Hockey players need to have excellent skating skills, as well as good stick handling and shooting ability. These skills can be developed through repetition with the use of simple drills. Drills can be made more fun and engaging by using a game format, which will help to develop teamwork as well. A cross-ice 3 on 3 drill is a great example of this. Another drill is to play a shootout with your goalie, which helps to improve shooting accuracy and power. It also improves the ability to quickly get the puck in to a scoring position. A final drill that can be used is the Gates of Buffalo small area game, which helps to engage the players in the action and encourages them to communicate with their teammates and move to open spaces.
Basic passing and receiving drills are essential for every player. However, they can become a bit boring for young players. To add a bit of challenge and fun, try adding some simple relay races to these basics. Players can race each other with their own sticks, or even team relay races can be incorporated to build more coordination and chemistry between players.
Creating a quick change of direction is crucial for hockey players to be able to avoid being tackled or stopped by their opponents. A simple drill to do this is to line up players in a straight row with cones set up ahead of them. On a whistle blow from the coach, the first player in each line will dribble toward the cones and then quickly change their direction to avoid getting knocked into by the other players. As they continue to do this, they can gradually increase the distance between each cone.
One of the best drills to help improve shooting and passing ability is the UNH three shot drill. This drill involves three attacking players, two defenders and the goalie. The attacking players work on penetrating passes into the circle, while the defenders focus on preventing them from scoring.
This drill is a great way to work on both the push and reverse push pass, as well as the flick pass. To do this drill, have the players pair up and then begin to pass back and forth between them, while the coach watches their form. The coach can then make the pass harder and harder, eventually increasing the distance between the players to simulate a real game situation.
This is a simple yet effective drill to work on a number of different passing and receiving skills, as well as body movement and timing. It can be done with any number of players, and can be modified to include other types of pass, such as the spin pass. The coach can then watch the players and see how they are progressing. If necessary, the coach can then add new instructions to improve the skill level of the players.