Hockey skating drills – Hockey Camp ready to go Hockey Practices

10 hockey practices for your hockey camp / school week, with aprox. 70 hockey drills, or use the hockey drills for season start up, or during the hockey season. All hockey drills / practices have a hockey drill drawing, picture, explanation and a video from the hockey practice for best understanding. Save a lot of time and create a red thread in your hockey camps for ages 8-10 and 11-13 years.

Hockey,Camp,Drills,Practices,Training,Week,SummerHockey,Camp,Practices,Drills

Read more about the Hockey Camp eBook here >>>

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 >>

Youth Hockey Coaching Philosophy / Vision – HockeyCoach.se

”Individually skilled skaters and creative players, with team spirit”

Use the time during on ice hockey practices with quality. Create opportunity for development and creativity during your hockey practices. Good skaters have time to be creative and find solutions during the hockey game and ”creative mistakes” can be repaired by good skating…

Taylor, Hall, 8 year, old, young, hockey, player, Ville, Aro, -04
Taylor Hall, Edmonton (NHL), and a 8 year young hockey player.

Read more about the first season hockey practices and drills for 7-9 year old / young hockey players here >> 

Hockey Goal Scoring (Shooting) Practice / Drill

Hockey Goal Scoring Practice / Drill, to the left: Player 1 skate in from blue, fake a shot during sideway movement, get the goalie to react / freeze. Move sideways and shoot/score, if not, take rebound. 2. Same repeated from the corner.

Hockey, Goal, Scoring, Drill, Practice, Training, Shooting

Hockey Goal Scoring Practice / Drill, to the right: Start with a slap shot from blue line, skate in, receive a pass, wrist / snap shot and rebound. You can also leave the player that just took the shot, in front of the goal, to stay in the front of the goalie and to steer / deflect the shot from the next player from blue line.

One of the keys in goal scoring in hockey is movement and to “freeze” the hockey goalie.

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

Hockey Goal Scoring Practices eBook

Hockey is a fair game, the team scoring most goals will win. This eBook will give you theory and practice in hockey goal scoring skills and knowledge.
Hockey, Goal, Scoring, Theory, Practices, Drills, eBook

Read more and buy the eBook here >>

Hockey Practices – Ready to go

Hockey practices and drills for the first hockey season (7-9 years old). Over 60 on ice hockey practices to use and 102 pages describing the first hockey season, for youth hockey players. Read more about the hockey practices and drills for the first season here >>
Hockey,Practices,Drills,First,Season

Hockey – Goal Scoring

The last theme on the International hockey coaching training / education, was goal scoring and goalie techniques. I have chosen to only take the goal scoring part in hockey, to finish up with a similar post I started up.

I wrote earlier about what is important when you practice to score goals in hockey.
– Shoot quickly
– Shoot with precision
– Shoot hard/fast
– “Hide” the shot
– Shoot unannounced

Here are some other aspects, like the distnace from where you are shooting from. This is a picture how the goal and goalie looks like from a longer distnace (if you shoot early).

Goal Scoring Hockey Shooting Early

By moving just 1,5 meter closer the goal and goalie, the free space in the goal is radically reduced, and therefore also the goal scoring opportunities.

Goal Scoring Hockey Shooting Close to Goalie and Goal

Shoot earlier if you want the best odds to score a goal in hockey.

Move in the sight when you shoot in hockey

During this lesson, it was also recommended from a hockey goalie point of view to move in the sight a little bit, you don’t need to hit the post and in, to score a goal in hockey. Shots close to the hockey goalie body are many times hard to catch and you also minimize the risk of missing the goal totally, and then you will definitely not score goals in hockey.

Freeze the hockey goalie

The skill level of the hockey goalies has also dramatically improved, and a technique to improve the goal scoring chances is to “freeze” the goalie before the actual shot or pass to teammate. Freezing means the hockey goalie is totally prepared for shot in first moment, but instead the shot or pass comes in the next moment.
This can be done with a small shot feint, pass feint or other move that makes the goalie believe “OK, now the shot comes”. When the goalie makes a small reaction in the first step, it will reduce the time for the actual save in the next step, either it’s a shot or pass to a teammate who will shoot. GOOOOAAAAAL….

Skating, Stick Handling and Decission Making

I continue with some valuable things from Dave Smiths lecture, from the international hockey coaching seminarium.

He talked about the complexity in hockey, you need to skate, do stick handling and take decissions, which is not possible if you haven’t automized some of the skills or moves. If your skating isn’t automized, you need to focus on that and loose stick handling and good decissions (or you do stick handling and loose your movement / skating)

If you don’t have good automized skating skills, you will have problems with the game. 1. Quick and fast feets / skating (coordination skills)
2. Good stick handling skills will automatically give you more time on focusing on the game itself and to make good decissions during the game.

Test the footwork and coordination skills

You can test these coordination skills by a simple hockey off-ice practice. Let your players run standing on the same spot, add stick handling and start to ask them questions. Do they drop in speed or have problems performing these two things together, then you know you need to work extra either on footwork / skating or stick handling. Below an example from the stick handling and puck control eBook found on this page >>

Hockey stick handling excercise / drill / practice

Repetitions are the magic ingredient in hockey practices, 10 000 Hours – 10 years

A number of studies have shown that it will take ten thousands of hours to become a master of what you are doing or 10000 repetitions to automize a skill. This will apply for leadership, professional hockey players, floorball, work, hobbies etc. Each of us has the potential to master what we are doing, but it will require time, 10000 hours, or about ten years, if you really want to be the best in whatever you do. But too many of us don’t commit to the things we are doing, well enough, but we still hope to be the best or recognized, sometimes we give up too early, wondering why we never become the best.  “I was a great talent, when I was young…” Ever heard that?

Dave Smith, NHL Hockey Officials Health and Wellness Coach

During the International Hockey Coaching Conference, we had the opportunity to listen to David T. Smith, the NHL hockey officials health and wellness coach.

Dave Smith NHL Official Health and Wellness Coach

The NHL officials Health and Wellness program >>

National Hockey League Officials Fitness and Conditioning

  • This is a sample program for NHL Officials. As all people are different so are Fitness Programs, the following is used as a guideline with minimum standards for NHL Officials.
  • Consult your family doctor before starting any training program

Off season training

  • Start by setting some fitness goals for the start of the next season and focus on those throughout your program.
  • Incorporate and maintain good eating habits such as frequent small meals rather than a few large ones so your body is burning calories all day. Maintain a balanced diet between carbohydrates, fats and protein.
  • Incorporate a stretch and exercise routine before every training session.

Schedule

  • 5 days a week / Up to 2 hrs a day
  • Strength twice a week
  • Aerobics twice a week
  • Run, bike, roller blade or other activity once a week

Strength

  • Weight training utilizing a variety of programs with changes in repetitions, sets, tempo and exercises.
  • Push-ups using varying arm position and use of blocks
  • Sit ups, crunches – proper form is very important
  • Leg Strength (lunges, squats, step ups)

Aerobics

  • Use heart rate monitor to maximize training zones
  • Run – 15 min increasing to 60 min.
  • Ice sprints – 30 sec increasing to 60 sec.
  • Bike – 35 min increasing to 60 min.
  • Roller blade or Stairmaster
  • Jump rope and plyometric exercises with Resistance Bands to increase foot speed and agility

Cardiovascular Exercise (Run, Bike, Stepper or Glider)

  • Warm up (5 min)
  • 1 minute increasing intensity intervals for 30 min in your target heart rate zone
  • One minute work, one to two minutes rest intervals
  • Lower the intensity if you are not recovering to your original Heart Rate after first work/rest interval
  • Cool down (5 to 8 minutes)
  • You should monitor Heart rate at all times

Maintaining fitness during the season

  • 15- 20 minute warm up before games
  • Light jog, bike or jump rope to warm up muscles and joints and increase Heart Rate
  • Stretch and flexibility as a daily wellness program
  • Aerobic Exercise 2 or 3 times a week on non game days
  • Strength and Resistance exercises are done as travel and game schedule allows. Maintaining a base throughout the season will allow an easier transition into the off season training program and helps promote an overall healthy and productive lifestyle.

The program is picked from the NHL officials page >>

Dave Smith, NHL-official coach

Hockey Game Tactics Sweden

In the International Hockey Coaching Education, during the World Championships in Sweden, we had the opportunity to listen to the Swedish National Hockey team coach, before each game.

“We want to play with full puck control / possession towards the offensive zone, and in the  offensive zone we try to go straight towards the goal, P1 goes in front of the goal and P2 seeks up the rebound area. We also try to stay in the way of the goalie and steer the shots. Other areas we focus on, are to “win the inside” in 1-1 situations. You can say that, the more skilled hockey players you have the less we talk about how, it’s more about what.”

Roger Rönnberg Swedish National Team Ice Hockey Sweden

/Roger Rönnberg, Swedish National Team Coach in ice hockey

Hockey Formation / System / Tactics

In the International Hockey Coaching Training, during the World Championships in Sweden, we also had the opportunity to listen to the Swedish National Hockey team coach, before each game.

Before the game against Russia, the team formation or system was discussed. Earlier Sweden have been playing 2-2-1 with defined or static roles, and with the mindset of putting pressure when the timing is correct. Since the statement “when timing is correct” can create confusion, he system has been changed, and the valuing part of “when it’s correct time” has been removed. Today Sweden play 2-2-1, but player 1 in top will always put pressure and the roles are flexible, the most offensive player will take the role of being P1 and the player that puts the pressure imediately, the other forwards will then adjust and take the two other roles P2 and P3.

Evgeny Malkin Russia, NHL, Pittsburgh Penguins against Sweden IIHF WC
Evgeny Malkin Russia (NHL Pittsburgh Penguins) vs. Henrik Zetterberg Sweden (NHL Detroit Red Wings)

 

Hockey Media Training

During the international hockey coaching training I attended, we also got some media training and some good advices regarding that. I will just keep this post short with some statements.

“You will never be a good friend with a journalist, you can have good contact, but never be true friends”

“You will never win against a journalist”

“Coaches that praise the other hockey team they have defeated, are also praising their own team”

“Be your self”

“Be open against the media, let them in. In NHL, the locker room doors are closed for 5 minutes after a game, then it’s opened up for media”

“In elite sports, media is your channel for visibility and from where you get most of your money… don’t forget that”

Sven Melander Hockey Journalist

/Sven Melander, Swedish journalist working for one of the largest newspapers in Sweden.

Hockey Goalie Trainer or Goal Scoring Coach, Part 4

…Hockey Goalie Trainer or Goal Scoring Coach, Part 4. In hockey, one of the teams in Sweden on elite level (HV 71) has created their own shooting center to improve the goal scoring and shooting skills… This is more common in USA or Canad, but quite unique in Sweden.

Speed Shooting Hockey during World Championships
Speed shooting, outside Globe Arena, during World Championships in Hockey.

Most of the teams also have special practices for the hockey goalies, during the weeks or months, but this hockey team also have special practices for goal scoring.

During this hockey shooting or goal scoring practice, the rink is divided into two areas, one for the offensive hockey players and one for the defensive players. Each zone has four hockey drills running at the same time.

Hockey Forwards

1. Skating in from the border “Shoot in the middle of the step”
2. Pass from one side, shoot directly at the other post
3. 2 vs. 0 – rebound – Shot from defensive player
4. Goalie freezed in right position, player tries to find the spots to score goal, by looking at the angle of the puck (or eye of the puck).

Defensive players

1. Pass vertically and a shot.
2. Pass from corner to a defensive player skating towards the goal, shot.
3. Pass from the “pocket” (along the border), and shot.
4. A forward in front of the goal hold the stick up from the ice for shot on goal, or on the ice to make the defensive player to shoot for stearing the shot.

So, what if, we would put in as much effort as in training the hockey goalies, to score goals and improve the shooting skills in hockey, we would have really good goal scorers and snipers in many hockey teams. Maybe we should also focus on hockey goal scoring coaches / trainers?

This is the end for this theme, will be starting up a new one…