Tony, sounds like you are having a good season.

Wit young kid's I have found that they can all count to five and if you can count to 5 then you can play a team game. You really can ask for any system by counting.

They are going to play a 2-1-2 in most places after they leave you so I would use this. Tell them to look at a dice with the 5 dots. This is how they should try to maintain their postioning. 2 up one in the middle and one back.

Have them stand in a dice formation and tell the forwards that their home postion is wing or centre and the D that back is their homr position. Now have the C replace the wing and the wing drop back into the middle, Then the D replace a w and the middle player move back and the w to the middle.

So if 2 players are in front of you then you are 3. If 3 are in front of you then you are at the point etc. This is total hockey and how the game is really played. It leads into teaching the cycle, the attack triangle play one and the man on and box behind.

Explain how they start at the faceoff in the home positions but if they are closest to the puck they have to get it or are the closest checker they have to angle the puck carrier.

You are now teaching them to be both physically and mentally involved as well as teaching Total Hockey. You can move the the concept of creating offensive and defensive 2-1's.

A good game for defensive side is the game in one zone where you play 1-1 up to a 3-3 and have to pass the puck to your pointman on transition. A good way to start is they have to pass to one of the coaches who shoots or passes within 2 seconds (but will stop the play if everyone isn't covering someone) no one checks the point. Move to passing to their teammate at the point when they get better at it. I would start with 1-1, then 2-2 then 3-3 with coaches at the point and then teammates. I will attach a diagram.

Tom M Paulie thanks for the suggestions. We alreayd play Tom's battle game and sometie add an element of "add a man" up to 3 by passing to a team's point man. We will try Paulie's drill.

I have use your "4 playing roles" to pretty good success with the players.
We have stuck with the 2-1-2 and use F1 F2 F3 with the F3 staying high in the offensive zone.

We have also instituted the cycle with great success. 10 yo defensmen understandably really struggle against this strategy.

After watching one of your swiss videos we have begun using the passing drill with opposing lines and player faking oncoming players or performing a skill in the middle. Wow do we get a ton of puck in that drill in a short period!

Thanks again for the site!