I am in Jasper National Park doing a camp now. The kid's get two skating and one hockey one day and then two hockey one skating the next. They finish with a plyo session just before supper and have swimming after supper. So a full day.
We have 26 skaters and 0 goalies. I have 6 small nets on the ice. The oldest player is 14 and the youngest 7. There are 2 girl's.
Ice one was to find out the playing level and get them used to the puck etc.
– started with everyone playing a full ice game with a plastic puck, ringuette ring and a hockey ball. Leave the puck in the net after a goal and see who scores the most. We played 3 games like this. Sticks upside down when you get the ring. 3 nets on each goal line and you can score on any net.
– divided players into 3 groups with 2 teams per group and used pinnies for colours.
– we played 3 cross ice games. Game one with a plastic puck, game 2 with a hockey ball and games 3 with a ring. Games lasted 5 minutes and they switch areas to play with a different kind of puck. One miinute between each game to give instructions and comments.
Rules:
-scoring team takes the puck and goes the other way and defenders must skate to the middle before checking.
– everyone must face the puck at all times. – I did a little demo.
– after you score you can't score again until everyone on your team has scored.
Russian Puck Handling Routine – full ice
– I demonstrated the exercise skating toward them talking and then my son skated to the red line giving a demo of the technique. Oldest to youngest groups left when the next group was near the blue line. We did this for 20 minutes.
Puck Dog.
Started with Jim being puck dog first. The idea is to get to the end without losing the puck.
We played this for 10 minutes and kid's from the middle group won each time.
Observation:
Talent level is very good. A few kid's in the 11-12 age range are elite. One boy may be the best one I have seen at this camp and his brother is also very good. I will adjust the groups a little by moving two kid's up to the older group from the younger groups. We sill have groups of 8-10-8
Today we will do more puck handling games and exercises as well as work on good habits like skating to open ice and making escape moves with the puck. We have 2 one hour sessions today.
Gaston has a group of 6 older boy's at 7 in the morning who want to improve their skating technique but aren't part of the hockey group.
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Session Two – Still on the theme of puck handling.
– full ice game with three nets at each end. Ring, heavy puck and Czech puck with hole in the centre. Game ends when all pucks are scored. 3 games to warm up. This also helps in getting players to be on time as they don't want to miss games.
– Chaos in nzone. Handle a puck and make various moves that I ask them to do and Jim demonstrate. Finish by exchanging passes to as many players as possible within a minute and always make eye contact.
— 6 games of 1 on 1 with a rotation of attack-defend-pass to first in line and rest. We used the original teams and they played amongst each other. 3 nets at each end on the goal line. All the games at once.
– same 6 teams and now add a joker who is behind the goal line and the attacker must pass to the joker and then get a pass before scoring. Rotation attack-defend-pass-joker-rest.
-15 minutes with more moves. Stress fake shots and then moves. Add partners, work together and practice the moves around a partner. Teach in front of toes and to skate inside-go outside and then inside again when the defender starts outside.
– 3 cross-ice games – first game you must beat at least one defender before passing. Second game – you must make escape move to beat a defender before passing or scoring.
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'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'