“I don’t profess to being an expert on teaching defencemen and developing them, this presentation is more about my experience over time, what I’m seeing in today’s game and how I’m seeing some coaches teach it and how I can help some coaches look at it differently.”
Jim Tortorella, assistant coach with the Harvard’s men’s hockey team, knows a cookie-cutter for developing defencemen doesn’t exist. He does know, however, what has been most effective in creating confident, skilled blueliners based on his wealth of coaching experience. And he’s got a lot of it.
This past season was Tortorella’s fourth on Harvard’s coaching staff; he oversees the Crimson defensive corps, penalty killing and recruiting. Tortorella, who brings over two decades of experience at the collegiate level to Harvard — including prior stints at Providence College, the University of New Hampshire and Colby College, currently holds a master certificate from USA Hockey, the organization’s highest level of coaching education achievement.
In addition to his experience at the collegiate level, Tortorella has also worked with USA Hockey as the long-time Director of New England Select Teams Player Development (1997-2003, 2008-15) and has coached at two stints with the USA World Junior Team (1999, 2000). He has also been highly involved with the American Hockey Coaches Association, including serving as the association’s president (2002-03).
Tortorella is a wealth of hockey knowledge and his 33-minute presentation from the College Hockey Inc. Virtual Coaching Clinic is proof of that. This video includes nearly 10 minutes of NHL examples, as well as practice drills you can implement with your team, and also explains why simply aiming for defencemen with high success rates is like looking at a finished meal without taking into account all the ingredients.
Becoming an elite d-man starts with skill set, before defining identity, modelling, understanding risk reward ratio and achieving consistent execution, as Tortorella explains. He breaks down defining identity with some key questions, explains modelling and how video is a key to that, explains five key factors to the risk reward ratio, and defines consistent execution (habits-details-urgency-success).
This video is available exclusively to members of The Coaches Site.
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Jim Tortorella
Jim Tortorella enters his fourth year on the Harvard men's ice hockey coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2021-22. He oversees the Crimson defensive corps, penalty killing and recruiting. Tortorella, who brings over two decades of experience at the collegiate level to Harvard -- including prior stints at Providence College, the University of New Hampshire and Colby College, currently holds a master certificate from USA Hockey, the organization's highest level of coaching education achievement.
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