As these skills become second nature, adjusting to make them more difficult allows a smarter layered approach to learning.
A rarely recognized duty of coaches in the off-season is to prepare players for upcoming tryouts. Tryouts can be a stressful time for players as they are comparing themselves to others even more than they might do in the regular season as they worry about making the team they’re trying to make.
While in today’s youth hockey culture tryouts are mostly for show –most coaches and programs know who is making their team or not well before tryouts– this is a time of confidence building and development. Players are in fact prepared to not only show up ready for tryouts, but be ready to play in the upcoming season as most are advancing to a new age group or higher level within their current group.
To build confidence, you can run a few drills to add just a little complexity that forces them to pay attention and think, but also a lot of speed that ensures they are spending their time on the ice in as many game-like scenarios as possible.
Drills created with Hockey Coach Vision.
High – Low
This game is basically two mini one-on-one games in which one forward and one defender is confined to a high or low position drawn on the ice with a marker. Players can shoot at any time, but can utilize their teammate whenever needed to create a good scoring opportunity.Defenders are trying to simply clear the puck, or have the goalie cover it.
Forwards are at their best when they aren’t just looking for an immediate shot and instead have their head up and are moving quickly to pull defenders and the goalie out of position. The drill stops quickly on selfish forward plays because defense has an easier time knocking it out of the playable zone or they just give it up to the goalie on a bad shot that is covered.
A drill like this really puts a spotlight on those who fail to pass, and over a few reps increases the passing of nearly everyone. The battles are tight and mimic a game-like situation and the ability to move around and find open spots in such a confined area really helps increase a player’s hockey IQ.
1 on 0 Passing
This drill does a lot of warming up the players and goalies, but also relies heavily on speed and catching passes. If the passes are bad or the players are slow, the whole drill falls apart.
The concept is simple, two players on opposite blue lines pass the puck forward and begin to skate around the top of the faceoff circle, while the pass moves from player to player before getting sent back the original passer who goes in for a one on zero against the goalie.
The slower the skater is, the more time the passers are stuck waiting with the puck, but the worse the passes are, the longer it takes for people to get the puck. This tests and works on their passing, catching, and skating all in one drill.
When we’re talking confidence, you see it in the players as the drill progresses and is flowing. None of them want to be the one to screw up the flow and you see them take great efforts to make good passes, catch them, and keep it rolling.
It seems like a throwaway warmup, but has so many hidden benefits that could be easily dismissed at first.
Taking it Off-Ice
Next, over the summer breaks, you can’t do everything on the ice. But you can send players home with some simple workouts to increase speed, shooting, and more. Working on speed is one of the most popular questions I get from players and parents at the end of each season, and I always recommend skating as much as they have access and a skating treadmill if available.
But for those who don’t have that access or want to continue at home, there are some simple drills you have players do at home to help build muscle and increase speed.
These 4 different drills are demonstrated by a 12U player and you’ll notice they aren’t perfect. They rarely will be, but what is important is the form remains good and the drive to get better each day they go outside and do these.
For the first drill, have your player start next to you and run three big strides away. From there, drop a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball and make them run to catch it. They don’t start until you drop the ball. To begin you can bounce it harder, and as they get faster you can make the bounce more challenging. As they progress, you can then have them start further back.
Next is a short 15 foot sprint (adjustable to size and speed capabilities) with a lateral stop. Here we used two cones and he sprinted back and forth making a lateral stop at each cone.
Following that are cross-over sprints to work on that McDavid like lateral crossovers.
And to end, we work on leg muscles and balance with two legged hops that land on one leg, alternating on the way down the line.
Confidence building doesn’t need to be difficult, it comes simply through encouragement and drills that make players feel as though they can reach their goals. Keeping them simple often boosts confidence because other factors aren’t yet in the way of progress. As these skills become second nature, adjusting to make them more difficult or moving on to more complex drills allows a smarter layered approach to learning. Too many times we want to teach a complex drill that looks fun but the repeated struggle to accomplish the goal can discourage young players. We should rather find ways to build them up and keep it fun along the way.
3D Animated Drills are powered by the Hockey Coach Vision App. Test the FREE HCV APP and access 100+ Animated Drills: https://hockeycoachvision.com/
