not able to keep Pace but then it just hit me I’m like
But in saying that we spend when you look at you know proportionally the amount of time that a player spends skating forwards and you know with a puck versus how much time we allow defenseman to skate backwards I’m like it’s probably a 10 to one ratio yet when
It comes into a game situation we expect them to be able to keep up going backwards with a player that’s going a full til going forward yeah you don’t work on it yeah and kids bad Gap is because you don’t trust your skating right so you quickly absolutely instead
Of going up yeah so it’s um yeah you gota you got to work on it so that you can build their confidence to trust their skating when they have to use it so yeah know it’s important to skateboard and backwards we I I had heard this too
Again I know I’m just throwing a bunch of old wives tales at you when it comes to skating but that if you want to help a player build their proficiency at skating forwards like skating backwards is almost a way to force a lot of the posture a lot of the proper mechanics
You can’t get away you can’t get I guess the way it was explained to me is like it’s if you have bad mechanics skating backwards you’re just not going to move and so you kind of have to so they’re like teach kids at a young age to skate backwards because that’ll really
Influence their forward I love as a former skater I love to skate backwards you skate backwards into most jumps um and backwards skating is very rhythmical and that’s where being athletic comes into play like you can see your athletes who can move well when they skate backwards because they get into that
Rhythm um your posture is a little different stting backwards when you’re forward you have that tilt so you’re on the balls of the feet when you stay backwards you need a little more blade on the ice so your shoulders kind of line up with the hips more um you’re
Just a little bit more upright which gives you better vision and it’s it’s nice and rhythmical um and just learning how to get you know that those nice pushes and um yeah no I can see what you’re talking about I definitely would help just your all your overall skating
Just by being able to skate backwards it’s it’s so important yeah and again just acknowledging that anything that um is halfway intelligent that comes out of my mouth has definitely been borrowed or stolen from somebody way smarter um so I I would imagine Jill that particularly
In this summer and I know that I mean anybody that follows you on social media can piece together that you know you have the fortune of working with some pretty world class players in that environment what have you learned about the delivery on how you communicate to
Some of these players that says hey I know you’ve done something this way for the duration of your career but I’m gonna ask you to do it differently or or change something how do you what have you learned about how you communicate with worldclass players and tweak their
Game I’m really lucky because the the guys I have trust me and that’s huge um and a lot of them I’ve known for quite a few years but um they’ve had success so they do trust me um a lot of them will just if I ask them
What they want to work on they’ll say whatever you want to work on Jo just give me a tuneup but sometimes it’s specific um I don’t tweet much or post much with the older guys because it’s more private um but a player like a Justin Baron who’s with monal he had
Some specific things that um would be Adam Nicholas wanted to work on so we went back and forth a couple times and uh worked on a few specific things on top of everything else um you know everyone’s it’s a little bit individual what they need to work on um especially
If it’s just a a one-on-one but in a group they just trust me to do whatever they think is important um like a drake bson is mostly his posture um Liam O’Brien was really wide and so just getting it and he had to put a lot of work but God love him he’s
Playing full-time in Ariz Iona now so I’m so proud of him but was just learning how to get his feet underneath his hips a little bit more is it is it that simple at times it’s just if you can get turn one little mechanic into a
Habit that that could just put a kid it’s unbelievable really wow yeah and it’s those guys are so dialed in they know that like I might bether one thing that I I’m the one thing missing to get them to the next level um is they’re skating off often
Um it’s so exciting to watch some of these guys to see where they are now wow yeah so I you know how you know we talked about the experience as a coach of say coaching kids and again I I know that’s been really impactful for me
Sounds like it’s the same for you is there also something to be said that as much as that’s a transformational experience for a a player like Drake to go through that you know three times a week to really see the form how much is that impact you as a coach and maybe not
Just in building confidence in yourself but just it’s it’s easy to theorize but then to actually go through it and see how it’s everything it’s so rewarding seeing like aam O’Brien like I fall down a lot Jill I need some help and and you know just to know them ra out a junior
Trying to make the next level is so rewarding or like an knowah Dobson comes over every um during pandemic I was over and charlatan a lot because that’s where my son played but you know he still comes over Ry Graves and and um it’s so
Much fun just to give them a tuneup or they’ll like what can we work on or because some of them some teams actually don’t have much as far as skating so they like you know we didn’t work on much like and they say they lose their
Skill during the season yes yeah I hear that all the time yeah yeah and so it doesn’t take long um sometimes just a few sessions I have a nice group that we go once a week the ones that are here um and then the guys will come in and out
Who are from away but um and then I have all my regular stuff in the summer but yeah it’s so rewarding to see some of these guys now that are making a living at hockey so it’s and knowing that skate improving their skating was a big part
Of it and it’s obviously not everything but it’s a big part of it and they’ll all say that so it’s uh it’s very rewarding yes no it is and it’s interesting I feel like we’re just maybe catching up in our sport where um you know probably in the
Same way that you know a lot of you know NBA players have a shooting specific coach where they re recognize that you know the one week in the summer program it’s like they have somebody they can refer to um at an ongoing basis um to keep those skills um you know on point
You mentioned Adam Nicholas and I know you’ve done I’m not sure to what extent I don’t think we’ve ever talked about this but you’ve done some work with the um Chicago steel who he is a a coach with I know that you know I got a out of
The blue text from Paul boutilier who apparently you know I I could talk hockey all yeah but like I honestly like I he’s the one one of the few people where you can talk hockey and you can just visualize he’s just has such a good way of articulating the mechanics with
Words he’s so big on posture too we get along great oh man yeah that’s three hours out your day if you get Paul going on posture um so I one thing that I think one of the benefits that I value so much and I’m I just feel so fortunate
Is that just you know the work we do with the coaches site it’s almost like um I’ve noticed that good skill coaches like there’s a law of attraction like the skills coaches whether it’s the stick handling coach the skating coach the good ones seem to find each other
And collaborate and I I would say it’s um almost like when they have like a detective show and they’re trying to figure out who the m boss has and and they’re trying to connect you could have these similar coaching trees obviously like Adams works speaks for itself um
And you know and Paul’s World Class of what he does um what has been your experience what have you learned just through collaboration and just and I we haven’t even talked about the global skills showcase yet but maybe just for our listeners outside of kind of your own
Skating work that you can do like what does your role look like say with the Chicago steel or collaborating with some of these other yeah so Chicago I went um three different times for like a week last year I’ve been there once so this year and I’m there on three hours a day
So I get to know all the kids and I do a stride analysis on all of them so it’s like three hours on Ice I watch every practice or I’m on the ice and then I go back to my hotel room and just cram trying to get these yeah videos wow
And so then I um meet with the kids and then I want them to feel comfortable knowing what I’m talking about and going over their videos I mean I do more than just stride but that’s just a a one that it’s I can give them three or four
Things to to work on that are visual so um and then I watch their games um look at their instat and like I said like if I see some tendencies in a game I’ll let them know um yeah just like I would do with my own kids you know you watch their
Game and all of you just said but um yeah it’s pretty exciting actually it’s an amazing group of guys to work with there and um like you said Paul and I do a lot of work for an agency and so I get to do the agency camp and I Mike
Ellis is also part of that and I just love those weekends because you just learn so much you just um soak it all up and I ask a lot of questions like I said I’m more the technical part but I also pride myself on having good time on task
Like I I try to use pucks and I try to keep my um sessions going when I can and um get as many touches in because I’m aware of how expensive ice is and how valuable it is so if I can add a puck I’m adding pucks and I’ll do my warm-up
That you could do in a and a like my Edge chaos warm-up drill I often use and it um it’s something that you could use in a hockey practice but I’m always trying to from like you said there’s some really great coaches out there and I’m always trying to learn from them
It’s uh yeah it’s it’s exciting I not many people want to talk skating with me so it’s exciting when you have a group that will well I I I just I wonder how much I mean obviously Chicago’s the Chicago steel have been one of if not the top development programs in in North
America and I just you know and they seem really Progressive and but I would say a lot of the areas they would appear to have been um Progressive in is available to anybody like it’s just they’ve kind of had an open mind and they’ve seem to have really just said
Hey like we’re going to prioritize individual Player Development Above All Else and we’ll trust that the results and the standings will take care ofs and that they are so into like they are just development they’re phenomenal like it’s and they’re young and they just trust the process and they’re a young team now
But they’re starting to come around um it was pretty cool having mac and Sal Labrini on the team last year he was kind of a fun kid to get to skate with yeah um but a lot of those guys have moved on so they’re young but they just
Trust the process it’s such a cool environment to be in like I take it in the entire week I’m there I’m there from the morning till till late and I just soak it all up because it’s just so much fun they’re so dedicated that group how much has your husband Daryl
Benefited in his career to be able to sort of maybe take the iPad and show you some screenshots of players and breakdown it happens yeah I bet it does yeah um he’s actually pretty good he’s he’s pretty good at analyzing skating now but I mean he was in the group that
Drafted Braden point and knew that his ankles were the reason why he wasn’t a efficient skater and look at him now now it’s his strength so if you understand what the issue is and if it’s fixable you you’re gonna take a chance on a kid I got Doug McLean’s book on scouting but
It’s so interesting because like one of the stories he highlights is Braden point and just that whole process of what goes into and I just and it’s funny you you bring this up I was at that draft well you know what it’s so funny because I I my just casually like
Reading the book and there’s a lot of other stories and anat antidotes that he points to but I just remember reading it and thinking gosh like um if if if Scouts like if I ran an NHL team um so if my bank account ever changes significantly but the one thing
I would do is I would put my Scouts I would force them to talk to you about skating and I for so they could because I I just remember reading that story think about there’s prob so many areas where that information and knowledge would become so useful in EV valuing not
Where a player is today but where he might be or where the where this maybe how high their ceiling is in certain areas and a lot of the guys will reach out to me because you know I’m at Q games all the time so I because my
Husband and just being around I’ve got to know a lot of the local Scouts and I tell them the truth on everyone because they know I’ve worked with a lot of the guys they want to know like do I think they can improve like what what the
Issue is how coachable are they and I tell the kids like I tell the truth but um yeah no I think um Daryl and I talk like our house if you don’t like hockey you might as well not come over Okay so this was gonna okay I’m so
Curious this was GNA be my first question because I was again just in like looking at this I’m like oh my God if we ever wanted to do like a reality TV show on a hockey family gosh you’re the pelis might be front of the list but when you get your
Your tribe together and I’m assuming this maybe happens in the offseason time sometime later in the spring and you’re sitting around the dinner table if you’re not talking hockey what might your family be chatting about um what else takes up some oxygen stocks okay all right to talk about
Stocks investing yeah stuff like that um yeah I know it’s a big it’s a big uh percentage of the chat in our house um I’m probably the worst actually in the summer I’m on like four hours a day with different groups so and my kids are in those groups and all
Their best friends and have been for years so those boys come over to the house I’m on the ice with them three times a day like they’re texting me they’re um and they’re all my kids buddies so it’s uh yeah I’m waiting in the trenches with them it’s it’s it’s
Kind of cool actually well you know again I I just some parallels and I I look at myself where I you know coached hockey for a long time um and now with with with a little one and how that just changes your perception but just given
The fact of you know being a coach and I mean you know you don’t have to look far to you know for somebody to explain the odds of of ever earning a paycheck playing hockey that it’s it’s slim but just your experience as a coach but also as
A parent and you talk about these relationships when you view how does that shape your role as a coach just knowing that hey like as much as I’m players are coming to me because they’re hopefully trying to get an edge that’s going to maybe help them go from Junior
A to the Q from the Q to the World Junior Team from the World Junior Team to the NHL I’m sure that the math would indicate a a large percentage of the athletes that you work with um never realize maybe some of their larger Ambitions but just how does that maybe
Shape because obviously as I guess as a mom and as a parent you’ve seen firsthand that what you learn in these sessions are going to show up in other aspects of your life or have the ability to show up in a positive way in other
Aspects of a of a young person’s life oh yeah all the life skills show up um yeah know it’s uh it’s fun to get to know them and a lot of them who have moved on that are coaching minor hockey I still run into or I still have them on
Instagram and they still send me messages and like I said my own son after 8 decided to go to Dow Housey and do a medical science degree he still played Junior B right up until this year for fun and that’s okay I’m just impressed that he could balanc that schedule oh my
God I know like it you know they would just practice once or twice and play two games and Med science is like one of the toughest degrees you can do in your undergrad it’s like a Premed so um but yeah he still played right all the way
Up and now he’s in the interal ranks but um no you got to coach the person first you can’t just coach them thinking they’re going to go to the NHL if if it happens it happens um I’m lucky though like some of my junior groups there’s like seven drafted players on any day
Like it’s a really fun group um it’s a really good group and um like I just had Jake furong who just played on the world juniors he is one of my most he like one of my own boys one of the regulars so I’ve had him since he was a little boy
So that was kind of cool because we’re just a tiny little Province so everyone’s really close but if I’m watching a q game I’ll go down and chat with guys on the other team that happen to be on the on the traveling circuit just to touch B and say hi like I don’t
Know I just feel like um since my kids were young I never was like you know some parents like to just only give their information I was like my kids’s going to benefit if I help the most amount of kids possible so we would invite everyone like everyone come come
Come we’ll do these sessions always kept it really affordable I just just wanted everyone to get better like we had Ken McDonald Riley kidney you know Jacob milons and Oscar like all these kids were the same age group and they all ended up getting drafted it was pretty
Cool um but it’s uh you know you treat them as little boys first the boys groups and um you know just let them take it as far as they can and they know I’m behind them and I think the relationship is that um part that people
Don’t talk about like I can teach some technal technical stuff they know I care and I think that’s the most important thing is they know I’m there for them um I just had a player the other day who got back into the queue um Jacob Nukem
Um I knew in July that he tested positive for non- hopun lymphoma and so he skated the next four weeks and um I knew um he had cancer but he didn’t want to tell anyone so he’s really private kid and in that sense so my husband and
I knew um and he is a beast like he didn’t miss a session didn’t miss a workout didn’t miss a nice time and he didn’t want to tell anyone until they were going off to Camp so I had to keep that secret and then um end up skating
With him all fall and he just had his first game back on the weekend um and he beat cancer he’s ranging the bell I know it was all over the CHL news but just to know um that he trusted me with that and just to know um I made arrangements the
Ring staff was phenomenal they’re like just find ice time just pick an ice time and go on with him so we would do weekly sessions until he was ready to go with um his old team and um just for him to trust me through that time and
Knowing what he was going through I remember in the summer I’d get emotional sometimes when I’d be coming home from the rink knowing how hard he worked and couldn’t tell anyone and if my own kid was ticking me off he’s like why are you crying like you
Have no idea just be good to everyone just be a nice person just work hard like you never know what people are going through and he’s like what is going on with you so like the month later when my kids found out they’re like Ah that’s why you’d get upset in
The summer because it was just oh my God yeah but yeah you know what just I mean that’s obviously a a really heart-wrenching yeah good for him but yeah you just realized that as you said like you always got to lean towards the human side and and 100% cocky can be
Taken away from you like that yeah so you just always stay positive um always stay positive and be encouraging and um you know they’re there because they want to work hard if they’re with me they know they want to work hard and they want to get better so have fun um
And just try to maximize their potential that’s all you can do well I I think you’re I’ll tell you what you’re you mentioned that you know it’s U small small town Halifax small Nova Scotia small Province um I would I would argue though that and I’m sure I know
You’re a part of this um I know there’s some other coaches that are part of it certainly some of the alumni there’s a couple notable guys uh from your neck of the woods but Halifax I would say in the off season is buzzing yeah I was going
To say like in my again I again I have no facts or statistics this is just my person reception it’s Halifax Colona and um Phoenix are probably three of the big hot spots right now in the offseason for yeah so s they pretty much run the sessions at
The and um yeah like my son was part of the group before the big guys came back the big dogs like they’re really good at having some Junior players in to get them and then they’ll kind of go off and then they’ll come with me and they’ll go with different groups um and
Some of the guys that are included in that group still skate with with me once a week because they know those sessions aren’t great for defense those sessions are designed to score and if you’re a d man you’re yeah you’re better off skating with me an extra
Day um but the way those guys compete it’s unbelievable that was the thing I noticed after watching the bio steel Camp um the maritime boys really were the hardest competitors they look so good like the other guys looked like they had done some skill work but these
Guys came to play like they were in such good shape um Brad wasn’t there but just having my son like those sessions are pretty close to the public but you know I’ve been into a few of them to watch players and uh those guys go
Hard I really hard yeah well I I’ll tell you what so the furthest East that I’ve been I’m a little bit embarrassed to say this but for anybody that Canada is a big place um the furthest East I’ve been is rusi have never been in the maritimes
It’s on my buggy list and then my every time my wife’s like she’s like we can fly to Paris for less money than we can fly to halif Fox from Vancouver but for a whole host of reasons one of one of my wife’s really good friend she did her
Lot ofree at Del housy and I think she summed up life in the maritimes as when there’s a snowstorm you go to the grocery store and you can be guaranteed they’re going to be sold out of chips and booze yeah yeah storm chip that’s yes yes that’s exactly what she refer storm
CHS and she’s like that basically sums up you know the folks in the mar times is is that so um yeah all good Omens uh Jill you’re gonna be presenting uh we’re so proud that you’re gonna be joining us at the global skills showcase so that’s
Coming up March uh 4th to 8th can you provide a bit of a trailer or preview of what you’re going to be presenting on yeah so when people ask me about what skills I teach I’m like I usually I look at it more as details and habits than skills
Um so one of the details um that stand out to me when I’m watching um other than your stride and how your posture and how things work on it is your ability to use your outside edges so I’m going to focus on um doing some outside edge development to help the players
Feel more comfortable on their outside edges and then we’ll go over some skills that translate showing how you use these outside edges on your Crossovers and your turns and your vasive moves but just some really simple um simple drills for the outside edge to strengthen it
And just with posture and how you bring your foot under the body and um because when I’m watching a game and a player can’t turn or cross a foot over to get up ice it usually comes back to that detail so that’s what I’m going to focus
On and um we’re filming in the beautiful avanir Center which is hosting the CHL prospect game um on Wednesday oh is that so that’s the the moose heads um Mon and wild cats oh God sorry I feel that was a swear word right there um no noax is
Here but um I’m using so you’re going up there how far is that that does thats no it’s two hours gosh if I was ever if I was on a game show like if I was ever on Jeopardy and they had like Maritime geography come up I would avoid that
Topic um no um no I’m going to use um some resources of guys I know there so it’s so that’s what I’m focusing on and um yeah I know it’s something probably people don’t touch on in a practice but it does having strong outside edges is important for your punching and crossing
Your feet and evasive turns and your sliding and um and we’re so Inside Edge dominant because we skate off our inside edges so you working on your outside edges is also really important got it love it well listen we’re H we’re super excited I think just more than anything it’s been just great
Through this whole process just getting to know you and and your work and I think clearly what always um impresses me since we’ve been fortunate enough to host this event is that gosh um you the the term lifelong learner gets thrown around um pretty graciously I think but
Like I just look at yourself and the coaches who are going to be taking part in this event like that really I think sums up what they’ve done this isn’t something like they took a course and figured out how to teach somebody to shoot better like this is something that
Keeps them up at night it dominates the conversation at the dinner table it’s what they read about it’s what they listen to it’s just they’re so committed to helping their players get 1% better and it’s um yeah it’s contagious it’s great to see yeah I’m immersed in it in
This house so well I gosh I I’ll tell you what like if anybody I just like looking at the background in your office there I just feel like there’s a lot of uh knowledge stories going around there you might leave my husband on to tell you the stories behind all the cups
Which team and which which final and yeah and we finally won to Stanley Cup a couple years ago with Tampa so it’s like finally won it he had won NCAA and he had won um that’s right he was on that Northern Michigan team Vol yeah you can’t I got
Pictures all over of the no kidding of Dean antos and D Drake jumping on him but um yeah he scored it’s funny is H Twitter handle is Patrick 91 and people thought it had something to do with Stam Coast when he worked with Tampa and I’m like no he had a hattrick in
1991 to wion the world to the uh NCAA Championship and he was the captain of that team too wasn’t he assistant Captain I believe yeah he might have been the captain sist the captain or Captain that was before me oh my god wow I was just in University then we didn’t
I didn’t know so it’s on the I think it’s the greatest goal no one knows about it’s a pretty cool goal we’ve seen it a few times in our house I bet you have I bet you have oh yes it pops up on our family feed
Every now and again if the boys are going through a gold route that’s amazing that’s amazing Um well hey Jill thanks so much for joining us today I know you got to scoop back to the rink but we’re again we’re we’re so excited to see your
Presentation com up in March and just uh I think just again thank you for just being an open book and sharing so much with our community and hopefully helping uh coaches uh become better uh a bit more proficient in their skating instruction and uh making our game uh a
Little bit faster thank you for having me A
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Thank you for bringing such great speakers. That is much helpful. Kind regards, JPB
Slide stop is like the power slide stop in inline skating, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wITE5eUhn3A