Help! Been tagged to coach a PeeWee team

[jds 20]

Okay, so I am fairly new to playing hockey (about 5 years) and have coached my kids house league hockey teams for about four of them but at the novice, atom level (8-10 year olds). At this level I can easily outplay the kids (I would hope) and can still teach them very basic skills. No plays or anything of that nature- more just skating skills, shooting skills and very basic positioning .For various reasons I have been tagged to coach a Pee Wee team (11-12 year olds) where the kids are really coming into their own as hockey players. They know how to shoot and and skate fairly well at this point. My little kid practice ideas are way behind these kids. I am looking for any advice on decent practice ideas that might work for this level of player.

[noodle3872 40]

Flow drills, flow drills and more flow drills! Google it. These drills should lead to other drills which will work at this age level.

[Chadd 916]

Lots of conditioning early in the year and I'm a big fan of them having a puck on their stick as much as possible. Set up your basic breakout, forecheck, defensive zone coverage plan, powerplay and PK early and work on them for a little bit each practice. It sure helps the kids to have some structure to fall back on in the game. More than anything, have a practice plan. Don't be afraid to deviate from it if there is a problem with something you are trying to teach, but having a plan makes your life easier on the ice.

The one thing I would strongly avoid is introducing large number of new drills at each practice. You should be able to tell them the name of the drill and they should be able to do it on their own fairly quickly in the season.

[seaner7633 2]

There are likely coaching programs and seminars, and coaching websites that have a wealth of knowledge. Are there assistant coaches? Can you pick some that have more hockey experience, to help with the activities?

[chk hrd 164]

What level of Pee-Wee; house, A-AA? Not to be mean spirited or anything of that sort but (In my opinion) with only five years experience in hockey you are not qualified to be a head coach of a travel team (A-AA). You can probably still wing it for a house team. I think to coach younger kids is more difficult and takes more qualifications than to teach older kids. I can explain a drill to a midget player and expect them to understand it where a pee-wee player may need me to demonstrate it. If the coach cannot demonstrate it correctly then the player will not learn it correctly. The same with skills. If they are not taught correctly at the beginning then bad habits can be formed making it more difficult in the future. The players need to start learning the game at a different level. They need to start learning correct positions, how to take face offs, PK's, PP,s.

If you "have" to be the head coach see if there is another experienced head coach that you can apprentice under. If you can shadow him at practices you can get a lot of insight on what to do and it will give you someone you trust to ask questions.

[jds 20]

What level of Pee-Wee; house, A-AA? Not to be mean spirited or anything of that sort but (In my opinion) with only five years experience in hockey you are not qualified to be a head coach of a travel team (A-AA). You can probably still wing it for a house team. I think to coach younger kids is more difficult and takes more qualifications than to teach older kids. I can explain a drill to a midget player and expect them to understand it where a pee-wee player may need me to demonstrate it. If the coach cannot demonstrate it correctly then the player will not learn it correctly. The same with skills. If they are not taught correctly at the beginning then bad habits can be formed making it more difficult in the future. The players need to start learning the game at a different level. They need to start learning correct positions, how to take face offs, PK's, PP,s.

If you "have" to be the head coach see if there is another experienced head coach that you can apprentice under. If you can shadow him at practices you can get a lot of insight on what to do and it will give you someone you trust to ask questions.

Jesus! AAA! I'm talking house league. A bunch of the better players moved up a division since it had a low turnout and with them went their parents who were coaches leaving me to take a team (my son is the goalie) I will have help with an experienced coach as an assistant. I was just looking for any advice so I can actually offer up some practice plans of my own and not have to lean on him too much.

[Vet88 674]

Google and plan, these are your friends. If I was to break it down into various thoughts of what I went thru a few years ago then:

1: Evaluate the players, try to rate them on their various skills - skating (forwards, backwards, stopping, turning, accelerating etc), puck handling, passing, heads up, decision making, positioning. Record this and then think of drills which improve the weaknesses, try to give each kid 15 - 20 minutes at the start of each practice on these skills. If you have a camera and can record them at the start and them again 2 - 3 months on, this alone is often worth its weight in gold as they can see the improvement they are making.

2: Plan your training sessions. Say it is 60 minutes, break this down into segments and then break each segment down into specific drills, work out what you want the players to do during this time and what you are trying to impart on them when they do the exercise. For example an hour could be broken into 10 minutes for general warm up and strength drills, 15 minutes for specialised skill training, 15 minutes for team or multi player drills, 15 minutes scrimmage, 5 minutes warm down. Keep the exercises simple and short at first, kids have short attention spans. Also try to introduce a new exercise each session. Complex drills can be broken down into smaller exercises that you join together over a few weeks. When you start, use your experienced coach to cast an eye over your plans, at least for the first couple of sessions. Use the advice to tweak it and then check back every month or so, new ideas, how things are going, areas you are struggling in.

3: Use Google for training drills. There a literally thousands out there that you can use.

4: Go to some senior sessions, watch what they do and think of how you can get the kids to do it.

5: Try to make it fun, there is nothing better in this world than a kid who enjoys training because it is fun, half your job is already done.

6: If you have a lot of players then split them into groups if you have the room on the rink. There is nothing worse than running drills and having players stand around for 2 minutes waiting for the their turn. Ideally you have a player with a puck all the time.

7: Give them other tools they can use off rink to improve their play. For example google the "green biscuit". If you can get a kid to start practicing on their own at home then life becomes a lot easier as they start to get better on their own when off rink.

One of my kids was coached by a very good player last year, he hated it. The drills were complex, kids struggled to understand what he was trying to get them to do, they waited too long for a turn (mainly because the drills were so complex and long), they got bored, they struggled with the drills etc etc. At the end of the year they had a 2 month period where all they did was skill exercises on the rink (these were for the junior olympics). There were 8 stations set up around the rink where the kids practiced the various skills they needed - skating (box crossover drill with and without puck), puck handling (between cones), speed (timed over half a rink, forward / backward with and without puck), shooting. The idea was for everyone to rotate thru the stations practicing the drills and at their own pace, in reality what happened is kids gravitated to what they enjoyed the most or what they had to work on. It was pretty informal and run by some of the coaching assistants who just wandered around the rink giving advice when and where needed and timing kids when they asked. What I found really interesting is that even though these kids were already very good, every one of them improved significantly over the two month period (even in their general game play), my son summed it up well when he said said they were fun and he really wanted to go to the practices.

Good luck, remember to keep it simple, plan well and have fun. You don't have to be a great skater to teach kids, a good motivator and someone who shows a keen interest in how they are going will do just fine.