4-Pass Hockey Warm-up Drill: Recorded, Edited, and Posted from my iPhone!

Hey folks!! I’m pretty excited about this post. Not because the drill is all that earth-shattering (although it is a great little drill!), but because I produced the ENTIRE thing from my iPhone!! I love my iPhone, and happened to find a really nice little drill diagraming app called Play Board XT.

After messing around with it a bit, I thought… “hey, it would be really cool if I could record myself showing a drill on here!” So, I did a little digging, and a little “finagling,” and figured out a way to make it all happen… pretty cool technology I’d say!!

IMPORTANT: So, if you’re interested in purchasing Play Board XT, make sure you get the ICE HOCKEY version (they offer it in multiple sports). If you want to eliminate any confusion CLICK HERE, and it’ll take you straight to the right one.

Enjoy!!!

Jeremy

A very versatile drill to work on Breakouts, Regroups, and Attacks

Since finishing up our Coaches’ Training Course, a few people have asked about different ways of practicing some of the systems we discussed in the course. This drill is in response to the questions about practicing breakouts and regroups.

The “Breakout, Regroup, Regroup, Attack Drill” is extremely versatile, and can be used to work on a number of different game situations. After your team gets good at it, try throwing in a forechecker (or two). You can designate where and how you want the forechecking pressure coming in, which will make your defensemen have to read and react to different scenarios.

For a more detailed explanation of the Swing Regroup mentioned in this video, CLICK HERE

Enjoy!

CLICK HERE for a PDF of the Breakout, Regroup, Regroup, Attack Drill

Full-Ice Odd-Man Rush Drill

What’s up guys!! I got an interesting email the other day from Mika from Australia. Because of the size of his local rink, and the limited number of players there, they play 3 on 3 (which sounds like a blast to me!). Anyways, he asked if I had any drills that focused on 3-man set-ups and game situations… this drill immediately came to mind!

It’s a great drill for imitating odd-man rush scenarios, and is also GREAT conditioning for the forwards… Enjoy!

Jeremy

Click Here for the Drill Printout
Click Here for the DrillDraw File

Finnish Half-Ice Drill

Over the past few weeks I’ve posted a few of my favorite half-ice hockey drills. I’ve had some really good response, and a few of our readers even sent me some of their favorite half-ice drills as well… THANKS!!

This drill is from Petri Väisänen (from Finland), and is a fantastic half-ice drill. One of the reasons I like this one so much is that it’s very customizable––you can create multiple variations to fit lots of different game situations. I show a few of these variations in the video, but feel free to get creative on this one!

Click Here for PDF of the Finnish Half-Ice Drill
Click Here for the DrillDraw file (to import straight into your DrillDraw)

Jeremy

More Half Ice Hockey Drills: Long/Short Passing

This is a bit of a “2 for 1″ half ice hockey drill, since it’s a sequential drill with a long pass, and a short pass. This drill should be executed at a quick pace, so whistle timing is very important here. Have your players focus on executing hard, accurate, stick-to-stick passes––especially on the cross-ice pass. This is a great drill for all ages and skill-levels!!

Jeremy

PDF of Long/Short Passing Drill
DrillDraw file for Long/Short Passing Drill

With the cost of ice time going up, many teams are sharing practice sessions, especially at the younger age groups. The need for half ice hockey drills continues to grow, and has been a highly requested topic from our readers. So, instead of just doing a video or two, I put together 9 of my favorite half ice hockey drills spanning across all levels of play… beginner to advanced. I’ve also included a printable PDF version as well as the Importable DrillDraw files, if you want to bring all this stuff to the rink with you. You’ll find the links at the bottom of this page.

Here we go!!

Quad Passing:

Players 1 and 2 execute five passes between themselves, after the fifth pass, player 1 does a give and go with player 3, combined with a one-touch pass to player 4. All players rotate as shown.

Cycle Give and Go:

Player from line 1 leaves with the puck and walks up the boards, then cycles back to player from line 2. Player from line 1 drives through the seam for a give and go pass, receives the pass from player 2, then one-touches to player 3 or 2 for a one-timer.

Figure 8 Shooting & Deflection

1. Forwards line up in corner with pucks.
2. Three defensemen across the blue line. Two have pucks, one doesn’t.

Perpetual Cycle

Coach dumps a puck in – first player goes into corner and picks up the puck, and cycles it back. A second player follows him in to pick up the cycle. After cycling it back the first player cuts across the top of the circle and drives the net – second player passes out for a one-time shot.

After the pass is made, the first player from the other line dumos it in his corner. The player who just made the pass continues up around the top of the circle, then drives into the corner to pick up the dump. He cycles back, and the player who dumped it in supports to pick up the cycle. Same thing happens again. Drill continues perpetually.

Stop & Start Shooting

Great drill for younger players. Starts and stops with a puck, plus a power turn and a shot. Make sure players face the same way with each stop. Simple, but effective!

Give and Go Shooting

1. first player passes out to point man – then attacks

2. point man bank passes back to next player in line

3. receiver executes a give and go with point man

4. point man shoots

5. player who attacked becomes new point man

Center Line Boundary 2 on 1

Set up a 2 on 1 in each side. Nobody can cross the center line. When the defender gets the puck back, he/she must pass across the line to the forwards on the other side.

Start with 2 on 1, work up to 3 on 2.

Figure 8 Angling

1. Players start facing each other on dot

2. ‘F’ picks up a puck and drives wide

3. ‘D’ skates around cones as shown, then angles

4. ‘F’  has to drive around lower cone before cutting to the net

Variations: (a) take out the cone at hashmarks (b) allow forward to cut inside earlier

Larsen Give and Go

First player leaves hash mark, turns the corner and receives a pass from the next player in line. He then carries the puck around the next cone, and does a give and go with the passer (P) at the red line. After receiving the pass back from ‘P’, he does another give and go with the ‘P’ in the corner, then fires a one-timer on net.

TIP: have your players use the inside mohawk to round the turns!

There you have it!! Hopefully these come in handy for you. As always, here’s a PDF of each of these Half Ice Hockey Drills for you, and I’ve also included the DrillDraw files here as well: 9halficehockeydrills.zip

ENJOY!!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

1 on 1 Hockey Drills: Man in the Box

This is another one of my favorite 1 on 1 hockey drills. The set-up is very simple, but there are SO MANY important concepts that can be worked on… it is VERY effective!

Don’t let your defensemen complain that the drill isn’t fair––by the end of the season, EVERY defenseman should be able to keep up with the forwards. They’ll have to do this in the games… might as well work on it in practice!!

You can also do this same drill with a 2 on 1, just start two lines from the corner. Same rules still apply.

ENJOY!!

Click Here for the printout of the Man in the Box Drill

Click Here for the Importable DrillDraw file

Hockey Small Area Games: Triangle 1-Timer

This is a fast-paced, small area game drill that incorporates a lot of one-touch passes and one-timer shots. Works REALLY well with the right group of players. Encourage your players to move the puck quickly and isolate the man.

As always – Click Here for the printout.

Enjoy!

Jeremy

One of my favorite hockey cycling drills

Click here for the printout.

What’s up guys! I do a monthly coaches meeting for one of our local leagues here in Utah… We decided to try this month’s meeting online instead of having everyone spend another night at the rink. I’ve had a couple of requests to see the meeting, so I figured I’d post it here. Keep in mind, some of the stuff we’re talking about is specific to our organization, but there’s still some good discussion in here.

Enjoy!

PS – I got some of my material on the small area games stuff from Coach Nielson’s recent blog posts at http://coachnielsen.wordpress.com/ He’s got a great site, with great explanations!