More and more teams just use two colours in practice. This makes it easy to run games and drills with half the D and half the F wearing each colour. I like to hear how everyone plays every position in practice. It is a good way for all players to know how to play a defensive 1-1 etc.
If you want lines to work together on team play such as breakouts, dzone, specialty teams, you simply have them wearing the same colour.
Have 5 pinnies which are a different colour that one line can wear if you are in units for part of a practice. I am assuming you have about 15 skaters. If u have 20 skaters like college and pro teams then 2 colours is perfect.
If you look at the video section of team play practices most of them with pro and college teams are with 2 colours only. It works a lot better to have white attackers vs dark defenders and visa versa.
Tony
Tom thanks for your input.
We do currently break up the team into two colors for practices. We simply use last years home and away jerseys. AS you mentioned, this really helps with SAGs.
The dad suggestion was more aimed at having the 3 forward lines (14 skaters) wear differing colors and practice team drills together as well as play more games together. I'm curious if you think that is necessary at this age. I also am interested in your views on how many games a line should play together.
Tony
Tony with 14 skaters u probably have 3 sets of F and 5 D. For 10 year olds most of the practice should focus on skill and good playing habits. You don't need lines for this. As I said before you can have a set of pinnies if you are practicing team play like a pp. I would have 7 in each colour and if I want 3 groups then give one line the pinnies and keep the D in 2 colours; so if you have blue and white as your two colours then have 3 F in green pinnies and one colour of D with them vs 4 whites killing penalties. Have the pinnies for the 3 F's who have some player in both colours.
Most of the practice can be done with just 2 colours.
For the last 10 seasons I have the players in reversable jerseys with the team colour on one side and white the other. I divide the team into the colours. I have done this with youth, college, pro and now my women's team. | usually have the top two lines in opposite colours and the third mixed or if I have 20 or more skaters as in pro or college the 4 lines will be together. Half the F and half the D on each team.
Sometime I have them change colours during practice for specific drills or games or if I want to try different combinations.
I try to find players who work well together and leave them together unless it stops working but more often because someone is injured or sick and you have to change things.
TomM
Tom your thoughts lead me to expound on the line combo question a bit.
When putting the forward line combos together in the past, we have tried to even the lines out in terms of skill. Our skill is fairly close amongst our players. This year the game is becoming much more of a team oriented game. Goals are more difficult to come by as team play is better and the talent gap narrows.
That said, we are noticing that some of the kids are starting to really get it in terms of puck movement, cycling and team play etc. In the past, we have kept these players on separate lines. This weekend we put 3 of the kids together and played a couple games. This line scored 10 of our 11 goals against good competition.
Mindful that these are 10 yos and not all are mature enough yet to understand many team concepts. My question is whether to keep players together on a line that understand the team game best giving them a better chance to score or whether to spread them out amongst all of the lines,
FYI We are rolling the lines with equal ice time and the skill differential is really not that extreme. I wonder if the kids who grasp the team concepts will become frustrated with linemates who may not be as far along understanding those concepts.
Thanks for all of your help Tom!
Tony
It is a lot more fun for kid's "who get it" to play with like minded players. If it doesn't weaken your team a lot to have them play together then I would keep them together.
Right now I am looking forward to our -30 C weather to turn to -4 by Wednesday. At least I am not 300 km north where the city of the Oilers was -46.
I'm helping out with a competitive Squirt AA team in Michigan (10 yos).
We tend to work indivdual skating and puck skills along with SAGs in practice. When we work team skills like the breakout, all players take a rotation at each position.
We had a dad from the team (who is a level 4 coach) approach us about having set lines in practice. Using different colored jerseys to distinguish the lines.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on this subject. If you agree with set lines, how long would you keep them together? 1 week, 1 month, other?
Thanks for your thoughts.