Use these hockey practice drills to teach your youth hockey team how to defend inside your zone.
You’ve taught your players about playing defence with their heads up, and you’ve driven home the importance of the backcheck, but as you know, even with all of that, the other team is going to enter your zone.
So, what drills can you use to teach your youth hockey team how to defend inside your zone?
I like starting with the two defensive players. As you know, with your forwards backchecking, it’s your defensive players that act as the last line of defence before the opposing team reaches your goaltender.
Drills created with Hockey Coach Vision.
2 on 2
In this drill, players line up in each corner of the blueline, and the coach stands in the referee crease. The coach makes a pass to a player, activating that side of the ice as offense, and the other side becomes defence.
The two forwards crisscross before the redline and either drop pass the puck or continue with it and attempt to enter the zone. The defence, upon the coach making the pass, will skate out towards the red line, choosing when to transition and attempt to control the gap.
Defence should be focused on covering their player. The defender covering the puck carrier should try to gain inside position, while the other does the same, ensuring the passing lane doesn’t exist.
Once the players make it past the blue line, the coach can send the puck to the opposite side, from before, sending four players in the other direction.
A variation of this once the play is flowing is having three forwards take off creating a 3-on-0 scenario. This offers a challenge for the second defender to ensure they are picking up the correct player and puts more urgency on the first defender to keep the puck carrier to the outside, in their passing lane.
Box Drill
This drill doubles as both a defensive drill and a penalty kill or power play drill. The versatility of it is one reason it’s a regular in our practices.
In this drill, four defenders enter the zone in a box formation, with their sticks turned upside down. Five offensive players enter the zone, and the coach spots a puck into any area of the ice they choose.
The defender’s role isn’t possession in this drill, which is why their sticks are upside down. It’s to learn to keep the offensive players to the outside, forcing them to make passes or take bad shots.
Offense should be moving the puck around, hoping to trick the defenders to opening a lane and taking a shot.
To add some fun to the drill, you can award a point for defence for either blocking a shot, forcing enough passes that the offense accidentally goes offside, or add a time constraint and if offense can’t get a shot through in time, defence gets a point. You can think of many creative ways to inspire the players to want to win this drill.
Putting it all together
Combining the defensive drills you’ve been working on to create a full game flow becomes important to then show how it comes to life in a game. Like the Box Drill above, this one is great because it once again combines many elements, so players are working on defence, offense, and special teams.
This drill begins like the Box Drill, but is brought full ice, all players are holding their sticks correctly (no more upside-down stick) and the defenders have a clear goal to pass the puck to a player ready to take over the offensive push.
Once defense gets possession, they attempt to make an outlet to one of the five players waiting on the other side of the blueline, who will then begin their rush into the opposing end. This drill flows back and forth, never stopping unless you decide to stop it. The tempo is upbeat and fast, only giving players a quick rest as the other two lines battle inside the zone.
One theme you’ll notice through these drills is that other than the 2-on-2, we rarely play defense 5-on-5. That reason is we want defense at a slight disadvantage to have to work harder in practice to accomplish their goals. This doesn’t mean we never add the fifth player, but once game time rolls around, that fifth player becomes a bonus. Your players on the ice are used to playing shorthanded and working extra hard, that work ethic comes to their game play as well.
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