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 for ...

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 sessions,...

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 is a...

"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 so...

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 from the...

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 are w...

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 ...

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 wi...

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 GrayThe Coach's Guide to Teaching by Doug Le...

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 ag...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 thecoachess...

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 Tanenb...

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 ...

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, a...

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 Canadian...

Stephen Norris delves deeper into Canada's minor hockey world, finishing with the challenge: What would you do if declared King of Hockey Canada?

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 ...

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 navigates t...

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 when...

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 near R...

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, constraints, e...

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, att...