Station-based practices are great but we don’t have to run them the same way every time.

Mixing up your drill setup can make a big difference and keep things engaging for your players.

Using ideas like a battle square or corner station:

• Opens up more ice

• Keeps players engaged

• Adds small area competition

• Makes practice feel fresh

Simple takeaway: use your ice better, not just more often.

A small change in setup can elevate your entire practice.

When you’ve got multiple goalies on the ice, have the goalie who isn’t facing shots start the drill with a pass.

It’s a simple adjustment that:

builds puck handling & passing skills
increases confidence with the puck
keeps goalies engaged when it’s not their turn
Small detail. Big impact.

Super insightful info from one mother best skating coaches out there. A must read for coaches looking to improve their player’s skating efficiency & power.

Great insight! Just because it’s a game doesn’t mean it should not include structure & coaching/education as part of it.

Replace “coaches” with “league administrators” and the message is the exact same. A very accurate message & a very unfortunate message.

Totally agree! Developing the ability to handle bad passes, rolling & bouncing pucks, and finding chaotic rebounds are definitely skills that need to be worked on by players at all levels. I like adding in a “bad pass” progression in some of my drills to get the players out of their comfort zone of perfect passes & improve their ability to make plays off of broken plays & bad passes.

This drill is built around low-to-high puck movement, defensive activation, and game-speed shooting, while giving your goalie transferable reads.

• Low-to-high passing pattern
• D activating off the wall on the blue line creates lateral movement and changes shooting lanes
• D-to-D pass to a one-timer or catch-and-release trains shooting without overhandling
• Goalie works on tracking through traffic & moving laterally with the play

solid drill here and I really like how Coach Mike links the drill to in-game examples. Great stuff!

So much practical info here for effectively coaching defensemen.

Love this battle drill in tight space. It incorporates so many essential skills like puck protection, puck control, compete, balance & stability, quick movements, board battles, D positioning, and more. Plus, it incorporates the goalies too so they can wor kon tracking, angles, close area shots, rebound control & more.

As an advocate for ACHA hockey, an ACHA coach for nearly a decade, and someone that regularly speaks & skates with players in various junior hockey leagues, this is very relevant, detailed info that is often overlooked by those chasing whatever level the are chasing. Sometimes, it just comes down to how many spots there are and what the right fit is for a player. The ACHA is making huge strides and proving that it is a viable and desirable destination for a positive college hockey experience.

In my experience coaching youth players, you can never practice passing enough! Passing, both giving & receiving, is a foundational core skill that truly separates higher level players and teams. It doesn’t develop on its own without intentional work. As Coach Ness says in this presentation, “You need a lot of reps to improve your passing. You have to get touches.”