SMAC, I appreciate the comments on the hockeyshare site.

The ABC philosophy is a combination of Juhani and my background. We both coach like physical education teachers, which we both are. The benefit is that Jusso is a 3 time Finnish Olympic player and IIHF Hall of Fame coach-player-developer who has coached and played all over the world. I played with players who went on to play in the Olympics but they were a lot better than me. I have coaced every level both men and women and travelled the hockey world doing camps, seminars and coaching teams. So we give a very different and very international perspective to how to coach.

Themes are:'Enjoy the Game' and 'The Game is the Greatest Coach'.

We also organize everything according to the 3 Game situations of 0-loose puck, 1-offense, 2-defense and the 4 Game Playing Roles of 1-player with the puck, 2-players supporting the puck, 3-player checking the puck carrier, 4-players checking away from the puck.

Luap - the coaches with 'fairly limited' experience are always a pleasure to speak with. the newer guys tend to be much more open minded and far more eager to learn. the questions that I would like to present to you have to do with teaching basic skating skills. what methods did you use? what was your source of information? what worked and what didn't?
beginners are beginners, at the end of the training session it doesn't matter if your student was 5 or 55. the other thing that matters is whether or not the student experienced some measurable results.
totally looking forward to your response.

I just read the sports section and there is an article about another player on the 85 team I coached for two springs. I had lost track of him. He played Jr. A and then went to Cornell. He is 27 now and has played in Europe and the AHL as well as the EHL. When the Bantam Draft was held he was 4'11".

That was quite a team. We practice ten weekends 2 x 90 min. on Sat and the same Sunday. We went in one tournament half way through and another at the start of July in Vancouver. So 60 hours of practice x 2 years. 120 hours of practice. I had Terry Johnson (ex NHL defenseman helping me along with Doug Cronk, Mike Berridge and Stewart Behie. It was a great coaching staff.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?s=20090726085538618 is a video of them playing a transition game of continuous 1-1.

Four of the five smallest players are still playing pro.

The article was about Evan Barlow. He is still small at 5'9' but is still playing and seems to love it.

Mason Raymond who was tiny as well and not drafted in the Bantam draft and considered too small to play rep hockey his first year of Bantam; so he played town hockey. Played at Minn. Duluth and now plays NHL and has been to the Stanley Cup finals.

Ryan Duncan who was also tiny and wasn't drafted. He played Jr. A and won the Hobey Baker at North Dakota. He is 5'6' now. Ryan has played in the American league and is now in Europe.

Aaron Lee wasn't drafted but played Jr. A then NCAA in Alaska and has played AHL, EHL and is now playing in Europe.

Jeremy Colliton is the biggest guy who shoots R. He was drafted in the second round, played in the World Juniors and was up and down from the Islanders to the AHL where he was a captain.

So 5 of the 9 forwards are pro players. Our D were big for their age but topped out at 5'10" or 5'11". A few of them played major junior and all but one of the team played at least Jr. A and 3 or 4 more went NCAA.

It was the same with Dany Heatley, who is 4 years older. He was another player who came to a lot of the camps I did and practiced with Korean teams who came to Calgary and hired me to coach them. Dany was small and went undrafted in the Bantam draft. He grew like a weed the year after Bantam.

So the lesson is that if you stick with it and keep improving your skills you will catch up to the big kid's and even surpass them.

I also think that was the best format for spring hockey. They could play other sports as practice was only on the weekends. The group was 11 then 12 years old which are the 'Golden Years' for learning skills. 6 hours of practice every weekend for 10 weekends is enough time to make a difference. We didn't replace practice with exhibition games.

I say in the video that this is the best practice activity. Now I think adding that the D join the rush and the F backcheck is more complete.

On Thursday I fly to Boston to do a camp in Hudson NH with former NHL player and coach Curtis Brackenbury. Curtis is also flying in a fitness coach from Poland. So I am sure I will see a lot of new ideas. I will try to get some video and share on this site. It sounds like we are staying in Cambridge.

rcmat, I am in Boston now and listening to the Calgary news channel to learn about the worst floods in the cities history. My family are all ok as we live on top of a hill but the river valley is flooded and the Saddledome has water up to row ten or more.

Here are two videos about the game with D joining the rush and F backchecking. You can progress to sending random numbers to support so the players have to read and recognize the situation and then communicate to solve the problem.

The Transition PDF Booklet has the diagrams, description and video links. I will attach it here.
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DT100 Continuous 1-1, D Join Attack and F Backcheck

The extra players are on the boards in the neutral zone and join the play when the puck crosses the blue line to make it 3 on 3 in the zone. There is a 2-2 for on the initial rush and then one F from the defending team and one D from the attacking team join the play players come into the zone and they go the other direction on transition. Great way to practice the D joining the rush, identifying coverage, 3-3 in the zone, man to man coverage, backchecking and attacking with speed.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=20121104082522829

DT100 Continuous 2 on 2 With D2 Joining the Attack and F3 Backchecking

The extra players are on the boards in the neutral zone and join the play when the puck crosses the blue line to make it 5-5 in the zone. There is a 3-3 for on the initial rush and then the new players come into the zone and they go the other direction on transition. Great way to practice 5 on 5 team play, especially if you only have 16 – 19 players.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=20121109165328269

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DT100 Read-Act to Situation 1-1 to 3-3

This is a transition game my asst. coach Sean Kibyuk ran that requires decision making by the players and is a great example of how transition games can be used to teach the game and free the Coach to coach. The video is about 4 min. and has captions.

Key Points:
Transition game where the players must read the ever changing situations and act to make them even. Transition happens on a turnover, a goal or the goalie freezes the puck. The closest player support to create an even situation.

Description:
A. B1-2-3 attack R1-2-3.
B. R5-6 support the attack and B4 the defenders.
C. On transtion B4 attack R4-5 and B1-2-or 3 support the attack making it 2-2.
D. Blue Coach sends B5 to support the attack.
E. Red Coach sends R6-7 to support defense.
F. On transition R6-7 attack B5 and B1 or B2 read the outnumber situation and backcheck to make it a 2 on 2.
G. Coaches continue to randomly send 1 to 3 players to support.
H. Players read the situation and support to make it a 1-1, 2-2 or 3-3 attack.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=2013022010052621

The camp is going really well. I am finished and came home July 3. I ran the ice time in the morning and then came back, Boston to Chicago to Calgary. I have seen some of the flood damage but not the worst places.

The players have a break now and start up again July 8 and go all summer.

I will help with planning the on ice sessions.

The next camp I do is with Gaston Schaeffer in Jasper National Park July 21-26.

The 2012 brochure is attached. 2013 is the same but for a little cost increase and the dates.