Good drills for beginners

[D aka speck 0]

Hey all, I recently moved to San Diego (from Michigan) and I'm helping out as a coach at a local rink.

Wow! Did I take the ability to go hit a lake or pond for granted! :D

I'm looking for some productive and/or fun drills to run these kids through.

I know there is another thread about this, but I'm only looking for things to run kids that are...

a: ages 10+

b: non league / no games or scrimages

c: have skated for less than 1 year (I think that 6 months is a better estimate)

d: cross ice (we partition at blue line)

e: 30 minute time frame

I like to throw some form of edge work in EVERY practice and end with something fun.

I'm just running out of ideas, I taught myself to skate at the lake where I grew up and I don't think that they're ready for the drills that I have done.

Any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated and welcome.

[JPB_69 0]

Speck,

Here are some ideas...

Relay races are always fun. Divide the kids into teams, set up two pylons and have them skate to the pylon, turn, skate back and touch sticks with the next skater. You could also divide the ice in half and have them skate the circles. Have them turn right on one circle, left on another. Mix in pucks if you want.

Another drill would be to skate diagonally from the goal line to the blue line, stop, and then do crossovers along the blueline until you reached the other side. Skate diagonally to the redline, stop, and do cross overs until you reach the other side, skate to the far blueline, repeat, until you get to the other end. Have them alter cross overs to their right and left.

A couple passing and stick handling drills...

Have the kids pick a partner and have them pass the puck to each other. Have them do a one-two-three type thing. Stick handle to the left the right and then pass to their partner. Have them practice forehand and backhand passes.

Line up pylons and have them skate the length of the ice passing in between every pylon.

[Jordan 13]

Here are few beginning edge exercises:

1) two foot scallops - both feet simultaneously do a c-cut...encourage them to use their knees!

2) single foot c-cuts, while opposite foot tracks in a straight line

3) two foot slalom pumps with feet close together

4) starts and stops...ensure everyone faces one direction then the other

5) skate then drop to your knees (both at the same time) then get up quickly and resume skating

6) skate then drop to one knee get back up while continuing to skate

7) skate, then dive onto your belly, get back up resume skating

8) race a few lines of players, start on one knee

9) race a few lines of players, start lying on belly

10) same thing start lying on your back

11) set pylons in a zig zag pattern. Have the kids stop at each pylon then proceed to the next one. To make this one more advanced, have them stop on their outside foot, while lifting the inside foot. You can also have them go around the pylons for a tight turns drill.

12) one foot glides

13) small 2 foot hops, like over each blue line

14 tight turns...skate as fast as possible to a pylon and then cut around the pylon as tight as possible--emphasize getting both skates on edge

15) alternating one foot inside edges

16) alternating one foot outside edges

These go from easy to somewhat more difficult. once they start getting these things mastered, have them do the same drills with pucks. As they get the drills going forward, start doing them going backwards. Once they get the basics forward and backwards, have them pivot fron to back and back to front (both sides) within each drill.

In edit: just thought of one more drill game that the kids love...play british bulldog at the end of practice. You can play across the ice- have them do it without their sticks. It gets the kids cutting and accelerating without thinking about it. It's great for their agility!

Good Luck !

[Zamboni 6]

Good sugestions from Jordan-at beginner stages your really going to need to emphasis proper form....pivots as in #14 will have many kids with trailing foot up on toe.

Even though it would be better for kids development to just skate their going to want to handle pucks-hell, I'm forty and I want the puck when on ice. Throw some straight across ice, stickhandling then breakaway push puck drills in finishing with shot on boards.

With 6 months experience I'm thinking you need to start with basic skating stride drills for these kids. Deep knee bend, bet many are bending at waist. Start with proper form, "not a race"...1/2 speed. Work to good skating form, 3/4 speed....always emphasis deep knee bend. "can't skate too low"...."Two ways to skate, low and lower"....really get on proper form/stride before edge control.

Good luck with this, i always say its much harder to coach house calibre, 1/2 ice than Rep(travel) Kids will have wide range of abilities, its hard to keep it challenging for all. Have fun, its agod feeling when you see their improvement.

[D aka speck 0]

Great all!

I appreciate the pointers!

Keep 'em coming, they're great.

BTW... what's the "bulldog" drill?

[Zamboni 6]

Bulldog is Britsh Bulldog-that is a great drill, kids love it so you can hold it up as a reward for their practising hard. Start all kids on boards, 1-2 in middle....kids must skate across ice to safety of other boards without being touched. When touched they join other kids in middle as remaining kids skate cross ice again. Its great for lateral movement, angling....you can have kids in middle only allowed to skate backwards.

Have safety zone, no touching within 10' of boards. Never ran this cross ice, should be ok considering its beginners.

[Jordan 13]

One other thought about coaching cross ice. Obviously space is an issue. Some of the better practices I have seen in in this small space, have used the two face-off circles extensively. They can be used individually so that you can divde the team into 2 small groups.This is great for cross-overs, and outside leg push drills.

Once the kids are getting a little bit better, use the face-off circles as an enlarged figure 8. They can go from crossing over in one direction then the other; then later, it is great for backwards skating drills and drills that incorporate pivots.

[Zamboni 6]

D aka speck...did you make a mistake and sheet is split at centre ice? Seen lots of 1/2 ice practices but 3 teams or groups sharing an ice time seems a lot. Unless its by ability and you get say 6-8 for your area?

30 minutes seems short also, make sure parents are aware of what your working on/towards. Many will find more ice time so with your advice can have kids work on what will most help them.

[D aka speck 0]

D aka speck...did you make a mistake and sheet is split at centre ice? Seen lots of 1/2 ice practices but 3 teams or groups sharing an ice time seems a lot. Unless its by ability and you get say 6-8 for your area?

30 minutes seems short also, make sure parents are aware of what your working on/towards. Many will find more ice time so with your advice can have kids work on what will most help them.

Sadly, no mistake. The figure skaters get the rest of the ice. The next step for the kids I'm coaching is house league, where they will get full ice.

[Jordan 13]

One general point given the lack of space. The more lines of kids you have, the less standing around there is. So I would break them into groups as much as possible... Man that is tight though, inside the blueline only!?

[ChiefHockey13 0]

Most of these kids will probably want to go shoot since most beginners don't have strong skating yet. Since they aren't at a high level you don't need to torture them but a few sprints won't hurt anyone. Work on there edges a lot too and don't let them skate clockwise all the time that is a VERY bad habit. These are the best and simplest edge drills

Figure eight- Setup 2 cones about 4-5 feet appart and have them skate through them in the form of an eight this is a great way from them to work on their edges and for you to see their weaknesses.

Circles- Pretty self explanatory but make sure they go clockwise and counter clockwise.

"Weeve"- Setup 5-7 cones like a "Z" and have them turns around them or cross overs.

Three Circles- Setup 3 cones in a circle (one on the close line, one on the dot, and one on the far line) have them do cross overs around all the cones in the same direction getting wider and wider.

[Jordan 13]

One other one:

This one is for once the kids have improved their stride and balance a little:

Have one kid hold two sticks-his and his partner's -have him hold the blade end. The partner gets down on both knees and holds onto the ends of the sticks. The first kid pulls the second kid across the ice. This drill is very good for improving leg strength and developing proper leg and blade angle.

To make it a little harder, have the second kid lie down on the ice. ;)

[biff44 0]

Get a beach ball, have them lose their sticks, and play soccer.

Play donkey! One at a time they rush the goalie from the red line and shoot. If they score, they sit down. If they miss, they go back in line. The last man standing is the donkey and has to fill up water bottles next week. It is good to get young players who are not good scorers to start thinking about shooting more, and maybe becoming scorers.

[thejackal 46]

HNIC has a segment called Think Hockey, the clips are on cbc.ca. i found some nice drills on there

[Powerfibers 8]

I like most of the drills above.

We also do a lot of stick on the ice drills. Skate close around the stick; skate around facing the same direction; do figure eights crossing over the middle each time forwards and backwards; do figure eights and drop gloves at each end and then pick them up the next time around. Change directions after a short time. These are all good drills for kids.

We also do barrel rolls at the blue lines in addition to the knee and stomach drills (we cal the flop on your belly the SUPERMAN drill).

Of you get the NHL network, try to check out Hockey Academy.

[daca 0]

HNIC has a segment called Think Hockey, the clips are on cbc.ca. i found some nice drills on there

Backed. They're also on youtube. http://youtube.com/profile?user=CoachWalt

[iceangel 0]

found these drills

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/backward-skating

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/practice

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/shooting

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/turning

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/pass-control

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/balance

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/puck-handling

http://www.sportskool.com/videos/goaltending

[D aka speck 0]

Thank you everyone.

Tons of great input. I especially like the links from Iceangel.

I've used some of your pointers, with great results!

Any more is still appreciated.

Please post in this thread so everyone else can benefit as well (I got one PM on this topic).

Again, thanks all. Keep 'em coming.