Hey Coaches,
I agree with tony89. Tom - I copy, steal, take ALOT of your drills, coaching philosophy and bring it to my two teams. Tom, I can not thank you enough for what you do for us fellow coaches - with the website, writings, film and diary!
I love this site, I have supported this site in the past and will continue to support this site.
Thanks again,
Iceman
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Iceman, it is good to hear. The last year there there has been little feedback or discussion from coaches and it is nice to know that the material is helping.
I put material that I really like and agrees with the ABC philosophy of using the ice efficiently and also some material that I don't use myself because it is inefficient. I let the coaches choose what they want to use.
It would be great to break the habit of having to use the coaching board before every activity. A simple explanation and demo is much more effective and efficient use of the ice.
Assistant coaches moving pucks has to be the worst use of their time. Have players move the pucks to the next area when a drill or game is finished.
Have a theme for each practice and move from simple skills to using the individual or team skill in game situations. Do players really need a drink after doing a short drill or is a drink after every 15-20 minutes sufficient?
Have someone film one of your players for one hour and time how much productive movement they do in that time. If it is the usual 7-11 minutes then a new philosophy of practice is needed. 49-53 minutes of standing around isn't good.
This routine of drawing on the board for 2-4 minutes, Doing a drill where everyone gets a few reps. Getting a drink of water. Drawing on the board again has become the official way of practicing in Calgary and other places I go.
Develop warm up routines and call out variations. No whiteboard needed. Name drills and expect players to remember with a 30 second review and a few of the more clever players doing a demo if some are confused. Add variations to known activities.
There are many ways to use the ice more efficiently and effectively.
Tom,
I had a feeling your reply would be along those lines about the Canadian National coaching.
It would be great to have the drills/games cross referenced by country as well.
Thanks
Tony
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Tony I have been putting pro, Jr A, Major Jr, CW (Canadian Women), Sweden, Czech, Russian or Finland, etc. in the title lately. If you search the drills the ones labelled like that will come up. If you search using - pro, or - Sweden you will get the drills from that group.