The Coach's Road

This conversation features John Riley, Player Development Coach for the Philadelphia Flyers Organization. With John we begin by exploring his path through hockey to the NHL level including his time as a math teacher. Then we talk about the holistic evaluation and how he helps players to develop but not deal with the pressure by themselves. We finish by talking about his role and how he works with...

In this episode we are joined by Stig Arve Sæther, Associate Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. With Stig we talk about Talent Development, a topic that is crucial in coaching and is quite complex. Stig offers some great insight into what talent really is, the difference between a static and dynamic view of talent, why there is some misconceptions about talent. We also ta...

This week we are joined by Dr. Lea-Cathrin Dohme from Cardiff Metropolitan University. With Dr. Dohme we discuss the development of Psychological Skills and Characteristics in young athletes. The conversation touches on the distinction between skills and characteristics, identifying athlete needs, roles and expectations for coaches, and the impact we can have as coaches. The Coach’s Road Podcast i...

This week we have a simulcast with the hosts of The Sound of Coaching (Valmentajan Äänellä) Henna Tanhuanpää and Nea Sunila. We have a conversation about our thoughts on coach education, coaching philosophies and learning in coaching. It was great to get to know more about Henna and Nea and what they do and how they think! The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be presented by CoachTools, a tool to...

This week we are joined by Dr. François Rodrigue, A Coaching Performance Advisor in Ottawa. With Coach Frank we talk about reflective practice and how engaging in reflection can help coaches connect the science and art of coaching! Coach Frank provides some easy to use tools for reflection and some good advice for deepening reflection and making sure you are utilizing the information you consume....

This week we talk with Dr. Kirsi Hämäläinen, Principle Lecturer at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences and Vice President of ICCE Europe. During her time with the Finnish Olympic Committee, Dr. Hämäläinen was tasked with created a coach development network and that is what we talk about today. The process of building the network, critical pieces to a network, and how we can build up our per...

This week we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Turnnidge from Queen’s University in Canada to talk about transformational leadership and coaching. We talk about transformational leadership behaviors and how we can become more transformational. Then we talk about how we get people accustomed to transformational behaviors and how much of our coaching is transformational and what balance should be struck in...

This week we welcome on Dr. Erin Kraft, from Queens University in Canada. With Dr. Kraft we talk about Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in sport. We talk specifically about the Alberta Women in Sport Leadership Impact Program and the impact that had. We also talk about the importance of representation, the importance in championing and believing in women’s and other marginalized groups abilit...

This week we welcome back on Mika Saarinen, Senior Lecturer in the Degree Program of Sports Coaching and Management. With Mika we talk about his teacher studies, coach education, reflection for students and what learning looks like. Then we talk about how he builds relationships with the students and what is role in the degree program is. The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be presented by CoachT...

This week we welcome back on Vetle Dalberg to continue our conversation about The Polar Bear Model in Norway and specifically about their Coach Development Model. We get into what their coach education includes, how they support coaches taking theory into practice, how they create a safe environment for the coaches, and finally how they support the informal learning of their coaches. The Coach’s R...

This week we talk with Dr. A.J. Sturges, Director of Performance Psychology for the Chicago Blackhawks. With A.J. we talk about performance psychology, encouraging help-seeking behaviors, psychosocial development. A.J. also provides some recommendations on how junior level hockey in North America can be improved to better support psychosocial development. The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be pr...

This week we bring back some students from the Degree Program in Sport Coaching and Management. Joining us are Aku Hannula, Karolina Nowakowska, and Ruben Rampazzo, three DP19 students in their second year of the program. Similar to the first student episode we talk about their takeaways from the program, their favorite memories and their ideas for developing the program. We also get into some spe...

This week we talk with Dr. Larry Lauer, a Mental Skills Specialist with the USTA Player Development Inc. Larry developed the Tough and Clean Hockey Program and thats exactly what we explore today! We expand on his presentation from the conference in December and then throw him some scenarios and ask for his advice on how to handle them. The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be presented by CoachToo...

This week we close out our series with AJ Woodburn by reacting to each others interviews and reflecting on the bits we were struck by. It was great to have this series with AJ and it was great to listen to each others stories! Thanks to AJ for the time! The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be presented by CoachTools, a tool to improve coaching and power your club’s philosophy! If you are intereste...

This week it is Rick’s interview with Prof. Andrea Joy Woodburn from the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada. AJ asks us some interesting questions getting us to reflect on our journey as young coaches and young coach developers and what is next for us! The Coach’s Road Podcast is proud to be presented by CoachTools, a tool to improve coaching and power your club’s philosophy! If you are interested...

The next two weeks we are doing things a bit differently, Rick and Derek were interviewed separately by Prof. Andrea Joy Woodburn from the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada. This week we are releasing Derek’s interview with AJ and then next week we will release Rick’s interview. AJ asks us some interesting questions getting us to reflect on our journey as young coach developers and what is next f...

This week we again break down our experience hosting the third day of the Coach’s Road Conference! We talk about our experience, our thoughts, improvements we can make for next year! We also call on everyone to let us know your experience and let us know of anything that would make it better for you as an audience member for next year! Shoot us an email if anything comes to mind thecoachsroad@gmai...

This week we again break down our experience hosting the second day of the Coach’s Road Conference! We talk about our experience, our thoughts, improvements we can make for day 3 and our key learnings! We also call on everyone to let us know your experience and let us know of anything that would make it better for you as an audience member! Shoot us an email if anything comes to mind thecoachsroad...

This week we break down our experience hosting the first day of the Coach’s Road Conference! We talk about our experience, our thoughts, improvements we can make for day 2 and our key learnings! We also call on everyone to let us know your experience and let us know of anything that would make it better for you as an audience member! Shoot us an email if anything comes to mind thecoachsroad@gmail....

This week we welcome on Jonny McMurtry, founder of Coaching the Coaches. With Jonny we talk about his recent research investigating the personal strivings of elite 17-20 year old Rugby Union athletes. We start by talking about what strivings are, how we can find out what our athletes’ strivings are and how we can utilize that knowledge in our coaching! You can check out Jonny’s blog on his site: c...

This week we welcome on Dr. Kristen Dieffenbach, Professor at West Virginia University and President of the United States Center for Coaching Excellence (USCCE). With Dr. Dieffenbach we talk about professionalism in coaching, coach well being, the athlete-coach transition. We also talk about coach development and how we can support the learning of the coaches we are working with! You can check out...

Today we welcome on Roger Rönnberg, Head Coach of the Frölunda HC in Gothenburg. With Roger we talk about what success is, and the traits that make him a successful coach at an elite level. We also talk about his core values and beliefs and the role he holds as the Head Coach. Finally we talk about keeping people in the game long-term and building trust with athletes. You can check out the rest of...

This week Rick and Derek preview the conference now that all the speakers (besides the coach’s road speakers) have been confirmed. We talk about what excites about what speaker and each day and we also cover the topics each speaker will speak about. If there is anything you’re excited to hear about in the conference let us know by email thecoachsroad@gmail.com You can check out the rest of the res...

This week we welcome on Vetle Dalberg, Utviklingskonsulent for the Norwegian Ice Hockey Association, to chat about Norway’s new Polar Bear Model. We talk about what created the change, what the model includes and what the model focuses on in player development! You can check out more from the NIHA website here: https://www.hockey.no/isbjornmodellen/ (use google chrome for translation). You can che...

This week we chat with Gordon MacLelland, Founder of Working with Parents in Sport based out of the UK. With Gordon we chat about what makes good sports parents and how we as coaches can help support parents and engage them positively in their child’s experience in sport. We also talk about how to take the pressure off of young athletes and how we can create parent engagement workshops. You can ch...