How to build a hockey team...

[nexusrage21 1]

The group of guys I play pick up with want to try and get a team started. We have a problem in that the majority of the guys really haven't developed the skill to be able to play in even the lowest league around here. We have a few good players, but no one is really a superstar that can carry a team.

So what we want to do is run practices for 6-8 weeks before registering for the next season. One good thing is that everyone seems to be up for this.

So what I'm looking for is a 6 week program of skill building to get this group of guys ready to play as a team. I think we need to start at the bottom with this group and develop more basic skills, so I'm looking for a lot of skating, passing, and positioning drills.

Any suggestions as to drills that we should work on?

[doodman 0]

Whatever you do it better involve skating, skating, skating. Skate for ability, backwards, crossovers, starts, stops, turns, etc. Skate with no pucks, no shooting.

As an example I have a friend who's low level and he only works on shooting and passing, no skating. After three years you can hardly tell if he's improved because he cannot EVER get the puck. I don't know if he's a better shot, because he's so far behind the play he never takes any.

Now you have to go convince your new team. They won't like it lol

[chk hrd 164]

get a coach or someone who knows the game well to run the practices. If everyone is that inexperienced it is probably safe to say there isn't alot of knowledge about the game from a player/coach prospective. If you don't have someone guiding you then you are pretty much out there playing shinny. They can develop drills that will develop what you need most. You can skate, shoot and do every drill you can think of but if they are not done correctly it is a waste of time and a way to develop bad habits. I would keep the team strategies simple, basic hockey 101 will win alot of games.

[W.Heinle 0]

The group of guys I play pick up with want to try and get a team started. We have a problem in that the majority of the guys really haven't developed the skill to be able to play in even the lowest league around here. We have a few good players, but no one is really a superstar that can carry a team.

So what we want to do is run practices for 6-8 weeks before registering for the next season. One good thing is that everyone seems to be up for this.

So what I'm looking for is a 6 week program of skill building to get this group of guys ready to play as a team. I think we need to start at the bottom with this group and develop more basic skills, so I'm looking for a lot of skating, passing, and positioning drills.

Any suggestions as to drills that we should work on?

Where are you located?

[nexusrage21 1]

Thanks for the input.

I definitely agree on the skating part. I'm hoping to find some specific drills to help that beyond the usual circles, line to line, figure 8 kinda stuff.

As far as getting a coach, we have 4 or 5 guys who have a lot of experience and are pretty good at teaching. The problem we usually have is that we have trouble organizing ourselves with it. We tried doing drills one night and it was a lot of "ummmmmmm....what nexts" wasting time.

That's why I was hoping some people could help me with putting together a program.

One thing that is frustrating is that with the way the talent breaks down, we have a few guys who think they are too good to be doing the same kind of work that other guys are.

The group of guys pretty much breaks down as 4 guys who have experience and are decent players, then like 3 guys who don't have real experience, but have good skills, then about 5 guys who aren't very good and two guys who are just terrible.

For the most part, the guys at the bottom of that will listen, work hard, put in time on their own. Its the guys who are decently skilled who have no real experience who seem to be the problem.

When we have our pickup games they turn into what we refer to as track meet hockey. Lot's of breakaways and odd man rushes. Those guys (two of them specifically) will play to try and score and make themselves look better at the expense of the weaker players. It's funny because they'll brag about pulling moves on pylons or how many goals they score, but spend the whole session avoiding my side of the ice.

One of the other guys with some experience gets so fed up with these guys that he's trying as hard as possible to teach the weaker players just so they can beat these guys. It's pretty funny.

So while we are at it, any advice on dealing with the bad attitudes? Other than just not playing with those guys.

[sickwilly 37]

How about getting a slightly larger group of guys together and scrimmaging for a season, if you don't feel ready for the league?

[bandits_5 18]

doodman is right. you must skate . skating is 99.9% of the game . if all of you can learn to skate in 6 weeks ( probably imposible , unless your all athletically gifted 9 yr olds. My team played roller for years. we had some good skaters , but when we switched to ice , we struggeled for about 3 years. ) , then youll be ok. but hey , gettin your butt kicked is probably better than not playing at all!

[sabby47 2]

If you have experienced skaters that can teach well, start there or use Laura Stamm as a guide for teaching skating if you can't make it to one of their camps. This is my typical teaching plan for Adult Learn to Play:

One foot pushes (full extension with knee and toe pointed towards boards, keeping gliding knee bent), then alternating pushes using full strides

Snowplow stops working into Hockey Stops

Swizzles working into C-cuts skating forwards

Backwards swizzles working into alternating C-cuts

Tight turns around dots, head up looking where you want to go, inside shoulder up, inside foot leading you

Crossovers, working from c-cuts into one foot glides, then actually crossing over

After all that adding in a puck or doing it all with a puck depending on how advanced

Simple passing stationary then skating and passing

Stationary stick handling,(figure 8 around gloves) then moving and stickhandling

Proper positioning drill. Explain where they should be, dump a puck in and blow a whistle after 30 secs and see if they are all where they should be.

Simple breakout drill, wings at hashmarks, D throwing the puck up to wings, ect

Simple defensive tactics, (angling, poke checks, stick checks)

That eats up about an hour and a half pretty quickly, after the skating portion you could always break up the forwards and defense on two sides of the ice to work on their specifics and then bring them all back together for breakouts, scrimmage ect...

And as for the bad attitudes, explain up front what this team's purpose is for and that they all started in the same place too. If they still can't understand, time to dump em. Trust me, it will save you the headache of dealing with them later on!

[mug25 2]

If you have experienced skaters that can teach well, start there or use Laura Stamm as a guide for teaching skating if you can't make it to one of their camps. This is my typical teaching plan for Adult Learn to Play:

One foot pushes (full extension with knee and toe pointed towards boards, keeping gliding knee bent), then alternating pushes using full strides

Snowplow stops working into Hockey Stops

Swizzles working into C-cuts skating forwards

Backwards swizzles working into alternating C-cuts

Tight turns around dots, head up looking where you want to go, inside shoulder up, inside foot leading you

Crossovers, working from c-cuts into one foot glides, then actually crossing over

After all that adding in a puck or doing it all with a puck depending on how advanced

Simple passing stationary then skating and passing

Stationary stick handling,(figure 8 around gloves) then moving and stickhandling

Proper positioning drill. Explain where they should be, dump a puck in and blow a whistle after 30 secs and see if they are all where they should be.

Simple breakout drill, wings at hashmarks, D throwing the puck up to wings, ect

Simple defensive tactics, (angling, poke checks, stick checks)

That eats up about an hour and a half pretty quickly, after the skating portion you could always break up the forwards and defense on two sides of the ice to work on their specifics and then bring them all back together for breakouts, scrimmage ect...

And as for the bad attitudes, explain up front what this team's purpose is for and that they all started in the same place too. If they still can't understand, time to dump em. Trust me, it will save you the headache of dealing with them later on!

Great post.

Adding to it....

If you guys are wanting to get into the league for the sake of recreation, learning and on-ice experience I say go for it. Theres no shame in being a bad team in a beer league. We're not Pros, most of us never will be or never had a snowball's chance in hell of being one. Just go out there, have fun.

[Chadd 916]

Thanks for the input.

I definitely agree on the skating part. I'm hoping to find some specific drills to help that beyond the usual circles, line to line, figure 8 kinda stuff.

As far as getting a coach, we have 4 or 5 guys who have a lot of experience and are pretty good at teaching. The problem we usually have is that we have trouble organizing ourselves with it. We tried doing drills one night and it was a lot of "ummmmmmm....what nexts" wasting time.

That's why I was hoping some people could help me with putting together a program.

If they were good at teaching hockey they would know to come in with a practice plan. Any good coach comes in with most of the practice mapped out, even if it is only mentally, and makes changes as needed. Someone has to be "the coach" for the drills and it is a good idea to have someone from outside the team be that guy as it helps prevent any potential personal issues from developing. The last thing you want is for someone to get upset with the way a guy is running a drill or comments that are made in an attempt to improve someone being taken the wrong way.

[chk hrd 164]

If they were good at teaching hockey they would know to come in with a practice plan. Any good coach comes in with most of the practice mapped out, even if it is only mentally, and makes changes as needed. Someone has to be "the coach" for the drills and it is a good idea to have someone from outside the team be that guy as it helps prevent any potential personal issues from developing. The last thing you want is for someone to get upset with the way a guy is running a drill or comments that are made in an attempt to improve someone being taken the wrong way.

Very True. People can be real sensitive