Practice 2
10 min. A3 – Russian warm up around the rink and shoot at each end.
10 min. D4 half ice game of 2 pass; only forehand passes allowed. If a backhand is made then the other team gets the puck. The rule in 2 pass is that on transition you must make at least 2 passes before you can shoot. The puck must stay inside the zone and if it goes out the other team gets it..
10 min. B5 – 2-0 cross and drop then a max of one pass and shoot then go for the rebound. Progress to a 2-1 with the player not shooting being the defender vs the next 2 attackers.
10 min. B3 partner passing. Instruction and passing demo focusing on wrist passes and making little noise while passing and receiving. Practice passing standing then moving, then with variations in passes and movement. Finish with 1-1 keepaway.
10 min. D4 games of 3-3 or 4-4. Rule only 2 seconds with the puck. Must clear the zone and be onside. Wrist passes only.
10 min. D2 – Cross ice game of 2-2 and then 3-3. On the whistle the offensive team must skate behind their net from the offside faceoff dot while the defensive team leaves from the other dot and must create checking angles on the attackers. 20†shifts
Tom
Hello my friend, It's Craig from the Eastern US. Hope all is well. I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me and my organization.
We are starting our second year and things are going well. 2 teams both 12 U teams one major one minor.
I find my players are excited to get to practice for our warm up games of 3 puck, 5 puck and unfortunately we cannot get to 7 puck as we don't have enough players. Our practice starts at 8 PM, tonight, so I really need to find ways to focus and motivate their efforts on ice. This is the medicine the doctor has ordered.
I look forward to your continued post.
All the Best
Craig
Craig, sorry I just noticed your post today. Good to hear that things are running smoothly.
I just picked up 4 players from the Oval Extreme (suspended operations for a year) which is one of the top women's teams in the world and 4 from Dartmouth University, so we are looking pretty strong now. So we have 15 skaters and 3 goalies with 5 exceptionally good skaters and 1 exceptionals goalie. The rest of the players are good and have played university hockey.
So that is nice because we only had 8 players a few weeks ago.
I will attach my first four jr. high practices here.
Keep me posted about your program.
TomM
we did angling and then a 1-1 half ice game of attack-defend-pass-rest. I will attach the diagram. It is a great game to practice 1-1's and you can go up to a 2-2.
We did the angling drill to teach the players to steer, angle and finish. Early the players had to go behind the net and the checker in front. When it was live the checker could go behind if he had a good angle.
In the cross ice game both teams must skate behind their net to start. The defenders have to close the gap to a stick length, transition skate from forward to back a communicate who they have.
TomM
Today there was only one goalie; so I had to redesign practice 5. I have it and our next session at the end of the total plan.
TomM
I found a way to copy and paste some diagrams from pdf documents I have. This file has the first 6 one hour sessions. !2 of the 14 skaters are quite good, one beginner and one novice type player work on skills with the asst. for part of each practice. There are 2 goalies but only one at each of the last two practices.
From now on I will post the 2 weekly practices instead of all in one document.
I am reviewind the individual offensive and defensive skills which they are good at for their age but I am more focused on teaching them how to play with good habits. In other words how to put the skills they have now to good use. Focus is on playing without the puck on both offense and defense. Playing with their feet moving and doing everything much quicker and with much more creativity.
I am going to put these examples of using the ABC's to coach in the file section of this site. I can edit and update it without taking up the bulletin board.
It would be nice to see some coaches use this board to discuss coaching topics and problems with their team.
I am doing one hour skills sessions for jr. high students on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. On the old hockeycoach.com board I used to do a 'diary of a season' that outlined what we did in practices.
This group is from grade 7-9. There are two goalies and 14 skaters. 12 of the skaters are experienced and have a pretty good skill level and two are beginners. 13 boys 3 girl's in all. Sessions are from 7:30-8:30 in the morning. Then they change and take a bus back to the school.
The principal is the on ice teacher and I used to coach him at the University of Calgary.
This is to demonstrate how to teach skills using the ABC method.
I will attach a few of the diagrams each time.
St. Joan of Arc Hockey
Practice One
10 min. D4 - 2 games of 2 pass (depending on how many goalies) to warm up and get an idea of the skill levels.
15 min. A2 Russian puck handling routine. We will do this routine all year. Learn to carry the puck all around the body.
10 min. A2 game of Puck Dog (British Bulldog with the puck)
10 min. B2 Shooting – blueline to ringuette line back to blueline and shoot.
15 min. D4 – 3 x 5 min. games of 2 pass. Rules:
Game one - everyone must face the puck.
Game two – must make 2 passes.
Game three – everyone must touch the puck.
10 min. D100 full ice 3-3, rule one pass in each zone max. 40†shifts and pass to the goalie on the whistle.
This session will give us an idea of the various playing levels plus give the players many touches with the puck and a lot of movement
'Enjoy the Game'