gotmyteam meets Larry Huras, head coach and co-founder of Hockey Coach Vision

Before reading our interview, I would like to remind that if you are looking for a new team or for new players for your team, you can join our platform gotmyteam. You'll find all the information needed here.

Larry Huras is probably one of the only Canadian coaches who spent all his career managing in Europe.

As the young coach that I am, it is always passionating to discuss with Larry.

By working in several countries and hockey cultures you always learn a lot from listening to him. Especially when he tells about his experiences, positives or negatives. You often end up the conversation with new ideas to apply with your team.

In this long interview, you will hear about the challenges he faced in Europe, how important it is to communicate with clarity, the future of coaching and what is behind Hockey Coach Vision, the application co-developed during the last years.

Hi Larry, could you introduce yourself for those who don’t know about you yet.

Okay, I was born in Listowel, Ontario, Canada....a long time ago!

When I was growing up everyone played hockey: my father played hockey, my uncles played hockey, my grandfather played hockey; so it was just natural for everybody to grow up playing hockey. I probably started skating when I was 4 and joined my first club when I was 5 or 6. Then you just start working through the system you know, all the way through minor hockey, through juniors and up until professionals.

Then my goal was always to play in the National Hockey League. I did play 2 games but for 5 years I was pretty much a minor leaguer playing in the Farm Clubs for the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues.

After 5 years I just decided that I did not want to play in the minors anymore, I went to Europe where my first stopover was Grenoble. I was very lucky with the timing. I got there at exactly the right time. We had a very good team and it was great. I was able to combine hockey with my studies, I also frequented Domène University full time for 2 years where I was learning French.

And at that time, I made some really great friends and we had some really good teams. We won 2 championships and probably should have won a third but we had a great time there. From there I moved from Grenoble to Gap where I stayed for 5 years. At that time I was 32 or 33 years old and started to have thoughts on how I would coach a team and how I would run a team. At that time, Gap was in a bit of trouble so it was time to leave. 

I ended up connecting with the president of Rouen’s team. On the first day we got together, we decided on a lot of changes and got my deal done. We fired 6 guys, hired 5 and we just kind of turned things around from that time and the rest is history. We had a very successful run in Rouen for the following 6 years and we won four national championships and played 2 European Cup finals. So, it was good. 

In 94 it was time for me to move on and try something new. I moved to Zurich, Switzerland. I felt a big difference coming from a team that didn't lose very often and into a team that hadn't won very often. So, I got a great education as a coach in my opinion. I tell people I learned more in my first 3 months in Zurich than I did my last 3 years in Rouen because I didn't deal with the same caliber of players. The league was very tough. That was the start of my career. 

"In coaching... there are not too many secrets anymore"

Then you know, being in Switzerland for about 20 years which is I guess 20 seasons, split over 4 or 5 different clubs, it's hard to keep track… but in that time for sure, I’ve become more of a European coach than a Canadian one. My coaching background is pretty much all European. I grew up in Canada, so my coaching style was influenced by both backgrounds. Every summer I tended to go to at least one Canadian coaching symposium, sometimes two, just to keep up and see what the professional coaches and other colleagues were doing. In Europe, I was always observing, watching and studying and I think one of the greatest parts about playing in the European Cup, Champions League or Continental Cup is that you get to play and coach alongside coaches and teams from all over Europe. That also had a very big influence on the way that I look at things, the way I see the game and this is something positive. 

When I found myself outside of Switzerland whether in Norway, Austria, Germany or Sweden, there were always things to be learned and they were all very positive experiences. Even my experience in Sweden which didn’t last that long was great. I learned a lot in a short time. I love the league and the people I met, the way they play - it was really a great experience.

I think the reason I've been involved in hockey for so long, especially in coaching at a high level, is that I've been able to change and move with the game. The game changes all the time and you have to be able to change and adapt and if you're lucky to be able to look ahead and see where the game is going.

You try to be one step ahead of the other coaches and that's getting more and more difficult because of the Internet, because of how easy it is to exchange information, so there are not too many secrets anymore. People can tune in, watch games in Sweden, Russia, Germany, Canada, Finland whenever they want. So, if they're willing to do the work they could see exactly what everybody's doing in those other countries.

Given your experience, how do you think European and North American hockey compare?  

I'd much rather watch a game from Switzerland, Sweden, Finland or Russia because they're tactically a lot more interesting to watch and there's a lot more puck control and playmaking. 

First of all, a North American game takes place on a super small ice surface, the players are really fast and seem really large in comparison. There isn’t a lot of time to do what you have to do. Everyone works hard, everyone is skating at full speed all the time forward and backward. And most of the coaches have a really conservative mentality that leads to the players having a defense-first, safety first attitude. Don't take any chances, don't turn the puck over and we'll grind them down and have them make mistakes. You live from other people's mistakes. And I mean that's the way the game is, in Europe, we have a slightly larger ice surface so the game is a bit different and more interesting to watch in my opinion.

Now when you get to the Stanley Cup Finals, and into the playoffs, it's a different game. Basically there are the regular-season games and then you have playoff games.

First, playoff games only feature the best teams and players. The technical level rises up, the intensity soars up and then yes, it is the absolute best league in the world, so there's no doubt as far as a spectator and a fan that I appreciate the intensity and the speed of things. I just sometimes think I'd like to see a little bit more puck control but some teams play that. Not every team plays the classic dump and chase style. Those are the teams that I like to watch. When Chicago was at their peak and when Detroit Red Wings were at their peak maybe 10 - 15 years ago, they were puck control teams. There still are speed teams, puck control teams and these are the most fun teams to watch.

What about the quality of coaching? 

Well, I think actually in Canada they're doing a pretty good job with the programs and things are still evolving. The coaching education program is much more advanced now. It is much more detailed now than what it used to be and the rules are changing as well. Youth coaches especially need to have a certain level, they have to attend certain courses to be able to coach the different levels of youth hockey. I think that's been a big improvement. We have a long way to go. 

Some countries I think do possibly better with the number of resources they have but in Canada, we've always been very successful because we have so many players and so many coaches. The bottom of our hockey resources pyramid is quite wide. By the time you get to the top, it can be quite high. That is usually because everybody is working and fighting so hard to move up the Hockey ladder so you're going to have become one of the best if you are going to rise to the top. When you start with a million people playing hockey you can go quite high and your top players are going to be pretty good.

"In Fr?lunda... they live and breathe hockey 24/7"

When you go to countries like Switzerland, that doesn't have nearly the numbers of coaches or players so they have to be more efficient and they have to be better at what they're doing to rise to the same level. I think that countries like Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the Czech Republic, along with Switzerland, are doing the best job in developing their youth. 

If you go to Gothenburg and visit Fr?lunda, you’d see their hockey academy and you’d see how it works. The infrastructure that they have makes it a real hockey factory. They produce hockey players. And when you see first of all the quality of the coaching, the facilities that they have - the infrastructure, you see that the amount of time that the players are on the ice, how they train, when they study, where they live, it is easy to understand why they are producing so many good players. I mean these kids....they live and breathe hockey 24/7. Repetition is key. 

You have to practice a lot but you have to practice correctly. If you combine the quality of the coaching, the facilities and the amount of time that these players get to have on the ice, to me it's no surprise that clubs like Fr?lunda or Swedish ones in general produce so many good players. 

Talking about coaching and players’ development, communication is a big part of it all. 

What are the benefits of learning several languages in your opinion?

So many.

There is a lot of discussion going on about how to best assimilate people of different cultures and languages into their new adopted countries. A lot of people believe that they should make things easy for people that do not speak their language...but I am not one of them. Imagine if you were going to France in 1980 as I did: nobody had started putting up English signs around the city for me. I had to learn French and that's how you learn French.

That's how you learn a language. You learn a language by assimilating into the culture and forcing yourself to do it because when you're living in France, you need to speak French every day and thus you learn the language. Short term pain and effort for long term gain.

"You can build a much greater connection if you learn the language"

I can give you a great example: when I went to Norway or when I went to Sweden, people there spoke English so well that I did not need to learn their languages to get around. Norwegians did not learn any Swedish possibly, but they were quite happy to speak English with me. This is my point that by wanting people to be at ease by providing everything in their language isn’t making it better for them, it’s only harder for them to learn the language.

If you try to hand them everything in their own language they don't have to learn. It's just kind of a different way of looking at things. By not learning the native language, people automatically restrict themselves to certain levels in work opportunities and in society as well.  

I can use my children as an example as well. When we moved to the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, in the area where we were there were no international schools, there was no option. They went directly into Italian public schools and sure, there were some days where they were crying a little bit and they didn't understand various things but in 3 months their Italian was great. They were doing everything in Italian and their Italian was far better than mine. That's just the way that people learn. 

People might think that oh you're being cruel to the people who can’t speak at first, that the approach is racist or xenophobic, but I say not at all. This is simply logical. This is just the way that things work. I find that all around the world people are trying to bend over backward to make things easy for people but they don't help them, they hurt them. 

For me, it's been of great help to learn all those languages and to be able to converse not only with my players but with the press, with journalists and with fans. You can build a much greater connection if you learn the language and I think that in general wherever I've been that the people have always appreciated that I've made an effort to learn their language.

And yes, I make mistakes, I still make mistakes whether I'm speaking French, German, Italian and even in English I make mistakes but the thing is that people appreciate that and I think it’s definitely been an advantage for me and it has opened doors for me that may have stayed closed had I not been able to speak these languages.

Do you have any advice for coaches willing to give Europe a go?

Well....first of all, there's no substitute for experience. And I think one of the biggest issues is that some coaches want to move to Europe too soon without having enough experience. When people come to me, I tell them: you have to have something to sell. You have to have some experience that makes you different from European coaches.

Why would I take an inexperienced Canadian or North American coach or French coach when I can have 10 Swedish coaches that are at the same level right now? You have to bring something that's a little bit different to the table. 

The first thing is experience, then you should go through the levels like in a local system whether it's a Canadian system, the American system, the French system; all the top hockey countries have their coaching levels and I think there are really good things.

I went through the Canadian system, I think it was really good. I think it shows people that you're serious about what you're doing, you're committed to it and you gain knowledge and you make contacts. It's a win-win situation all the way around and I think that it's really helped me in my career and through my relationship with Hockey Canada over the years and the different opportunities I've had with Hockey Canada.

"Any language skills you can develop are for sure a plus"

For example, 2 years ago I was invited to work with the National Para Hockey team in their preparation for the Olympics and that was a great experience. I was invited out to Calgary and spent 10 days at the Center of Excellence in Canada working with the coaches there, with the Para Olympic team and did some scouting for them during the wintertime. It was really a great experience.

I'm also an instructor for the high-performance coaches. So every summer I'm usually at 1 or 2 coaching conferences working with younger coaches through their high-performance programs and that for me is very rewarding. I really enjoy that and I think it's something that helps me as well because I'm listening to other coaches as well. 

Going back to your question, if you can learn the language or if you can develop language skills that are for sure a big plus. You then need to pick a spot where do you want to work.

Where would you like to go? The majority of potential places are German-speaking. You take a pick between Austria, Germany, Switzerland; there's a lot of jobs there.

But even learning French could be great, French is spoken all over the place, Italian also. You can open doors with any of these 3 languages but any language skills you can develop are for sure a plus. 

Then you have to get out and you have to meet people. 

What I tell people is this: if you really want to coach in Europe you cannot sit in your living room in Montreal or Quebec and just send out requests and expect to get answers because you have to understand all these clubs get bombarded by agents, by letters, by e-mails all the time. I say that the best way is first of all to pick an area that you'd like to work in.

If you'd like to work in Switzerland or you'd like to work in Sweden or Finland then meet the people. Contact them directly, say, I’m interested in your club, I've heard of a lot of good things about it, I'd like to know more about it, would you have time for a cup of coffee? I call it the cup of coffee tour. Then what happens is that out of 10 invites you won’t get 10 replies. But you might get 1 out of 10 sports directors, or heads of these clubs say, sure, I've got time, let’s meet up, you sound like a pretty good person. And then you create a bond, you start a personal relationship with people.

Other than my first playing job in Grenoble, I have always had a personal relationship with clubs before moving to their teams as either a player or coach.

Can you tell the story of how you ended in Europe?

…. but that was 1980, that was a whole different situation. Other than that, I've always known the people. I've had a personal relationship with everybody I've ever gone to, I started someplace before they actually hired me. And I think this is really important especially now when there are so many people looking to get these types of jobs and there are many coaches and to get the really good jobs you need knowledge, you need experience but you also need that personal contact. 

In my opinion, that's one of the most important things you got to have if you're really serious about going to Europe: you have to get out, travel and meet people. 

Times are certainly different now. I mean this was 1979, 1980 and there were no e-mails and everything was done through the mailing system.

Just to get information on clubs in Europe was very difficult in and of itself but I got to know one of the head scouts while I was with St. Louis. Art Berglund was very well connected with USA Hockey and he still is.  When I talked to Art about my wish to try something different and go to Europe he was very helpful. He gave me a list of all the contacts he had in Europe. Through USA Hockey, he had all the clubs’ addresses, phone numbers, the names of all key people on paper. So, he handed me that big stack of paper and that's where I started.

I put together a letter and I put a couple of reference letters from coaches that I've had and sent them out and I sent out to 72 different teams all over Europe. Like all First division teams and in Finland and Sweden, in Switzerland and Denmark, all over where people played hockey and France of course. 

Out of those 72 letters I got 3 offers: 1 was from Alborg in Denmark, 1 was from Villars de Lans and the other one was from Grenoble. And at that time, I was 25 years old, I'd never been to Europe, I didn't know much about Europe at all but I did remember Grenoble from the 68 Olympics. So, I got in touch with them and after maybe 2 letters I wrote to them and they wrote to me right away and said yes, we're very interested we're looking for a defenceman for our next year. Can you send us some more information and some newspaper clippings? They wanted some newspaper clippings so I put together a little package and I wrote the letter in French but because I said in my resumé that I knew how to speak French, German and English because my thinking was, well, wherever I get a job I have all summer to learn the language.

How tough can it be? I had a French-Canadian, Serge Meunier, in my team when I was playing that year and so, he wrote a letter for me in French to write back to Mr. Serge Bouquet who was the president of Grenoble CSG at that time. I still have the original letter now, the one he wrote and his French was so bad you know… 

But I think that was maybe the best thing, I think that maybe he thought it was me because it was so bad but it was kind of a Quebec French and it was really bad. 

Anyway, from that letter and the newspaper clippings I sent and the resume, they sent me an offer, they sent me a contract offer and I signed it and sent it back and that's how quick it was. It was really a done deal within 2 or 3 months.

Now it's much more complicated with agents and interviews and the internet and everything. Back then it was actually quite simple.

And yeah, I did work on my French during summertime but when I stepped off that plane and people started talking to me it did not sound like the cassettes I was listening to, that’s for sure. 

Then I went to University and that was a great experience. I was very fortunate and that really helped me a lot to progress quickly with learning French and it was easy in the locker room because nobody spoke English to me.

I mean Daniel Maric (former Grenoble and French national team goalie) was the worst, Daniel would torture me. He would say something and everybody else would start laughing and I had no idea what he was doing you know but he was making fun of me…When I did learn French...you can be sure that I gave it right back to him. We have been friends for a long time. 

It’s something that people in hockey may not know, but you’re behind Hockey Coach Vision, an application that allows you to digitalize your drills and tactics in animated 3D and share them.

Is technology the future of coaching? 

Well again, this comes back — I think — to my character and personality: I like staying ahead of everything. You want to stay ahead of the game as much as you can or at least try to stay current and with the amount of technology that is available to us, there's no excuse not to. As far as Hockey Coach Vision and the like, it’s not as though I'm thinking that this type of technology could be the future of coaching, it is. 

There are some coaches that are going to adopt it quicker than others. Some will take more time but they eventually will all get there because like 3D animation, virtual reality, these types of enhanced coaching tools are going to be like what you're using now, with video. It wasn't that long ago where coaches were saying ? well I really don't need video ? or ? I don't use video ?. Could you imagine coaching at the high-level today without video? Without doing pre-scouting?

It's just not heard off. Right now, we are using Hockey Coach Vision as a teaching tool to help get your vision and your ideas across to your players and other coaches as quickly as possible. It's all about speed and it's all about picking up and learning things quicker and as easily as possible. 

Any type of visual tool that you have is going to speed up that process and with Hockey Coach Vision the ability to create drills and tactics in 3D animation and share those directly to the smartphones of their players and coaches where they can go over all of these things before they get to the ice rink is for sure going to help them learn quicker. It's just a tool though, all it is is a tool.

"your way of doing things still works for you but for your players, it's a different thing."

You still have to coach people, you still have to motivate people, you still have to help people understand exactly what they're seeing and what they're supposed to be doing but it is a very useful tool.

And like I said it's going to be something that we use as we go on like right now. I’d say out of 10 coaches Hockey Coach Vision may appeal to maybe 2 for various reasons. Some are going to feel that it's too difficult, it's too challenging, they're not good with technology. Some are going to say it takes too much time, they don't have the time. Some of them will say that well, it's cool, it looks good but I really don't need it. I've been working this way for 25 years with my book of drills and my whiteboard, my whistle and my pen and it works well for me. These are just excuses.

The A-Type personality coaches get it right away. Coaches that are looking for an edge and are willing to do a little extra work and put in a little extra time will get rewarded. The coaches using our software love it and more importantly, their players love it. They learn and understand things so much easier with Hockey Coach Vision.

(You can find more information about Hockey Coach Vision here)

My response to coaches who are hesitant to try our app is usually the same. I say, well your way of doing things still works for you but for your players, it's a different thing.

For today's players and I'm talking about youth players and the millennials and the players coming up, those under 25 let's say, or even those under 30 now who grew up with technology,  playing video games, computers, and iPads, and smartphones and so they're very savvy when it comes to using technology. And for that they love this stuff, they love that they can see this because they get it.

One of your clients is probably the best club in Europe… 

Yeah, Fr?lunda is kind of our pilot program and they’re using it fully with all their coaches and they're using it the way that we envisioned. Meaning that for example the under 16 coach in Fr?lunda knows what the under 14 coach is doing, he also knows what the under 18 coaches are doing.

"Why are they at the top? - they are forward-thinking"

All coaches share all their info and data to centralize what they're doing so that there's an easy flow of tactics and drills and knowledge from group to group, from coach to coach and that's how it works in a club like Fr?lunda. 

Now in Canada, they have a different model. 

There each coach is on his own, it's very hard to build this type of unity without any organization because it sounds great within an organization that you would like all the coaches on the same page and be able to develop a common way of playing the game or a common identity for the players within their group but we’re just so individual that not all coaches and very few coaches are willing to share their knowledge or share what they've learned with other coaches. It’s a mindset. 

My greatest mentor in coaching was Roger Neilson and Roger was phenomenal in the way that he would share information. Roger coached many NHL teams back in the early years: we would have NHL coaches, NHL assistant coaches that would be sitting out there, at his coaching clinic, with me listening to Roger talk about his teams and how they played and they would say: I can't believe he's telling us this stuff. I can't believe that he's telling us how he's going to work his power play, how his forechecking works because they're going to be playing against him in a few months.

But Roger always believed that well if you're really observant and you're watching what I am doing you're going to figure it out pretty quickly. It all comes down to everybody playing hard, playing on the same page. And he said at that point whether you know what I'm doing or not and if you do something that's going to start it well I'm going to change again anyways. He had no problem with that but I think that's still the minority of people.

But getting back to your point, about Fr?lunda: there's one reason they're one of the top developmental clubs in the world, it’s because they are forward-thinking, they will adopt new technologies and if they think they can find something that's going to help their coaches and players they're going to go after it.

So, I think Fr?lunda has been a great example for us.

Last thing, if you would just like to talk about something that was on your mind or anything or a subject you would want to talk about. Now is the time.

 I would say this about coaching and we talked coaching before: you can never forget that the reason we all started playing this game was that it was fun.

"The number one priority for youth coaches should be to develop a love of the game in their young players."

For too many coaches, there are too many instances when it becomes too serious, winning is too important and that you know there's too much stress and strain on the kids to be perfect, to get everything perfect right away and sometimes the fun part is lost in the game. We can never lose that. 

Kids should want to go to practice because they're going to have fun, they're going to work hard, they're going to learn things, they're going to have new experiences, they're going to work hard but they're going to have fun.

So, never kill that, make sure that that's always there, that the fun part of it is all an element of every practice and that when you're dealing with kids do not put so much pressure on them that it stops being fun because you lose that kid.

When you win that kid, whether it's a boy or a girl when they get to be 12, 13, 14 years old they have a lot of options. And if they are not having fun at playing hockey they will stop playing hockey and do something that's more fun or more interesting to them.

The number one priority for youth coaches should be to develop a love of the game in their young players.

What I miss the most right now is just being with the guys and just staying late in the locker room and chatting.  

That's what I miss aswell.

I don't miss the road trips, I don't miss the playing itself. I love competition, I love to compete, I love playing when I do play, I played for a long time. 

You don’t just play when you're 38 years old if you don't love what you're doing but then you know I don't really play anymore right now.

In the summertime, if my friends want to get together and have a game for sure, I'd love to do that.

But as far as just going out and play, I can't play the way that I used to so that frustrates me. And then when the other players aren’t as good as those I'm playing with and they are not playing the way they should be I start acting like an ass and that makes me feel even worse.

So, because I know that I'm being an ass, that I'm getting too serious about what I'm doing and so it's better that I just not play.

Better for me to focus on advancing the game from the sidelines...

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