Skating coach of stars gives tips to hockey academy students
Long recognized as one of hockey ’s greatest innovators, Roger Neilson is the NHL coach Marianne Watkins credits for getting her foot in the door as a now highly respected skating coach.
“Roger was one of the first coaches who got me into what I’m doing,” said Watkins, who works with many of the NHL’s top prospects, not to mention pros dotted across the rosters of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks. Watkins was on the ice at Central Park Athletics in Windsor Thursday afternoon working with 10 midget-aged players from the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board’s sport academies. “It takes her about 10 seconds to earn the respect of any player,” said Kevin Hamlin, the board’s principal of innovation/academies. “She’s forgotten more about skating then I’ll ever know.” Hamlin noticed Watkins was headed to the area as a presenter at the 30th annual Roger Neilson Coaches Clinic Friday through Sunday at the University of Windsor.
Having known her from 25 years of doing hockey camps together, he quickly reached out to arrange an on-ice visit with some of his students.
“I’ve seen her work with NHL players and I’ve seen her work with 10-year-olds,” Hamlin said. “She has that ability to relate to the group that she’s teaching.” A native of Peterborough, Watkins initially coached figure skating before morphing into power skating when a player on the Peterborough Petes’ OHL team asked for help in improving his stride. Then-head coach Dick Todd took note of the player’s improvement and soon had Watkins working with the entire Petes team every Monday.
Those were the glory days of the Peterborough club when the roster was loaded with future NHL players such as Chris Pronger, Tie Domi, Jamie Langenbrunner. Watkins heaped unexpected praise on Domi, the Belle River native, for his skating. “People thought of him as just a goon but he was an amazing skater,” Watkins said. “His technique was excellent but nobody paid attention to that.”
Watkins also worked with Leamington native and former Detroit Red Wings forward Darren McCarty.
“I was a big Darren McCarty fan,” Watkins said. “I know his life has been up and down but he was a good guy.”
Watkins was the first female to speak at a Neilson Coaches Clinic five years ago.
She’s back for the 30th anniversary to talk about how skating and the game have changed. “Today’s game is so efficient, you can’t throw in extra steps,” she said. “Efficiency now is everything. It’s about how efficiently they can skate. You can’t run or jump, you can’t waste time or space any more.”
She said one key to better technique is starting off-ice training earlier for young players. She’s not talking about lifting weights but rather more European style movements, such as walking lunges, lateral lunges and one-legged hops — anything that simulates the muscle movement used for skating.
Watkins is the hockey skating director for the Robert Morris University Sports Centre and Hockey Academy in Pittsburgh. She’s been featured in a Paul Coffey instructional video and she was the exclusive skating coach for Wayne Gretzky’s Future Stars camps. “She’s dynamic on the ice,” Hamlin said. “She knows exactly what she’s doing and how she’s doing it.” Hamlin said the same group of local academy players will be part of a clinic Saturday at the Vollmer Complex, sharing the ice with Watkins, veteran NHL assistant coach Dan Lacroix and David Manning, head coach at St. Andrew’s Prep School in Aurora.
“These kids are lucky because they’re in the (OHL) draft-eligible class,” Hamlin said. “They’re pretty excited.”
Pavel Datsyuk, Joe Siddall, Joel Quenneville, Ed Jovanovski, Mike Babcock and Pat Stapleton are just a few of the other guest speakers Hamlin has brought in for academy students in the past.
It’s about how efficiently they can skate. You can’t run or jump, you can’t waste time or space any more.