I now have one of Tom's coveted jump drives in my possession.

Upon examination, it looks like it is well organized and contains a wealth of information.

I remember when I was starting out as a coach and attending my first 'coach mentor' session with Hockey Alberta in the late 1980's. There was an old retired teacher who had documented his annual plan three times over- for peewee, bantam and midget age levels - so whenever he coached a team, he already had his YTP 'in the can' so to speak. This was right down to the practice plans. Pretty organized! I asked him if I could make a copy and he said, "No, but feel free to look at them to gain an understanding of what I have learned. These are as a result of my years of experimentation and as a young coach, you need to learn through your own experience." Upon further discussion, I could see his point, but boy, at the time, I really coveted those plans!

Tom's material isn't an 'out-of-the-box' YTP that you can apply to whatever age group, but it provides coaches with an broad resource of games, activities, 'drills' and video examples that can be used at pretty much any age level, within your YTP. And these game-like activites work - believe me! This is THE new way to coach as the kids love playing games and competing in practice!

All I can say is, any of you coaches who read this site and either believe in Tom's ABC Approach or are curious to learn more - you will gain an incredible volume of PRACTICAL information above and beyond what is found in his Book 2 - specifically, in the form of organized-by-section drills / activities and videos to see the event before you coach it (which would be valuable to show your A/C's and / or players too!)

Tom is still actively coaching and has accumulated decades of wisdom and shares freely on this site. Other sites charge money for the same thing... to be honest, I think Tom should charge us an annual fee too - in order to cover the basic operating costs and to help pay for his continued professional development; as he passes this along to the rest of us. (He isn't going to get rich doing it!)

But Tom struck upon the idea to organize his resources and offer this jump drive to us. I strongly recommend you order one from him as it's cost is nowhere near the value you will receive from it.

PS: I know Dave has ordered one already (Dave make sure you post after you have a chance to check it out!) And the same goes to others who order them - please post your feedback for the others.

I finally got my thumb drive from Tom in the mail, and after a busy first week of school I've had a chance to take a look at it. Here's my first impression.

I've been reading Tom's (and everyone else's) posts and books for the last 4 years or so and eating it all up. I download files and videos every whenever I can and I was pretty sure I had them all until I got this thumb drive. There's over 7 GB of materials, and lots of videos that were probably too big to put on the web. It's really well organized (and I'm not), so this is a big plus too. With an understanding of Tom's ABC approach to the game from his books (book one is included) and the consistent naming of files on the drive, it should be pretty easy for anyone to put quality practices together without the need for any drill drawing software at all.

Attached are 2 screen shots - one of the video folder and the second of the diagram folder (with 642 images!) There are more folders with books and materials, but hopefully this gives you some idea of what you get.

So, the money paid for the drives keeps the website alive, which is reason alone to donate. When you get your drive you'll see that it's really a collection of materials that it would take a lifetime of experience to acquire. Tom - Thanks for sharing this!

I got this email yesterday from Petr Svoboda, a former Maple Leaf defenseman who is back home coaching in the Czech Republic.



Hi Tom,

Thanks a lot for thumb. The drills help me a lot.

We played 6 games for now and we 4 times wins, 1 lost and 1 win in over time.

How is you season going?

S pozdravem

Petr Svoboda