Reply To: NHL Team Finally Practicing Hockey at Practice

[hockeygod]

TomM wrote:
Dean, now the challenge to you.

How would you have run the ice times. There are 39 skaters and about 6 goalies and they have two ice times in the morning and one together in the afternoon.

If you look at the video section with pro practices the next one is a pre game skate that Detroit did. It was a good session and the next few videos are examples from the prospects camp a few years ago. Even though a lot of the drills were very good it was more like a hockey school with skill stations and drills under no or little pressure. I am sure the players that were there didn't need that kind of instruction. They all would have gone to many hockey schools and camps growing up. So comparing those practices with the one yesterday is a giant step forward.

I personally would have used a lot of the same games but kept track of scoring and give aways and run it like a tournament and then continue the standings the rest of the week. At the end of the camp you would know who was making the plays and who was managing the puck.

TomM wrote:
As pumped as I was yesterday about the productive and competitive practice the prospects did yesterday – I am disappointed today. A different coach ran the practice and did a whole bunch of flow type drills that in themselves were ok but to do one after the other of basically warm up drills with robotic repittion was non productive and I don't see how it followed the posted theme of one puck drills and competition so the team could evaluate 'Game Sense' which they say they are looking for. The American league coach ran the last exercise and it was a one zone game.

I will post the practice and you can compare one day to the next.

http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=2012071112422387

I would like to read coaches opinions on how you could make this session into a more realistic and productive ice session by adding tasks, i.e. after shooting defend the next rush or shoot til you score or covert the drill to a transition game and use only one puck.

The Drill and Practice model was thrown out of educational systems in the 60's. When will hockey coaching convert to Whole Learning.

Tom, I will post how I would run the camp as soon as I have time. It's 'daddy daycare' time for the summer so I have to pick my spots…

But I agree with your comments about why run a hockey school at this level? Skills are important – most of these guys hire a skills coach in the off season – but nobody 'at the top' seems to know how to train Hockey Sense. I do and that is what I would focus on during this 'development camp'.

I will provide my outline of how I would have run this camp later.

I feel strongly that without designing situations / games where you can track some stats – the very least scoring (winning vs. losing) and holding players accountable – then it is time well WASTED!

And yes, what a big step backwards today with the session. More EVIL DRILLS with seemingly little purpose, no scoring stats, no accountability, little evaluation use, and worse of all – very little transferability to the game!

I couldn't believe how much time they spent at the board, or stopping the 'drills' for corrections and how little time they spent 'doing'. B-O-R-I-N-G! Shouldn't they be trying to maximize the players reps to learn? Don't players learn through both making mistakes and by doing it right? So why stop it when they do it wrong?

When we will learn that you must train under game-like conditions to compete in a game?

Probably around the same time we throw out the Drill and Practice model and adapt the Game Sense model! So… what decade will this happen? Will I still be alive then?

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