Teaching Defense to 7-Year-Olds
1 on 1's, 2 on 2's, 2 on 1's, 3 on 2's, Defensive Tactics, Hockey Drills, Individual Skills, Skating, Team Skill Drills, Team Skills, Team Strategy
Teaching Defense to 7-Year-Olds I recently received an email asking about 1 on 1 strategy for 7-year-old defensemen. The coach asked whether he should be teaching the players to play it skating backward (even though they don't skate well backward yet), or starting forward then pivoting backward, or something else altogether. I thought it was a great topic for discussion, and one I'm currently dealing with as well, since I'm working with the same age group on my son's team. So... as I always say, here's my two cents worth: Angle First, then Build to Backwards Most 7-year-olds aren't capable of skating backwards well enough to play a proper 1 on 1. But there are still 1 on 1s in games. So what do you do? Here's my strategy: Put…
