ADM Practice 14
5 minutes free skate with pucks
10 minutes – small area game – soccer. The focus of playing soccer on the ice is balance, agility, body contact, and edge control
6 stations x 7 minutes
Station 1- skating –
scooter pushes (both legs); c-cuts both legs; exaggerated cross-overs; Next set of drills have the players skate to center dot then perform the movement 1) skate forward with stick out in front of you, bend down and touch toes then back over head 2) Hold stick out front and try to kick the ends of stick 3) stick out in front and lift one knee up to stick (balance on one foot). 4) place stick over shoulders and bend forward and try to touch alternate end of stick to opposite toe (right side to left toe, etc). Next set of drills – 1) Skate forward and try to sit on the back of our skates 2) Shoot the duck - Skate forward, sit on back of skates and stick out one leg. The focus of the skating drills was balance. The better balance a player has on his/her skates, the more power they can get out of each stride.
Station 2 - Passing and shooting - players start in a line out by blue line. They skate in and pass to the rebounder (I will bring it) and then take an immediate shot after catching the pass back. For advance players, have them start in the corner skate up to the cones and weaver in and out before passing to the rebounder. The great thing about the rebounder is it forces the players to work on passing accuracy and touch. The recoil is almost 100% transfer, so how fast you send the puck in, is how fast it is coming back at you. We added a shot after the rebound back to help the players get used to quickly catching and shooting.
Station 3 - Small area game - divide the players into 2 teams. Draw a rectangle and place 5 black cones (I will bring them) in the rectangle. Players try to knock the cones out of the rectangle. They cannot cross the drawn line between the face-off dots. The red line denotes the 2 sides. Coach determines if the cone is out of the rectangle. Players retrieve their own pucks and bring them back for another shot. First team to knock all their cones out wins. The focus of this game is passing accuracy and speed. By making the players retrieve their own pucks, they put more thought and concentration into their pass.
Station 4 - 2v0 (2 v 1 for squirts and advance mites) - form a line behind each cone. First two players skate to the face off dot and then power turn back to the cone. Coach passes to one of the players and they turn back for a 2 on 0. For the squirts and advanced mites, replace the coach with a line of defenseman. Once the defenseman passes to the offensive players he immediately skates in and turns to play defense for the 2v1. The focus of this drill is simulate game like situation of 2 on 1. The 2v1 is one of the most common situations that players will face in a game. The more they practice it, the quicker they can “anticipate and act” in a game. (Anticipate and Act is a Herb Brook”ism”)
Station 5 - 1-on-1 Empty Net Game - Place four cones on the ice. Four forwards line up across the blue line with a puck. 10 feet away and facing them are four defensemen. The object is to get to the cones before you can shoot on the empty net while being defended. The first puck in the net gets the point. The game is over when a forward scores three points. Everyone changes positions after three goals so they each work on both offensive and defensive play. (cut the cones down if have less players) The focus of this drill is winning the 1v1 battle. This is another of the most common situations players will find themselves in during the game.
Station 6 - Agility - Players spread out and place their sticks on the ice in front of them. On the coach’s command, players two-foot jump over the stick back and forth. After awhile, have players jump forward from the bottom of the stick side to side, to the top and then backward jump side to side down to the bottom of the stick. Next, line the sticks up around the circle and have the players skate around the circle doing crossovers and jumping over the sticks at the same time. Change direction after 30 seconds. The focus of this drill is agility. Agility goes hand in hand with balance. It is another progression to becoming a great skater. Often in games, players must change direction many times in a single shift. It is important for these movements to come from muscle memory so our mind can focus on the game and not on our skating.
Goalie station - goalies will perform 2 and 4 with their age group 2 times. They will go to the goalie station for the other 2. 1) iron cross 2) Center, shuffle, butterfly far post. (make sure give goalie a chance to reset before going again) The focus of the iron cross is basic skating movements a goalie must master to play the position well. The focus of the second drill is to simulate puck movement going from one side of the net to down low on the far side.