Finding podcasts for youth hockey players isn’t very hard. But finding ones focused on girls hockey isn’t as easy. About 2 ½ years ago I went down the hockey podcast rabbit hole. Specifically seeking out the best podcasts for hockey parents of youth players. At that time, I was able to find the archive of a weekly radio show from Ottawa, Ontario called Grassroots: The Minor Hockey Show with Gregg Kennedy and Richard Bercuson. The archive went back almost three years and I binged every episode over a two week period. It was amazing how I could compare what I was seeing at the local clubs where my kids played and how it differed from what they were recommending on the show.
Since then I have listened to hundreds of additional youth hockey podcast episodes from a variety of different sources in the hopes of finding an insight or pattern that might help my kids develop into better players. One of the biggest topics that has been consistently reinforced is the focus on Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and taking a break from hockey during the offseason. As a result even now that my kids are teenagers, they continue to play additional sports beyond hockey (soccer, lacrosse, pickleball, baseball etc.) and have taken a minimum of 4 weeks off each year during the spring/summer time period.
Since I started listening, the number of hockey-related pods have exploded best exemplified by the popularity of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast (Note: Not recommended for kids given the amount of R-Rated content). However, most hockey podcasts are not very relevant for parents of a female youth hockey player. The following is a list of the most helpful podcasts I subscribe to that continue to educate and motivate me as the parent of a 14-year-old girl hockey player.
We will count down the Top 10 starting with the next post. But for now, let’s being with…
Honorable Mentions:
Mindset Moments
While not really specific to girls or women’s hockey, I find Gord MacFarlane’s guests quite insightful about the mental side of hockey development specifically with players and coaches who provide positive nuggets of information on what it takes to be a mentally tough hockey player. Gord has some excellent guests from both inside and outside hockey that provide excellent advice on overcoming adversity and other key topics on the mental aspects of sports.
Breakaway – The Minor Hockey Podcast
Breakaway: The Minor Hockey Podcast from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association hosted by Dan Pollard. Dan sits down with the leaders of hockey to discuss everything from scoring goals to how to grow the game. While none of the episodes focus solely on girls hockey, there is a lot of great content for parents and coaches of hockey players of any gender. Hopefully they will add new episodes for the 2020-21 season shortly.
Our next posts will start counting down the best youth hockey podcast for parents of female hockey players starting with #10.