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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, Breakout, coaching, Drills, Passing
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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September 10, 2014 • 3:56 pm 1
This drill is brought to us by Peter Russo, who is an assistant coach at The Brooks Prep School in North Andover MA. Peter also runs a website where he shares his ideas about all things hockey. You can visit his site at www.coachprusso.com .
In Peter’s own words “The main focus is D1 retrieving pucks quickly and efficiently and learning how to jump into a rush”.
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Filed under: 1 x 1 - 2 x 1 - 3 x 1, coaching, Drills, Passing, Transition
August 8, 2014 • 1:45 pm 0
I received this drill from Coach Eaves last year, but thought it would be good to highlight again as we begin to prepare for the upcoming season. I use this drill a lot because it works a number of areas in a quick moving drill. Players need to concentrate on good passing and receiving skills, timing, speed through the neutral zone and attacking the net. There are a few options for this drill. You can have the D be the players in the corner so they can work on the outlet pass, or you can have all the players work both parts of the drill to gain confidence in the outlet pass. You can also have the player from the corner turn to the outside to receive the pass and attack the zone wide. Also, be sure your goaltender is concentrating on directing his saves away from the front of the net.
Once again, I’d like to thank the guys over at www.HockeyShare.com for their animation software.
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Filed under: coaching, Drills, Passing, Practice, Transition, Warm-Up
July 25, 2014 • 10:21 am 0
Here is one final drill from Mike Eaves. This is another passing drill that works on the stretch pass to a player driving the middle of the ice. Be sure that the players are skating hard on the drive portion of the drill. This will get them used to the speed they need to move at to possibly beat a defenseman up the middle of the ice. Have the players in line making the passes move their feet so they aren’t stationary during their portion of the drill.
You can also add a player to the net front area to work on screening and rebounds. This will force the goaltender to make smart plays with the puck off of a save.
I hope you’ve found the drills posted the past few days from Coach Eaves helpful. I want to thank Coach Eaves for the drills and wish him great success in the upcoming season.
Once again, I would like to thank the guys at www.hockeyshare.com for their really easy to use animation software, that help bring these drills to life.
Click to Download the Drills
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July 24, 2014 • 5:20 pm 0
Drill runs from both ends at the same time. Working on moving the puck through the middle of the ice.
Make sure the players keep their head up while skating for the stretch pass.
Timing is very important on this drill.
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July 22, 2014 • 4:53 pm 0
Here’s a drill from D1 head coach Mike Eaves of the Wisconsin Badgers.
Nice drill to work on zone entry and getting to the net hard. It incorporates timing passes and full ice skating.
I also want to thank Kevin and the guys at www.HockeyShare.com for the animation software, so I could create the video of the drill. Very cool stuff. I’m not an expert, but it was pretty easy to use the first time I tried.
Click to Download the Drills
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Coach Nielsen's Ice Hockey Drills 