Quote by: Eric

Great discussion guys..

Tom,

What is the title of the booklet and video and do you know where I could get it? Looks like it would be a nice addition to a lot of the games already on the site.

Great diagrams on transition stats. Hearing the numbers are always one thing but seeing them can touch another chord for some, myself included.

Eric,

The booklet is "Transition - From Game to Practice" by Erkka Westerlund, 1994. Another one is "Transition - Defense to Offense" by Slava Lener, 1992. Both are available for sale through the Hockey Canada Resource Centre. They are about $20 and I see they 'updated' them for 2010 (which means new pictures on the front... hard to say anything has changed on the inside!) These books are worthwhile, in my opinion.

http://www2.hockeycanada.ca/breakaway/coach-s-library/cbreakaway-ccoachlibrary-p1.html

I also recommend the 1998 and 2001 Advanced II Proceedings - each $34.95.

The rest don't really tickle my fancy. ("40 of the Best" was the one I did with Tom and Mike... but it is DRILLS! ACK What was I thinking back then...!!!!)

OK don't laugh. Remember, I don't own a cell phone...!

Here is my attempt to modify one of Kai's diagrams using powerpoint and saved as a .pdf... may I present to all the "Figure 1: Transition Success" diagram found on page 76 of Bjorn Kinding's 1994 Advanced II Presentation, "TRANSITION". This is the one I tried to describe near the start of this forum thread.

HAHAHAHAHA .... it worked! There's mud in yer eye, technology!

Quote by: TomM

I like to use two colours in practice and my team just got their brand new reversible jerseys with the team logo and numbers. I have pinnies in case I want to do a Kings Score type of rotation or divide the team into units. At practice we have half the F and half the D and one goalie in green and the other half in white. This makes playing SAG, games and transition games etc. easy.

I just posted todays practice where I am introducing a full ice backchecking transition game as well as a full ice transition game where the D joins the attack and the F backchecks. The forwards will play a quick transition game where the situations vary from 1-1 to 3-3, 1-2, 1-3, 3-1, 3-2, 2-2. I will tell how many new players leave when they are passed the puck. The practice is attached here and in the diary of a season. I post these because I have been using games and transiton games for a long time. When Sean my asst. who works with the D has them Natalie my goalie coach has the G for 10' each while I have one in one goal for a quick transiton game with the F's. I will move that game up to the top of the circles to reduce 'time and space.' We will keep track of who wins the most and the others will pick up the pucks.

Team play review on the sports court tomorrow and individual and team defense focus on Thursday which is our last ice time before the two weekend games.

So games can be used to practice all of the skills and the w/r ratio is adjusted by how many players join the play next. At my school skills session yesterday they played games with rules like only backward skating, baggo and two pass with the added rule that everyone must score before anyone can score a second goal.

By using games you reverse the 80% of the minutes standing in line in the average drills based practice (studies in both Canada and Europe show that in a drills based practice the players are moving 7-12 minutes and standing in line or listening to the coach 48-53 minutes. (that is why bag skates are needed-the players have hardly moved) A game based practice has players moving most of the time and only waiting so they can recover for the next rep. (you don't need to skate them at the end- they already have had a great work out)

Kai, how do you puck diagrams into the postings. I haven't figured that out yet.
-----------------
The transition game with the F backchecking and D joining is too complicated the way the diagram has it. Start with 1-1 giving passive support above the top of the circles and build from there. Need a new diagram.

Tom, I have used a similar type of drill F backchecking and D joining the rush. The one you posted on your Daily Drill Section Eight yesterday as a Transition game contains more roles being used . I will give this one a try soon , as I am going to have a backchecking theme practice in the near future.
Tom posted the video link on his Daily Drill section Eight.
Check it out.

RookieCoach
---------------------------------
RK - http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?s=20101007154527928 is a link showing Dean doing this with a lot of the Flames and other pro's in a pre season camp last year. The transition game requires a breakout and low zone play.
Some of the players at college played for me for 3-4-5 years and were so used to the transition games that the supporting players would join low and make it a 3-3 instead of being passive above the circles. I will attach the pdf of the drill. I think it is the one you mention.

Quote by: RookieCoach

Tom, Yes that is the drill I was talking about. It is a good drill , good for the D joining the rush.
It is a little faster pace than the DT 100 D Joins the play and F Backchecks.( although a little difference in skill level between videos) But this drill DT 100 Contains a few more elements. Breakout , support , Backchecking , D joining the rush , and a 2 on2 low.
By the way , Dean does use drills !!
I will definitely give the Dt100 Backchecking drill a try.
Thanks
RK

AARRGH! Damn you for noticing RK!

"Give 'em what they want" - GUILTY!

Yes, I had to de-train my mind and stoop to an all-time low level to work with the pros... never again! They wondered if I would come back this year, but all they wanted was flow drills, etc. so I said no. I don't care how much they pay! These 'drills' were a hybrid in that they were more game-like and we kept score... even so I am still not off the hook!

Interesting! I will look at it more over the weekend. One game is not a large enough sample size but it gets one thinking; plus it would mean the most to the particular team you were recording for... along with your observations.

I recorded Tom's skill academy practice on Tuesday and then a Bantam Div 3 team practice last night. I am going to do an analysis from the bantam practice (1/2 ice) as I am mentoring the coach. Anything noteworthy, I will share under one of these threads...

Age categories - Hockey Canada after the 2001 age changes:

Mini Mite (ages 1–2)
Mite (ages 3–4)
Tyke (ages 5–6)
Novice (ages 7–8)
Atom (ages 9–10)
Pee Wee (ages 11–12)
Bantam (ages 13–14)
Midget (ages 15–17)
Juvenile (ages 18–20)

In the United States, USA Hockey designates the following levels:

Mini Mite (ages 5-6) (Levels A)
Mite (ages 7-8) (Levels AA, A, B)
Squirt (ages 9–10) (Levels AAA, AA, A, B)
Peewee (ages 11–12) (Levels AAA, AA, A, B)
Bantam (ages 13–14) (Levels AAA, AA, A, B)
Midget Minor 16 and Under (ages 15–16) (Levels AAA, AA, junior varsity highschool-B)
Midget Major 18 and Under (ages 15–18) (Levels AAA, AA, varsity high school-B)

In Finland, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association roughly categorizes minor hockey players to under school-ages and school-ages. Children over 16 are considered as juniors, although the youngest juniors are still at the school-age. Minor and junior hockey levels are:

G- and F-minors (age 11 and younger)
E-minors (ages 12 to 13)
D-minors (ages 14 to 15)
C-juniors (age 16 and younger)
B-juniors (age 18 and younger)
A-juniors (age 20 and younger)

http ://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_ice_hockey

OK, RK Asked me to post this here on this thread (regarding PP) so here it is...

-----

My Master's was based on Bjorn Kinding's work. He took PP stats from the 1991 World Championships in Turku Finland. There were 100 analyzed PP's - 28 goals were scored (0.78%).

The summary numbers indicate success % for the different plays:

Half Boards 4%
On the Rush 8 %
End boards 13%
Points 75%

To score 17 goals from the point, the teams only gave up puck control a total of 13 times.

To score a single goal initiated from the half boards, it needed a total of 31 losses of puck control!

Knowing that puck control is one main source of success and a team can only afford to lose the puck once or twice per PP, it will take 15 pp's to score one goal this way. In other words, if your PP is built on plays from the half boards, you shouldn't expect a better average than 6.6%!

On the PP, the plays from the points produce:

61-75% of all goals;
67% of all first class scoring chances;
76% of all second class scoring chances, and;
23% of all puck control losses.

To create a scoring chance, the player on the point has these 4 BEST options:

Shoot or pass from an area straight in front of the net (between the faceoff dots):

1. on net;
2. to create a rebound ;
3. for a tip in and;
4. on a screened goalie.

The most and best scoring chances are produced by a point play from an area straight in front of the net (between the faceoff dots). (Bjorn removed 4 questionable goals and added an unclassifiable goal to the PP category) Ultimately, point shots from between the dots were the source of 110 out of 188 scoring chances and 15 out of 28 PP goals... or 59% of all PP scoring chances and 54% of all PP goals are initiated by a point play from between the faceoff dots. The importance that the point plays in between the dots is tremendous!

So to summarize, 'all' you have to do to achieve an effective PP is:

Collectively control the puck ... move the puck to the point ... have players screening in front of the net... and SHOOT! How simple is that?

BUT... as seen below, how much time should one worry about / actually practice the PP when compared to even strength situations... and all the potential times for TRANSITIONS to occur? You be the judge - and allocate your practice time (and coaching worry) proportionately ... errrrr I mean wisely!!!

-----

From an earlier, related post on transition:

forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=2978

A few quotes from Bjorn:

"In top international play, for instance the final game of the 1994 World Cup, puck possession changed from one team to the other 7.7 times per minute. There's just no time to get the whole team 100 percent into defending before there's a chance to attack again... you are constantly playing "transition hockey" "

"In 1990, I studied and analyzed the transition in 'modern' ice hockey. The study included games from the World Cup Pools A and B, the Swiss and German playoffs and the NHL. The result showed that 60 percent of all goals were scored on the transition, which means, that almost three times as many goals are scored on transition as on the power play (23 percent). But how many teams practice transition three times as much as they practice the power play?"

"If we focus on play with equal numbers of players on both sides, then 88 percent of all goals are scored on transitions... 94 percent of all first class scoring chances are created on transitions."

"...if you want to be good in the game of hockey you have to be great in the game of transition."

Tom ,
Funny you should bring this discussion back up on the board. I went back to it last week and had a quick look at it again.

The information that yourself , Dean , Kai , Dave , Eric and others posted was a great discussion and full of information.

Coaches , if you go over all the stats posted it will make you think of how you take them to practice and what areas need work.

Tom , Do all your players understand the game three game situations (0-1-2) and the four player roles before they step on the ice ?

Do your players understand the importance of transition as a team before the season starts and do you stress the point of quick transition ?

Hockey has become a TRANSITION GAME , but do coaches work on transition games or drills in practice

Once again I have picked up Tom's Book 2 - Hockey Coaching ABC's and going through it before the season starts for probably the forth time.
Great book Tom.

RookieCoach

Tom,
What age groups would you start using your language ( 3 game situation and 4 playing roles ) for communication ?

What about teaching or communicating by numbers ?

What skills do you find young players lack in today's game aside from skating , puck handling , shooting etc?

I find many coaches don't teach puck protection , defensive side positioning , stick on stick etc.
Once players get to body checking players chase all over the ice for the big hit , forgetting about positioning or containing the opponent.

Thoughts from other coaches on skills we need to teach ?

RookieCoach

Kai , Great points you added.

From your stats you posted earlier on this topic (turnovers etc)

How do these stats affect the style and the systems that you coach in Finland ?

Do you work TRANSITION games each practice session ?

Reading all these stats on turnovers makes me think as a coach if you have the skill and speed on you team pressure is a must.

RookieCoach

Quote by: RookieCoach

Kai , Great points you added.

From your stats you posted earlier on this topic (turnovers etc)

How do these stats affect the style and the systems that you coach in Finland ?

Do you work TRANSITION games each practice session ?

Reading all these stats on turnovers makes me think as a coach if you have the skill and speed on you team pressure is a must.

RookieCoach

Transition games have been part of FIHA's development program since the 90's when Westerlund was head of coaching of Finnish Ice Hockey Association. In the late 90's FIHA added The ABC's Of International Ice Hockey to it's development program and to be introduced to coaches in FIHA's coaching clinics.