Grassroots: The Minor Hockey Show

Episode 127 - Peter Bolin on mentoring and communication in different cultures

Swedish coach Peter Bolin has spent much of the last quarter century coaching, teaching and mentoring in his native Sweden as well as stints in "underdeveloped" hockey countries like Romania. Here he discusses the cultural challenges and the messages he wants to share about communication and adapting to changes in coaching.

Episode 126 - Dr. Simon Grondin: The Relative Age Effect, Laterality and hockey research

Laval University's Simon Grondin, a professor of psychology, hosted the 2025 International Ice Hockey Research symposium at Laval. In this episode he discusses his early 1980s research into the relative age effect, "laterality" and other topics in hockey research. Here are a few research docs he refers to:  Grondin - Relative Age Effect 1984 [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UOhow7UH2WDqPVx-uu2XUAdaZM0JCTIu/view?usp=sharing] Shoot left or right [https://drive.google.com/file/d/167OsOpHIlpu-GrP37caYxsQneLLQZkXK/view?usp=sharing] Laterality in NHL [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WvojlcvsUbv0a3ZNegtkNmAoXopfiko5/view?usp=sharing]

Episode 125 - Rahim Karmali's overhaul of Whitby coach development

After years as a coach in house league and competitive hockey, Whitby Minor Hockey's development coordinator Rahim Karmali is re-jigging the organization's approach to coach development. His initiatives, and many hours in rinks with coaches, earned him the OMHA Development award.  Two books Rahim provided Whitby coaches with discussions on them to follow: The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle Belfry Hockey by Darryl Belfry with Scott Powers

Episode 124 - Are SSGs/SAGs misunderstood and misused?

An investigation of what SSGs/SAGs are, what they're supposed to do and are they being done effectively. Host Richard discusses with guest host Dean Holden and Brian Gillam who explains how he's used these with his own U16 team. In the podcast, reference is made to Tom Mollloy's website: hockeycoachingabcs.com [http://hockeycoachingabcs.com].

Episode 123 - A Poditorial: The Bronze

Beginning with a nostalgic opening from the original Ottawa radio podcast, host Richard Bercuson gives his views that help explain Canada's Bronze medal performance at the recent world juniors. He divides his explanation into five topics to describe Canada's standing in the hockey world.   Hockey population by country [https://www.statista.com/statistics/282349/number-of-registered-ice-hockey-by-country/]