Dman, I uploaded about 6 at once and will do the diagram and description over the next week. It takes about an hour to do each one.
They are from the camp I did in the Czech Republic. There was a cameraman filming all the practices and they have promised to send the video to me once it is edited. The U20 team just started practicing at the end of the week. If I stayed longer the coach wanted to learn a lot of new transition games and skill games but the camp ended and I went to Salzburg for a few days before flying home. He had 4 goalies like the hockey school. Reports are his team is doing really well so far.
Dman, the one I posted today doesn't have a video of the 2-1 situation but there is a 1-1 that I will find. The benefit of this game is that all players play offense and defense in the 3 zones and must know where to go by reading the play. New players don't join the play until the puck crosses the blue line. If there is a nzone turnover the players on the ice keep playing back the other way; just like in a game.
Pops I didn't comment yesterday because I would like the diagram pages to just be that and comments made in separate postings like here.
That makes it easier for coaches to find the drills and games.
Just want to make sure that I have this right. The Daily Drill section if for diagrams and videos. Comments and thoughts on them are made separately. If that is correct then I only need to learn how to start a new thread. I'm pretty sure that all I've ever done is 'post reply'. Sorry for the error.
Pops, I think it is easier for coaches to look at drills etc. if there aren't a lot of comments in between. We could use this thread for comments for a while. Beside the post reply box is a new box which starts a new thread. If anyone wants to comment on the transition games I am posting then this thread is good. Anything new could have a new posting and then it will be easier to find.
I have been trying to keep the drills and games in one place so they are easy to find. Any coaches who send a donation or buy a book I send pdf's of all the drills and games and it makes it even easier. I have had about 4 donations and sold books to about 6 coaches in the last year.
No big deal. The old board had a tree that gave the title of the post, who was posting it and you could click on that only but the new bulletin boards follow this format and you have to scroll thru everything to find things.
Something that is great about this site is the search function which can find anything that you have the correct search string for.
The transition game I posted today is a great one to promote the D to join the rush and the attacking forward to get on his horse and back check. Just tell the forwards they join the play and support, then attack, then backcheck and when the puck is cleared they rest. D support from the point, defend, join the rush then rest.
Here's one transition game for half ice to teach transition from defense to offense in DZ:
1) O1 starts with breakout from the goalie and passes give-and-go with the coach (see 1-1 6a-1)
2) D1 start when O1 receives the pass from goalie and pivots to close the center ice
3) O1 plays 1-1 with D1 below the ringette line and/or starts back-checking
4) D1 tries to win the puck and to give breakout pass to O2 above ringette line (see 1-1 6a-2)
- after save or goal, goalie has to pass to the D1 to start a breakout to O2
Targets/Keypoints:
1) O1 target is to score a goal AND back-check D1
2) D1 target is to win the 1-1 AND to give breakout pass to O2
3) D1 to close the gap as soon as possible
4) O2 has to read-and-react and time his movement to support D1
I have few of these diagrams (unfortunately in finnish but I try to translate them), so is it Ok to share these in this thread (Tom/DMan)?
Quote by: Koutsi97Here's one transition game for half ice to teach transition from defense to offense in DZ:
One variation to the previous.
Koutsi97, thanks for the transition games. Any contributions to the site are more than welcome. To keep things together it would be good if you post diagrams in the Daily Drill section and comments in discussion threads. I think I will add you games to the Daily Drill.
I posted a video in the files section of an exhibition game vs the U of Alberta that we played 3 years ago. #10 in white, Sash played in the game and it is the only file I can find of her playing. She died tragically last January in a car crash when she lost control during a blizzard. It was one of her first games with us after transferring from Vermont. It is for her friends.
I was looking at the Austrian Associations home page and there are pdf's of the ABC program in German. They brought Juhani and I to Vienna for one week at a time for 3 years. to teach the club coaches the method and we produced a German version of the program. It is the sanctioned program for Austria.
Unfortunately there is no follow up to re educate the new coaches.
there are 3 downloadable pdf files.
http://www.eishockey.at/931.html
good transiton Koutsi97. Pops I hope you are still with us. I appreciate and enjoy your comments.
I just finsihed doing the diagram to the backchecking game x 2.
This is going to be a little bit off topic, but....I watched a High School team practice last night and it was difficult to sit through. Meaningless cookie-cutter drills, no flow , no sequence, and absolutely no game like conditions. There is a lot of work to be done out in the rinks, guys. We need to figure out a way of bringing the ABC's into the mainstream. Too many young players are missing out on a better way, and a more enjoyable way. I do believe that a sufficient number of coaches would be receptive to the ideas that one finds in videos like this one. When that happens, they are better off, the players are better off, and no one loses anything. At the same time there are going to be those who remain committed to the huge hockey organizations ie USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, etc. Court Dunn and I had a conversation about the body's of hockey not too long ago. I told him that USA Hockey will help you memorize the lyrics. The ABC's will help you to write the music. All of us should meet somewhere next summer and figure out a way to bring the ABC's into the process, or at least to as many organizations as possible. We can do this, you know. It is within our capabilities.
Pops I don't know if the problem is with the national associations. At the youth conference in Heidelberg there were a few USA Hockey coaches speaking on how to use games in practice and there was a presentor from the German association talking about incoporating games.
I think it is more to do with the coaches who volunteer for a year or two but use the drills etc. that they were taught when they played and search for new drills.
Hockey Canada doesn't want youth teams to be playing games the first month or so of the season but to practice instead. My grandson's coach took this to mean that they weren't allowed to play games in practice so he spent the first 6 weeks doing drill circuits. Most coaches don't understand the importance of putting the skills into game situations during a practice. They still thing of games as a fun diversion for the players to be used as a reward if they do the REAL practice of drills.
So in my estimation the problem is "how do we educate the coaches to incoporate game situations as an integral (and most important) part of practice."
I know I have been trying to do this with this site and the original site for the last ten or so years. I do see cross ice games quite often now; so maybe it is working a little.
At the HS in the Czech Republic the coaches thought it was crazy that in NA we have little kid's under 9 play full ice. They play cross ice at that age. At the conference they cited research that showed players get 6x more touches in a cross ice game than full ice.
On another point there is an international hockey summit going on in Toronto now and yesterdays topic was when to introduce hitting. My opinion is that U11 they should play similar rules to women's hockey with angling and incidental contact battling for the puck with the right to stay on the dside. Next up to U15 there should be ONE STEP hitting strictly enforced which is basically bumping but not the maniacle charging around and smoking guys like I see in youth hockey. After that it should be 2 step hitting like the rule book says.
With my women's teams I always work on angling and rubbing out and blocking which is allowed and gives the fundamentals to full contact.
We have 80% of the players quitting our game by 14 in Canada. When they are adults many make their own leagues like my son in laws play in and have various rules. Some leagues allow hitting and slap shots. Most leagues under 40 have no hitting but allow slap shots and when you get to be ancient like me it is no hitting, no slapshots. Many also have a team limit on penalties. If the team goes over the limit they are out of the league, or a player he is out.
I play in a tournament Labour Day weekend with age groups 35 and over and the rule is no slap shots, no hitting and if you fight you are out of the tournament. One in a thousand makes the NHL and we can't blame the NHL on the violence because in that league players don't fly around hitting everything and everyone. It is a youth hockey problem.
rcmat, it soundslike your players learned to do the breakout under game pressure. I am sure they enjoyed it and got a good skate in as well.
Tom
I agree that educating the coaches on the upside of SAG's is an issue that needs to be addressed. That they allow the game to be the teacher is also sorely needed. In my experience with USA Hockey, there was never a mention of either. Let me say that I do not consider myself to be a great coach. Nor am I a marketing guru. But somehow, someway, the 'training' of coaches has to change...otherwise the dropout rate of 80% will go unchallenged. In my simplistic way of thinking there are two options. The first is that the governing bodies make The ABC's of International Hockey required reading at the coaching entry level. If not, then the other choice is that we figure out a way to become large, vocal, and influential. I truly wish that there were ABC seminars just as there are USA Hockey Coaching Clinics. One of my goals is to be able to conduct such a seminar one day.
Pops, I agree with you. Whenever I give a clinic I ask the coaches to come on the ice and do the drills and games to experience how they mesh together and how physically and mentally demanding they are. Every time when we meet after they say they loved it and don't know why that way to practice isn't promoted from on high.
I live in Calgary where the CHA is and they know who I am but I am never invited to do anything with them. There is a huge conference on the state of the game in Canada and internationally going on in Toronto and you tell me who else has coached youth hockey and actually stayed with coaches from Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Canada, USA, Austria, Mexico and Korea. That being said all I can say is "at least they are trying and in another ten years they will figure out what soccer did a long time ago. "The Game is the Greatest Coach." It is just too bad that thousands of kid's who would otherwise love practice and stay in the game will quit because they can have more fun in front of the screen at home.
Mother Theresa said something like "you can't make everyone happy but you can love one person at a time." I guess this site is here to show a better way to practice to "one coach at a time" and hope they spread the work to coaches they know. Maybe your idea will work.
Last year about this time some hacker destroyed this site and Dwight redid it and made it harder for some ???xxx___::<< to destroy. I spent a zillion hours uploading the videos etc. again and today I realized that there was no diagram for the most fundamenttal of all transition games which is a Continuous 1-1 to continuous 3-2. There are a couple of videos that had no explanation or diagram. Today I did the diagram for the continuous 1-1 from the U20 team in Jihlava and will diagram the 2-1 and 3-2 in the next few days. There are also videos from some of my womens team and the 85 born team when they were 12. (2 NHL, 1 Hobey Baker winner and 2 European pro's of the 13 skaters)
I can't believe I overlooked that.
Thanks for the diagrams Koutsi97. These are good transitions using half ice. They especially focus and getting the puck to the Big Ice on transition.
I found it difficult when Hockey Canada started using the International symbols in the early nineties but instead of using triangles for defensive players they use them for defensemen. This method is easy to understand on drills but it makes it makes it difficult with continuous games that flow one end to the other. My old drills from coaches like Buka, Verner Persson all had triangles as defensive players.
I try to use the circles for the team that starts on offense and triangles for the defending team and label inside if it is important for understanding. The diagrams you posted are easy to understand. Neither is right or wrong; just different ways to try and accomplish the same thing.
My pleasure, I haven't used all of these (yet) on ice. The half-ice 1-2 worked better than I expected, we stressed that the D1 gives pressure to the F1 from in-to-out and the D2 closes the defensive blue line and "finishes" F1 by checking him "away" from the puck. The full-ice 2-1 and 3-2 we have using with these 97's for years already ;-).
The symbols on the diagrams are at least used here in Finland, these games are from Finnish Ice Hockey Association, so the symbols are what they are. The circle is used as an offensive player and triangle as a defensive player (not forward nor d-man). I think that is the difference and this should be used when teaching the roles (1/2/3/4).
Hey,
You never draw your team as circle or "zero".
Seriously speaking. Koutsi97, the transition drills are from the Erkka Westerlund's drill book he made when he was FIHA's Head Of Coaching. It's great book full of excellent transition drills.
Kai
The key is that the drills and games Koutsi97 is sending are understandable and they are.
Transition is something we don't do very much in North America. Erkka was in Calgary for 6 months in 94 and did a booklet for HC on transition. He also did a video using the then Men's National Team, which doesn't exist anymore. This booklet was never promoted and I don't think the other people in HC really understood transition games. The year before Slavamir Lener was here and did another booklet and video that has also been forgotten. Everyone seems to only want to teach drills and not hockey. Both these booklets are far more advanced than anything that has come out of the skills programs they have been making the last few years. (they are good but are only drills with many unrelated games)
I met Erkka in 93 while doing a clinic Finland with Juhani and Jursinov, who was then coaching TPS. I helped him a little with the english by re-reading the material and making comments when he was here. Erkka and Jursi were how I got introduced to transition games . I watched TPS practice in 93 and Jursi had me as a guest coach a few times when I was there just before Christmas. I did some practices on checking for him.
So I thank Koutsi97 for sharing these lost ideas.
I have taken the concept of transition games and tried to create game like situations but I allow them to go on naturally instead of blowing the whistle. My teams always have reversable jerseys and I post who is white and who is dark before practice and divide the D and F's. We keep score in the games to practice competing.
Again, I may be right or I may be wrong but it is what I do and I have found it very effective the last 16 years. Much better than my drills practices used to be.
So in my experience since meeting Juhani Whalsten in 1985 where I learned how to use space more efficiently and how to use games for individual skill development and team play concepts and then meeting Erkka and Jursinov in 93 and hearing and seeing transition games for the first time it was only logical to me that games and transition games are essential to effective practice. I also incorporated them in my PE teaching in the schools and I don't know how I would have been able to run effective classes because in my last 13 years in the gym I always had double classes with groups of 48-60 students.
Instead of coaches going from one drill to the other with an explanation in between that results in 7-12 minutes of activity each hour the coaches should be using games;
a. for warm up,
b. after skill drills the skill should be done in game situations,
c. if team play is taught the team play worked on should be in game situation,
d. any time you do a smaller situation like a 1-1 or 2-1 then after the instruction drill the same situation should be worked on using a transiton game. e. most practices should end with a shootout or contest.
Also sometimes practices should just be tournaments using modified games and transition games.
So coaches don't have to throw out their drills, they just have to include game situations within practice.
Yes it's great that Koutsi97 is posting them because i've lost my copy of the drills. And as said they are quality drills.
I'll really like the Themed practice idea. and you can start the theme from your off-ice warm up. e.g. defensive zone break out.
1. off-ice, you train break out with handball, player can jog through it. first line jog through the break out pattern and then does some dynamic warm up and then returns to do another round. (here you get 15 min aerobic work out too)
2. on-ice
a) 5-0 break out, concentrate on quality passing,low speed
b) skill drill, passing timing recieving
c) transition / game situation continious
d) game, competition, scoring/goalie drill
e) themed game passing timing recieving
f) full ice themed game or srimmage
I really like use continious one puck drills and all so let the player to finish the play(to break out or to score)
Kai
Thanks to all for the drills and info. A few thoughts from south of the (Canadian) border.....
I just got back from a USA Hockey Coaches clinic, and their "new" LTADM program is indeed emphasizing small area and cross-ice games. I know Hockey Canada has a similar program, and that it was developed by looking at why countries like Finland are producing so many more skilled players. On the whole it looks like a great step forward.
Some of the coaches in the bigger metropolitan areas have already started implementing the program at the lowest levels, and they said there was some resistance (to not playing full-ice) on the part of the players parents. Some coaches mentioned switching back and forth between cross-ice and full-ice games on weekends, and in the end the kids really liked the cross-ice format better.
I do think there will be some resistance to this program as it unfolds,mainly with parents of players. I also really got the sense that the coaches higher up in the ranks have bought into it full force and are committed to making it work. It should be interesting to see how it all pans out.
DMan
ps. I got some new cross-ice game ideas from the clinic....will post them when I can figure out how to make diagrams.
Thanks again.
DMan
Dman, that is great to hear. I met Kevin McGloughin and other USA hockey people and know they want to implement an approach that uses far more games but they have a lot of trouble getting the coaches to buy into what they are saying. On the other hand without the support of the national organizations coaches will never adopt this approach. So it is great that they are focusing on using games in the clinics.
As I said before it is slowly changing but it is sad that for 25 years this has been promoted but met nothing but resistence and so many kid's had bad experiences at practice. But that was then and this is now and hopefully the idea gets legs and they can go from cross ice and small area games to using the ice many ways for games and using transition games to teach players how to play.
Today I did a first for me. I was playing at noon and didn't pay attention that the game got to 5 and we switched ends. We changed on the go and out D had the puck so I broke for a pass and he gave it to me. I broke in alone and scored and couldn't figure out why the goalie didn't move. The consolation is that we won that game 5-1 and I got their only goal.
Tom - I don't know why the other team had such a hard time scoring against your goalie....apparently you didn't have any problem doing so. ( Hope you laughed )
Kia - Is there a way for anyone to get their hands on the Westerlund book or the manual that he made years ago while in Canada? By the way, I appreciate the diagrams that you have been contributing to the web site recently. They make sense and I think the guys are going to like them.
DMan - it is good to know that the sleeping giant (USA Hockey) is becoming receptive to ideas other than their own. Naturally there is going to be resistance to change at the local rinks; coaches are going from what they think they know over to what they definitely don't know. As for parents....what can we say? The kids that I coach are anywhere from 19 to 21 years old and most of the parents still have believe that their sons are much better than they actually are. To me, the best part of coaching is the emotional sort of team-building that goes on along with the bonding that happens amongst all individuals in the locker room. The bonding is a big goal of mine...but, while it is a nice thing when it happens, pleasing all the parents is not at the top of the list.
Pops I have the booklet beside me now. I think Hockey Canada still markets it. Title Transtion: From Game to Practice by Erkka Westerlund. The video is the best one I have seen them produce. I have it but can't post it because it is HC property. It was on VHS and I don't know if they have it on dvd. Let me know if you can order it from their website or not. USA hockey usually sells the HC material as well and it may also be there.
I don't know if I get a plus or minus.
Osmo from Finland just came online with Skype and he got a contract for a pro player I was working with 1 on 1; so I will see what he has to say. Hope it all worked out. He wants to know about another player I mentioned.
Quote by: Kai KHey,
You never draw your team as circle or "zero".
Seriously speaking. Koutsi97, the transition drills are from the Erkka Westerlund's drill book he made when he was FIHA's Head Of Coaching. It's great book full of excellent transition drills.
Kai
That's true Kai, I usually use X's on drills and then first letter of colors (B-black, W-white, ...) on games/game situations. When d-man and forward need to be used in drill or in game situation then P and H are used (D and F in english?). We also use equal number of black and white jerseys in every practice, and usually done before we hit the ice, and within those colors there are also equal number of D's anf F's.
And true, these are from that book, we have used those directly or modified them but those descriptions are in finnish, so it's no use to send them all directly to here? I'll try to translate and put still few of those here, my english is not the best, please Tom modify those Key Points and Descriptions if needed. I have just put there that coach CAN stop these games after 20 or 30s if needed but I also prefer not to stop by blowing the whistle. We have also taken the practice to play games / do game situations straight after warm-up and left the skating type of drills to the end of the practice.
I'didn' know that you can find it in finnish. I have the english version.
Kai
Hockey Canada does have "Transition from Practice to Game' by Erkka Westerlund. It is a video along with the book and it lists for $20.. Even with the shipping and handling charges that sounds like a really good deal. However, iIt takes 2-3 weeks before you actually receive anything; so if anyone feels like posting a little bit of Westerlund's work I would very much appreciate it.
Hi All,
Here is a link to the USA Hockey new SAG book that was given out at the coaches clinic.
http://usahockey.cachefly.net/Coaching/Manuals/SmallAreaGamesBook.pdf
I'm glad they're offering it for free.
Pops-I agree that pleasing parents is not job #1, but our organization is pretty much run by active parents....without a lot of hockey experience. I think they'll be resistant to what looks to be radical change unless they are informed and educated on the reson behind the change. Hopefully USAH can help here. One thing I like about the new ADM model is placing your more experienced coaches at the younger levels rather than at the HS / Midget, so that they can focus on skill development. I hate to see parents following their kid up through the ranks just to make sure he gets ice time. Enough of the parent rant though....they do make our program work and they do volunteer boat loads of time. The vast majority want their kids to have fun and stay in the sport to stay out of trouble, and I think your focus on team building is spot on.
Here's another link if anyone cares to read more on USAH ADM.
http://www.admkids.com/
It looks like they are populating the site with new materials all the time.
DMan
DMan
DMan -
First of all, thank you for the ebook. There are a few concepts in here that are very appealing...one in particular is the Mid Ice Breakout on page 44. With only minor tinkering, like sliding one of the nets back to its normal location, it can become a forecheck focused game as well. After a few minutes of that, slide the other net back and ...presto...a 5 v 5 that evolved from a breakout focus into a forecheck focus into a breakout against pressure vs forecheck with pressure focus. If that 5 v 5 states that you must attack wide & you must dump it in ( to keep the forecheck vs breakout mode ) then I think that we may have 20 minutes of practice time well spent. There were a couple of Goalie things that looked good as well. The one that has a goaltender directing his rebounds into a targeted area (another net) probably works well at a number of age groups.
Secondly, it is good to know that the Mothership (USA Hockey) has such publications. The coaches only need to figure out what precedes some of these SAG's so that it all transitions well and then we need to give some thought as to what would come next. Take as an example, the Mid Zone 3 on 3 on page 41. If that started with a 1 v 1 using 4 Jokers, evolved into the 3 v 3 with dedicated support players as shown in the book, and then became a "Two Touch Maximum" 3 v 3 while rotating support players, we could keep everyone in 'read & react' mode for a pretty good chunk of time. Thanks again, DMan. I enjoyed reading your submittal.
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Tom,
I just noticed all of the additions to the video section under "transition games." Thanks very much for the time and effort to do this. It's really helpful to get the visual demonstration and see the dynamics in action.
Thanks again,
DMan