Serial Winning Coach ChPC MIKE BABCOCK PASSION, HARD WORK, A RELENTLESS DRIVE AND “A BIT OF FEAR OF NOT BEING GREAT” By Barry Bartlett Mike Babcock, ChPC, has been named a !Serial Winning Coach" by the International Council for Coach Education. #e successes that placed him on the winners$ list include leading teams to: a Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship (1994), World Junior championship (1997), World championship (2004), Stanley Cup championship (2008) and an Olympic gold medal (2010). We caught up with Babcock who shared his winning strategies. PHOTO COURTESY HOCKEY CANADA COURTESY PHOTO 34 | MARCH 2013 | Coaches plan MARCH 2013 COACH DETROIT RED WINGS COACH CANADIAN OLYMPIC TEAM OLYMPIC CANADIAN DETROIT RED WINGS COACH COACH MIKE BABCOCK :: HOCKEY PROFILE COVER Coaches plan | MARCH 2013 | 35 After summer camp, the 46 players “You have to be relentless in your returned to their own teams. We watched preparation and work ethic to do and evaluated the players all fall to reduce the list from 46 to 22 guys. We anything great.” — MIKE BABCOCK held many conference calls to select what we believed were the right players. We hit the ground running in Vancouver; everyone knew what was expected of Q: What’s the key to winning Later that summer, the management them. We were not trying to win the gold medals? team, trainers, support staff and coach- championship on day one. Our objective ing staff went to a coaching camp in Van- A: “The one quality everyone brings was to simply get better each day in couver. Some people thought we were to the table is passion. Then comes the every area, in our ability to talk to the just going golfing. Well, the coaching preparation process—from selecting players, to find the best combinations staff worked 16 hours a day designing the the staff to selecting the players and and to improve our ability to understand curriculum of how we would approach designing a curriculum which will build what the players needed from us. The the Olympic Games and how we would the foundation of how to play in all power play, the penalty kill, and how we introduce it to players at summer camp. zones, in all situations, so that the were going to play in all zones, would We went back to the three step process: players’ skills come out. get better every day. work ethic comes first, structure comes The key to winning the gold medal was I’m a big believer in this three-step second, and your skill comes out third. losing to the U.S. in the round robin— process—work ethic comes first, struc- Structure is about people knowing where we faced adversity early. When you win, ture comes second and your skill set they need to be in all situations on the ice, you feel good about yourself. When you comes third. However, in the end, your knowing what everyone’s job is and trust- lose in your own country and the weight passion and love of the sport is what ing each other to get the job done. allows you to be relentless in your of the whole nation is on you, you dig in At our coaches’ camp we worked hard— approach to excellence. You have to be and get better. That’s what we did. I don’t all four coaches shared their best ideas relentless in your preparation and work meet with the players post-game ever. and insights. I shared everything we do in ethic to do anything great.” I just shake their hands when we win Detroit. Some people asked why I shared and leave them alone when we lose. We Q: You led Team Canada to gold at my best ideas with other coaches who met with the players that night after the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in are my NHL competition. My answer was they showered to clear the air, to make Vancouver. Was there any difference ‘Because I want to win.’ If I shared what I sure they understood what was coming between your approach with the did, I could expect the others to do the and what had happened. We cleared coaching/management team and same. We pooled our best thoughts, and their minds and made sure we all had the team on the ice during the as a staff, decided how we were going to one message—‘a step a day’—we get Olympics? play. We had a four-day summer camp to better every day. We came back the next introduce our foundation to the 46 day and got better and kept getting A: “I thought it was an unbelievable players. All of our pre-work paid off. We better. In the end, when we played experience. When Team Canada execu- were so organized it was just like clock- the Russians in the quarter-finals, the tive director Steve Yzerman gave me the work: video, practice sessions, on to the Olympics could have been over, which job, the first thing we did was to hold a game, boom, boom, boom. This is what would have been a huge disaster. But as press conference at the draft in Montreal we did so we could hit the ground running a group, we were steady on the rudder, to introduce the complete coaching at the Olympics. we communicated well with our players staff. After the press conference, we and we stayed composed. discussed the 46 players we would invite Often people think that success in team to the summer camp, and the manage- sports is when one guy does something In the end, Canadians can tell you where ment team called the players. Then I supernatural to get you over the top. they were when Sid scored the goal. It grabbed some beers and sat down with More often than not, to be great you was just one of those moments and we the four coaches. We had the best two- have to just do your little part so that the were blessed to be a part of it. The hour coaching clinic I’ve ever attended, group can execute and be great together. greatest part was that we shared it with just talking to each other about the Execution and trust lead to speed, and our families and our country. When game. That was my first taste of what speed in our game kills. We understood great things happen in sport, if you can a great learning opportunity this was we were going to be a work in progress have someone to share it with, it’s even going to be for me. once we arrived in Vancouver. better.” 36 | MARCH 2013 | Coaches plan Q: What makes you a great coach? across as too strong, but the bottom line a dufus. When you do things right every is I love my players and I love hockey.” day, you are respected. A: “I believe that winning or losing is in the details, the minute details, and the Q: Do you have a sense of how When you’re a coach in the spotlight, pride you bring to the job every day. I great people think you are? you’re inspected daily. You go beyond once overheard a coach say that he being a coach, you become a leader in A: “I know how lucky I am. I have three wasn’t as ‘hungry’ as he used to be. the community and what you do makes beautiful children and I have a wife who That’s not me. I’m crazy about winning, a difference. How you act, how you treat is so dynamic and my best friend— I’m not a bad loser or a bad sport, but I people, your daily interactions—these that’s the measure of me. Not winning love to win. I love the process and I love serve as an example to others. I like to gold medals and Stanley Cups, al- the journey. Scotty Bowman, who I think think I’ve been given a platform to make though it’s a thrill to do that. My energy was the all-time greatest coach in our a difference, to help kids with cancer, to comes from my family. game, embraced lifelong learning. He make a difference in my community, to understood that if you did it tomorrow raise money for the hospitals. When we the same way you do it today, it wasn’t going to be good enough. The challenge is to keep getting better. I believe that I’m an experienced coach “Sometimes the now; some might even say I’m old, but if you have the passion and the work ethic intensity I have to match the experience, then you’re better than the guy who doesn’t have can come across the experience. If you have lost your as too strong, passion, look out. When I was a young coach I used to say experience was but the bottom over-rated because I didn’t have any.” line is I love Q: What are the three personality traits you bring to coaching? my players and A: “Well, I would pick four: JAMESTETERENKO / CREATIVE COMMONS I love hockey.” 1. Integrity: I’m a good person. If you’re not a good person, that will show through right away and you’ll never motivate anyone. 2. Relentless work ethic: Coaching is a We won the gold in 2010 and some are given an opportunity we have to passion. I love it and I’m always trying to might have had their fill, but I’m still embrace it.