Youth Hockey Practices and Drills 7, 8 & 9 years old

Youth hockey practices and drills. Hockey practice 2 of 72 during the first hockey season for young hockey players, 7-9 years old.

Youth hockey practice part 1. Hockey skating technique and skills (basic, one foot kicks, stops) and circles (not in the hockey drill / practice drawing)
Youth, Hockey, Practices, Drills, 7, 8, 9, years, Players, Training, Coaching

Youth hockey practice part 2 A. Skating with puck, shot, pick up rebound/new puck, slalom back. B. Skating round the cones. C. Skating round the circles and quick slalom on blue line. D. Stops facing the cone. E. Skate with puck, turns around cones, shot, pick up puck/rebound and turns with puck on the way puck.

Youth hockey practice part 3. A. Passes between cones, shot and rebound. B. Forward and backward skating. C. See above, with puck. D. Skating round the cones. E. Puck on one side body on other, backwards with puck back.

Youth hockey practice part 4. Game in all three zones.

Read more about the first season youth hockey practices and drills here >>

Hockey Goal Scoring Practices and Drills – Intro

Goal scoring in hockey is a complex skill and knowledge, and there will be no short cuts or direct guidance, ”do this and you score goals in hockey”. It’s more about understanding the different goal scoring skills and knowledge about different factors in goal scoring, since hockey is an open skilled sport (free movement, and moving opponents) and therefore also several factors to be considered. Practicing (repetition) is the key to success and to score goals in hockey. Be focused and try to score a goal every time you practice and you do a hockey practice!
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” /Wayne Gretzky
Hockey, Goal, Scoring, Practices, Drills, Practicing, Training

Read more about goal scoring hockey practice eBook here >>

Hockey Goal Scoring (Shooting) Drills and Practices

Hockey drills and practices for goal scoring (shooting) are wanted, because in the end this is what ice hockey is about, scoring more goals than the opposite team. In the eBook Hockey goal scoring drills and practices, you will find both theory and hockey goal scoring practices and drills that can be used on your ice hockey practices.
Hockey, goal, scoring, shooting, drills, practices, training

Read more about the eBook for goal scoring in hockey, practices and drills here >>

Ice Hockey in Denmark

I will continue with the learnings from the hockey coaching training, I attended during the World Championships in hockey. Next up Denmark…

Per Bäckman the head coach of Denmarks national hockey team and Esben Nedermark GM Danish National Hockey Team started their presentation, with talking about how small sport hockey is in Denmark.

Denmark hockey team and coaches, From right to left, behind the bench, Per Bäckman, Tomas Jonsson and Esben Nedermark.

Danish hockey has:
– 4400 registered players
– 16 teams
– 24 indoor rinks

While there are:
– 5000 hockey officials/referees in Toronto
– 296818 licensed football players in Denmark
– 5800 badminton players in Denmark
and 6000 Floorball players

Still Denmark is in the highest division in hockey, I will altough also talk about Norway, they have done an impressive work, with small or similar resources (6700 registred players!

What have Denmark done then?

One of the focus areas have been to have short and quick attacks, if you have not scored after 15 seconds you can give the puck to the other team, like the Norwegian national football team manager “Drillo” Olsen once said.

The Danish team have also been working with tactic and the discipline to stick to it, teambuilding, social environment and technical skills (opposite to Norway). What they are not good in regarding the national team coaches, is the physical part, they are too weak. The hard practicing culture is not there…

About the future…

Regarding the future for Danish hockey, Per Bäckman was quite negative, “we are at the top now, we will not get better, and we will not get more players or rinks, we need to take care of what we have now and try to maintain that.”

Wrong attitude…

In my mind totally wrong attitude, you will always need development and try to recruit new players and develop the game, players and teams (like Norway, coming in later post). When you think you can not develop or are satisfied, you will start your stagnation and to roll down the hill you are climbing and be eliminated in the end!

Denmark hockey and floorball Danish Hockey a good story (name of the presentation) – They have done a good work, but it will not last for so long, with the attitude I have described above…

“You have totally different view on game system and tactics than Sweden?” “Yes, I can not understand, why you would chase another players on the ice for 60 minutes” /Per Bäckman

Hockey Goalie Trainer or Goal Scoring Coach, Part 3

…Hockey Goalie Trainer or Goal Scoring Coach, Part 3 Looking at goal scoring, shooting skills and hockey practicing focus, you could say that much of the focus is today on, taking rebounds in front of the goal and creating a mask, traffic or wall in front of the hockey goalie to reduce the visibility, when the shot comes.

This will be important in future, but increased training focus will need to be on shooting skills and in scoring goals, with different types of shooting techniques like:
– Wrist shot
– Snap shot
– Slap shot
– Backhand
– Shooting unannounced and in movement sideways
– To be able to shoot with the weight (centre of gravity) on both feets, left or right (the foot that is in front).

“In NHL the shots will not come through if you don’t shoot fast and quick” /Dave Smith, NHL officials health and wellness coach

If you want to see some examples from hockey you can watch Alexander Ovechkin and Phil Kessel. Ovechkin example, start at 00:44, goal scoring skills in practice.

Topic to be continued…