Coaching beginner adult Forwards

[sonsplayhockey 0]

I'll be running the forwards lines for our adult hockey leauge team this sunday. Its our first game for a new team. I"m used to someone much more experianced than mysel running the lines on the other teams I played on. This new team is mostly filled with 25-40 year old players who have spend probably 1 season playing adult hockey. A few have played several.

My idea was to keep things as simple as possible with them and give these directives:

When getting into the opponent's zone:

1) Puck carrier over the blue line

2) 2nd forward in to the net

3) 3rd forward in support the puck carrier

In the opponent's zone

1) Puck carrier drive to the net or pass to open team mate

2) Closest forward, support the puck carrier by providing an outlet to pass to

3) 3rd forward should be in front of net

On defense in thier zone

1) Nearest forward forchecks puck carrier

2) 2nd forward covers nearest passing outlet

3) 3rd forward center ice

On defence in our zone

1) Center front of net between face off circles

2) forwards cover point staying directly between opposing D and net.

Any suggestions? Like I said, I want this to stay simple with them. It will be difficult enough getting them to do line changes at the right time.

[Chadd 916]

I always liked the idea of forechecking them and pushing them to the boards and letting the second guy take away the boards, third man in the middle of the ice able to go back or drive the net if there is a turnover.

In your own zone, everyone has to keep an eye on their man. The center should stay with his man if he loses a faceoff and let the other forwards chase to the point.

NEVER make a move just before crossing the offensive blue line if you have other guys rushing with you.

[Cavs019 708]

Odd man or 2-2/3-3 with a man backchecking situations you always want to carry the puck wide unless the defensemen opens the door to cut middle.

[Chadd 916]

Odd man or 2-2/3-3 with a man backchecking situations you always want to carry the puck wide unless the defensemen opens the door to cut middle.

I always try to isolate one guy and turn a 3 on 3 or 3 on 2 into a 2 on 1 or a 2 on 0 if possible.

[Cavs019 708]

Exactly, skating down the middle you need serious creativity now that your directly in front of both defensemen. Nothing a little pull up, have your wingers blow wide around the d to the net and a little saucer back door between both D men can't handle. :D

[EndBoards 0]

If you're dealing with guys that have only been playing for a year, I doubt that they'll understand or care to apply much of what you're trying to accomplish. Lots of guys are just out there to chase the puck around and have an excuse to drink beer, so you'll have a hard time getting them to care about the finer points of the game.

I'd simplify it even more..

Bigger guys will tend to gravitate towards the net. Smaller guys will tend to float around some. Good skaters will tend to win races to the puck. If you set your lines up with one of each, you've already accomplished alot without doing any "coaching" at all..

Take your two best/most experienced forwards and put them at center. Hopefully through experience they'll know what to do.

For the wings in the D-zone, make sure they understand the importance of staying high to cover the point instead of giving in to the temptation to go low to 'help'. Once they're sure that a teammate has control of the puck and is moving it forward, just tell them to go on offense as well as they know how.

[sonsplayhockey 0]

Good advice Endboards.

The guys/gals on the team were lucky to just break out once and a while. The 4 of us that were the best skaters just could not get by a 1 on 3 so what we ended up doing is we'd just skate into thier zone and find a spot to hang out till the other slow pokes caught up. It was pretty much like you said after that.