Off-season training can get tricky. Learn how to keep things simple and challenge your players with some shooting drills.

As the off-season continues, players looking to improve their skills despite a lack of available ice time are desperate for a challenge.

There is a lot you can do in the off-season to work on conditioning and shooting, however, not all of it is realistic for everyday families.

Coaching in a big city often means smaller houses, no backyards, or little to know room to really work with synthetic ice or to safely be on rollerblades in the streets, etc.

And I wanted my players to focus on their shooting this off-season as much as possible.

So how can we continue to develop positive shooting habits? A lot of coaches issue challenges like shooting 100 or 1,000 pucks a day, and these are cool, but how are we ensuring they aren’t developing a bad habit 1,000 times a day that later hurts them on the ice?

I do want my players shooting 100, 500 or 1,000 pucks a day, but only if they are doing it right. I would much rather them only shoot 10 pucks the right way, than 100 the wrong way.

So to start, you can ask players to have their parents take video of them shooting 10 pucks and send it to you so you can help correct errors and get them shooting up to 100 pucks the right way, and then increase the challenge.

I start with basic shooting drills. Nothing over the top, just hit the net, but let’s make sure our stance is good, and we’re holding the stick right. As you’ll notice in the video, he’s standing up too straight, hands are too close together, and he’s getting no power on the shot.

Then have them do it again with some corrections made, to ensure they are getting the most out of the shot. Even then, you can spot more to fix as they send videos and check in. I see a lot more positive in the correction video, his knees are bent, his hands are in a better position, but in the future, I will ensure he’s not leaning backwards on each shot.

However, how many shots are really taken balanced like this? We play our beautiful game on skates, and often off balance.

To help with this, we can use a chair to teach stability in our shots off balance. Or in this case, we used a recycle bin from the house.

Starting to look a little more like Phil Kessel out there, and hey, he gets the job done.

After that, you can even start to focus on different shot types. A favorite of mine is picking up those loose pucks in front of the net. How many goals are dirty goals? They aren’t pretty snipes from the slot, they are puck battles and trying to get a puck in the net in a crowded area right around the goalie.

To accomplish this, you can set up drills at home just like below. I am using some more tools I have on hand as a coach, but I tell parents and players to get creative here.

Then from there, I bring in the challenge. Keep track of your shots, if you can hit 3,000 in a month, you get a pack of hockey cards. 30,000? A box of hockey cards!

Get creative, find out what will motivate your players and get them going.

Once they are rolling, you can bring this into the season too. We have done 100 shots a day during the season to keep them going and working in their spare time. They find it fun and motivating.