Coaches Site Live: How the 'Ted Talks of hockey' was born in Vancouver (2023)

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When Victor Kraatz decided to shift into teaching hockey players to be better skaters after an illustrious career as an ice dancer and then figure skating coach, he didn’t really know where to start.

A decade later, he can point to a coaching conference as having been the best place for him to go.

And now he’s going to present at that same conference, to share his best tips on how to help hockey players — be they grassroots youth players or NHLers like Mat Barzal — be better skaters.

Kraatz had played hockey in his youth, before he embarked on his glittering career as an ice dancer — he and partner Shae-Lynn Bourne won gold at the 2003 World Championships — but when he finally returned to the hockey world in 2012, he knew the game had changed. A lot.

And so he found himself at a coaching conference in Burnaby, run by a fledgling website called The Coaches Site. The website, which started basically as a blog in 2011, has developed into one of the leading resources for hockey coaches the world over.

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“You always follow hockey, but if you’re not on the ice teaching the matter, there’s nuances you don’t pick up,” Kraatz told Postmedia News. “Any sport changes over time, the sport always develops, whether that’s speed, changes of direction or other skills. Like the Michigan, years ago that would have been frowned on. Even when people first started doing it people where shouting this isn’t hockey.”

Kraatz is set to present at the 2023 edition of the conference, which now goes by The Coaches Site Live. And it’s such a big deal now that it’s expanded well beyond its humble start in the Lower Mainland; it’s now held at the University of Michigan.

This year’s event is scheduled for June 22-24.

“This is about the best and brightest ideas. We don’t have a lot of constraints. Who are the leaders in our sport, who are pushing it forward?” explained Aaron Wilbur, founder and CEO of The Coaches Site. “We refer to it as the Coachella for coaches. It’s very immersive. We’re always conscious that a coach is grinding it out for nine months, we’re going to make sure it’s an absolute blast.

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“It’s very social. You’re not sitting in a chair, you’re moving around. There’s opportunity to connect and collaborate with the rest of the audience.”

Wilbur moved to Vancouver in 2008 to be an assistant coach for the men’s hockey team at the University of B.C. He also picked up a role as a coach-mentor for Vancouver Minor Hockey and quickly noticed a split between how coaches near the top of the game operated and how coaches at the grassroots level often differed.

“One thing that stood out was how professionals, even competitors in the same league, were super-collaborative. At youth level coaches seemed to keep their cards to themselves,” he recalled.

There was a chasm to bridge, he believed.

He started tweeting about hockey coaching, then began a blog and before he knew it, he was organizing his first coaching conference in 2011. There were 98 attendees the first year. A year later the number doubled — and some even flew in.

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The event has grown to such a size that locating it in a more central location, making it easier to travel to, was essential. After a few years in Toronto, they’ve landed in Michigan.

“Ann Arbor is more of an intimate setting,” he explained. “When we were in Toronto, you’re downtown, we found that when the event finished everyone left.”

Drawing inspiration from SXSW, the massive media festival held annually in Austin, Tex., TCS Live moved to Michigan.

At the UofM, the coaches stay on campus through the weekend. There are post-presentation get-togethers at local bars and restaurants. The social events are tied into the presentations, with attendees and presenters mingling, swapping ideas.

Kraatz, who returned home to Canada last year after working in Finland as the skating coach for Jokerit, formerly of the KHL, called the event a fantastic platform for any coach.

“The key is always to be able to learn from other people. There might be aspects of something that maybe you hadn’t thought about,” he said.

Finding interesting speakers has been the key to the event’s success, Wilbur believes.

“A lot of the coaches that we wanted to get onstage, one of the advantages that we have is we’re not looking for only NHL coaches, for all Team Canada coaches, we’re just looking for interesting people,” Wilbur said. “Who are the best and brightest?”

Four of last year’s presenters — Brock Sheehan,Matt Lark,Nathaniel Brookes and Matt McIlvane — found themselves with NHL jobs this past season.

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“One thing we’re super, super proud of this year is we have six female coaches presenting,” Wilbur added. “Leah Hextall spoke last year, about being a woman in hockey. We’ve had a couple people that presented really well and opened the door. It’s something we’re really invested in.

Over the past decade they’ve attracted intriguing presenters but also top-flight attendees.

“Bruce Cassidy, Dave Hakstol, Rod Brind’Amour, Jay Woodcroft, Pete De Boer have all been here,” he said. “When he was just a junior coach, Sheldon Keefe came to our event every year.”

“There’s few professions in the world where people are as committed to the craft as coaches. To be able to shine a spotlight on these people is totally awesome,” he added.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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