Lou Vairo USA Olympic Hockey Coach

Foreign.

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome back to another episode. Today I have a very special guest. His name is Lou Vero. And Lou Vero has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to hockey. He started off really building hockey in the United States going back to the, to the early 70s and, and really being an influence starting in New York City where there wasn't a lot of ice. And he has just taken hockey to a whole other level. He later trained in Russia under some of the best, including Anatoly Tarasov. Trained right under him and learned from how the Russians trained, brought that concept back to our country. Was part of the 1980 U.S. olympic team, that Miracle on Ice team. He was a head Coach of the 1984 U.S. olympic men's hockey team, served as an assistant coach in 2002 for the Olympics. He has done so much with hockey in this country for so many years. I was very fortunate enough to have played for Lou Vero. As I remember, he was even one of our chefs. He started cooking for our team when we were over in Austria playing in the qualifying rounds for the World Championships. Such a gentleman, such a good person and one of those type of coaches. That boy, he's tough on you. And then five minutes later, he's going to give you a hug. Such a gentleman. Great to have him. We're going to start off how Lou really brought hockey into the United States and used a lot of the methods over in Russia.

Enjoy the show. So one thing, Lou, I learned over the years with the Russians, of course, I don't have the experience that you have. I mean, people talk about doing plyometrics and the way they trained off the ice. They were doing this in 1970 with plyometrics and using like a slide board like we mentioned. Eric Hayden, like the Haydn board.

Yeah, yeah. They did it way before that.

It's amazing. And just to watch how they trained and their training methods were just so far, you know, so much further advanced and then off the ice because I know when the ice, maybe in Russia, they didn't maybe put the ice in in the summer. Now I'm not so sure about that. But what they did is they did their, their breakouts and their patterns and their. You know, the way they. With a ball and they would run up and down a court because without wasting time on the ice. And I think Chuck Grillo told me that many years ago. So you probably know a heck of a lot more than I.

Let me give you real quick. I'll try to do it fast because I know exactly what happened. You have to remember it was a very poor country, the Soviet Union. The weather was frigid in the winter and like Detroit or New York in the summer. And here's what they did after the war, they started the sport, which they called hockey, with a puck. Scheiber is a German word. It means a washer. You know, like a nut, a bolt and a washer. And to them, to signify a puck. So the Germans call the puck a scheiber, and the Russians copied it because they didn't know how to say they didn't know about pucks. But what they did is they played soccer. Like every European country, almost every country in the world is crazy over soccer. They played soccer, which they called football.

Yeah.

And then they also, in the winter, they would flood the soccer fields because they couldn't play soccer. It was frigid. And they flooded it. And they played a go around the world. Bandy, it's with curved. It's almost like. But it's on the ice. It's with skating. They. A sport called Bandy. They call it hockey with a ball. And they call ice hockey that. We know hockey with a puck. With a. Shy. With a puck. Okay. Tarasov told me when he first started, he. He first job he got, he was a player, a Bandy player. And they all switched. All these guys, Bobrov, Chernyshev, solo. They all switched to playing ice hockey with a puck. And so. But they already knew how to handle. It's a different stick. But they knew about a stick and a ball and ice skating. And what they did is they took their tactics of soccer, basically, which became the same tactics with Bandy when they're on the ice. And they did it with a puck. And they became. That's how. And. And they started in with no rinks. There was no indoor rinks. It was only outside. And Tarasov said he would go to Gorky park in Moscow, put a tent over it when it was not real frigid, just getting cold, and flooded the tennis courts. Take off the netting and flood the tennis courts. And imagine this. And they can only train three or four players at a time. They had shifts. They would come and train for two hours. Each almost around the clock, far as they could. And once the sun came up. That's why they had the shade, so it wouldn't melt it. They had to wait till it got cold enough again. They had no rings.

Right.

Imagine this. And that's in 1946, I believe it was. Ten years later, in 1956, they beat the Canadian representative, I think it was. It was in Cortina. Yes, Cortina. They beat the Canadian representative and won their first world championship. How's that for progress? Pretty impressive, yeah. In the meantime, Tarasov thought he started with the Air Force, Krylje Sovietov. And he. I'll tell you another time. That story he didn't want to work for, actually, for Stalin's son, who was in charge of the sports program there. And he went to the Central army team and remained there till he got fired, the end of his career. And. But he was frustrated that they would lose the summers to not being able to train intelligently for something. So he started to come up with schemes to duplicate what's done on the ice, off the ice. And he was walking down the street one day, and he passed the. There was an open window. It was springtime. And he heard a lot of noise. Music and noise. Grunting and banging. And the window was open. So he stood on his tiptoes, he told me, and he peeked in, and he was astonished. He was watching the Moya Mossayev, some name like that. Mossayev dance troupe training. And they do those dances, you know, where they kick their feet out and.

Like Irish dancing. Yeah, like Irish dancing, yeah.

They. And he was watching them jumping and doing different exercises that they incorporated into their dance routine. But he noticed that the. Every one of them, their lower bodies were powerful, and he thought that would certainly help. Explosive starting speed for an ice skater or a runner or anything like that. So it was plyometrics is what it was. And he said, I got to learn more about this. And Grigori Mossayev saw him looking in, and he said, young man, why don't you come in? I'll go open the door. You can watch. And he opened the door, brought him in, And Tarasov said he spent weeks there taking notes, asking questions and watching. And then he started to use creativity and create exercises that would be good for hockey players. And he knew the most important strength was lower body and explosiveness and agility. That was big. That's where the somersaults come in. He was wild over somersaults. He said, you use every muscle in your Body. You have to have courage. You can do two, two guys together can do it forward and backwards. So they have to learn to cooperate. Team play, you know, teamwork. Anyway, he, this is why the man was a genius. From that he, he, he created dry land training. That's what he did. And nobody was better at it than this guy. And he used his imagination. And it doesn't mean it makes you a hockey player, but it enhances your chances of being a better one, more productive one. Because Igor Lariat not told me he did very little of that. His coach, who I also know, Nikolai Epstein, he just had the kids, he just made the ice good and let kids of all ages play together every day indoors when he had the luxury of an indoor rink. And they developed a lot of players in Voskasensk, lots of good players. And anyway, that's really where it started and came from and taken off. And your Zenov were also modern, very good, modern coaches that embraced off ice training and they did a great job with it as the Ludi Bukach in Czech. In the Czech Republic.

So I, I try to study that. You know, I looked at it. It's something called, for some of the listeners out there, it's called proprioception, which is time and space. So the Russians would have you doing things on one leg like you. And it wasn't, it wasn't the traditional stuff, but so getting into something else. I'll get into this now.

Let's get into the rink. You just said something interesting for your listeners. This is a good message for. Because I know there's a lot of. There was some resentment to cross ice hockey and stuff like that. I'll tell you what, it's one of the greatest things you can do with elite players too, not just little kids, cross ice games. And I'll tell you why Tarasov always said this secret to players. Technical skills improvement. Excuse me, Is playing playing at high speed in small, crowded areas.

Yes.

And that's what cross ice hockey does. You could play with, with any NHL team as an example. You got both goalies, they go hard for 40 seconds, cross ice in the center zone, three against three. But you got to make it competitive. So there's a prize at the end of the week or the season or the month, so they really compete or a pride deal or something. And they will. That is so much better than some of these hours of drills where you wait in line and stuff like that. And they go all out and they have a chance to rest. You know, three turns, they Rest and they do it again. All out a minute, whatever, whatever. The coaches decide that's best for that level of player and guys love it. They compete and they're improving their skills while having fun. And the goalies are happening to make real saves.

That, that's true. So, so you'll enjoy this. When with the New York Rangers, there was five of us, you know, the Rangers carried, you know, on a roster, as you know, we have 25 players, 20 dress and the backup goal, he doesn't play. So on a day of a game we get skated pretty hard even if we know we may play. So they might say, hey, Mike, you're going for warm ups tonight. But we still have our three on three games. It was the three forwards. It was usually Eddie Oldchuck because he was in Mike Keenan's doghouse. It was myself. If I was playing then it might have been Phil Bourk. Actually, there's three Americans for you. Or we had Kiprios would play if he wasn't sure he was playing that night. And then Phil Bourk would dress or undressing anyways to get the. You get the hint against the defenseman. So we had three on three and we only had two. But. So Colin Campbell was our assistant coach and he would be in his knee pads, elbow pads, helmet. And we played three on three and we had Glenn Healey as the goalie because usually he was our backup that year. And, and now we're getting our frustrations out. We're playing, you know, the pucks moving, lots of touches, we're carrying the puck, making plays. Everything's happening in a small area. And that's what we did after we did our skate. Then usually you go down to Madison Square Garden, you have your lunch, take a nap in the hotel and go for warmups depending on the situation. But we did a lot of that three on three. And I think if anything that made.

Me.

More game ready than anything else than going through practice.

I think it's the greatest. I'll tell you what, if I was coaching right now, I wouldn't go on the ice and I'm too old anyway. I wouldn't even go on the ice. I'd stand on the bench and I have my players just play three. That would be practice every day and I wouldn't practice the day of a game. I don't believe in it. I believe that those players who are not dressing need to. And the assistant coaches who are striving to be head coaches, they need to do it.

Yeah, right.

I need to have a nice meal and rest and so do the players that are playing in the game that night. It's my opinion. I agree.

And a lot of it, a lot.

Of it's gone stop a player Mike from wanting to practice. Chris Chelios. I had to find him a number of times on so many teams. He was such a great competitor. The hardest worker I've ever seen in the game ever, anywhere. Nobody could ever have worked and been more committed.

He would ride the bike in the sauna in Chicago. I heard like he.

And he never complained and he played hurt. He was tremendous like that. I had to find him when he was hurt, if he came to the rink and he still would find ways to sneak in behind my back or something because he just was so committed. He loved it with all his heart. You have to admire that. And you mentioned Eddie Oldchuck. I don't the people in America will ever know how good a player he was. He played for me in the Olympics when I think he was 17, 84 kid. He was a great hockey player. He was smart. He had really smart, great hands. He could score. He was a great hockey player. He was better than his and his statistics are good. He was a good National League player, but he was even better than that shows, trust me always.

I think he's one of the few Americans that you don't. He doesn't get enough credit. He scored. I think he's had five over five 30 goal plus seasons in a row. Five years of 30 goals or more. I think 42 with the Leafs one year.

So to me he was a great player and he didn't particularly care for me that much. I was pretty mean. I. I really made players work hard, really hard. And he was still a kid. I should have taken that into consideration. But we had no, nobody else. All our players were signed after 1980. I mean we would have had a pretty good team. But the guys that signed Bobby Carpenter, Aaron Broughton, Brian Mullen, Craig Ludwig, Tom Barrasso, John Van Biesbrook, all these. Nothing wrong with what we had. Players we had were just super. Just super. Including the goalies, Baron, then Mason. But all I'm saying is cross ice, high speed, competing for something because you got to really go harder. It's not going to be worth it in a small area. You're going to develop hockey players.

Yep, I agree. Well, I'm going to share this with everybody here. So I don't talk about myself ever on the show, but a special thanks to you. I played on the World junior team. I was playing for the Sabres. And then what happened was they told me I was going back to junior. And just at the same time, they also told me I'm going to be going to Piastani to play for the US Team. And then there was a fight there. And long story short, that's the last time I ever got a call. So I retired from hockey, had enough. After I had stomach surgery, I was at the Avalanche, and my career was just about going south, going the wrong way at that time, after the lockout, it's just what it was. And. And I was really excited. My dream was to play one game in the NHL, and from there I played almost 400, but it just was done. So I was ready to move to Charlotte, and I did. And I get a call from Bob Hell Key to says, listen, they want you in Germany, Timu Lathan. And he's a finished coach. He knows you can kill pedal lease. He's going to give you a chance to play. And we have Corey Millen and Greg Brown, a couple Americans, former NHL players that both played in the Olympics for you. And long story short, I get there and I'm having a pretty good year. And they tell me, you know, I know they had this big thing going on in Clagenford at the World championships, qualifying in 1999, and they. They said to me, man, you know, they've asked about you. And I said, yeah, right. He goes, no, Lou Vero asked about you. So the long story short, I get a call one day, I come home, it's Lou Veronica. And you said in the nicest way, because I know you're a tough coach, but I know you give hugs. I've heard you're like, they people love you, but don't make sure you do the right things with Lou. And I know that about you. You're good with everybody. You give hugs, but you're tough on guys. And you called me and you said, mike, you're the last guy I need right now. Last guy I want to bring on this team because we have to win in Clagenfurt, but I'm going to bring you because you're in Europe. And I think one of the other NHL players, something happened that was going to be on loan with the team, didn't come for whatever reason. And I went there and I said, you know, Lou, I'm just happy that you invited me. I get to play for Team usa. And then I think you said, you're not going to play much. So I get there and next thing you know, for some reason I'm on, I'm practicing with two of the best Americans ever to put skates on Joey Mullen in Neil Broughton and you were good to me. I mean that's the. I don't. You could get into the story about Clagenford on why we had to win, but it was probably. And I have three hockey pictures in my house and one of them is with you, me in the middle with the two guys I played with and then the rest of the team and it was really a great, a great trip. And I always said man, I thank you because that was the end for me. So I always wanted to go out on a good note. I came to Charlotte, I helped the minor league team and they needed me part time. But that was something I'll never forget.

Yeah, Mike, we needed to win that to qualify for the Olympics. We wouldn't have been in, I think Torino, we wouldn't have been in the Olympics if we hadn't won that week long tournament. We had to play a very good team, Kazakhstan, because that exact same team was at the Washington was in the Olympics, you know, a few months later, whatever it was. No, this was November when we were in clack and foot and I think that February or it was the next February it was in I believe Torino. Maybe I'm wrong. I think it was Torino, Italy. Same. I looked at the roster, was the same roster as we played and they tied our Olympic team, all NHL pro players. Three, three. And we had a hell of a team in Clagginford. If you think back, we had a lot of good, good players and. But we didn't have a lot. Well, we had. The roster was for 22 and when we got to 18, we, you know, we ran out of players to even ask. So I suggested, look, I was wrong but it turned out good. I suggested we bring, we call up Neil Broughton, Aaron Broughton, Mark Johnson and who was the other one? Joe Mullen. Yeah, and I forgot David Christian. To this day I regret that he was in shape too. They had retired. Some of them were retired five, six, seven years. But they stayed every day and they play Old Timers Hockey Club, you know, what do you call all that mentally? And if their hands didn't go and they're still skating and they had hockey sense and you know, they had heart and soul. So I, I talked to, I talked to Ben Smith and Art Bergland and Jimmy, I think Jimmy Johansson was starting them with us, I'm not sure. But anyway, I said why don't we bring them if they want to come, say they can't play. You know what that'll do for the other guys? That caliber, person and player. These guys have won scoring titles and gold medals in the Olympics and Stanley Cups, high school champions and all this kind of stuff. National champions. Let's bring them something good. Could rub off even if they can't play. And for three games in a week, you don't need 22 players anyway. Guys want to play, and if they're coming from across the sea, they especially want to play, right? So we played all three goalies. We played every player. Mark on the first shift, pulled the groin. He was out. And he did something I'd never seen a player do. He. He said, I'm not saying it never happened, but I never seen it. He. Or knew about it. He said. He came to me and he said, coach, can. Can I still warm up with the team and stay on the bench during the game, fully dressed? Imagine that. I said, of course you can. And then we had the cleanest dressing room, because I remember one of the kids was taking tape off around his shin guards after a game and rolled it up and threw it and missed the garbage pail. And the ball of tape bounced about 10ft away. And it bothered me. I was ready to say something because your equipment men are not your personal janitors. Get your ass up and put it in the garbage. Treat these guys with respect. There is a big part of our team like everybody else is. And I remember Joe Mullen with his underwear and skates on, slipped out of his hockey pants, got up quietly, walked over, picked up the ball of tape, dropped it in the garbage pail, and sat down and finished, you know, changing. And after that, it was the cleanest dressing room I've ever seen. Spotless. And that's what leadership is about. And in a simple, small way like that, it demonstrates how important it is to be respectful of each other and your fellow teammates. Yeah, and I liked it. But you played great. The guys gave you the nickname Gretzky. I remember telling you, Mike, don't start any trouble out there. Over here, they call everything a penalty. Right. This Kazakhstan team, I went to scout them two nights prior in Switzerland in an exhibition game, and they beat the Swiss. And the Swiss were not bad. They were pretty good hockey even then. Very good. And. And they had that big guy that went to the Maple Leafs that following season. What the heck was his name? Big, tall, Cinnamon.

Not Sandeep? No, Sundance.

Sundin was with Sweden. This is with Kazakhstan. It started with a K, but anyway, Kamalo Karma. No name, something like that. Yeah, with a K. And big tall guy and he had a pretty good run with them. But anyway, I saw them play Switzerland. They passes up the middle, getting breakaways and you know, and, and they had a great power play. As you can imagine, they're Soviet trained players. These were in those days. So they were good technically and their coach was a great former great player, Boris Alexandra. And they. Soviet player. Anyway, they, we were ready for them and they ended up tying us in the Olympics a year later or whatever, a few months later. But we beat him, if you remember. I think three nothing or three three one.

Yeah, three nothing.

Yeah, three nothing. We win that game. I knew we were going to, you know, beat Estonia and beat. Probably beat Austria. And they were not garbage either, and they were pretty good. But you scored two goals. I said, don't, don't get into any fights because that was a reputation. I knew about you, but I also knew you could play hockey and you were a winner, winning type of a human being, a good guy. And I never heard nothing bad about you. And I told, I told Neil and Joey, that's who we put you on the line with. I said, the net, just feed him back to our passes. He'll score. And you did. And we won the game. You got the winning goal and, and all is well today.

Well, I tell you, and I look back on that and just, you know, to. It was a good way to go out because, you know, when you're in the NHL and even though you're on a Stanley cup team and it was, it was great. I looked at that as going out. Okay, So I played on that team, played 30 plus games on a championship team. A lot of injuries, but it was a tough year. And then I go to, to play for you and it just, it was great. Like I said, it's a memory that, that I'll never forget personally. And getting to know you over the years and, and just a lot even, you know, Ben Smith invited me to do some leadership stuff with the women's Olympic team. He called me, I went into Lake Placid and I was just very, very thankful. And to me it was a great trip. And I can never, you know, forever. Like I told my son that he's, he's gonna, he could have. That's gonna be his jersey if he wants it. He goes, hey dad, you know, you have these jerseys, they're in a box. I said, well, you could take it. I said that and it's special to me, so. And I. And I think the world of you all these years. Just, you know, you and I catch up once in a while and. And thank you for doing this. This podcast. I hope the coaches were listening and people listening. No matter what sport it is, they.

Can get something anytime, Mike. Anytime. I just want to say one tip for the coaches. It's so simple. It's so simple, yet I think it's right. You got to treat all your players, every one of them, as your son or daughter. That's how. That was my philosophy personally, because I was hurt many times by coaches playing kids sports. You treat every single person you coach, even pros, as if that's your son or daughter. And you'll never make a mistake. You can be tough, demanding, and still work ethic and try to instill discipline, but you got to love them. And they'll know if you do or not. They will know. You got to. When I say love them, I should probably say, yeah, you could say love them, but respect them. Respect them as individual human beings and they have the same insecurities, the same issues as you have. And self esteem is important. Don't tear them down, don't humiliate them. Try to bring them up and they'll perform more for their teammates than they will for you, which is the right thing. And it's the right thing for them, too. People want to do good for their peers more than themselves. And that's. That's all. That's just a little tip. Thank you for that. Never straight from that, and I never would. It's your kid, the way you love your kid. That and protect and look out for your children, look out for your players and do it for forever. Never forget them. They play for you. You never forget them. You always have to be there for them. Because Tarasar told me once, coaches are there to serve the players. Players are not there to serve the coaches. That's it.

I love that. And I'm going to leave this. I watched you with the young guys, so you might. I know. And in like, in people's eyes, they might say, oh, you had a decent team. But they're forgetting we had like Bob Sweeney and we had Rafalski who ended up.

Oh, we had a great team. That was a great team. Yeah, but it wasn't on paper. It wasn't great then. Right team. You know it. As the years passed and Rafalski got a chance finally to play in the NHL. What was his name? Rafalski.

Yeah. Yeah.

There was another kid you mentioned from Detroit, a left handed defenseman with a similar name. Kaczynski. Rzinski.

Yeah.

I can't, I can't remember his name. He was a hell of a prospect. He could have played me and I don't know what happened to him. We had a lot of good players on that team. Corey Millen was great. Yeah, no, it was so much fun.

I mean, but I watched it live, the point I'm making here. I watched you with these young players they were coming in with. I mean, you got to remember like the guy like Mark Johnson is, I think he was 40 some odd years, 40 years old and he's sitting next to Rafalski, who's 23 or 5. And boy, I remember when Johnson won the gold medal with the. And we have Neil Brot and Joey Mullen, one of the best Americans ever to play, put skates on and. But you made these guys, I watched it. You made them feel special, each and every one of them. You, you got the best out of everybody. And I think coaches should understand that. It wasn't like. And I remember, and we could talk for 10 hours, but I remember that we were in the room and say, listen, we have to win here. You know, we have to get back usa, Team usa. We have to get back to where we once were. This is a, an important tournament. I need everybody to share a little bit about what they're going to do. And you just got the best out of everybody without intimidation, without it, with just getting the best out of maximizing even the guys like Mullen picking up tape to Johnson being on the bench, a gold medalist who's just happy to be part of it. And that brought such a so much good energy in. And that's something for me. When someone says what is leadership? Well, I say the word Louvero. I said, when I think of a leader, I think a louver all the time. I mean, for years I talk about you all the time, about how you showed love and these are the best players in the world and best Americans on skates. But you made them feel like people. And I think coaches should understand that and even learn from that as well.

And if you remember this, I never said a word before that first game against Kazakhstan. Nor did Ben Smith, who one of the great American coaches of all times. Not. We didn't say a word as the team was going out. I said to Neil Broughton, he was first in line, ready to go. What a competitor. He's got to be one of the five great, greatest Americans to ever play the game, in my opinion. What a gem. And I said, neil, you got anything you want to say? That's all I said. And Neil gave a short little speech that was so inspirational and, you know, sincere, because he's done it. He did it at the University of Minnesota champions 1980 Olympics gold medal, New Jersey Devils, Stanley Cup. This man knows his onions, trust me, right? And he's humble. And you don't even, you know, he's a humble good guy. And he made a. An inspiration. It's best when it comes from players leadership. It's best. And he gave a great, inspirational speech. I looked at Ben. We were on the sideways. You guys couldn't see as we were just so happy to hear his words. And I looked at Ben, I said, let's get dressed, put on skates on. I want to freaking play now. I mean, it was great. And you guys went right out there and it didn't take long. He flipped a nice pass to you on the side of the net. He banged it home and that was it. That was the turn for me. That was the turn. I knew we were going to win that tournament. Then I said, we're in.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.