Season 3, Episode 9 – The Hockey Toolkit Guest: Brian Gillam of Brian Gillam Hockey
Welcome back to The Hockey Toolkit! In Season 3, Episode 9, Trevor and Andrew are joined by a special guest—Brian Gillam, a true veteran in the world of hockey development.
With over 40 years of experience, Brian brings an incredible wealth of knowledge. He currently serves as the Coach Development Coordinator for Hockey Eastern Ontario, is a certified Hockey Canada Skills Coach, and is recognized as a High Performance Coach. In this deep-dive conversation, the trio explores Brian’s progressive and practical coaching strategies that are helping shape the future of player development in minor hockey.
In this episode, they discuss:
- The Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) & Ecological Dynamics
- Teaching Skating: Technical breakdowns vs. a “pond hockey” style of learning
- Coaching the Coaches
- And much more thoughtful insight into modern hockey development
Brian also shares a curated list of influential books that have shaped his coaching philosophy:
📚 How We Learn to Move – Rob Gray
📚 Learning to Optimize Movement – Rob Gray
📚 Learning to be an Ecological Coach – Rob Gray
📚 Dynamics of Skill Acquisition: An Ecological Dynamics Approach – Chris Button, Keith Davids, Duarte Araujo, Jia Yi Chow
📚 The Constraints-Led Approach – Ian Renshaw, Keith Davids, Will Roberts & Daniel Newcombe
📚 Non-Linear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition – Jia Yi Chow, Keith Davids, Chris Button, Ian Renshaw
📚 Transforming Basketball – Alex Sarama
📚 The Coach’s Guide to Teaching – Doug Lemov
🧊 Don’t forget to check out Andrew Trimble’s book: The Hockey Planner: A Year-by-Year Plan to Assist You on Your Hockey Coaching Journey – From Learn to Play to Junior Hockey Available now on Amazon 📖 Link
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