A native of Oslo, Norway, who played at UMass Lowell, Kim Brandvold is a director for Dynamic Skating and skating and skills coach for the Boston Bruins, working with prospects in Providence and full-time players in Boston.
Brandvold tutors players of all ages and abilities and is passionate about teaching the game. NEHJ contributor Billy Jaffe sat down with Brandvold to chat player development and other hockey topics.
Billy Jaffe: How does one become an NHL skills coach?
Kim Brandvold: I started under Paul Vincent, who most people know from this area. He has run camps for a long time and worked in the NHL for a long time. I kind of leaned the ropes that way. He has a particular system that he runs in terms of the skating portion of it and the skills as well. You get an education from that. From what I’ve learned, it seems like it translates well to the pro level as well. ... You garner a certain reputation, especially if you do a decent job, and obviously if you have some good players that you work with over a longer period of time, that certainly helps. For me, I was lucky enough to meet Jack Eichel when he was about 14 years old.
Jaffe: How did you meet Jack Eichel?
Brandvold: Through skating obviously. Most people that are in hockey will try to find their way to find things that people will say are good. Whether they are or not, that’s up to each person to judge. That’s how we met, and developed a relationship, and obviously it worked out really well.
Jaffe: You’ve been associated with the Bruins for three to four years now. What is it like working with pro players compared to amateur players? Skill is the big difference, but what else?
Brandvold: I have junior and college players that are better skilled and more technically refined than a lot of the pro players. They’re obviously not as good players, but the one thing (with pros) is just the focus and the willingness to learn, and the want to always learn. Anything you bring to them, they absorb, and they can figure things out quicker than the amateur player.
Jaffe: How do we find that balance of coaching and not overcoaching the youth?
Brandvold: We all know that the results don’t matter at a younger age. I can say that from having coached youth teams that were these “super teams.” We had teams that went 51-1 and all this different stuff. Some of those kids went on to become really good players, some didn’t, some don’t even play hockey anymore. It really doesn’t matter as you trickle up. In terms of refining players or maybe training too much … you always hear kids are skating too much.
That being said, there are worse things that you can do than skating year round. We all know that you should play different sports and it’s important to be an athlete. But I think if you are on the ice, doing things that are productive, I think it’s OK to be on the ice year round. But I see a lot of kids where they are just skating to skate. I’m not talking about just skating a pickup game, which I think there is value to. It’s, “Oh, I have to go to this skills session,” and “I’m going to go do this” and there’s so many different things. You’re doing kung fu and karate and boxing and jiu-jitsu at the same time and you’re not learning the trade. That’s the difference.
Jaffe: Who has got the perfect skating stride?
Brandvold: There’s no such thing as a perfect stride because everybody is built differently. A guy that’s 6-6 and a guy that’s 5-6 are going to have two different strides naturally … different body types and all that stuff. (Ottawa Senators’) Mikkel Boedker, he is a beautiful skater. Obviously you have a lot more of unique stride with Jack Eichel. That’s pretty special as well. Everyone talks about Connor McDavid. He’s a great skater as well. I would say Eichel and Boedker are my favorite strides. Patrick Marleau, probably one of the all-time best skaters. You don’t realize how fast he is because everything is so technically perfect.
Jaffe: Who have you worked with in the last few years who have changed their stride the most?
Brandvold: Everyone’s read about Z (Zdeno Chara) working on his game and his stride. He’s certainly one of them. Adam (McQuaid) has constantly evolved himself in terms of working on his feet and all that stuff. He’s probably not the most natural skater, but someone like Noel Acciari has become a lot more effective, and he’s put a lot to it and people may not know about that. His turns, his lateral movements. That’s what it is with a lot of guys, too.
Jaffe: What’s your opinion, especially for youth players, on skate blade length and turn radius and profiling?
Brandvold: I’m all for it, as long as you don’t use it to compensate for your weaknesses. … When you’re really young, 7 years old, you don’t need a Z channel on your skate, or a composite stick. Those are the things that I think we’re missing a bit.
Jaffe: What would you say to a young player — not the learn-to-skate player — but the 8-year-old, the 10-year-old — to make sure they are putting themselves in the best position to skate better?
Brandvold: Let’s start with bending your knees. You have to bend your knees. You see most skaters naturally are just too upright. Some of that is they are not muscularly strong enough or you might be a bigger kid who hasn’t grown into his body, but you’ve got to get lower. That’s number one.
Number two would be outside edges. That’s probably one of the most neglected areas because people don’t like to teach it or coach it because it’s tough. It takes a while and it’s not just getting on your outside edge, it’s turning your upper body the right direction and all those things. People neglect that. Last thing would be transferring the weight properly.
