Books for coaches to read

[Tom Molloy]

Rockie Coach,
Once you start to conceptualize the game and look at it as three game playing situtations where the players are always in one of the four game playing roles, it then becomes easier to plan you season and your practices.

When I coached college we had 4 practices a week. Each week I rotated through the 4 game playing roles and made sure we practiced loose puck, offensive and defensive situations. It went like this.
Day 1- Individual offensive skills – role one. A-B-D-DT-E
Day 2- individual defensive skills – role three A-B-D-DT-E
Day 3- team offensive skills – role two B-C-D-DT-T-E
Day 4- team defensive skills – role four B-C-D-DT-T-E
(I added DT for transition games and T for controlled coach led games and drills and team play focus.)

We had 75 minute practices and the first 30 minutes we worked on individual offensive skills in drills and games and always had some scoring drills to get the goalie shots. The last 45 minutes we focused on the role we were working one and used games, drills and controlled situations to accomplish this.

This method helps you focus on the process and make sure you cover the individual and team skills in a progressive manner.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'

[hockeygod]

Rookie Coach,

I have gone through the book numerous times and still find "new" things every time… or I begin to understand and see things differently.

It is highlighted, underlined, stickied, and has notes written in the columns.

I find I re-read sections based on the ages and skills of the kids I am coaching. I am all about games and letting them teach the game; so I love Tom's games that he has in the book.

Don't get too overwhelmed the first time. Get through it once, mark it up, and then go back to the sections you want to re-read. My understanding of it is a work in progress… and that is after five years of first reading it!

Enjoy!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

by Christopher McDougall (2009)

ISBN 978-0-307-26630-7 $29.95 CDN

Just completed this book on the weekend. Not about hockey, but about ultra endurance running and the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon Mexico. Lots of useful (for me at least!) philosophy inside. I found it quite compelling reading and couldn't put it down until I was done! The parts about the extremes that Dr. Joe Vigil, a US cross-country coach, would go to gain more knowledge, even at the age of 65, was very inspiring to me. This fellow certainly seems to be passionate about his work and a life-long learner! This book really spoke to me on a deep level. I have included several excerpts that really hit home for me. They might not hit home for you, but if you read the book, perhaps they will have much more meaning to you! Change the words "running" to "coaching" and see what they mean to you. Enjoy the read!

Dr. Vigil can be read about from Chapter 13 (pp77) through to the end of Chapter 18 (pp 120) of the hardcover version of the book. Sounds like a master coach or a 'coach whisperer' to me!

pp 77 Intro to Dr. Vigil and his sense of drive:

The secret to Vigil's success was spelled right out in his name: no other coach was more vigilant about detecting the crucial little details that everyone else missed… he out-scienced them; he studied the tricks… He'd tracked down the old masters and picked their brains, vacuuming up their secrets before they disappeared into the grave. His head was a Library of Congress of running lore, much of it vanished from every place on the planet except his memory. His research paid off sensationally.

pp 85 On creativity, curiosity and possible solutions:

Coach Vigil was a hard – data freak, but… he loved the fact that ultra running had no science, no playbook, no training manual, no conventional wisdom. That kind of freewheeling self-invention is where the big breakthroughs come from, as Vigil knew…

pp 90 During part of the1994 Leadville (Colorado) running race – 100 miles… some observations of the top runners:

"Everybody else walks up that hill," Ken Chlouber though, as Juan and Martimano churned up the slope like kids playing in a leaf pile. "Everybody. And they sure as Hell ain't laughin' about it." … "Such a sense of joy!" marveled Coach Vigil, who'd never seen anything like it, either. "It was quite remarkable." Glee and determination are usually antagonistic emotions, yet the Tarahumara were brimming with both at once, as if running to the death made them feel alive. Vigil had been furiously taking mental notes… but it was the smiles that really jolted him. "That's it! Vigil thought, ecstatic. I've found it!" Except that he wasn't sure what "it" was…

The revelation he was hoping for was right in front of his eyes… Over the previous few years, Vigil had become convinced that the next leap forward in human endurance would come from a dimension he dreaded getting into: character… not … "grit" or "hunger" or "the size of the fight in the dog." In fact, he meant the exact opposite. Vigil's notion of character wasn't toughness. It was compassion. Kindness. Love…

Vigil knew it sounded like hippy-dippy drivel… but after spending nearly fifty years researching performance physiology, Vigil had reached the uncomfortable conclusion that all the easy questions had been answered; he was now learning more and more about less and less. He'd figured out the body, so now it was on to the brain. Specifically: How do you make anyone actually want to do any of this stuff? How do you flip the internal switch…That was the real secret of the Tarahumera: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running… But the American approach – ugh. Rotten at its core. It was too artificial and grabby, Vigil believed, too much about getting stuff and getting it now: medals, Nike deals, a cute butt. It wasn't art; it was business…

pp 94 Dr. Vigil's philosophy:

Vigil could smell the apocalypse coming, and he'd tried hard to tell his runners. "There are two goddesses in your heart," he told them. "The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you." Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you'll get more than imagined… All he wanted was to find one Natural Born Runner – someone who ran for sheer joy, like an artist in the grip of inspiration – and study how he or she trained, lived, and thought.

pp 98 On Emil Zatopek, Czech long distance runner, winner of 3 gold medals in 1952 Olympics, and The Answer:

"His enthusiasm, his friendliness, his love of life, shone through every moment," an overcome Ron Clarke said later. "There is not, and never was, a greater man than Emil Zatopek." So here's what Coach Vigil was trying to figure out: was Zatopek a great man who happened to run or a great man because he ran? Vigil couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his gut kept telling him that there was some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running… Maybe Ron Clarke wasn't being poetic in his description of Zatopek – maybe his expert eye was being clinically precise: His love of life shone through at every moment. Yes! Love of life! Exactly! … He'd found his Natural Born Runner. He'd found an entire tribe of Natural Born Runners, and from what he'd seen so far, they were as joyful and magnificent as he'd hoped. Vigil, an old man alone in the woods, suddenly felt a burst of immortality. He was onto something. Something huge. It wasn't just how to run; it was how to live, the essence of who we are as a species and what we're meant to be… But there has to be transferable skills, right? Basic Tarahumara principles that could survive and take root in American soil? … He didn't have all the answers yet – but watching the Tarahumara whisk past… he knew where he could find them.

pp 118 On Dr. Vigil's methodology of training:

What Vigil had going was real Spartan warrior stuff – a survival of the fittest program that combined a killer workload with the freezing, windswept Colorado mountains." … He was about living lean and building ones soul as much as ones strength.

"Practice abundance by giving back".

"Improve personal relationships".

"Show integrity to your value system".

"Eat as though you were a poor person".

—–
Like I said, taken as excerpts, these lose a lot of their meaning if you haven't read the book… if anybody else has read the book, or want to chime in with their thoughts, feel free.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

I think these statements came from Marcus Luttrells' Lone Survivor book… awesome stuff!

They are filming a movie this year, based on his the true story in his book. It is supposed to come out in 2013.

1. We cannot fight evil with evil.

2. Right is right and wrong s wrong.

3. Relativism is a lie. Wrong cannot be justified.

4. Never compromise your values.

5. Silence in the presence of wrongdoing is complicity.

6. We all make mistakes. Don't make excuses; make corrections.

7. It's never too late to do the right thing.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Taking Note: No Guarantees

Gregg Drinnan, Wednesday, October 5, 2011

First off, a disclaimer. I was working at the Brandon Sun and covering the Brandon Wheat Kings when Don Dietrich was a defenceman on their roster.

Over the last few years, we have communicated infrequently, but often enough that I consider him a friend.
Now . . . let’s get on to the book.

While attending the 2010 Memorial Cup in Brandon, I picked up a copy of Dietrich’s book. And then, foolishly, I put it on the next-to-read pile and it got forgotten.

I rediscovered it recently and have since read it.

If you are a hockey fan, you absolutely have to get a copy of this book. Why? Because it will make you giggle. It will make you howl with laughter. And it will make you weep. You can't ask for anything more than that.

It is titled No Guarantees, with this subtitle: An Inspiring Story of Struggle and Success in Professional Sport and with Parkinson’s and Cancer.

Written by Dietrich, with his wife, Nadine, and journalist Brad Bird, this is an account of Dietrich’s hockey career and his personal battle with Parkinson’s Disease and a particularly lethal kind of cancer.

Understand that this isn’t a weepy biography by some old beaten up hockey player who feels life owes him something.

No, it isn’t.

Rather, it is a terrific read about a boy’s journey to manhood, about a young hockey player’s travels to retirement and beyond. It’s about a man who married a Penthouse Pet and, with her, raised three sons, two of whom went on to play in the WHL.

Dietrich provides a realistic look at life in the WHL, from the travel to the fighting and beyond.

But it is the tales he tells of his days in the AHL, the NHL and Europe that are so wonderful and often so hilarious.

Dietrich’s writing on being a rookie in the training camp of the Chicago Blackhawks — and also of being a young man from smalltown Manitoba (Deloraine) thrown into Chicago — is priceless.

———

At one point, the night before the first on-ice session of training camp, a group including Doug Wilson, Terry Ruskowski, Steve Larmer and Dietrich is about to order dinner in a Chicago restaurant.

Dietrich tells the story . . .

I’m looking at this menu and I see it’s stuff that I don’t know — and then I see, sirloin steak. That’s what I’m going to take. And I’m paranoid, because I’m looking around and trying to watch what other guys are doing and I’m trying to play the part. I’m sitting with four NHL guys and three or four future NHLers, and I’m just pumped. I’m just above everything. I’m sitting there and the girl comes up and she says, “So what’ll you have?” And she’s looking right at me.

I’m thinking, Why me? So I said, “I’ll have the sirloin steak.”

She said, “How would you like it done?”

Well, all my life it just came to me on the plate. At home, Dad cooked it on the barbecue and put it on the plate. At my billets, Ma Muirhead and Marnocks in Brandon, I came to the table and it was on the plate. Every Saturday night we had steak at home, it was on the plate.

I’m sitting there thinking, what does she want? I know Mom puts it in the oven. They don’t boil steak. I’m sitting there and I’m starting to sweat and the guys are looking as if to say, “C’mon, we want to order.” So I sat there and said, “Cook it.”

The table erupted in laughter.

———

Later, in an episode you may recall, Dietrich ended up at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. He was to have played for Team Canada, however the Americans protested the inclusion of Dietrich, who had played six NHL games, and Mark Morrison, who had played two. The IOC upheld the protest, so Dietrich headed for home.

His retelling of his time in Sarajevo is an incredible story, and his journey home is even beyond that. You will read this part of the book and wonder how it was that the kid from Deloraine didn’t disappear forever somewhere in that European winter.

This is a soft cover book that is 200 pages in length. The writing is a little rough around the edges, which only adds to its authenticity. There are some incorrect spellings — Chris Nilan is Chris Nyland, Steve Yzerman is Steve Izerman, Pelle Lindbergh is Pelle Lindburgh — but they don’t ruin what is a great read.

There are marvellous stories from his days playing in Europe and a lot of insight into what a fringe NHLer goes through when he realizes his career is over.

And then, on Page 175, Dietrich is diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. On Page 184, he finds out he has leiomyo sarcoma, which his doctor tells him is “one of the most active and deadly cancers there is.”

That was late in 1999.

In recent times, Dietrich has discovered that “at my home rink in Deloraine when my old pal (Parkinson’s) leaves me alone, I just go out on the ice.”

He helps everyone from six-year-olds to oldtimers, he told me in an email on Tuesday.

“You see,” he added, “Kelly McCrimmon told me one time, ‘Dieter, you have a wealth of knowledge in that noggin up there . . . why don't you start friggin sharing it’.

“SO I DO. LOL.”

Dietrich closed the email with this:

“So I have been doing good my friend thanks to hockey, the greatest game there is!!”

———

You can find No Guarantees at amazon.com ($20.87) or at trafford.com (also for $20.87).

Order a copy today. You won't be disappointed. I guarantee it.

—–

Earlier this week, I offered up a review of a book written by Don Dietrich, a former defenceman with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

I was remiss in not mentioning that Dietrich spent part of last weekend in Winnipeg, where he was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame . . . not as a player, but as a builder.

Here, from the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame newsletter, is Dietrich’s bio:

“Don Dietrich of Deloraine, a former defenseman and captain of the Brandon Wheat Kings, soaked up a lot of knowledge as a player in the AHL, NHL, East Coast League, with Team Canada and in Germany and Switzerland. He has passed on this knowledge as an assistant coach in Switzerland and, after returning home, as a coach with the Southwest Cougar midgets, the SWHL Deloraine Royals and as a scout for the Spokane Chiefs. Dietrich has been an active member of Canada’s national coach mentorship program, doing ‘one-on-one’ mentoring, as well as clinics. Despite personal health problems, he was instrumental in developing the Breakfast Club where young players have come out twice a week to practise their skill development.”

Hockey in our countries needs more Don Dietrichs. And if you missed it scroll further down on this blog and read all about his book. Then get on the Internet and order one. You won't be sorry.

Gregg Drinnan

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

The Lost Dream: Book on Frost, Danton disturbing

JOE WARMINGTON, QMI Agency, Oct 5 2011

TORONTO – "OPP detectives are currently reading the book with interest." — an OPP source.

The book is called The Lost Dream but perhaps The Lost Opportunity would have been an appropriate title, too.

The lost opportunity to prosecute.

The allegations in this new book about the bizarre Mike Danton and Dave Frost circus not only bring to the surface freakish allegations of abuse but also raise questions into the effectiveness and capability of the Ontario’s Crown attorney’s office.

Award-winning Sun Media sports columnist Steve Simmons’ new book on the sad but riveting story of a hockey agent and of his client — a relationship that ended with Danton behind bars for trying to hire someone to kill Frost — is now available.

It’s the stuff of movies.

But for Danton’s younger brother, Tom Jefferson, himself once a promising hockey star with the Oshawa Generals, the story is not only non-fiction but a real life nightmare.

It turns out not only was one son involved in this horror show but two, if Tom’s story is to be believed.

“This man destroyed an entire family,” Danton’s father Steve Jefferson, told me at Simmons’ book launch Tuesday at Betty’s. “It’s just not right.”

Chapter 4 of the The Lost Dream, published by Viking Canada, is a description of an all-out, heinous and horrific sexual, physical, mental and emotional assault on a 13-year-old boy with Frost in supervision.

The now 24-year-old Tom Jefferson tells Simmons that in the summer of 2000, when he was 13-years-old, he was taped up, sexually assaulted, forced to dance on a table naked and shot at while his brother and others looked on in hysterics at Dave Frost’s cottage near Kingston.

If you have a weak stomach, stop reading now because what comes next is as shocking as it is appalling.

The younger Jefferson describes a scenario where he was climbing a tree on the shores of Loughborough Lake when “all of a sudden, Dave pulls out a rifle and points it at me. The tree is wobbling and I’m getting nervous about it and he tells me to keep climbing across or he’s going to shoot me. He took a couple of shots (with a pellet rifle) and missed me. He took another shot that hit the branch right in front of my face. So I’m hanging on as best I can and trying to follow along all the way to the end, and he’s got this gun pointed at me, and I held on to the branch as long as I could before falling into the shallow water.”

Frightening. It gets even worse.

Jefferson describes one evening where Frost said to him “‘I bet you have a small d— like your brother, eh?…Before I could do anything he pulled me by my shorts over to him, and reached his hands down my pants and grabbed a hold of a d— and just held on to it.”

He alleges Frost then said: “Well, Sheldon (Keefe) has a pretty big c—. Why don’t you pull it out and show Tommy what a real d— looks like.”

As difficult as it is to imagine it deteriorates even further when young Tom says he was forcefully confined.

“They tape my legs to the bunk bed,” Jefferson is quoted in The Lost Dream. “I’m pulling away and trying to get loosen it and Frost is slapping me…Then Frost grabbed my penis and taped it around and around. Everyone was laughing, taking pictures — and I know that because the pictures were later found (at Sheldon Keefe’s parents house).”

The OPP still have these photographs.

So I know what you are thinking. Why the hell was none of this put before a judge and jury?

Frost says it’s because “it’s all ridiculous” and that “I wasn’t even there for a lot of what was alleged.”

In an e-mail Wednesday Frost said that the whole book is one-sided — Simmons didn’t talk to him or any of the other principals involved.

“Everyone who was present at the cottage was interviewed during the investigation,” Frost wrote. “They all cooperated with police.”

And as he points out, there were no charges laid against anyone present at the cottage.

“This is significant in itself but this (book) was born out of hatred and money from the side of Steve Jefferson,” Frost writes. “It’s really that simple.”

It’s the million dollar question and raises the idea that perhaps not only should there be further investigation into these allegations but also into what transpired.

“It should have been (brought up in court),” said several OPP detectives who know the case well. “Simmons describes a heated argument with the Crown (over) why it wasn’t and I confirm…it was bloody heated. The thing is not only did police believe Tom’s story, we also had photographs of the dancing on the table and of the incident with the gun. It was evidence backed up with photographs that was our point of view to the Crown.”

In the end, however, the prosecutors, believing there was no reasonable prospect for a conviction, decided not to pursue this avenue.

“It was my word against theirs,” Tom tells Simmons.

Now his father Steve and mother Sue are hoping that perhaps there will be a change of heart in the Crown’s office and Tom’s story can be presented in open court. “I don’t see why not,” Steve said. It was an assault on a 13-year-old. What else do you call it? I would just like it put before a jury to see what they think. That’s not asking too much. I want to ruin his life, just like he ruined mine.”

In order for it to end up back in a courtroom one of the witnesses, including Mike Danton now playing hockey in Sweden, would have to change his or her story, my OPP sources tell me.

Stay tuned because in this sick but real life drama, who knows what could happen next.

—–

REVIEW: The lost dream: The story of Mike Danton, David Frost, and a broken Canadian family

Book by Steve Simmons

Reviewed by Michael Friscolanti on Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Mike Danton tried to hire two different people to murder his agent, David Frost. The first, a strip club bouncer, ignored the hockey player’s frantic phone messages. (“Help me out any way you can, please,” Danton said in one voice mail. “It’s a matter of life and death.”) The second would-be hit man—a police dispatcher, of all things—tipped off the FBI. Danton was arrested on April 16, 2004, just three days after scoring his first and only NHL playoff goal.

Behind bars and on the brink of suicide, the St. Louis Blues forward spent hours on the prison telephone, talking to the one man who had always been in his corner: David Frost, the same person he conspired to kill.

“Do I have to worry about my safety anymore?” Frost asked during one conversation, recorded by authorities.

“No you don’t,” Danton answered. “I gotta go.”

“Okay, do you love me?” Frost asked.

“Yes,” Danton whispered.

“Say it.”

“I love you.”

How Mike Danton arrived at that moment—professing love for a man he desperately wanted dead—is a mystery many journalists have tried to unravel over the past seven years. The Lost Dream, by Toronto Sun columnist Simmons, is the most exhaustive attempt yet. Based on dozens of interviews, court transcripts—and a few wild rumours—Simmons crafts a chilling account of how a 12-year-old budding hockey star from Brampton, Ont., fell so deep under David Frost’s spell that homicide became his only escape.

Neither Frost nor Danton agreed to speak to Simmons, and both have repeatedly refuted the U.S. government’s version of events. (They now claim that the real target of Danton’s murder-for-hire plot was his estranged father, not Frost.) The truth, of course, is obvious to anyone who reads the court file—or listens to those prison recordings. But as the book makes clear, in David Frost’s world, only one opinion matters.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Eric Fink]

http://nhlgms.com/index.php

I haven't read this but I keep getting it sent to my email…. "Behind the Moves" NHL GM's tell how winners are built. I'm curious to see how it is.

[hockeygod]

Eric wrote:
http://nhlgms.com/index.php

I haven't read this but I keep getting it sent to my email…. "Behind the Moves" NHL GM's tell how winners are built. I'm curious to see how it is.

Thanks Eric. I am going to search it out! Hadn't heard of it before now… release date is "Autumn, 2011" and the cost is $100.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Back in the Bigs – Book Review

Gregg Drinnan, Kamloops Daily News, October 13, 2011

Yes, they're back . . .

If you’re a hockey fan, chances are you were in front of a TV set on Sunday and watched at least part of the game from the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

This was the regular-season return of the Jets to Winnipeg and not even a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens could ruin the atmosphere.

And if you’re a hockey fan chances are pretty good that you really will enjoy Back in the Bigs, a book loaded with photos and the story of the Jets as written by Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Turner and the photographs tell the story of the Jets, going all the way back to the days of Ben Hatskin — was he, you know, connected? — and the Junior Jets.

Turner tells the complete story, too.

When you think of the Winnipeg Jets, chances are you think immediately of the big line — Ulf Nilsson between Bobby Hull and Anders Hedberg — or maybe Dale Hawerchuk.

It’s true that time and distance make the heart grow fonder, so you may have forgotten that despite the presence of the likes of the four aforementioned players, the Jets never were a rip-roaring success in Winnipeg.

Oh, the fans loved the Jets the day it all ended — the Detroit Red Wings beat the host Jets 4-1 in a playoff game on April 28, 1996. The Winnipeg franchise was then relocated to Phoenix.

But travel back in time with Turner and read about how the Jets, featuring Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson, rarely sold out the Winnipeg Arena when they played in the now-defunct World Hockey Association.

And things didn’t get much better when the NHL ended the war between the leagues by begrudgingly accepting four teams, including the Jets.

Turner touches on all of that and, by the time Winnipeg is gearing up to welcome back the second-coming of its Jets, you are wondering how a team that struggled for acceptance as a WHA team and later as an NHL entry can make a go of it this time around?

More than anything, though, there are great hockey stories in this book. Stories of how Hatskin landed Hull and how Hedberg and Nilsson came to play in Winnipeg, even though neither player had even visited North America. Remember, too, that the Jets had more Europeans on their roster than just those two skaters.

There is lots here, too, on the fiery John Ferguson, who during his stint as general manager was the face of the Jets.

Turner also delves into Winnipeg’s lengthy stay in the American Hockey League — its franchise was the Manitoba Moose, an affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. If you are wondering how it is that Craig Heisinger, a former trainer with the Brandon Wheat Kings, moved from the Moose, where he started as the trainer, to the Jets, where he now is director of player operations, you need only read about his going nose-to-nose with Brian Burke, then the Canucks’ GM.

Through the pages of this book you will get a look at Mark Chipman and David Thomson, the two men most responsible for the Jets’ return to Winnipeg. And you’ll read all about how it happened.

There also are a whole lot of terrific photos and it’s great to see some of the older ones from the archives of the late, great Winnipeg Tribune, most from the always capable camera of Jon Thordarson.

(Hard cover, Viking Canada/Winnipeg Free Press, 208 pages, $35)

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Ron MacLean shares opinions on hockey and details life with Grapes

The Canadian Press, 2011-10-16

"Cornered: "Hijinks, Highlights, Late Nights and Insights," Ron MacLean with Kirstie McLellan Day, HarperCollins Canada, 307 pages, $33.99.

TORONTO – He doesn't like the salary cap, thinks the ice surface is too small, and believes a string of rule changes have "put hockey on a road to hell paved with good intentions."

Ron MacLean may be thought of as Don Cherry's setup man in some quarters but the veteran "Hockey Night in Canada" host is not short of his own opinions.

MacLean gives his side of the story in "Cornered," co-written with Kirstie McLellan Day. The book is subtitled "Hijinks, Highlights, Late Nights and Insights."

"Cornered" is a lot like MacLean himself—entertaining, erudite and all over the place.

Comfortable in his own skin, the 51-year-old native of Red Deer, Alta., has no problems in opening up, from what his house cost to not having kids with wife Cari.

"I sometime feel that without children to sort of rein me in and give me responsibility, I've never really grown up," MacLean writes. "I've been able to play hockey, go out with my buddies and become obsessive about work. I'm selfish in a way that children don't allow you to be. I'm not saying that is a good thing or a bad thing, It's just the way it is."

MacLean literally opens the book on his life, detailing what he makes throughout his career although he doesn't share his current salary. He does acknowledge making $475,000 going into the contentious 2002 contract negotiations that triggered a flurry of public support for him.

"I think I end up in the book around a half-million and I'm not far off that now," he said in an interview.

"I've always believed in transparency," he said by way of explanation. "That book isn't me totally laid bare but it's very close. … People have this perception that Ron's this saint sitting next to Don, getting bullied. Well it's often the other way around, of course."

"Cornered" does lift the cover on the MacLean-Cherry dynamic—a life built "around conversations over beers at night."

The two like to throw some light beers into a bucket filled with ice and cold water—"You have to have a lot of water so the cold transfers quickly," he explains—and decide what to talk about on "Hockey Night."

"That's our favourite time," MacLean said. "And it's probably a favourite time on Wednesday night when I play beer-league hockey, go back to the pub afterwards and just talk about everything under the sun."

In his foreword, Cherry credits MacLean for him lasting 25 years on TV.

"I feel he is like my defence partner on the Rochester Americans, Darryl Sly," Cherry writes. "He carried me on the ice for years. I had my strengths—tough in front of the net, I could fight and hit. But Darryl did all the legwork for me."

From a man who admits he is not giving of compliments, it is the highest praise. And when raised, it clearly pleases MacLean.

Cherry, he says, is misunderstood and his "smarts" underrated. There is far more than garish suits, high collars, and endless bluster.

"A lot of depth in Don," MacLean said. "Extremely well read, extremely bright.

"It's so nice to be with somebody that is so quick-witted," he added. "As I always say he's little quicker because he doesn't weigh the consequences the way I might. But that's a joy in our business, because everything else is so scripted and so structured. It's lovely to see someone live by their wits."

Cherry may not mince words, but he usually thinks ahead, MacLean added.

"He works at it," he said. "He doesn't just shoot from the hip. He sits and stews about what he's going to say for days on end."

Interestingly, the book comes out in the midst of yet another Cherry controversy. "Coach's Corner" came with an apology Saturday night as Cherry backed off comments made during the season opener about a trio of former tough guys.

On the issue of hockey, MacLean worries that the game has become too much about "the instant gratification of the goal."

"To quote U.S. founding father Thomas Paine, 'Be careful not to admire the plumage and ignore the dying bird,' " he writes.

On the subject of "Coach's Corner," MacLean details the many missteps but also his dissatisfaction at times when he saw unwarranted interference from the CBC higher-ups.

"It's a very tricky dance," he said of the network's journalistic-rights-holder dichotomy, a tangle complicated by the CBC's role as public broadcaster.

He also shines a spotlight on his much publicized contract dispute, calling it "a three-day circus."

"It was like a car accident for me and I was glad to be done with it," he said. "Grateful for the process and grateful for the support, obviously, but clearly glad to get through it."

Readers will leave "Cornered" with a better handle on the author.

MacLean's unfettered enthusiasm for events like "Hockey Day in Canada" makes far more sense when one reads about a youth that saw multiple stops across the country.

"Two things shaped me: the rink rat and air force brat," he explained. "And being an only child … All those friendships, all those invitations you got were such a huge relief because you were so lonely when you moved into each new location.

"So it's just such a joy to go do 'Hockey Day' and know that you're giving those folks a chance to be recognized the way I felt I needed when I was a kid and pretty vulnerable."

MacLean says he had past offers to write a book but cites McLellan Day, a friend, as the one who convinced him to finally take the plunge.

"I'm really grateful I did, in hindsight," he said. "We all find navel-gazing and that kind of thing a little bit awkward. I think when you do this for a living, you get so much blame and acclaim that you had enough of it. But I'm glad I did it."

Adds MacLean: "It gives you an idea of what to hate about me and what to like about me."

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Gerry James did it all in storied sports career:

Gerry James, A.K.A. Kid Dynamite, was a rare breed of athlete who played for both the Blue Bombers and the Maple Leafs.

JIM BENDER, QMI Agency, Oct 20 2011

WINNIPEG – The first reaction to a book just released about CFL legend Gerry James is that it came out about 40 years too late.

After all, he starred at running back, kick returner and placekicker during the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ glory years back in the 1950s and early ‘60s.

Yet, his biography still resonates today and Kid Dynamite, The Gerry James Story (Oolichan Books, $35) by Ron Smith is a must-read for both diehard Bombers and CFL fans, and even some NHL observers.

James is one of only two players to ever play pro football in the CFL and pro hockey in the NHL playoffs. Lionel (Big Train) Conacher was the first. James is the only one to win the Grey Cup back in 1959, then play in the Stanley Cup final in the same season, 1959-60. He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were swept by the powerful Montreal Canadiens.

James, who became the youngest lad to ever play in the CFL at 17, also became the very first recipient of the Schenley Award for Most Outstanding Canadian in 1954, and won it again in 1957. He would also become the first to follow his father, Eddie (Dynamite) James into the CFL Hall of Fame.

James not only set a number of CFL records, he was also such a good hockey player that there was a tug-of-war for his services. He would play both for a while, then stuck with football.

After his two-sport career was over, James became a successful junior hockey coach.

“It (the book) was Ron’s idea,” said James, who will be the Bombers honourary captain when they play the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday, his 77th birthday.

“I decided it was important to start celebrating people who had excelled in sport in Canada,” said Smith, who golfs with James on the West Coast where they live.

“We thought this would be a good time to bring forth a number of things in the book in regards to my career and what kind of influence I’ve had with people in regards to hockey and coaching hockey and that kind of stuff,” said James, who will be at the Bomber Store to sign his book on Friday, 5-7 p.m.

The book reveals some rather surprising details of both his careers, the relationship with his dad and the fact so few knew he played with almost no sight in one eye after getting hit with a puck. And he still resents the way Bombers head coach/GM Bud Grant released him in 1963.

“A highlight was running back a kickoff (for a TD) in 1957 in the Western Final against Edmonton,” said James, who suffered the broken hand in that match. “We went to the Grey Cup Game and we were bruised, battered and broken pretty much.”

James, who was born in Regina but spent his teenage years in Winnipeg, will never forget his NHL highlights.

“Just playing in that 1960 final against such a great Montreal Canadiens team,” he said. “The other one is the first game I played in the NHL. It was in Montreal when I was still playing junior in Toronto (1954-55). Eric Nesterenko got hurt and I was called up to play on a line with Ted Kennedy and Sid Smith which, of course, was a top line with the Leafs at the time. To go into the Montreal Forum and play against all those greats was just a great thrill.”

The most embarrassing moment of his Bombers’ career came when he missed a convert twice, but got a third chance due to Lions’ penalties.

“Finally, (receiver) Farrell Funston comes into the huddle and says, ‘I’m open for the pass.’ I was laughing so hard that I kicked it right into (centre George) Druxman’s butt,” he said.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

I pre-ordered Game Sense Through Tactical Learning: A Resource for Teachers and Coaches

Kai

[hockeygod]

Looks good Kai. I am going to try to source it too. Also, waiting for the release of "Behind the Moves" where NHL GM's tell how winners are built.

You will have to do a quick review once you have a chance to read it!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

Book Review: Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell how Winners are Built

http://www.hockeynow.ca, Posted in BC Edition, Alberta Edition, Ontario Edition, Product Reviews, October 19, 2011

Review by Brian Burke, President & General Manager, Toronto Maple Leafs

By now you've already heard about a book that I am truly excited about, Behind the Moves: NHL General Managers Tell how Winners are Built. Finally, a book has been compiled about the National Hockey League's general managers, and by an author for whom I have great respect.

Behind the Moves is part encyclopedia, part history book, part manual for would-be managers. And it's your ticket to the general manager's office, where you'll find out all about the trades, the championships, the negotiations with agents, and the day-to-day dealing with owners and the media. You'll enjoy it, and you'll learn a lot, too.

NHL GMs are busy guys, but I and 34 of the top GMs all-time have personally invested significant time, energy, and materials into the making of this book, giving you totally unique insight into pro hockey. Behind the Moves is not an outsiders account, it's an insider's view of what's truly involved in being an NHL GM! For me, it has been a true honor to be associated with so many iconic hockey personalities through the making of Behind the Moves; friends and colleagues like Glen Sather, Pat Quinn, and George McPhee, but also legends whom I was fortunate enough to overlap with like Bill Torrey, Emile Francis, and Sam Pollock. Like each of them, I am proud of our game's history and tradition and the men who shaped the teams that have excited fans over the years. And because I was so impressed with the concept of Behind the Moves, I jumped in and wrote the book's Foreword.

I believe that the NHL's general managers have been the brains and the conscience of the game since the league opened for business in 1917. Yet, surprisingly, little has been written about them. But is there a more important job on the team than the guy who puts the team together?

Like you, I've always been interested in knowing what other managers thought, so I could maybe learn to emulate certain types and avoid the other kinds. Behind the Moves is that playbook for all managers and those aspiring to get into, or move up in, the game. You'll hear directly from the GMs who all share an undying passion for the game; past managers, current managers, champions, tenured veterans, innovators, old-schoolers, educated men and men with diplomas marked "Original Six."

If you're looking for the plays and strategies to cultivate winners, Behind the Moves is the guidebook, Go buy it now at http://www.nhlgms.com

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

The Lost Dream – Review

TAKING NOTE, Gregg Drinnan, Oct 30 2011

Every hockey parent should read The Lost Dream, a book written by Toronto Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons. The book’s subtitle is The Story of Mike Danton, David Frost, and a Broken Canadian Family. . . . This book tells an ugly, ugly story, one with which you may be familiar as Danton — he was Mike Jefferson before changing his name. . . . There are so many angles to this story that it is impossible to list them all there. . . . Just read the book if you get the opportunity. . . . My only real quibble is with the book’s title. It should be: The Lost Family.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Author]

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