Grassroots: The Minor Hockey Show

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 shares with Richard his personal bugaboos and annoyances about practice design and what we can do better.

His website: https://hockeysarsenal.substack.com/
The HockeyIQ Podcast: https://hockeysarsenal.com/podcast

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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
Transforming Basketball by Alex Sarama
The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Podcasts:
This one, of course!
The Talent Equation - Stuart Armstrong
The Perception-Action Podcast - Rob Gray
HEO Youtube channel - Brian Gillam (Hockey Eastern Ontario

Web sites:
hockeycoachingabcs.com - Tom Molloy
admkids.com - USA Hockey

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 different ages and levels of play, built within the current four-stage checking progression espoused by Hockey Canada.

Those who'd like a copy of the spectrums diagram should email Richard: Richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 him of the famous Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch. He connected with Stuart and here's the result: a tripartite discussion with Stuart, Richard, and Dean Holden about coach education's demise.

Stuart will simulcast the show on his own podcast soon, once he completes his multi-part analysis of the subject.

Listener Advisory: Stuart's script read of the Dead Parrot sketch, portraying Michael Palin, is much better than Richard's feeble attempt with the John Cleese character. Dean plays the dead parrot.

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 need to understand about them and how to apply them in minor hockey.

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 games on similar sized areas. Gillam is a longtime proponent of ecological dynamics and constraints led approaches. He explains how important it is for children and teens to be trained in space consistent with their developmental stages and what they can learn from the approach.

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 focusing on five different hockey organizations in Europe and North America will be out shortly. In this episode Matt shares what can be learned from these clubs, their programs and approaches. He also discusses his own journey in sports, with keen observations about our sporting culture, including now being a dad to a hockey-loving six year old.

To get a copy of his series, visit:
https://join.thecoachessite.com/hockey-factories-ebook

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 in sport science, data modelling and sport analytics at U of T’s Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport (TISS). In this episode, he discusses some of the key points of this seminal work and how they relate to hockey and talent identification.

The Tyranny of Talent  is available through Amazon.

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 John "the Colombian" Castrillon who has spent decades using game-based approaches in soccer and hockey, even before he was aware of what the science showed.

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]

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 in, and used play activities to turn the kids on to the game. Now he is on his own discovery path of how to properly introduce and teach the game to children.

Kevin's Instagram: AthleticDevelopmentGames
Kevin's web site: hockey training.com
Dropbox video link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fswu6nzyqadr6q8iyjnph/Games-Based-Learning-8-weeks.MOV?rlkey=xypju1vdd810rnjs6f23dtrt3&dl=0

Contact:
richard(at)grassrootsminorhockey.com
Twitter:
Richard - @berky544

Dean Holden: [email protected]