Marianne Watkins

A native of Peterborough, Ontario Canada, is one of the most respected and sought after power skating coaches in hockey. Marianne received her start in coaching with the Peterborough Petes Major Jr. A OHL organization. The Petes have placed more players and coaches into the professional ranks than any other junior franchise in the world. She was instrumental in developing players such as Chris Pronger, Mike Ricci, Tie Domi, Jamie Langenbrunner, Cory Stillman, to name a few. The Oshawa Generals, Windsor Spitfires, and Erie Otters also utilized her services over the 10 years she worked in the OHL.

NHL coaches Jacques Martin, and the legendary Roger Neilson were among the first to offer Marianne a coaching position with them at their prospects and elite hockey camps which she still instructs every summer. She was the exclusive power skating instructor for Wayne Gretzky at his Coca Cola Future Stars camps.

Currently she is the skating coach for the Columbus Blue Jacket organization working with prospects in the system. She has worked with the Anaheim Ducks, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leaf NHL organizations in player development as well.

Marianne has instructed many of the games top prospects in the CHL, WHL, AHL, ECHL, European and NCAA Division 1 . Some of these have included Rostislav Olesz, Steve Weiss, Gregory Campbell, Nathan Horton, Kamil Kreps, Jassen Cullimore & Anthony Stewart (Florida), and Rostislav Klesla, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen & Jarod Boll (Columbus) Corey Perry (Anaheim) and Dustin Penner (Edmonton).

She was featured in “Skate Like a Pro” instructional video with Paul Coffey, and was a weekly feature on “Goals, the Hockey Show” seen on TSN and ESPN.

Marianne is presently the Power Skating Director at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center in Pittsburgh, PA., a regional training center, where she conducts specialized hockey camps, clinics, team and player development at all levels beginner to Pro.

She works with the Robert Morris University NCAA Division 1 Men’s and Women’s teams.

Recognized as one of the top instructors in her field, Marianne participated in the International Hockey Skating Symposium in Detroit where she presented her updated and proven teaching methods to coaches throughout Canada and the United States.

She is currently in production of her “Hockey Survival Training” DVD which includes the most updated information on the physical and technical aspects of skating for today’s game. Her focus in teaching is based on a combination of North American and European techniques to improve a player’s technical efficiency, first two step acceleration, quickness, agility, lateral movement, and much more.

Known as a great communicator, Marianne shares tips, observations, positional and game related drills she’s accumulated over the past 25 years in working with some of the best amateur and professional players and coaches in the game.