Thanks Tom. I am always looking to learn and improve our practices.
I had a feeling I was weak on transition games having come from Mite coaching. I have to be careful running drills/sags that are too complicated at this age. Can you give me some specific skill rule games and transition games that are age appropriate?
Games we play: 3 on 3 backwards only skating or backhand shots/passes only; 3 on 3 no shot or 3 on 3 1 timers only; 3 on 2 in the offensive zone ( 1 players cannot corss middle line) and add a man by passing back to the point; multiple 1 v 1 games in the offensive zone as well.
We play a game called puck dog. All but 3 players have a puck in the offensive zone. The 3 players without pucks (puck dogs) work together to steal and score pucks. Once a player has their puck scored, they become a puck dog. Last player with their puck wins!
I need to think more about integrating player roles when designing practices in the future. That will be a challenge for me to wrap my head around. Our team is on the weak side in their age division since we play 01 level but half our players are 02s. For that reason we spend the majority of our time working on skills.
Tony, it sounds like you use a lot of games with modified rules that will help the players. I had a skills session with 6 players this morning and I filled in for another coach. We did a lot of puck handling and then I had them play cross ice 1-1 using the stripes on the boards as goals. We then moved to 3-3 using the red stripes and the rule that everyone must touch the pass before scoring.
You can play with good habit rules like always face the puck, you must take at least 3 hard strides before a shot or pass, make an escape move, only forehand passes, etc. There are lots of examples in this site.
Search D1, D4, D2, D5 for examples. For transition games search DT100, 200, 400 and you will get lots of ideas.
'Enjoy the Game'