Solo stick time practice routine?

[jsblock11 4]

I'm a beginner adult who has been focusing on skating fundamentals and been through a beginner hockey skating class. I recently got full gear and got in on the local stick time for the first time yesterday. My skating practice time is usually working mostly on basic edge and balance drills from my class and youtube along with the other core fundamentals I've seen videos on (crossovers, backward skating, tight turns, stops)

Anyone care to impart some advice or share your "regimen" for a 2 hour SOLO practice session on ice, i.e. X minutes of skating drills, X of stickhandling, X of shooting? I just sort of aimlessly tooled around with a puck and tried out some wrist shots for the second hour when I got worn out of skating drills. I like organization, structure, efficiency when learning new things and would like to maximize the time I have to improve. My plan is to do the stick time twice per week, and join a beginner league (or pickup once I get decent enough skills to participate) to get some gameplay 1-2 times per week. Got a stickhandling/shooting pad and green biscuit for off ice drills as well.

[chk hrd 164]

Sometimes the best practice time is by having fun. I wouldn't spend more than half of your time during stick and puck doing regimented drills. One of the best things about free time is you can try anything you want. I have seen a lot of people get better at stick handling and skating because they were just out having fun with no pressure, trying things they normally can't in practice.

[MThockeydad 469]

How are you getting solo practice time on the ice? $$$$$?

The only "solo" time I get is on frozen ponds in the winter time.

I used a lot of the HowToHockey and M2Hockey skills/drills videos last year.

If you can afford solo ice time, can you afford lessons?

Take some power skating lessons.

Work on some of the techniques learned there in your solo time. 20 minutes at a stretch works wonders.

Go back to another power skating lesson. Get feedback.

Spend maybe 10-15min on shooting. It's more fun with a partner. Do some passing/shooting drills. Have him/her pass it hard and fast to your tape. Take quick aimed shots at specific spots on the net.

Really, though, what chk hrd said. Have fun. Look up some 8U, 10U and 12U drills on USAHockey.com and other sites. Look for drills and do them with the appropriate number of friends.

Sharks and Minnows is a blast, even for adults!

IMHO, hockey is social, and solo is boring!

The #1 biggest thing you can learn on your own and that you MUST learn to do before drop-in/league/pickup time is stopping on both sides. If you can stop on a dime, you're ready to start putting the other skills to the test in a drop-in session.

[jsblock11 4]

By solo I meant just going by myself to the stick time, not that I have the entire sheet to myself! :-) Though it doesn't sound like very many people show up early AM weekdays for it so should be plenty of room. So stuff I can work on without a partner, unless someone takes pity on a beginner to throw some passes back and forth. Like you said I was thinking I'd just get a couple of drills for each area of the game to work on to get me on my way. Agree on stopping being a critical skill, really just body control in general so I don't hurt myself or someone else in a game situation. My stopping isn't pretty, I can do it on both sides while practicing but I still have to think about it when stopping left leg forward and sort of prep the leg for the stop, so I need to get over that and make it natural. I seem to fall back on the one leg snowplow stop with my left when I need to do it quickly.

[MThockeydad 469]

Stop with your knees slightly bent, using the blade under the ball of your feet. "squat" down with your butt and drive your weight down through your legs/feet/skates and into the ice.

There's a drill where you can practice stopping with feet together--immediately do a crossover (more of a step over than an actual crossover stride) and go the other direction.

If you stop with your feet far apart, you have to bring them together before you can go the other way. Going the other way immediately helps develop your muscle memory to stop with your feet close.

You have to stop on both sides. :)

[bobapower 0]

Agree with having fun as #1 priority.

I typically have an hour of stick time so here's what I like to do. Also note that I have been skating and playing for close to two decades.

I warm up for the 1st 5-10 minutes by stick handling around the circles up and down the ice. Turning with puck around face off dots. Stopping, crossovers...

If I'm not lazy might even do some sprints.

You can do the drills without puck if not comfy with skating.

I work on stationary shooting for the next 15 min. I shoot against boards using blue or red lines as targets.

Shoot low first then high. It's all about the form. Quality over qty.

Wrist shots first, then repeat with snap shots.

When I get tired from shooting I'll skate around kicking the puck or work on saucer passes to give arms a break.

Rest of the session I work on game situation shots.

Start from right boards and blue line, skate towards goal on right and shoot. I try to hit all 4 corners at least once.

Repeat from left side, then from center.

If there's time I'll practice various shots in the slot. Do some breakaways.

The shooting in goal is the fun part, esp when there's a goalie.

One tip about shooting is to take breaks when you get tired or frustrated. Otherwise your form suffers and you end up repeating poor form.

[Chadd 916]

My favorite drill when I had ice to myself was to line up a bunch of pucks around the goalie crease, then move as fast as I could from one to the next and shoot them without handling them at all first. Trying to roof them all on the forehand, then doing it again on the backhand.

[Neo5370 132]

The particular drills don't matter. The most important thing is to start slow, don't be the kid that tries to do the patrick kane drill in a maze of pucks when you have hands of stone. Not only do you look like a douche, but you won't learn a thing. You remember when you were a kid and all the girls in the class could do these incredibly complicated patty-cake games w/ their hands? They didn't go full speed at first. They did it slowly, step by step until they got the feel and muscle memory to do it fast. Same with stickhandling. Even Kovalev says this is the best way to learn in his instructional DVD.