Team strategy for an unskilled team ?

[NuggyBuggy 0]

OK, with the rash of beer-league topics, thought I'd jump in with my own.

I play on a low-level adult rec team. Most of our team were flat out beginners last year. We have a handful of good (for our league) players. Right now we are near the bottom of the league in standings. There are teams with significantly more skill than we have, i.e. the worst players on some of the other teams would be in the top quarter of our team. We lose some games not because our best players are worse than the other team's best players, but because their worst players are a lot better than our worst players, and because we have more bad players than the other team. I would say a third to a half our team can barely skate backwards, and maybe half to 3/4 could not skate backwards well enough to defend on a 2-on-1. A lot of our guys cannot carry the puck without staring straight down at it.

So far we have been playing pond-hockey style. No real strategy or game plan. A few guys on our team are clamoring for us to play some sort of system or try and institute some plays. As captain I would love to do it, but I worry that we don't have the skills to make it happen. It seems to me that even the simple classic breakout plays for instance require the team to have a certain amount of passing and skating ability for it to be practical or safe.

Is there a system that would be well suited to a team like ours, with generally pretty limited skating and passing skills, an average skill level below most of our competition, and more than average bad players ? Can a team like ours benefit from a system ?

[ktang 34]

In my mind's eye, I see your team bottled up in your defensive zone, with players magnetized to the puck, getting more and more tired as they are unable to change...

If that's the case you may need a defensive system that hides your weaknesses.

Since your team has weaker skaters, you may need to give up the point shots and the "soft" areas along the boards.

You could play a tight 4-man box with the wingers and Ds, and have the C high to cover the two opposing point-men (I'm assuming your Cs are your better skaters / offensive threats). You would always have one D in the low slot and one W in the high slot, with the other D and W slightly towards the side of the puck.

Then, when you recover the puck, you could try to flip it high / chip it off the glass to send your C away on a rush.

This system is also easier on the Cs, so they will have more energy left for offense.

If your goalie is able to, ask him/her to kick rebounds hard up the middle in this system. Theoretically you would out-number the opposition in this shell area, and if you're lucky the rebound will get all the way to your C for a good breakaway opportunity.

[awall 0]

OK, with the rash of beer-league topics, thought I'd jump in with my own.

I play on a low-level adult rec team. Most of our team were flat out beginners last year. We have a handful of good (for our league) players. Right now we are near the bottom of the league in standings. There are teams with significantly more skill than we have, i.e. the worst players on some of the other teams would be in the top quarter of our team. We lose some games not because our best players are worse than the other team's best players, but because their worst players are a lot better than our worst players, and because we have more bad players than the other team. I would say a third to a half our team can barely skate backwards, and maybe half to 3/4 could not skate backwards well enough to defend on a 2-on-1. A lot of our guys cannot carry the puck without staring straight down at it.

So far we have been playing pond-hockey style. No real strategy or game plan. A few guys on our team are clamoring for us to play some sort of system or try and institute some plays. As captain I would love to do it, but I worry that we don't have the skills to make it happen. It seems to me that even the simple classic breakout plays for instance require the team to have a certain amount of passing and skating ability for it to be practical or safe.

Is there a system that would be well suited to a team like ours, with generally pretty limited skating and passing skills, an average skill level below most of our competition, and more than average bad players ? Can a team like ours benefit from a system ?

The big question is can you get practice time? If you can get some practice time you can work on some of those plays and positioning. It would also be good for lines to practice together.

[roadrunner 12]

I don't think a sophisticated system would work well for your team. What we do when playing teams with ringers who are much better than us is pretty simple. It requires heart, determination, and discipline.

Whenever they're breaking out of their zone our 2 wingers attack,cut off the d to d pass and everyone else is covered. So ultimately we force turnovers with intense forechecking pressure. We just beat a team full of Team Canada National ball hockey players in the playoffs 4-1 and will put it to the test again this Sunday. Stay out of the box.

[PJLime 0]

You will get better with time. The main thing, I think, is not get too frustrated and play good defensive hockey. Have everyone support each other on plays and just practice a lot. Offensively always have a guy on a point so you can throw the puck back to him, etc.

I play pick up with the same group of guys week after week and you can see players get better and over time recognize their own weaknesses. We have a guy that pretty much can't skate well or carry the puck, but has a decent shot. Lots of times a defense doesn't considering him a threat and will let him drift open. Get a pass to him and he rips a shot off. That's just an example, but identify your weaknesses and practice as much as you can.

[Crazy Otto 0]

I agree w/ roadrunner. Even if your players all tried to learn a defensive system, their poor skating skills aren't likely to help the team execute it well. A good player on the opposing team is still likely to just beat them 1-on-1.

I wouldn't worry about wins and losses. Just try and play hard, and work on your skills. If the only ice time your weaker skaters are getting is in your league games, chances are they won't touch the puck very often and their skating and puck handling skills aren't likely to improve. The best thing they can do for themselves is to go find some skill clinics at your local rink, or even have your guys chip in $$ together for some private ice lessons with an instructor. Or just go to some open hockey times at your local rink, where they can improve their skating in a no-pressure situation.

[Chadd 916]

I've always tried to keep it simple.

Defensively:

First forward back covers the slot

Forwards cut off the middle of the ice on the backcheck

Everyone takes a man in their own zone until you have the puck

On the forecheck take away the middle of the ice and force them to the boards, the second man in takes the boards away and looks for the turnover

Offensively:

Drive the net for rebounds

Give other guys enough time to get near the net for rebounds

If the other team "sags" use the defensemen

Having a set play off of a faceoff can get you a goal or two a game but you have to communicate and plan for winning or losing the faceoff

[freq019 0]

i wouldn't use your skill level as an excuse not to learn some systems or fundamentals. Your teams skating ability will get better, and I would imagine that most of you started playing so you could learn more about the game. If you all have someone willing to teach you, then I would take full advantage of it, even if you can't do a breakout if you practice it alot you'll eventually be able to do it. And when your skills do progress, you won't be held back because of fundamentals.

[hockechamp14 0]

Neutral zone trap

[UMWhockey 0]

i try to keep it simple with some of my teams that i have coached that are not the skilled....

score more goals than the other team....

you will win every game if you follow that :D

[sonsplayhockey 0]

Encourage people to skate at public sessions & go to Pickup hockey.

We have had 2 intra team scrimmages. We focused on passing and using the boards. It was dramatic the level of improvement. Suggest skaters work on forward stride, acceleration (runnin on feet with first 3 steps) and balance and control (gliding on the flats of one foot). All the stuff in the Laura Stamm DVD.

If you are loosing alot, make sure they are concentrating on improving 1 skill per game and keep it a learning process. Our team is going through this now. Things after 5 games have gotten so much better with a positive attitude. We just got moved down 1 division which really helps. I know a guy in that division and they are 0-5 like us. The difference is that the other team is imploding because they are so caught up in loosing that they are not thinking about improvement. Make sure that everyone is looking to themselves for improvement and not blaming other folks.

[Neo5370 132]

Honestly I'd say have fun. Not trying to be cheesy, honest. But if you have a lot of beginners get them moving around and in different situations. I'm not saying wait years for them to get better but they will adapt.

The fact that you said some of players have a hard time skating at a basic level severely limits any kind of "system" other than standing around.

I don't know anything about systems or coaching but I'd say find one that is most adaptable for less mobile skaters?

And since you won't outscore'em, I guess defend'em. So that sort of system.

Someone already said the trap, but that requires good positional play.

[ktang 34]

The Trap needs all 5 skaters to be able to skate backwards, and for the sprung transition guys to be able to go from backwards to forwards in a flash.

[beaucoup_fish 0]

I agree with anyone preaching D. Hey, if you're the Beer League equivalent of the Wild, play like them. Don't trap, but just play simple, solid D. Try to get the puck to your best player on the breakout. Otherwise, just hold steady, play the man, and don't chase the puck. Then, pray.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Thanks for all the replies guys. They are very useful. Someone mentioned that it's important to keep it fun. At one point some of our guys were extremely frustrated that we were losing. There was bitching and in-fighting on the bench, and complaining about how the opposition's players were too good for our particular tier. I had to lay down the law, and remind them that we were here to have fun, we needed to keep our perspective, that most of the other teams were much more experienced, and that instead of complaining about how good the other players are, we have to worry about improving our own game. That helped a lot. So now that guys have settled down I'm hoping to have one or two very general concepts to work on each game.

A few guys mentioned the importance of practice. This is something we have tried to do in the past, but with a team of adults it's very hard to arrange. It seems like putting a system in place requires most if not all of the team to show up, and that's just not possible for us, either for commitment reasons or work/family/religious/etc. THe best guys on our team tend to be the guys most likely to be up for practices (Maybe they're the best because they're at the most practices ?). In lieu of team practices a few guys (again, some of the better ones) are doing adult hockey schools, but a few of the worst players are now also signing up for power skating, etc.

i wouldn't use your skill level as an excuse not to learn some systems or fundamentals.  Your teams skating ability will get better, and I would imagine that most of you started playing so you could learn more about the game.  If you all have someone willing to teach you, then I would take full advantage of it, even if you can't do a breakout if you practice it alot you'll eventually be able to do it.  And when your skills do progress, you won't be held back because of fundamentals.

I wasn't looking for an excuse not to learn some systems or fundamentals. I'm just looking for a system that is reasonable and practical for a team at our skill level. Since a lot of our guys are only skating on game days, they're not improving as fast as you'd think they might. I know that by continuously practicing say breakouts we will eventually get better, but since we really only play as a team on game day, that's really the only time we have to practice them, and it seems dangerous to do it then ;-), especially since we can't pass well in the first place. Heck, I am in an adult school with guys who are WAY better than most of the guys on our team, and when we practice breakouts, it's sometimes ugly. The puck is everywhere. It's a lot harder to do in practice then it looks on TV....

[Neo5370 132]

Thanks for all the replies guys. They are very useful. Someone mentioned that it's important to keep it fun. At one point some of our guys were extremely frustrated that we were losing. There was bitching and in-fighting on the bench, and complaining about how the opposition's players were too good for our particular tier. I had to lay down the law, and remind them that we were here to have fun, we needed to keep our perspective, that most of the other teams were much more experienced, and that instead of complaining about how good the other players are, we have to worry about improving our own game. That helped a lot. So now that guys have settled down I'm hoping to have one or two very general concepts to work on each game.

A few guys mentioned the importance of practice. This is something we have tried to do in the past, but with a team of adults it's very hard to arrange. It seems like putting a system in place requires most if not all of the team to show up, and that's just not possible for us, either for commitment reasons or work/family/religious/etc. THe best guys on our team tend to be the guys most likely to be up for practices (Maybe they're the best because they're at the most practices ?). In lieu of team practices a few guys (again, some of the better ones) are doing adult hockey schools, but a few of the worst players are now also signing up for power skating, etc.

i wouldn't use your skill level as an excuse not to learn some systems or fundamentals.  Your teams skating ability will get better, and I would imagine that most of you started playing so you could learn more about the game.  If you all have someone willing to teach you, then I would take full advantage of it, even if you can't do a breakout if you practice it alot you'll eventually be able to do it.  And when your skills do progress, you won't be held back because of fundamentals.

I wasn't looking for an excuse not to learn some systems or fundamentals. I'm just looking for a system that is reasonable and practical for a team at our skill level. Since a lot of our guys are only skating on game days, they're not improving as fast as you'd think they might. I know that by continuously practicing say breakouts we will eventually get better, but since we really only play as a team on game day, that's really the only time we have to practice them, and it seems dangerous to do it then ;-), especially since we can't pass well in the first place. Heck, I am in an adult school with guys who are WAY better than most of the guys on our team, and when we practice breakouts, it's sometimes ugly. The puck is everywhere. It's a lot harder to do in practice then it looks on TV....

Nuggy, you got it right.

I know where you're coming from because my college RH club was playing schools w/ much talent and bigger budgets.

You have to cut through the frustration and realize that having fun is priority number one.

In all honesty, and this is not meant to be "not nice" but just like w/ my old team if you honest to god do not have the skill to compete there's no reason to get frustrated. Try your best while w/o the stress!!! B)