New Firebirds coach Jessica Campbell has a special skill -- she's a skating savant

The news of Tuesday's hiring of Jessica Campbell to be an assistant coach of the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey Leauge was met with deserved excitement.

Campbell is the first woman to hold a position that high in the coaching ranks at the AHL or NHL level. A moment of importance to be sure as she shattered another of hockey's icy glass ceilings.

It only takes one conversation with Campbell to see why her name kept popping up when Firebirds head coach Dan Byslma started asking around about who are some of the sharpest up-and-coming minds in the hockey coaching ranks.

She has the requisite passion and knowledge, but presumably, so too did all the other candidates considered for the position. What sets her apart, though, is a very particular set of skills that not every coach has.

More: Coachella Valley Firebirds hire Jessica Campbell to be first female AHL assistant coach

Campbell is a specialist when it comes to skating. That's right, the most fundamental part of hockey. Specifically, she is a guru when it comes to power skating and the way it used in the sport of hockey. Sounds strange, right? You'd think any hockey player at the pro level would know how to skate in a way that will maximize their ability, but they don't know the art of skating like Campbell knows the art of skating.

For the 30-year-old Campbell, who was a top-level player in her own right, starring on  Canadian national teams and as a collegiate player at Cornell, this hyper-specific focus started as a passion project, then became a business during the pandemic.

"As a player, skating was my greatest strength," she explained. "And something I was doing later in my career was returning home and running skating camps to grow the game and grassroots level and give back to my community, but I found myself as a going deeper and really wanting to understand the technical component a lot more.

"And when I transitioned into the skating space and teaching power skating, that was something that I was passionate about out of the gate," Campbell said. "And that evolved into skill development and skating is a skill off the puck and with the puck, so I started heading a lot more toward the skill development path, and I think that is a big part of the value-add that I'm going to bring to the Firebirds."

When the pandemic hit and Campbell had more time on her hands, she turned her hometown skating lessons into fully formed instructional camps which you can find at jcpowerskating.com. It's an instructional camp that promises to build a "stronger, faster more powerful you."

Dig deeper on the website and you see Campbell talk about the nuances of things like "stride efficiency" and "edge dynamics." Her ability to isolate a hockey player's current skill level and provide specific one-on-one training with video breakdowns and performance-enhancing tweaks will play well in the AHL, which is above all a developmental league.

"Regardless of what team or what level you're working with, you look at your personnel and look at your strengths and your deficiencies, and that's fun to me," she said. "Stepping into a role and seeing what we have and how can I make each of these guys successful and add value to their game, give them more tools in their toolbelt to be impact players, to be threats on the ice in all situations."

In the past three years, she's become a known commodity for her work with the mechanics of skating. As word traveled about her instruction, even some NHL players became interested. Damon Severson, currently of the New Jersey Devils, was the first as he wanted to sharpen his skills as the league was preparing to enter the COVID bubble for the 2020-21 season.

Campbell said the next day a couple more guys came and the next day a couple more guys came. Rookies and veterans alike sought Campbell's keen eye. Those workouts developed to the point where a group of 20 players asked her to join them for a full month-long training camp of sorts.

"When it was over I said, 'OK now one of you better come back with a Stanley Cup'" she said with a laugh. "And one of them did. Luke (Schenn) won it that year with the Lightning."

She said looking back on it, that sequence of events changed everything for her.

"That was a pivotal time for me and instrumental in my growth," she said. "The confidence to step in front of these guys to show them this is what you need to be working on and for them to enjoy it and use it. That was the moment with these guys wanting me to run these skates that I realized there's value here and I need to continue to challenge myself to grow and grow my knowledge base. And those guys have given me great advocacy since and that has helped as well."

Campbell probably needs a nickname like "The Skate Doctor" or "Ice Whisperer."

The last piece to the what-makes-Campbell-special puzzle is her bedside manner. It's one thing to be able to see what a player needs to improve, but much more difficult to impress that upon them, especially when egos are inevitably involved.

But just listen to how Campbell describes this delicate balance, informed by her own experiences as a player. It's a long response, but it reflects perfectly the type of coach and person the Firebirds are adding.

"I understand when I'm working with players that the ice can be a very vulnerable space," Campbell said. "Yes, they're coming to me to improve their strengths, too, but to work on or admit that you have deficiencies can be a pretty vulnerable space. So you've got to have a trust in the coach that they're working for you, not against you. You want the player to be able to communicate when it's hard and to communicate when they don't have the answer, and you know these guys are pros and they are maybe expected to be able to do these skills to execute this concept and a lot of time they come to me and they've never done it before, or you know I'm trying to add components into their game that is challenging even for them.

"So I try to set the stage right away that this is a safe space to fail. This place in this area with me is about getting better and we're not going to get better if we're not failing at times. Now as I transition to behind the bench, I try to lead with that same level of care but also listen to the players, listen to how they feel and what they're going through and try to facilitate the right direction that they need to go down."

Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.

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This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: New Coachella Valley Firebirds coach Jessica Campbell is a skating savant