Benefit of Practice Routines
To use the ice efficiently a coach can develop routines to practice individual or team skills. Name them and allow the captains to lead or simply switch activities on a whistle. I am pasting some routines that demonstrate this.
A. Finnsih U17 Team in 3 zones.
1-Forwards in the middle passing, skating, puck handling in the neutral zone.
2-Defense going through breakout options and reading the forecheck at one end.
3-Goalie technique at far end.
Skating Balance and Edges
1-No puck.
2-With a puck and a shot.
Breakout Routines
1-Options with one D.
2-Both D.
The coach can develop routines for all of the skills to maximize repititions and free the coach to use key words to give feedback to the players instead of being a traffic cop running the flow of the activities.
Here are the examples.
B Skills Warm up Finnish U17
Key Points:
This is a great way to warm everyone up at the start of a practice. Defense do the various breakout options and read where the pressure is coming from. Pass the puck back to the coach and move thru everyone. Forwards pass with good technique and eye contact. Goalie coach work on technique and rebound control.
Description
A. Defense work with two doing breakout options vs one forechecker.
B. Forwards lines of 3 work in the neutral zone.
1 – Stationary pass with eye contact.
2 – Pass while moving always face puck.
3 – #8 around partners give and go.
4 – Keepaway 2-1 in four areas.
5 – Two lines move and pass to other two lines on the blue line.
6 – Two lines of 3 pass while skating on one side of the neutral zone.
C. Goalies work with coach at one end.
https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/videos/watch/b-skill-circuit-finnish-u17-old/
A200 Skating Warm-up for Edges and Balance with a Puck and Shot
Key Points:
Good players can move in all directions efficiently because they and use all edges and have great balance on the ice. Routines for skating, puck handling, shooting and passing are efficient ways for a coach to quickly review the foundation skills and allow the players to get a lot of reps and improve at their own rate. Do these skating exercises with a and without a puck.
Description:
A200 Formation in Four Groups
– Players start at one end in 4 lines and skate to the other endwith a puck and shoot from their lane.
– inside edges – out and in using a snowplow.
– inside edges – sculling one leg at a time on the inside edges.
– outside and inside edges – slalom with the skates together and a good knee bend.
– balance and edges – one length of the ice on each leg.
Repeat the same sequence but skate Backward.
No puck.
https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/videos/watch/a2-skating-warm-up-for-edges-and-balance/
Skating warm up with a puck and shot.
https://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/videos/watch/a200-agility-edges-balance-with-a-puck-and-shot/
Murdoch Breakout Routine A and B
D shoulder check on the way to the puck.
Forwards funnel through middle lane and watch puck before swinging up the boards.
Wings and Defense
A. Coach shoots puck in and D gets the puck and passes to the wing who times his skating from inside to outside. D to W back to D and up to wing. Then repeat on the other side.
B. Coach shoots the puck in and D skates back to get in while the wing times his skating from the middle to the outside lane.
The D drives the back of the net and stops and goes out the same direction making a counter pass to the wing, who returns the pass and gets another pass.Repeat on the other side.
Murdoch Breakout Routine A-B.jpg
http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/video.php?n=20080720200745971
Breakout Routine C and D
Defenseman Shoulder check on the way to read the forechecking pressure.
Forwards read the play from the middle lane and time it so they are skating up the boards for the pass. If the forechecker follows you behind use the reverse.
C. Coach dumps the puck in and the D gets in and drive skates hard to the back of the net and up the ice between the dots. Pass D to W to D to W.
D. Coach dumps the puck in and the D gets it and drive skates to the back of the net to draw the forechecker then passes back off the boards to the other D who has called reverse from the front of the net. D2 passes to W to D2 to W and out.
B5 Murdoch Breakout Routine C and D.jpg
Murdoch Breakout Routine E and F
On all of these both wingers can go and time their skating to be available for the pass. Add the centreman to do 5-0 full ice reps.
E. Coach dumps the puck in D1 gets it, D2 skates to the front of the net and calls for the pass D to D. both wings watch the puck from the middle zone and time their skating to be available for the pass. D1 behind to D2 to F1 to D2 to F2 and out. try to pass to all three forwards and back to D twice. i.e. D to C to D to F2 to F1.
F. Coach calls the breakout (i.e. reverse) and all 5 breakout and try to score at the other end. Practice all of the options doing about 2 reps each line of 5.
At my last nights practice I had groups of 5 in the middle and they did from A-F as a 5-0, I dumped the puck in one side and then the other and they passed back to me when they got over the blueline. My asst did the same thing on the other side of the redline.
Murdoch Breakout Routine E and F.jpg
http://www.hockeycoachingabcs.com/mediagallery/video.php?n=20080720200746400
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