Practices

[All Torhs Team 0]

I am sort of curious what type of practices people do for hockey and how often you do them. I am pretty much only talking about on ice, not dryland.

When I was playing PeeWee's (14u) we always had 2 and sometimes 3 practices a week. During those practices we did down and backs, passing drills, shooting drills. And lots of breakout lessons.

Now this is my second year being a Midget (18u). We do not do any practices like those anymore. What our coach decided was that it is best if you scrimage alot and just get really used to the game. In fact it was not a low intensity scrimage, he actually developed a league involving the 35+ Illinios team, ISU college team and some other good competition.

I think it worked great because this year we were all really used to playing with each other since we had played together so much. Our team is not like some other teams that stay together from age 6-16. We have different players every single year and its really a toss up at how many players the coach decides to take. But this year we did the best at Nationals then we had ever done before. I really liked the practice theory.

What do you guys think about this type of practicing? And what do you guys do for your practices?

[pat19 0]

I wish we scrimmaged more, I played varsity high school and bantam major AAA last year and we almost never scrimmaged, just alot of different drills and skating and stuff. It seems like your coach made a good point about scrimmaging and playing together alot, i've never heard of anyone who does that.

[jjtt99 0]

It's sounds like it's a shift from European mentality (practice lots, play a little) to North American (play lots, practice a little). I'm guessing the ideal is somewhere in the middle.

[Meathead 0]

It's sounds like it's a shift from European mentality (practice lots, play a little) to North American (play lots, practice a little). I'm guessing the ideal is somewhere in the middle.

I'd rather have guys who aren't very skilled but are good hockey players than guys who are skilled but not good hockey players.

[Chadd 916]

It's sounds like it's a shift from European mentality (practice lots, play a little) to North American (play lots, practice a little).  I'm guessing the ideal is somewhere in the middle.

I'd rather have guys who aren't very skilled but are good hockey players than guys who are skilled but not good hockey players.

and those two characteristics are mutually exclusive

[Meathead 0]

It's sounds like it's a shift from European mentality (practice lots, play a little) to North American (play lots, practice a little).  I'm guessing the ideal is somewhere in the middle.

I'd rather have guys who aren't very skilled but are good hockey players than guys who are skilled but not good hockey players.

and those two characteristics are mutually exclusive

Uh, Ryan Smyth vs. Konstantin Koltsov

[Chadd 916]

It's sounds like it's a shift from European mentality (practice lots, play a little) to North American (play lots, practice a little).  I'm guessing the ideal is somewhere in the middle.

I'd rather have guys who aren't very skilled but are good hockey players than guys who are skilled but not good hockey players.

and those two characteristics are mutually exclusive

Uh, Ryan Smyth vs. Konstantin Koltsov

Forsberg and Daigle

Seriously, can you stop being an idiot?

[Adam91 0]

Personally I'd way rather North America adopted the European attitude. In one practice I believe it takes around 4-5-6 games to match the amount of ice you had in that one practice. Practice is when you learn things and become a better player, games are only when you put what you learned in the practice to use. If I had the choice I'd do exactly what Jonathan Toews did and choose NCAA over mjr. jr mostly because you only get to play 1-2 times a week but you get 3-4-5 practices a week.

[All Torhs Team 0]

Personally I'd way rather North America adopted the European attitude. In one practice I believe it takes around 4-5-6 games to match the amount of ice you had in that one practice. Practice is when you learn things and become a better player, games are only when you put what you learned in the practice to use. If I had the choice I'd do exactly what Jonathan Toews did and choose NCAA over mjr. jr mostly because you only get to play 1-2 times a week but you get 3-4-5 practices a week.

Yea but at a certain age, you stop learning the things and you just start getting better at everything.

Playing games works great because you can work on the things you need to improve on.

Im not saying we are pro's at the game, but what else do we need to learn? If its crossovers? no, shooting skills? no, passing? no

we have already know how to do all that, but we can practice it in game situations

[KYHockey3 0]

we have 1 practice and game a week for highschool

2 practices and 2-4 games a weekend for travel

[Chadd 916]

After an hour long scrimmage are you as tired as you are after an hour long practice? In most cases the answer is no and there is a reason for that.

[2-Keys 1]

Personally I'd way rather North America adopted the European attitude. In one practice I believe it takes around 4-5-6 games to match the amount of ice you had in that one practice. Practice is when you learn things and become a better player, games are only when you put what you learned in the practice to use. If I had the choice I'd do exactly what Jonathan Toews did and choose NCAA over mjr. jr mostly because you only get to play 1-2 times a week but you get 3-4-5 practices a week.

Yea but at a certain age, you stop learning the things and you just start getting better at everything.

Playing games works great because you can work on the things you need to improve on.

Im not saying we are pro's at the game, but what else do we need to learn? If its crossovers? no, shooting skills? no, passing? no

we have already know how to do all that, but we can practice it in game situations

you might know it but you never stop improving... to be good you have to be perfect at every aspect. you might be able to do crossovers but you can alwasy learn to do them faster and quicker for example.

[pat19 0]

i think there should definately be drills in practice but i think there should also be scrimmages and some 3v3 games or something part of the time.

[KYHockey3 0]

we do drills like the 1st 45 minutes and scrimmage till they kick us off the ice

[All Torhs Team 0]

After an hour long scrimmage are you as tired as you are after an hour long practice? In most cases the answer is no and there is a reason for that.

Normally we get tired during down and backs, or some sort of drill where you skate hard for a long period of time.

We dont get tired during the other drills because you go back and stand in line. The way I see it is if your going to get tired doing your down and backs, why are you doing it on the ice when you could do it on dryland? Do your sprints and whatever else. Down and back is mainly endurance. You can get that on land.

[All Torhs Team 0]

we have 1 practice and game a week for highschool

2 practices and 2-4 games a weekend for travel

Yea and whats your point, so does everybody else.

[2-Keys 1]

we have 1 practice and game a week for highschool

2 practices and 2-4 games a weekend for travel

Yea and whats your point, so does everybody else.

well you said to post how many times you practice

[KYHockey3 0]

we have 1 practice and game a week for highschool

2 practices and 2-4 games a weekend for travel

Yea and whats your point, so does everybody else.

"I am sort of curious what type of practices people do for hockey and how often you do them. I am pretty much only talking about on ice, not dryland."

how often made me think you wanted information like that....

guess not

and btw, i bet some practice more then that for highschool and travel

[pat19 0]

we practiced 5 days a week for highschool but some days we just had dryland and weight lifting and game days we watched previous game videos. travel was twice a week.

[KYHockey3 0]

we practiced 5 days a week for highschool but some days we just had dryland and weight lifting and game days we watched previous game videos. travel was twice a week.

highschool isnt serious enough here for more trhen 1 practice.. plus we practice from like 9-10:15

[All Torhs Team 0]

Where do you skate LCHockey?

[KYHockey3 0]

Where do you skate LCHockey?

northern kentucky.

[Chadd 916]

After an hour long scrimmage are you as tired as you are after an hour long practice? In most cases the answer is no and there is a reason for that.

Normally we get tired during down and backs, or some sort of drill where you skate hard for a long period of time.

We dont get tired during the other drills because you go back and stand in line. The way I see it is if your going to get tired doing your down and backs, why are you doing it on the ice when you could do it on dryland? Do your sprints and whatever else. Down and back is mainly endurance. You can get that on land.

If you aren't getting tired from other drills your coach isn't pushing you hard enough or you're candy-assing it through the drills.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

Yea but at a certain age, you stop learning the things and you just start getting better at everything.

Playing games works great because you can work on the things you need to improve on.

Im not saying we are pro's at the game, but what else do we need to learn? If its crossovers? no, shooting skills? no, passing? no

we have already know how to do all that, but we can practice it in game situations

Do you think the teams in the NHL spend more time practicing or scrimmaging ? I'm sure those guys all know how to do the things you described better than your midget team does.

[Dante2004 0]

If you think you have mastered the "basics" simply because you are 18 and play midgets, or whatever you said...you are dead wrong.

Perfect example. Watch an NHL game and you will still see (from time to time) a player skating with his head down, giving a suicide pass, fanning on a shot, etc.

Another person said you are just as tired after a one hour scrimmage as you are after a one hour practice with drills. That may be the case, but you certainly saw more ice time during the drill practice. "Tired" is not a sign that you became a better player. You could do stick handling and passing drills for an hour and barely lose your breath...but you would improve tremendously if you did these drills for an hour every week during one of your practices. You can always get better.

Scrimmages should be used to apply what you have learned in practice. If you simply just scrimmage you will continue to play the way you have in the past and you will pick up bad habbits. Now, if you coach wants to focus on improving the teams break out and you run drills for 45 minutes (for example) working on your breakout, then you scrimmage for 15 minutes with an emphasis on using the break out you just worked on, then yes, that scrimmage is effective.

But if a coach brings you on the ice and throws down a puck, picks teams and turns you loose, you really aren't learning much. This might be good for conditioning, or game prep from time to time, but that is about it.

If you want to get used to your teammates, you can do that through flow drills in a drill practice as well. In a game/scrimmage you will only do the things you feel you can do within your "comfort zone".

Another point: Just because a drill is "easy" doesn't mean it isn't making you a better player. Developing muscle memory is key. Standing in the garage 30 minutes every day stick handling is "easy". But I promise you it will improve your puck control. Walking down the sidewalk is easy, but 1 million steps ago when you were a toddler, your first step was a huge milestone. Muscle memory...