August 26, 2017 • 11:18 am 1
Now that the new season is about to start I wanted to share two drills that Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley shared with me. As with all drills, these should be run at a high tempo to ensure players are practicing at game speed. Both are full ice drills that run from both sides simultaneously.
Support 3 on 0 with Point Shot
Filed under: Breakout, coaching, General, Shooting, Robert Morris
November 19, 2014 • 1:29 pm 0
I received this drill from Wally Kozak and thought I would share it with our readers. This is an excellent drill to work with the defensemen to handle the forecheck pressure during a NZ regroup play. It also gives you the opportunity to have your forwards work on the teams NZ forecheck system. The drill is continuous back and forth. After a few rotations you can blow the whistle and have the forwards attack the defensemen 2v2 and then swap in the other defensemen.
Click to Download the Drill
October 31, 2014 • 10:46 am 0
Picked this one up watching former NHL player Tony Horacek running practice for our 18U AAA team. Drill runs from both ends at the same time (the video shows only one side to make it easier to see). Watch the timing and skate hard.
Click to Download the Drill
October 24, 2014 • 12:02 pm 0
Here are two drills I received from my Canadian friends to work on 1 on 1 skills. Typically 1 on 1 drills are run with the defensemen defending the rush, but you can also have the forwards defend the rush to work on their defensive skills, because at some point in a game you will need a forward to pick up for a pinching or rushing defenseman and that forward may need to defend the counter attack.
Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, coaching, Defensemen, Drills, Forwards
October 10, 2014 • 4:33 pm 0
While looking at the stats for views on the site, I noticed a lot of action every day in the Defensemen section. To give you more choices, I’ve added 16 new drills, that my defensive coach runs throughout the season when we split up by group. Hopefully you find these useful in building the skills of your defensemen.
Defenseman Shooting Sequence
D Lateral Skate With Shot
D Puck Movement
D Rim Pass Shoot
Full Circle Pivot With Pass
Swedish Shooting
Puck Protection
Off The Wall Dump
Lewis D2D Support
Horseshoe Skating
Right Up
Reverse
Quick Up Option
D Over
D2D
Breakout Simulation
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Filed under: Breakout, coaching, Defensemen, Drills, Skating
October 8, 2014 • 10:49 am 2
I got this drill from a friend in Colorado who watched the Avalanche run it during practice. I used it last night at practice and I liked the flow and tempo of the drill. Be sure to have the forwards stay wide so the defenseman has time to perform an escape move before the second pass. Also, make sure the D skates hard to jump into the rush.
Click to Download the Drill
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October 2, 2014 • 10:40 am 1
My team is eleven games into our season and I haven’t been happy with our competitive instincts. I feel we are not winning enough 50/50 pucks and not winning enough loose pucks. Over the past few weeks I’ve started running drills in practice specifically designed to work on these skills and as of today, I’m happy with the results I see from the players. All of these drills can be considered Small Area Games and I will post them in that section of the site for future reference.
The team really gets competitive with this drill. I split the team into two groups and they compete against each other. The action gets pretty intense at times and really teaches the players how to win puck battles.
I picked this one up off the Coach Chris Hall site and it is intense. The players have to work in very tight areas and compete along the walls.
This drill is the typical corner battle. Using it causes the players to work on the physical part of the game as well as tight area puck protection.
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Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, Checking, coaching, Drills, Small Area Games
September 25, 2014 • 10:35 am 0
Coach Schooley brings us another drill designed to work on breakout passing and 1 on 1 play.
Drill runs from both ends at the same time. Make sure that the defensemen work the reverse pass at game speed and are positionally sound. D2 should hold the front of the net with his skates up ice until the reverse pass is made and then he should sprint to the puck, get his head up and make the breakout pass.
Coach Schooley is the head coach at Division 1 Robert Morris University and his Colonial team is the defending Atlantic Hockey Champions. If you are interested in more information on Coach Schooley, you can visit the RMU Athletics page or follow him on Twitter at @DerekSchooley .
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Click to Download the Drill
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Coach Schooley has a terrific DVD to help develop defensemen. Every coach should have a copy of this DVD, it is really well designed and thought out. I have a copy of it myself and use many of the drills with my defensemen every year.
Click to Purchase DVD
Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, Breakout, coaching, Drills, Passing
September 24, 2014 • 11:39 am 0
Coach Schooley brings us another drill today. This one works on the breakout, regroup and 2v1 play.
The drill runs from both ends at the same time. To avoid some confusion in the diagram of the drill, we only show one side skating the pattern, but both are going together. I think the attached video shows the drill in action pretty clearly.
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Note: Some readers have asked me about using the PlayManager animation software over the past few days. I’ve been a big fan of this product for years, but the developers stopped working on it over two years ago. Now they give it away for free. The above video took me less than 20 minutes to create, but I have been using the software a long time and have a pretty good feel for how it works. The guys over at www.HockeyShare.com now have an animation feature to their product that works really well, but it is a paid service. Both products do the job, but I think the HockeyShare product is easier to use.
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Click to Download the Drill
Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, Breakout, coaching, Drills
September 23, 2014 • 10:24 am 0
Robert Morris University Head Coach Derek Schooley gives us this drill today. The drill is designed to work on the breakout pass from the D to Forward down low, followed by the all important second pass to get your team out of the zone. For this drill, the second pass is a chip off the wall to F2 coming through the neutral zone with speed. This is a simple drill in design, but a skill that many players have trouble executing. The ability to chip a puck off the wall, behind a pinching D, into an area of the ice that allows a forward to pick the puck up in stride with speed, is a very important offensive skill to develop in your players.
On the initial pass from the D, the puck can be wrapped to the Forward on the wall, or a direct pass. It’s good to practice both so the F can become comfortable with catching the pass and transitioning up ice.
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Click to Download the Drill
Coach Nielsen's Ice Hockey Drills 