Fun practices

[Hobbes_86 0]

I searched but all I could find was info on bag-skates, skills, drills and such.

This past season my team has had an awful attendance record for practices. On a team of 16 we might have 5 show up and that includes myself. As you can imagine we are not tops in our division...but we are not dead last either. Last week we knocked off the #2 team so I know we have the skills to be a good team IF they would just show up.

This is where the problem lies and where I need your help.

Our current coach thinks practice is nothing but skating the circles, dots and suicides then the last 10min of practice, 3 vs 3. I think the reason no one shows is that practice is too boring.

My theory is if I can have fun practices more people will show up. This summer or coach is moving. Starting in the fall, I want to change things up a bit. I still want to work on skating, but we need a LOT more work with passing, shooting, hand eye coordination, ect.

What have you guys done in practice that’s fun but also helps to develop those skills?

FYI we are a senior womens travel league.

[AnthonyJTa 0]

I'm not 100% sure about Senior players... but when I skated with my brothers team when he was younger- every week or so, the coach would dump a bucket of tennis balls on the ice for the last half hour and the kids would basically play ball-tag by shooting them at each other.

While it looked like complete bedlam, they were shooting while in stride most of the time, skating, stickhandling the tennis balls, changing direction on a dime, and knocking a ball down with their stick here & there. While I'm not a coach, and can't attest to how well this is for development.... but damn was it fun.

[Hobbes_86 0]

Don't worry about our age bracket...we can be quite immature :lol:

But that's exactly the stuff I'm looking for...tag, keep-away, monkey in the middle. Something to break up the monotony of a typical practice.

[AnthonyJTa 0]

Don't worry about our age bracket...we can be quite immature :lol:

But that's exactly the stuff I'm looking for...tag, keep-away, monkey in the middle. Something to break up the monotony of a typical practice.

well, if everyone's equipped, wearing cages... I'd recommend the "complete bedlam with tennis balls" scenario......the kids would look forward to it every week.

[awall 0]

You're not alone. The lightly attended practice seems to affect every team after a while. I play Adult Novice league (I-League) and have been on 2 separate teams in about 2 years. My first team had been together for quite a while and I noticed early on that not everyone would show up for practice, especially the goalie. My second team had everyone show up for the first couple of seasons and then our last practice only had 5, including me, show up.

One thing you can do is ask the team what they want and expect from a practice, get some feedback. If your team is getting tired of the same old drills then ask the coach to change it up or change coaches. Another thing is to do the best with who shows up and then make a point to have those that actually practice together play on the same line together.

A while back I actually had my coach not show up for a practice, being team coordinator meant that I then had to run the practice myself. Running a practice is not as easy as it looks. I easily came up with a few drills, but the hardest thing was to decide when we had worked on a drill enough. There is a USA Hockey DVD that has a butt load of drills that I picked up after that so I would at least have an idea as to what I should do next time.

[phs hockey 21 0]

well we are not senior players but we are a high school team. last weekend only 2 of us showed up to practice... we used to play with a bouncy ball until our coach decided we had to get to work. it was very motivating and fun playing with something that is hard to keep on the rink

[topshelf11 0]

On my team, if we started doing drills, nobody would show up. We just play, whether it's a league game or a "practice".

Beer afterwards seems to help motivate the guys to show up, too.

[biff44 0]

beer in the water bottles is a good start!

[pisani34 10]

this is the first year i've ever played hockey so i wouldn't know much about practises,

but i have been playing basketball most of my life, and through high school our coach was a real toughie. We would run a ton and do a ton of tiring drills, it was hard to be motivated to come to practise. But, there were things he would do to let us have some fun once in a while.

One thing you could try is to even have a game of dodgeball on the ice, not with just 1 or 2 balls, but a whole crapload of them, and have it be every person for themselves. From my standpoint it encouraged everyone to stay on the move and learn to run to strategic spaces. It gets your mind thinking and keeps your feet active. Never tried it on skates, but i think it could be quite the adventure...

[Ti-girl 0]

Well I think it depends on the team.

My women's team, we did tons of "stupid games" as one coach called them, but we used what we learned in games, and we had a ton of fun.

We would do 1 on 1 races, with a puck at centre ice and the two skaters lined up at the goal line. Race for the puck and then you have to change directions and come back to the end that you started in. Learned to KEEP MY HEAD UP, how to use explosive strides, stick handling ect ect.

We played hockey with a golf ball to improve our stick handling.

Played keep away with our coach (who played Jr A and NCAA), we always lost, but we learned how to use our bodies to guard the puck.

We had a skills compeition for one practice. We also did parachute skating for another one.

Because we're a group of women aged 20-35 he had to keep us entertained. Or we got bored and THEN it was bedlam. Imagine 16 girls sitting at centre ice refusing to skate because "the practice wasn't fun"

[All Torhs Team 0]

What times your practice at? Ours is at 9:45-10:45.

Not a whole lot of us are motivated to come and be skating till nearly 11 PM.

Also our coach threatens to sit us. He has the numbers to do it, but normally the good players are the ones who dont show.

[GSHL99 0]

I suggest trying small area games, it's fun because it's basically the same as playing hockey on the full sheet but it works on skills like puck protection and passing in tight spaces, shooting quickly, and the all important keeping your head up.

Having said that, don't be surprised if you have low attendence no matter what you do. My experience with beer league practices has taught me there are two kinds of beer league players:

1.The ones that love hockey and want to play and improve all time, doesn't matter whether they're former NHLers or just starting out. Given the chance they'll be on the ice.

2.The guys that want to show up once a week to the games and wear their pretty sweaters, once they get home their gear goes in the garage and they won't think about it again until next week.

Type one would show up to the most boring practice at 5:30AM on Saturday just to work their skills. Type Two wouldn't show up to the most fun practice at the most perfect time.

[Doctor Hook 0]

The funnest part about practices to me are shooting drills. I could do those for hours. Maybe do more situational work like 2-on-1s, 3-on-2's and the like. Of course scrimmaging is great as well.

[KYHockey3 0]

my biggest p[ractice motivatin ever, was dont practice= dont play.

i know you all are older,m so you may have more jobs and responsibilities then kids, but it sure works!

the tennis ball idea sounds awsome too!

another fun thing to do is skills competitions, or shootouts.

[greatone 0]

Whom ever does not show up for practice doesn't play!! That is usually the way it works. If the "no shows" continue, they really did not want to play from the beginning.

[Doctor Hook 0]

Sometimes work and family committments get in the way of attending a beer league practice, so in this case, not sure if the "no practice/no play" would be the right tactic.

[hockeymom 2]

Two players face each other... maybe 6 feet or so apart at first... but widen the distance a bit more once they get good. Sticks on the ice, butt down. Let go at the same time and race to get the other player's stick before it falls.

[Hobbes_86 0]

Everyone, thanks for the input! Now when I chat with my manager I can mention specific ideas on drills and fun stuff instead of the usual “I dunno…just something different†that she always hears.

I think our first practice will have to entail some tennis balls and a couple of cases of beer..if you tag the beer can you can drink it. Then we can do relays and skills competitions for beers. Keep away, with a beer. After practice, some more beer.

Hmm I am sensing a theme here…..Beer! It does seem to be a good motivating factor for my team, bunch of lushes.

But seriously it sounds like if I just break up the usual monotony with 10-15 min of something fun it would hopefully entice more people to show up. Some have stated the old stand-by of no practice = no playing time. Unfortunately that won’t work for this team, last few games we only had 2 or 3 people on the bench. Playing at 9:30 on a Saturday night can be difficult for some of the moms.

Want to know what floors me about all of this? After the season ends we have 2-3 sheets of ice left over so instead of selling them we open it up to drop-in and just about the entire team shows up for that! Go figure.

Thanks again for the help and keep the suggestions coming.

[DMBeer41 0]

I help coach a U-19 girls team. We try to incorporate Mini-games at the end of each practice. My dad (head coach) got a bunch of them from his level 4 coaching seminar, but i'm sure a brief google search will turn up some on ice mini games for practices. The kids don't realize the skills they're working on until we point them out after the practice...doesn't stop them from enjoying it just as much the next week.

[Cheesehead 0]

play soccer on the ice, full check. its so fun, it makes you keep your head up, it helps with skating and staying low so you don't get decked. It is so fun.