Reply To: How many drills?

[hockeygod]

Tony,

It sounds like you are running a wide variety of drills. I don't think you are missing anything… perhaps do some skill stuff for the first 15 minutes, then get into playing!

A couple of questions:

1) In your opinion, in comparison to your entire league, what type of skill level (on average) does your travel team that age possess? On a scale of 1-10… 10 being your team is the most skilled travel team that age in your league.

2) What is the average percentage of time split between your drills and your games? IE: for a 1 hour practice, 45 minutes drills / 15 minutes games? 30 Drills / 30 Games? 15 Drills / 45 Games?

3) Have you done a time analysis of one of your typical practices? How much time is one of your players engaged (involved in a drill / activity… not standing on line or sitting on the bench) vs. total time in practice? How much time does one of your players have the puck on his tape over the course of the entire practice? (Best way is to record a practice and then watch it – using a stopwatch / pen / paper.) Once you get the numbers, can you re-think or improve your practices such that you increase a) activity time… b) puck time… ? How will you do this?

One hint: in a traditional practice, ensure all players (including goalies) do any skating drills with a puck. Can you think of other ways?

Tony, don't take this the wrong way, but if you have been reading much of this site, you know I am ANTI-Drill and PRO-game!

You might be the opposite. I hope I can 'convert' you to becoming more open-minded towards games – if you aren't already! (If you aren't prepared to try more games, then disregard the rest of my post!!!)

We have been coaching 24 skaters and 4 goalies (2000-2001's) since September. Most kids play Div 1 and 2 with the odd one playing Div 3. They came to us because WE DON'T DO ANY drills. They get that 2-3 times per week in their normal hockey practices – and apparently, they don't like drills much as there is too much standing around in line, waiting… go figure! Kids want to play! Earth shattering news, eh??!! Nope…

We play games for 1 hour per week. The parents and kids love it; they all want more of it but we haven't been able to get any more ice time before school. The kids get to practice their individual skills and tactics during 1 v 1's; team tactics are added as soon as they play with a teammate! Plus we fine-tune attention to details things surrounding the four offensive and four defensive principles of play… AND we reinforce good work habits! (You can't achieve all of this in any drill… and drills are inherently NOT preparing the player to 'play' in a 'real' game… we say, "Perform Skills… Quickly… With Head Up… Under Pressure… Consistently!" Do you keep score during your drills? If not, you are de-training the natural competitive urges of the players. How do you or your players know if they are getting better? Are there any objective measures (time / score / distance?)

By playing lots of 1 v 1 up to 3 v 3, all on one ice surface (could be 1/2 ice or cross-ice or full ice), the kids get tons of playing time, fitness is challenged as we only talk for about 5 minutes out of 60 (setup, 1 minute break in middle, debrief at end along with scores / accountability), and the kids are constantly playing! We can change the purposes and parameters of our games to meet our teaching / skills / tactics / systems needs; as well as manipulating the work to rest ratios. We keep score (two parent volunteer scorekeepers on the bench) and we hold the players (and goalies) accountable at the end. We let the game be the best teacher of the game…

I know this is a slightly different situation, but we would use a majority of competitive game-like situations even if we were coaching a 'team' – we might use 15 minutes to perform drills and skills in combination (and make it competitive as time goes on… dependent on skill level) then do tons of 1 v 1 up to 2 v 2… eventually 3 v 3 so they can understand triangulation. (We would also use 1 v 2 / 2 v 1; 2 v 3 / 3 v 2). Doesn't mean my philosophy is 'right' – but I have done it the traditional way (it sucks!) and this Game Intelligence way (it rocks!) and I know which one works best, for me, for the kids and for the parents ($takeholder$)!

For more ideas on this philosophy, please see the Game Intelligence thread.

All the best,

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."