Integrating Skill Within Team Focused Hockey Practices
"Energy is low, attention is wavering and it just seems my team does not bring it every practice!"
A common mistake I see amongst youth hockey coaches and even coaches at the higher level is WAY too much of a focus on “team” focused drills rather than skill focused drills in a team setting. The traditional 5 v 0 breakout, 5 v 5 forecheck, break out, the 3 v 2 zone entry and Power Play vs Penalty kill.
Coaching in four different states over the last five years has exposed to me some NOT so great practices in which I have had the “pleasure” of watching and being a spectator at. On the flip side of that though, it has opened my eyes on the way to not to run a practice or coach. This was extremely eye opening when I coached in Virginia and I watched a squirt team do a 5 v 0 break out, thinking to myself what in the hell is going on here? What would be the point of a 5 v 0 break out for 8-9 year olds? Positioning? And that could be argued. Therefore I spent the majority of my time that year coaching a 14UAA team and in my spare time coming up with drills to help develop their hockey IQ, awareness and individual skill. Knowing that they are 13-14 year olds who will more than likely not stop playing hockey after this seasons so equipping them with the knowledge of the game and skill development to continue playing at a high level is more than necessary rather than 5 v 0 break outs or split ice 3 v 2 drills. Then I moved to Iowa and again saw a Peewee C team, C level hockey in Iowa is like house league hockey on the east coast and this “C” team was practicing 5 v 0 breakout, struggling to stand up and skate let alone do a 5 v 0 break out. After seeing this back to back years, I really made it a focus to constantly question my practices and my goal of every practice.
How to integrate skill within a team focused hockey practice…….
First off, after every weekend reflect on your games and write down three things you did well as a team, three things you need to improve on as a team and then write down three skills your team is strong in and three skills your team struggles with. From there try to integrate those skills you struggle in, within a team focused practice. For example, if your team struggles with “routes” or “angles” to loose pucks, you can look into doing the drill below.
“Players in front of coach have to be first to the puck for drill to start. They start with a foot race to the puck, from there they play a 3 v 3 in zone with a shooter/passer on the dots. This integrates 8 players into one drill and you focus on the first two players taking good angles to the pucks and good routes to the puck to beat opposing player to gain possession of the puck and control possession of the puck!”
The practice should be about the players and not the coaches. Therefore no matter how much you struggled on neutral zone re groups, it is probably disagreeable to hammer home neutral zone re groups for the better part of 30 minutes. Players do not learn when they are doing something they do no want to do and or if it seems boring or tedious to them. You have to keep the practice engaging, fun, packed with information to learn from and something that is going to make them walk away feeling confident for the weekend or the next day.
Integrating skills within a team focused practice can still consist of team focused drills yet you are starting with a skill. What I mean by that is, like the drill above the focus is the routes to the puck, beating opposing players to loose pucks and ensuring we are taking good angles and routes to the puck so we do not lose foot races. The focus is the skill but after that the rest of the drill is a team focused drill, you are doing 4 v 4 in zone, offensive zone possession, cycling, shooting, moving to open space, moving with the puck, defensive zone coverage, defense on the puck, defense off the puck, break outs, etc. Ten team focused concepts yet the drill starts with a skill focus.
Drills need to be done where the outcome of the drill is determined by the players. A lot of coaches run drills where the outcome is pre determined, Winger go here, Center go here, Defenseman go here, where in a game that is rarely the situation. Most situations in a game are not pre determined and you will rarely be in the same spot for the entire game or do the same thing in a game more than five times over. Therefore practice needs to mimic that, practice needs to be undetermined and the outcome is determined by the players, allow the players to figure it out and find out what they should be doing and where they should be going in certain situations.
Drills need to look ugly to start, therefore when you do it again and it looks a little better it is showing signs of improvement. The biggest fear of most coaches is a drill looking ugly or sloppy as they fear that the drill they drew up was bad and or perhaps misunderstood by the players meaning their communication could have been flawed. But in reality, drills need to be ugly, they need to have a certain degree of “wow this does not look pretty” in order for it to eventually look pretty. Therefore if a drill is ugly to start, let it play out, let the players figure it out and coach them through situations and scenarios.
Below are several drills you can use in a team focused setting, that focuses on individual skills yet circles back to the point of team concepts like offensive zone possession, movement without the puck, cycling, movement with the puck, defensive zone coverage, defense off/on the puck, stick pressure, angles, loose puck races and much more!
F1 skates down wall, F2 pass to F1, F1 skates in zone, cuts back towards wall, F2 times it into zone, F1 pass to F2, shot.
After shot, coach throw puck in corner, F2 gets puck comes up wall, throws puck low, F1 picks up cycle pass and passes to D up high, shot play 1 rebound.
Focusing on zone entry, timing, cut backs along wall, puck retrieval, cycling, low to high, net front presence.
1 passes to 2 and follows his pass down the wall. 4 follows as 1 passes the puck, 1 and 2 start on offense, if 4 and 3 get the puck they can score right away. Add 5 and 6 as dot shooter and blue line shooter for either offensive team to pass to.
Part 1: 2 F's on blue enter the zone, 2 yellow D angle, 1 F blue back check
Part 2: Make it a 5 v 5
- Add two blue D to join the play and 2 blue Fs on the opposite wall to back check
F2 starts with puck heads to wall, down to F1, this begins the cycle, two D play defense and they are trying to get the puck to 1,2 or 3 to break out the zone and go down 3 v 2 on 2 blue D
F cycle in zone, get a shot or puck to D for a high shot, after shot or goal, coach spots a puck behind blue D
3 F's come out of zone, re group / transition quickly in 3 v 2.
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