Grassroots: The Minor Hockey Show
Sports
About
A provocative, in-depth podcast that examines the world of minor hockey, from coaching to program development to the myriad of issues faced by everyone in the game.
Episodes
- Episode 126 - Dr. Simon Grondin: The Relative Age Effect, Laterality and hockey research
Dr. Simon Grondin, professor of psychology at Laval University, discusses his research on the relative age effect and laterality in hockey. The discussion references his early work from the 1980s and topics from the 2025 International Ice…
- Episode 125 - Rahim Karmali's overhaul of Whitby coach development
Rahim Karmali, Whitby Minor Hockey's development coordinator, is restructuring coach development. His efforts, including discussions on 'The Talent Code' and 'Belfry Hockey', earned him the OMHA Development award.
- Episode 124 - Are SSGs/SAGs misunderstood and misused?
This episode investigates Small Side Games (SSGs) and Small Area Games (SAGs) in hockey, discussing their intended functions and actual effectiveness. Brian Gillam shares his experiences using these methods with a U16 team.
- Episode 123 - A Poditorial: The Bronze
Richard Bercuson provides his analysis of Canada's Bronze medal performance at the World Juniors, referencing the original Ottawa radio podcast. His explanation is divided into five topics concerning Canada's position in the hockey world.
- Episode 122 - The DMIQ
Richard and Dean discuss the Decision-Making Intelligent Quotient (DMIQ) in hockey, exploring its importance and how to introduce it. The episode also touches on using appropriate spacing to enhance decision-making skills in young players.
- Episode 121 - TOP Sports: A different kind of experience - in three sports!
TOP ("The Other Path") Sports aims to provide families with alternatives to both traditional sport experiences and the private ones, though this, too, is privately owned. Kevin Shier, executive director and co-founder with two other men, d…
- Episode 120 - The proliferation of non-sanctioned hockey in Alberta
Dallas Ansell's recently completed PhD dissertation examined development in the world of non-sanctioned leagues in Alberta which have proliferated in recent years. A lecturer at the University of Alberta and newly minted manager of player…
- Episode 119 - Old or New? Appropriate or not? Other?
HEO coach and coach developer Brian Gillam returns to share what he'd planned to provide coaches in the coaching seminar he and Richard were going to run for a minor organization. The seminar didn't happen, but the content would have been…
- Episode 118 - Quebec Research Conference: John Lind (Sweden) - Applying the research
This is the final episode from the May 30-June 2 Hockey Research Conference at Laval University in Quebec City as well as the final episode for this season of Grassroots. Please be advised that, because the discussions were held in public…
- Episode 117 - Quebec Research Conference: Part 4 - Gergely Geczi (Hungary) - Team complexity
This is the fourth of five episodes of content from the May 30-June 2 Hockey Research Conference at Laval University in Quebec City. Please be advised that, because the discussions were held in public spaces, the sound quality and backgrou…
- Episode 116 - Quebec Research Conference: Part 3 - Lukas Chmelir - Testing Puckhandling
This is the third of five episodes of content from the May 30-June 2 Hockey Research Conference at Laval University in Quebec City. Please be advised that, because the discussions were held in public spaces, the sound quality and backgroun…
- Episode 115 - Quebec Research Conference: Part 2 - Kalle Valiaho (IIHF)
This is the second of five episodes of content from the May 30-June 2 Hockey Research Conference at Laval University in Quebec City. Please be advised that, because the discussions were held in public spaces, the sound quality and backgrou…
- Episode 114 - Quebec Research Conference: Part 1 - J.F. Leblond (Hockey Quebec)
This is the first of five episodes of content from the May 30-June 2 Hockey Research Conference at Laval University in Quebec City. Please be advised that, because the discussions were held in public spaces, the sound quality and backgroun…
- Episode 113 - Jim Haverstrom: ”Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”
Jim Haverstrom is USA Hockey's Coach-in-chief for Florida. Over 25 years as a coach and now coach developer, he's become an ardent advocate for the Constraints Led and an Ecological Dynamics approaches which he's successfully applied in hi…
- Episode 112 - Why you need a coach development person
As minor hockey associations prepare for their AGMs, one key position needs consideration: someone to take charge of coach development. Richard and Dean discuss why this role is crucial, what this person should or should not be responsible…
- Episode 111 - Teaching skills using an ecological dynamics approach
Some years ago, Brian Gillam began to adopt an ecological approach to coaching and teaching the game. Today he is immersed in it as a coach but especially as a "skills instructor." In this episode, he discusses what he does in special sess…
- Episode 110 - Meanwhile in Bristol, England...
Access to rinks, ice time , and cost may be impediments to growing a program in a small hockey market. But not to Chris Benson who helps direct the fortunes of the Bristol youth program in England. Speaking from Riga, Latvia, where his son…
- Episode 109 - What I learned from coaching U11
"We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." Host Richard Bercuson spends this episode providing an overview of his season coaching 10 year olds in a unique house league-type environment. Dean Holden poses som…
- Episode 108 - Many tries - Many times - Many ways
How to get out of the "tick box" practice scenario. Richard and Dean discuss why coaches need to learn that players have to experience skill and tactical content in ways that are closer to competitive situations. This means moving away fro…
- Episode 107 - Leadership in hockey
Special guest Dr. Stephen Norris and Dean Holden discuss their recent trip to Kazakhstan as part of an IIHF initiative to grow the game in other parts of the world. What is the impact of this initiative on our own game's leadership? Where…
- Episode 106 - Are you a transformational coach?
The modern lexicon of coaching includes terms like transformational and transactional to describe the approaches coaches use. What are their characteristics? In minor hockey, can someone be both? Dean Holden delves into this topic, aided a…
- Episode 105 - Greg Revak: ”I’m just trying to be less dumb.”
Greg Revak, an Ohio-based coach and USA Hockey coach developer, has unique and progressive ideas on coaching the game. His podcast and newsletter hit on various topics which are pertinent to coaches at every level. In this episode, he shar…
- Episode 104 - Are you a new coach - of some sort?
However you define "new," Richard and Dean discuss what coaches need to consider at the start of a new adventure and the resources they should access. Books: How we learn to move by Rob Gray The Coach's Guide to Teaching by Doug Lemov Tran…
- Episode 103 - Checking in on checking
Season 5 begins with an important pre-season look at how contact and checking need to be taught to take it beyond the confines of the current checking clinic module. Richard and Dean examine an approach using spectrums of skill for differe…
- Episode 102 - The Norwegian Blue and Coach Education
This episode is a unique collaboration with Stuart Armstrong whose podcast is The Talent Equation . His May 28, 2024, show was called "Coach Education is broken." It struck a chord with Grassroots host Richard Bercuson who felt it reminded…
- Episode 101 - Hockey Coaching Terminology 101
Modern coaching approaches include a litany of expressions, phrases, words and acronyms that are sometimes baffling in what they mean. In this episode, Richard and Dean delve into some of the more common ones and relate them to coaches nee…
- Episode 100 - The Value of Small Space Activities & Games
Brian Gillam, HEO's Coaching Coordinator and Gold Medal Pathways mentor, delves into the myriad of ways in which small or reduced space practice activities are central to how children will develop both their skills and ability to play game…
- Episode 99 - Hockey Factories through a different lens
Matt Dumouchelle is a writer for The Coaches Site and assistant GM for a junior A team near Windsor. But he also authored a revelatory five-part series, "Hockey Factories" published last year on thecoachessite.com . A second series focusin…
- Episode 98 - Joe Baker: The Tyranny of Talent
One of the more important publications in recent years is The Tyranny of Talent by Prof. Joe Baker. Baker is a professor of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto and inaugural holder of the endowed Tanenbaum chair…
- Episode 97 - When science meets art in coaching
This first episode of 2024 features a discussion about the science that should inform current coaching approaches and how coaches need to now examine the effects on their coaching art. Host Richard Bercuson discusses with Dean Holden and J…
- Episode 96 - When kids discover through play
It didn't look like fun. So Kevin, dad of a little girl new to hockey, decided to "go his own way" by leaving the local "Timbits" program and adopting an ecological dynamics approach. He rented a small patch of ice, invited others to join…
- Episode 95 - Madame President: Where we are - Where we’re heading
Kealy Lambert is a former college hockey player, now a mom, a coach, a lawyer and the president of Bow River Minor Hockey in Calgary. She's seen the game from just about every angle and now, as the head of an organization, she suspects Can…
- Episode 94 - Dr. Stephen Norris - Part 2
Stephen Norris delves deeper into Canada's minor hockey world, finishing with the challenge: What would you do if declared King of Hockey Canada? Contact: richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com X (Twitter): Richard - @berky544 Dean Holden: f…
- Episode 93 - Dr. Stephen Norris - Part 1
Stephen Norris, one of Canada's pre-eminent sport scientists and performance experts, has worked with numerous sport organizations including Hockey Canada. He refers to himself as a "performance guide to a chosen few." In this first of a t…
- Episode 92 - Holding my feet to the fire
Podcast host Richard Bercuson has taken on coaching a U18AA team this season, a somewhat new experience for him even after coaching for decades. In this episode, Dean Holden poses some interesting questions for him to consider as he naviga…
- Episode 91 - What is Coach Development?
Season 4 kicks off with Richard and Dean in a pretty deep discussion about the definition of coach development, professionalism in coaching and related topics. It all begins with Richard's follow-up presentation to Oshawa coaches in August…
- Episode 90 - Follow the leader?
For Canadian minor hockey to evolve and improve, solid visionary leadership is the key. Richard and Dean invite Rick Ladouceur to discuss what we have and where we can go. Ladouceur is the executive director of Prairie Storm Minor Hockey n…
- Episode 89 - The Evolution of the Coaching Life of Brian
It took Brian Gillam nearly 20 years to realize that perhaps his coaching approach had room for adjustment. His epiphany came at a High Performance conference and, since then, his readings about leadership, ecological approaches, constrain…
- Episode 88 - Reflecting on a S.E.E.P. Presentation
S.E.E.P. - Six Elements for Effective Practices - is a presentation Richard created to educate, inform, and assist coaches in improving their approaches. In this episode, he describes how the first one went on April 18 in Oshawa, ON, atten…
- Episode 87 - Five Questions that need Answers
There are questions we need to address in order for coaching and coach development to move forward, utilizing research evidence now available to us. Richard and Dean attempt to answer these questions, which were posed recently by Dr. Mark…
- Episode 86 - Raymond Verheijen: The Evolution of Coaching
Dutch football (soccer) coach and coach developer Raymond Verheijen has developed a worldwide following through books and courses on how to coach, not just football but coaching in general. In this episode he explains the importance of usi…
- Episode 85 - The Language of Coaching
In recent years, coaching has taken on an entirely new lexicon thanks to research into coaching methods and approaches. Richard and Dean examine some of the key ones pertaining to hockey, ones they feel are essential for the modern coach t…
- Episode 84 - Wally Kozak: For the good of the game
Wally Kozak is a resident of host Richard Bercuson's virtual Pantheon of Canadian hockey developers. Here, he begins by reflecting on his stint with Father David Bauer's national team and its influence on his future as a teacher and coach.…
- Episode 83 - S.E.E.P. - Six Elements for Effective Practices
Organizing a practice is challenging enough. However, Richard and Dean contend that incorporating six key elements will make a practice hum and provide the players with all they need to experience success and enjoy themselves. The first el…
- Episode 82 - Wherefore bodychecking?
In the last few months, two Canadian research studies have concluded that bodychecking in hockey should not begin till age 18, when kids are out of minor hockey. One of those studies, headed by the renowned brain injury and concussion expe…
- Episode 81 - Beer League Hockey Practice
A departure from the normal content as this one scratches an itch: how to get adults who've never played hockey to give it a try. Peter Munro has started a venture called "Beer League Hockey Practice" which invites adult learners in variou…
- Episode 80 - Applying C-D-E-F to minor hockey coaching
The fascinating C-D-E-F approach taken by Dutch coach and coach developer Raymond Verheijen is the subject of this episode, a sequel to Episode 78 with Neil Sedgwick. Richard and Dean adapt Verheijen's ideas that were designed for soccer c…
- Episode 79 - Explaining critical thought in coaching
"A Problem Well Stated is Half Solved," said the late Charles Kettering who headed the GM research department in the mid 20th century. How does this apply to the application of critical thought in coaching, especially in minor hockey? Dean…
- Episode 78 - A paradigm shift: C-D-E-F
Neil Sedgwick is the head coach of the Univ. of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) women's soccer team in Prince George, BC. His coaching approach has been radically changed by the teachings and courses offered by Dutch coach Raymond Verheij…
- Episode 77 - Practice Structure
Once a coach gets past the basic practice template, what are the myriad of priority considerations to have in a good practice? What to teach, when, and, most importantly, how are the key questions a coach should be answering. In this episo…