Check out the drills Anton Rudgard shared during his Global Skills Showcase presentation, including his Dangle Drill and Six Tire Scramble.
What is the toughest skill to defend in hockey? A precise shot? Crisp passing? Skating prowess? To Anton Rudgard, Development Coach with QuickTurn Hockey, the answer is creativity, which also happens to be the one skill he was never taught as a player.
Rudgard played professional hockey in Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, and played for the Swedish National team. Throughout his career he noticed the most creative players were the ones having the most success, so upon retiring, he began teaching creativity. His Global Skills Showcase presentation defines creativity before he goes into detail about its importance, effectiveness and how being creative improves decision making all over the ice.
Anton’s Dangle Drill
DESCRIPTION
- On 1st whistle, P1 starts from the center red line dangling around the tires and through the extreme danglers at full speed.
- On the 2nd whistle, P1 attacks the net as quickly as possible P2 starts into the obstacle course on the 2nd whistle as well.
KEY POINTS
- Work on faking/deking to both left and to the right.
- Accelerate out of pivots around the tires.
Six Tire Scramble
DESCRIPTION
- On the whistle, the first six players carry pucks into the center face off circle. The players try to skate around the tires at full speed without bumping into other players.
- On the second whistle, players go back and line up again on the wall. Next six players start on the next whistle.
KEY POINTS
- Heads up stick handling.
- If a goalie is available, on the next whistle, players skate out of the middle zone, with good spacing, and take a shot on net.
- Allow enough time for the goalie to recover after each shot.
- Work on quick turns and dekes to both the left and to the right.
