Small area development and games are arguably the best way to develop teams and players. They bring in the most gamelike experience and force decision making with a lot of opportunities for repetition.
However, I have found on more than one occasion that falling back on the games leaves out a key development aspect of some specific skill acquisition that I can get in a small area, and even with a lot of reps, but don’t necessarily fall into the game scenario.
While I don’t bring these out too regularly at practice, I also understand not every player can afford or has time to do private lessons in which they can get more individual skill development, and I can help them along in practice by bringing these drills to them.
Drills created with Hockey Coach Vision.
Rim to the Net
Running this in a small group to ensure as little waiting in line as possible is recommended. The coach will rim the puck behind the net with the player skating around and picking the puck up off the boards.
The player will continue to skate up the boards and the coach will either block the middle of the ice or the boards with their stick. The player will have to respond quickly to this queue either turning directly towards the net for a shot, or continuing up the boards, around the coach, before heading in for a shot.
The key element to this drill is the puck retrieval, but then the added element of heads up skating and reading the queue from the coach brings in some added value and decision making.
Button Hook
This drill works on getting the puck deeper into the zone and then having to make a quick turn up the boards, and then using their speed to get to the net for a quick shot.
You can also add in an element of the coach applying pressure as they button hook out so just as in the previous drill, they are forced to make the added decision of going high or low.
Additionally, you can remove the pressure and have them make a quick pass out of the button hook, and use their speed to get open towards the net, open up for a pass, and get that shot off.
Ice time is incredibly valuable and I don’t often recommend using team practice time for individual skill, but if you’re running a station based practice, giving one area 10 minutes worth of individual skill work for a team that needs it can be valuable.
It can also work as a building block to drills such as 2 on 1 netfront battle, which incorporates the defender catching a puck being rimmed.
The small details will help the teams overall game, increase individual skill acquisition, and if brought in properly, don’t take up too much ice time that can be better devoted to team focused small area development.
3D Animated Drills are powered by the Hockey Coach Vision App. Test the FREE HCV APP and access 100+ Animated Drills: https://hockeycoachvision.com/
