I am fired up. I just watched the Flames prospects practice. It is draft choices, free agents and minor league players practicing in two groups. Here is what I saw.

Two colours only with half the F and half the D in one colour. Exception is when they put the joker in a black jersey.

Drills were allowed to conclude naturally.i.e a goal, frozen puck or the D passed to the coach.

Cross ice games.
Game one transition game with passive support and teammates joining attack.
Game two-2-2 but allowed to shoot on either net.

One zone games at each end.

Full ice one puck transition games.
Game one; 2-2 with active support then the rule added to regroup on a whistle and continue.
Game two continuous 3-2 with passisve support. One puck only.

2-2 regroup with the joker when you regain the puck and the joker moves around but must stay below the dots.

GREAT ABC PRACTICE FLAMES

Dean was there as well and I agree that keeping score and keeping track of who scores and assists would help in evaluation.

Great to see them join the 21st Century.

I did a 30 min. Video that I will post when it is ready. I am so happy to have someone else run a gamelike pracitice. I told Craig Conroy when he came off the ice to compliment the coach on the best Flames ice session I have ever watched.

I love the idea of keeping score and accountability . These are to be used in SAGS only ? How do you work it in 1 on 1 's 2 on 1's etc.
my practice his weekend i had the girls finish the "play " by scoring or goalie freezing the puck ( don't quit on the puck ) in d to fwds 3 shot drills . I guess you could do these in 1 on 1 , 2 on1 , 3 on 2 as well , just have to let other players wait until the play is finished instead of "flow " ?

Posting with my iphone so harder to write if u r over19. I posted 30 min of video of the practices and the link is in the pro practice section. they just had a 5-5 scrimmage with two 25 min straight periods and kept score.

I will edit it later. I am leaving this arena and going to one 5 minutes away to play.

Here is the video with clips from the two ice sessions. It is 30 minutes long.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=20120710152604109

I thought it was a very good practice.

Quote by: SMAC

I love the idea of keeping score and accountability . These are to be used in SAGS only ? How do you work it in 1 on 1 's 2 on 1's etc.
my practice his weekend i had the girls finish the "play " by scoring or goalie freezing the puck ( don't quit on the puck ) in d to fwds 3 shot drills . I guess you could do these in 1 on 1 , 2 on1 , 3 on 2 as well , just have to let other players wait until the play is finished instead of "flow " ?

Steve,

I always try to keep score: by individual (who scores and on who); or by team (put them in colours). This goes for all the games, SAGS, warmups, shootouts, etc. You can use 'time' as a scoring factor to help increase competition too!

Scoring heightens intensity and implicit learning (due to the increased focus from everyone) - then you add in accountability and - WHAMMO - we got ourselves a top-notch culture... one gigantic step closer to establishing what you want in the environment!

For 1 vs 1 / 2 vs 1, etc. you can count the number of scoring chances, shots on net, goals, etc for offense. You can count the opposite on defence (scoring chances prevented / denied, shots blocked, times the puck is cleared out of the D zone, etc.) Details can be a pain in the ass, but attention to them separates spectator coaches from GREAT coaches! At the end of the day, it is about scoring... or not scoring. This helps keep it simple!

Good call to have your girls 'finish' the play. (The Flames had the D make a pass to the coach in their own DZ to 'stop' that rush and initiate the next rush - good decision.) Play till a whistle - just like in a game.

Let the game dictate the 'flow' and tell the coach to stuff his whistle in his... back pocket! If it takes five minutes (or more) to score, be patient. We did one game this year that took the kids 12 minutes before someone scored. The other kids on the bench were getting ancy (rightfully so) but once that first goal and transition happened, we were off to the races and it flowed very well. One of the teachers wanted us to blow it down and change everyone 1 minute into the process! You just have to have trust in your game and belief in the process... it was a great learning experience for that teacher AND the kids - it was important to debrief at the end and guide the discussion where we wanted it to go. Everyone understood the process much better after 'living' this situation. After this, other times where there was a long time before a change, the kids and teacher understood and were much more patient.

Often the first few reps take longer, then people get tired, make mistakes and then it really picks up! However, if you find there are a lot of lengthy delays, figure out how you can modify the game (add or subtract restrictions / modify the 'Rules of Engagement') to help increase the pace. This might mean taking away or adding ice / players / rules. Experiment (with a purpose in mind) and have fun!

Dean, now the challenge to you.

How would you have run the ice times. There are 39 skaters and about 6 goalies and they have two ice times in the morning and one together in the afternoon.

I watched the afternoon scrimmage and they can all skate and handle the puck but the Swiss player Baertschi was by far the best. The #1 pick Jankowski is only 17 and 6'3" 170 lbs. He was really good when the puck was on his stick and also found open ice without it. Reminds me of Nugent-Hopkins. Not a clue how to angle or check but he has only played high school hockey and probably had the puck all the time there.

Some players were creative but not many. One defenseman had the scrimmage from hell and gave the puck away 8 of the first ten times he touched it. Gnerallly not much close support or creating 2-1's.

Horak, Rheinhart, Grandlund, Gaudreau, House, #72 and a few others were the best and most creative. The group tends to play the game backwards. I.e. Skate wide and pass into the middle where there is no room instead of skate to the big ice and pass wide.

I am going to go watch again today but won't be able to the next two days as I give private lessons in the morning.

If you look at the video section with pro practices the next one is a pre game skate that Detroit did. It was a good session and the next few videos are examples from the prospects camp a few years ago. Even though a lot of the drills were very good it was more like a hockey school with skill stations and drills under no or little pressure. I am sure the players that were there didn't need that kind of instruction. They all would have gone to many hockey schools and camps growing up. So comparing those practices with the one yesterday is a giant step forward.

I personally would have used a lot of the same games but kept track of scoring and give aways and run it like a tournament and then continue the standings the rest of the week. At the end of the camp you would know who was making the plays and who was managing the puck.

Quote by: TomM

Dean, now the challenge to you.

How would you have run the ice times. There are 39 skaters and about 6 goalies and they have two ice times in the morning and one together in the afternoon.

If you look at the video section with pro practices the next one is a pre game skate that Detroit did. It was a good session and the next few videos are examples from the prospects camp a few years ago. Even though a lot of the drills were very good it was more like a hockey school with skill stations and drills under no or little pressure. I am sure the players that were there didn't need that kind of instruction. They all would have gone to many hockey schools and camps growing up. So comparing those practices with the one yesterday is a giant step forward.

I personally would have used a lot of the same games but kept track of scoring and give aways and run it like a tournament and then continue the standings the rest of the week. At the end of the camp you would know who was making the plays and who was managing the puck.

Quote by: TomM

As pumped as I was yesterday about the productive and competitive practice the prospects did yesterday - I am disappointed today. A different coach ran the practice and did a whole bunch of flow type drills that in themselves were ok but to do one after the other of basically warm up drills with robotic repittion was non productive and I don't see how it followed the posted theme of one puck drills and competition so the team could evaluate 'Game Sense' which they say they are looking for. The American league coach ran the last exercise and it was a one zone game.

I will post the practice and you can compare one day to the next.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=2012071112422387

I would like to read coaches opinions on how you could make this session into a more realistic and productive ice session by adding tasks, i.e. after shooting defend the next rush or shoot til you score or covert the drill to a transition game and use only one puck.

The Drill and Practice model was thrown out of educational systems in the 60's. When will hockey coaching convert to Whole Learning.

Tom, I will post how I would run the camp as soon as I have time. It's 'daddy daycare' time for the summer so I have to pick my spots...

But I agree with your comments about why run a hockey school at this level? Skills are important - most of these guys hire a skills coach in the off season - but nobody 'at the top' seems to know how to train Hockey Sense. I do and that is what I would focus on during this 'development camp'.

I will provide my outline of how I would have run this camp later.

I feel strongly that without designing situations / games where you can track some stats - the very least scoring (winning vs. losing) and holding players accountable - then it is time well WASTED!

And yes, what a big step backwards today with the session. More EVIL DRILLS with seemingly little purpose, no scoring stats, no accountability, little evaluation use, and worse of all - very little transferability to the game!

I couldn't believe how much time they spent at the board, or stopping the 'drills' for corrections and how little time they spent 'doing'. B-O-R-I-N-G! Shouldn't they be trying to maximize the players reps to learn? Don't players learn through both making mistakes and by doing it right? So why stop it when they do it wrong?

When we will learn that you must train under game-like conditions to compete in a game?

Probably around the same time we throw out the Drill and Practice model and adapt the Game Sense model! So... what decade will this happen? Will I still be alive then?