Today's guest is Jukka Varmanen, a professional coach from Heinola, Finland. Jukka started his journey as a coach in 2000 with the junior organization of Heinolan Kiekko as an U18 coach. After two seasons in Heinola he joined the junior organization of HIFK in Helsinki. After spending five years with HIFK he worked two years with Lahden Kiekko-Reipas which is now the Lahti Peilcans. In 2009 he gained his first experience on the professional level as an assistant coach with Jokipojat. For the 2010-11 season he became the head coach of the team. In our conversation Jukka describes his time as a head coach in Joensuu as a one of the most challenging barriers he had to overcome on his coaching path so far. Reflecting back the lessons he has learned there were very valuable to him. The experience he has gained there is until today his favorite failure. Afterwards he moved on and became the U20 head coach for Vierumäki United for two seasons. In 2013 he went back to the professional level and worked for three seasons as an assistant coach for his hometown team Peliitat. From 2011 till 2016 he also worked for the IIHCE in Vierumäki. During the 2016-17 season he gained his first experience in a different culture with the Chinese KHL team Kunlun Stars. After spending one season in the KHL he went back to Finland and joined the Lahti Pelicans in January 2018 as an assistant coach. After he had worked with the Pelicans he returned to the IIHCE for one year. During the 2019-20 season he worked in the NLA for SC Bern where he gained his second experience in a different culture. This season he will work again as an assistant coach in Liiga for JYP Jyväskylä. Furthermore, Jukka gained experience with the Finnish U18, U20 and Men’s National Team. In 2019 he won gold medals with both the Finnish U20 and Men’s National teams at the IIHF world championships.
With Jukka we discussed his educational background in Vierumäki and how the studies have impacted his coaching. As he has gained a lot of experience as an assistant coach, we also talked with him what his role is in establishing a culture, identity and environment in a team. Additionally, we explore with him about the experience he has gained in different cultures. Finally, we spoke with Jukka about the time he spent working with the Finnish National Team program and what he has been taking away from it so far.
As always, we ask Jukka for some recommendations of resources he found useful and interesting: "Sacred Hoops" and "The Last Season" by Phil Jackson, and "The Culture Code" by Daniel Coyle. Jukka also recommends several podcasts including "Training Ground Guru", "The Way of Champions" and "Coach Your Brains Out." Finally he recommends checking out Wade Gilbert's webinars.
Please connect with Jukka on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jukka-varmanen-ba93b4112/).
Also connect with Derek (@DerekERead) and Rick (@RickSchreiber68) on twitter and follow the show (@thecoachsroad) on twitter, Facebook and instagram. Send an email with any questions, comments, feedback or recommendations to thecoachsroad@gmail.com.
Thanks for listening!
