Tim here is my suggestion. With only two practices a week you have to maximize your time. I would establish routines like the Finnish U17 team. Maximize the amount of passes and reps on team play and give your goalies work when you have full ice. They had the D working breakout options at one end. F in the middle doing lots of passing and the goalies at the far end. In 10 minutes they accomplished a lot. Rotate the D to the middle for passing and do forward drills after. Also develop a skating routine that uses all of the edges. There are examples of the one I used without a puck and then with a puck ending with a shot.
Use SAG games with modified rules that focus on the skills you are using. They are also old enough to use transition games. There are many full and one zone examples in the TD booklet I posted. Always finish with some sort of contest or shootout.
I would aim for 50% skill drills and 50% games and contests.
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Thanks Tom.
I meant to mention, I recently purchased Erkka's Transition: From Game to Practice booklet. But, I have not yet had time to study it.
Thank you for your suggestions.
Tim
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Tim, I met with Erkka in Helsinki last week. He took a two year leave from heading the program in Vierumaki to coach Jokerit in the Finnish elite league. He loves to coach (won Olympic silver). Now he is going back to his former position. He gives some good guidelines for what to stress at each age leve. It sounds like your group is a little behind in skill reps and skating technique.
Here are few of my thoughts.
- don't try to do everything in one practice. Use one or two themes in one practice.
- e.g. passing theme, 1. warm up, game x amount of passes is 1 goal. 2. stationary passing. 3. passing drill + scoring (or SAG) 4. SAG with passing theme.
- how about off-ice training? you can do transition, 4 playing roles and skill off-ice too.
Kai,
Yes, we do plan to do some off-ice sessions, starting later this summer.
Thank you for your other ideas. One of the reasons I want to preplan our practices is to prevent, or at least minimze, the temptation to try training everything at once.
Tim
Tim,
Lots of concise advice so far. I 'third' the notions put forward by Tom and Kai. Check other threads on the site, like the Game Intelligence one, for more ideas too.
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your team / players; then decide on what you can achieve realistically given your time frame. Start with an end date in mind, then work backward to count 'how many' full and half ice practices you will have (plus dryland sessions, fitness, testing, meetings, team building, games, tourney's, exhibitions, etc.) - plus 'how many minutes' do you have? This will give you a snapshot of the time you have available (ie: 32 full / 32 half ice practices / 32 dryland sessions / 6 meeting sessions per season) to help plan 'realistic goals!'
You don't need 32 (x2) different practice plans for 64 practices - just pick several activities / games / skill sessions that provide the opportunity to move closer to your overall goals (or reflect the themes you have identified). In our skill academy, we will run the same (or highly similar) lesson plan for 4-6 weeks to highlight a certain theme with only a few minor variations in some of the activities - could be as small as different warmup activities; to slightly different "Rules of Engagement" within the same game in order to bring emphasis to a certain principle of play. (Granted, we aren't 'a team' but I would look at something like this if we were because we have seen such tremendous improvement in our kids...!)
Share a snapshot overview of this plan with the parents too (how many training days / hours are available this year... compared to the "10,000 hours of DELIBERATE practice" theory... what percentage of time will your kids achieve this year IF every minute with you is indeed deliberate practice) as often, they see kids as miniature adults... when the actuality is they won't learn as fast (or have as strong a background as parents often give them credit for!) It helps keep things in perspective.
Dryland sessions are so valuable - cost way less than ice and are of tremendous benefit. Don't underestimate them and take advantage of this relatively cheap resource (when compared to ice time) to get outdoors into a park, soccer pitch, or even into a large meeting room when you can!
Choose the themes (you have already ID's a couple of areas to work on), plot these into your time frame and then ask what others (if any) can you fit? Or should you choose to do a bang-up job on one or two or more? Also, keep in mind, you are a role model to them, so act like one as you teach them life skills and have fun!
Real estate agents say, "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!" - when it comes to coaching, I say, "PLAN x3" and "PATIENCE x3!"
Remember, at the end of the year, you won't ever have 'a finished product' but a group of kids who you have helped move that much farther along their development path. If they had fun and learned some life skills while gaining a deeper competency of your themes, you have done your job.
Good luck!
I will be coaching a new Pee Wee (U12) B level team for the 2012-2013 season. This team was assembled from a group of players who were not selected for the A team after evaluations were completed, plus a group of house league players who were given the opportunity to move up. It is also a move up for me, as previously I have only coached in-house league.
As I begin preparing our practice plans, I am struggling to determine what will be the best mix of skill development along with the use of SAG's. From what little I have been able to observe of these players, they need improvement in skating and passing as first priorities. We will have two practices per week, one half ice and one full ice.
I am continuing to read past forum posts here and assembling some ideas, but thought I would start a new thread to generate some new discussion.
I should note, I have all of the Hockey Coaching ABC's material and books as resources. I am familiarizing myself with this system, so I should be able to understand any references given.
Thank you.
Tim