Is starting training camp off with a scrimmage the right approach? Not if you want to boost confidence off the hop.

Now that your training camp is organized, your people are empowered, and your athletes are checked in and feeling confident in their opportunity to show their stuff, it’s time to hit the ice. It might seem obvious at first to simply split up the teams alphabetically and huck a puck on the ice, but you if you’re eager to identify the best group of players to move on to the next phase of camp, then there are ways to boost your efficiency.

Starting camp with a scrimmage is often ceremonial at best. There’s no doubt the players should be in prime physical condition when they arrive to camp, and if they’re not then that’s on them.

What’s on you, however, is providing an environment in which confident competition can thrive. Like we talked about in part one of this series, culture builds confidence and confidence builds performance. Picture a 19-year-old stepping onto the ice with a player whose poster he had on the wall in his bedroom as a kid. It’s intimidating. That’s mostly because hockey players often don’t want to rock the boat – they don’t want to be seen as arrogant or cocky, which is fine.

But you want them to perform. You want your young players gunning for your older players’ jobs, and if they earn that position then your team will be stronger as a result. On the flip-side, you want your returning players to make that as challenging as possible, so it’s vital to have them performing their best when exhibition games roll around. Not every athlete is built with ice in their veins, and as such many will feel their way into training camp. So instead of fighting that fact, work with it.

This is the first of a 6 part series called Training Camp Exceptional. Here’s the criteria we used:

Age Groups

As the range of contributing coaches demonstrates, we made a distinction between training camp and tryouts. This series is generally intended for junior hockey and older, though many elements will no doubt apply to U18 and younger.

Content

Each post will cover the bones of training camp, from the planning, implementation, and fall-out. Hopefully you’ll get some inspiration or knowledge to help you run your next camp.

• Training Camp Exceptional Part 1: Schedules, volunteers & extras
• Training Camp Exceptional Part 2: On-ice training camp options
• Training Camp Exceptional Part 3: Pre-game guidance and communication
• Training Camp Exceptional Part 4: Training camp evaluation
• Training Camp Exceptional Part 5: Exit meetings
• Training Camp Exceptional Part 6: Post-camp team building

Flow Practice

There’s nothing easier on the mind than a good old fashioned flow practice. Flow practices should be used sparingly during the season, save for warmup drills or routines that teach a component of your systems, but it’s a simple tool to kickstart training camp. Keep your drills simple and the message clear – start with recognizable routes that players from all over the hockey landscape are familiar with. Your goalies will appreciate it as well, and might even believe you started camp with a flow practice just for them (the goalie’s mind is easy to please). Consistent shots coming from the same place will lower the risk of injury, and with rest time that mimics the natural progression of shifts in a game, the player’s hands and feet will come online by the time the practice is finished.

Here’s a team practice plan from the fall of 2019, my first training camp in the MJHL.

There are a hundred ways you can organize camp. Here’s what Kelowna Rockets Head Coach Kris Mallette had to say:

“In years previous with bigger camps and more players we’d have three teams that would all practice, while two teams would play each day. We’d do that for the first three days of camp and rotate to give our staff and scouts an opportunity to see our draft picks play amongst our returning players. This season we will only have two teams and have two spilt squad practices and a game every other day to do the same and try to get to know our draft picks who I’ll be seeing for the first time.”

• Kris Mallette, Kelowna Rockets

Skills Practice

Another way to kick off camp is to run skills stations. Physically you’re skating the same basic path as the flow practice, but you might get a more intimate glimpse of some of the skills you believe will be beneficial to the team when the score counts. You’re also giving players more puck touches, more shots, and more of an opportunity to showcase their skills in a controlled setting.

Download a skills practice plan here.

Combo Skills Practice / Goalie Session

Goalies have the toughest job in the game, so they shouldn’t have added trouble making an impression just because they made the curious choice to play such a demanding position. Most junior teams run goalie-specific sessions that consist of a handful of tenders out with the goalie coaches and returning players taking shots. I’ve personally never felt comfortable watching a dead quiet ice session in which one goalie takes shots from a much more comfortable returning player, while eight or nine others stare at their every move hoping for a mistake. Inevitably it happens, and the resulting body language is never good. Is this type of session capturing a true representation of the player’s technique?

Goalies and players are comfortable with stations, so put extra nets on the ice and create a detailed plan that will highlight the movements and saves you want to see. The players get their puck touches and shots in a controlled environment, but for the goalies it’s much more game-like.

Here are two different practice plans that combine player skills with goalie criteria.

1. Skills Stations: Simpler for the players, challenging for the goalie (more shots, one-timer heavy).

2. Compete Stations: Challenging for the players, more rest time for goalies.

Small Area Games

If you’ve moved beyond making decisions for your players with flow and skills and you want to see them solve problems and compete, then it’s time for creative rules and small spaces. Watching players in a game-like situation has the added benefit of built-in rankings. The results in these scenarios rarely lie. There’s pressure added to the skills already practiced, and there’s the added pressure of an audience of peers. Everyone is engaged. The most skilled players in your camp will emerge victorious in small area games and it will be hard for you, your scouts, and the other players to ignore.

Here are some handy small area games from our pal Dave Starman. 

Systems

Coaches can also use the early days of training camp to teach systems, which goes a long toward getting players comfortable with the type of game you want to play while also highlighting players who will fit in over the course of the season.

Here’s how Scott Burt, head coach of the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush, approaches systems during training camp.

“For the first couple days of practice it depends on how many players I have – is it a small camp or a big camp? This season in Rapid City it will be a smaller camp and we’ll have new ideas so that could cause some confusion, so I want to get into my systems right away to eliminate that confusion. This will help the players start the season with confidence and composure. The good news is you can teach your systems and compete at the same time, so I’ll have a couple small scrimmages with small area games during the first week.”

• Scott Burt, Rapid City Rush

Scrimmages

Nothing will ever replicate a player’s ability to think the game than true 5-on-5 hockey. This is how the game is played, so all the comfort of the flow practice, the skill in the stations and the compete in small area games comes home to roost when the clock starts and the score counts. More on game-specific training camp methods in part three.