Drills to do on my own

[mxihockey 0]

Every day after school I have the rink to myself for 2-3 hours and I need some drills that I could work on by myself. Anyone have anything you do to get better on your own? Thanks for the help.

[Super Star 0]

What areas do you want to improve in? and do you have cones? if yes set them out and stick handle with speed around them. If goal is out take some shots after running through a maze of cones.

[mxihockey 0]

Stick handling is definitely one area I want to improve on, I have cones and a whole bunch of pucks.

[Chadd 916]

Dump a bunch of pucks around the crease and fire them as quickly as you can. The important thing is to get the shot away without setting it up or moving the puck with your stick. Move to the puck and shoot it. Then start picking spots; high glove, high stick, low stick, etc... Do it on the forehand and on the backhand and it will help you get a quicker release. It also helps train you to shoot pucks even when they aren't in the perfect spot.

[willy0314 0]

If you want to work on your toe drags: stand still with a puck at your feet, push the puck out straight ahead, then bring it straight back, then straight out to the side, then bring it back. If you were a lefty, think of it like looking at the face of a clock; out from the middle and up to 12, then back to the middle and out to 9, then back to the middle. Repeat.

Tip: push the puck to the outside useing the heel of the blade on the forehand, dont use your backhand.

Once you get good, practice while moving, then starting doing them as you approach a pile of pucks or a cone so you can step around them like a d-man. Once you get real good you can work it in with your transitions from forwards to backwards, or pushing the puck to the outside, the draging it back in and taking a wrister.

Just remember to take small boring steps. If you put in 15 minutes of solid work each time your out, you'll be draging the puck all around in no time at all. But theres tons of things you can do, thats just a simple toe drag drill. Skating, pivots, pivots with a puck, transitions, you shuold be able to get a cannon of a shot if you have that much time on ice to yourself. If you work on the small basic stuff, and get really good and the "easy" things, you'll get alot better as a player.

[Muzza_77 0]

Man, how do u manage to have that much time? that is awesome, goodluck.

[Adam91 0]

ya first off you are so lucky - I can beleive you have that everyday.

When I have some ice to myself one drill I like to do is take as many pucks as I can find, ideally about 30. Dump them about 5-10 feet out grab one and stickhandle through about 4-5 of the other pucks before shooting on net. Do this untill all your pucks are gone. Then dump the pucks 10-15 feet out. This changes your angles and speed a bit.

[fatwabbit 93]

puck handling can be done at home, since you have the rink to yourself, practice all the skating drills, then some shooting.

[mxihockey 0]

Thanks for all the help guys, this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I go to prep school and we have are own rink, so after school while everyones playing their mandatory fall sport I just go out on the ice. (I play hockey for my AAA team as my fall sport. Sometimes there will be 1 or 2 other guys out there but mostly its just me and it gets kinda boring when your just skating around shooting on an empty net. These are great ideas keep em coming :D

[shifter 0]

blast some music in the rink! Then get a puck and skate hard and turning around the dots(face off dots) and then when you get to the end practice sniping and release your shot quick and do it again or just practice some stick handling while skating

[Trooper 8]

Really do an analysis on your weakness and talk to your coach about them. Like others have said, you are pretty lucky to have this time available, make the most of it. To me, skating is often overlooked when you get free ice. Sean Skinner's Skating for Checking video is in my opinion is his best, despite him being known for stickhandling. The kind of agility drills and change of direction stuff he shows on that tape is something I think would be valuable to work of for 15 minutes a day.

Work on your shooting as has been pointed out, but have a plan. Just shooting pucks is fine, but really pushing yourself is how you will get better. See how many times you can hit the crossbar in a row. Get with the other guys and just feed each other and work on quick, accurate releases off the pass. Work on stuff that will really help you in a game. Once you get to the higher level, just being able to blast the puck isn't going to cut it.

Same with stickhandling, set up something challenging and then work up the speed while keeping it clean.

This is a time for you to work on the details of your game and really improve.

Are you a forward or dman?

[Sven 1]

Take the goal and put it the posts on the ice and shoot into the bottom.. kinda hard to explain but i think you know what i mean.

[mxihockey 0]

I'm a d man but I like to jump up into the play and contribute to the offense, but I can also play well in my own zone. I like to compare myself to sergei gonchar(not that I'll likely ever be as good as him) but I think my style of play is a lot like his.

[Trooper 8]

I'm a d man but I like to jump up into the play and contribute to the offense, but I can also play well in my own zone. I like to compare myself to sergei gonchar(not that I'll likely ever be as good as him) but I think my style of play is a lot like his.

Then the skating for checking stuff would be highly beneficial. Also work on details of your defensive game. Just the little stuff. Like retrieving pucks in the zone: skate hard to the puck, check your shoulder, get the puck on the forehand, underhandle the puck, square up and move the puck quickly. With you and one other guy, you could be dumping pucks in, retrieving them, and acting as each other's outlet. Then switch. You could get a ton of reps in.

Also, work on regroup stuff. D to D passes, working on catching on the forehand, keeping your feet moving, underhandling the puck, etc.

Also, set some pucks in the Ozone down on the dot, skate from the point, retrieve a puck, skate backward (or even set some cones to skate through in various patterns) to the point, laterally across the blue for a couple step and snap the puck on net.

Take the goal and just pull it towards you so the top is facing you and the regular opening is on the ground. During drills, your shots have to hit the "M" but not the crossbar (which is now on the ice). This will force your shots low.

It's hard to explain, but there are two tapes I recommend that have stuff you can do for D. There are drills on these you can do yourself or with one or two people. The first is Derek Schooley's Developing Defensemen and the second is How to Improve your Defensemen by Mark Carlson. Both have drills that will let you work on specific defensive skills, both offensive and defensive. You can find them on the net.

[mxihockey 0]

Trooper great post I'll definitely check those tapes out. Thanks for the help guys.

[big ben 0]

You are lucky, I pay $14 for "stick and puck" for one hour at our rink, lately I've just been working on my skating, blue line to blue line, etc.

[biff44 0]

Well, you are lucky, but also cursed! How you practice is how you play the game. So if you are out there noodling around for 3 hours, with no purpose to life, that is exactly how you will play come game time.

So you somehow have to recreate the speed and quickness of the game, even though you are out there on your own. I think 1 hour or really tough drills is going to be better than 3 hours of pond hockey.

Some ideas, set up cones or pucks on the ice and practice skating through them while stickhandling. Go for faster and faster, and not looking at the puck. This is teaching a skill that you can use during game time.

Another idea is to pactice moving around laterally with the puck before shooting. In other words, it does you no good to shoot at a wide open net! Pick a bar and aim for it, and only be happy if you hear a ping. And pretend there are players in the way, and move one way or another to get free, and then get the shot off. Practice shooting from weird angles, while skating on one foot, from behind you, etc.

Another thing to practice are dekes and fakes. They require a lot of work to look convincing, and you can rush the net and just before shooting, do some weird Crosby-like move. You will know if it is working if during real games the puck is going in.

Finally, one thing you can do slow speed are skating technique drills. There are inside and outside edge drills that you can practice at slow speed. Have a figure skating instructor show you how.

Lastly, a good use for that hockey rink is not on the ice. There are a lot of plyometric exercises you can do on the arena stairs. Wooden stairs are best. If you have conrete stairs, make sure you have well padded sneakers. Things like jumping up 2 or 3 stairs at a time.