More Skill Games: Puck Protection and Puckhandling
Examples of skill games for puck protection and puckhandling
As a reminder, these are examples of skill games, which are competitive and fun ways to better train individual skills with an eye towards more effective and efficient transfer to game situations. For a full discussion of the theory behind why and when they are better than traditional blocked or isolated drills, see the last two posts. However, the general idea here is that once you’ve established a minimal level of competency at the fundamental, you should switch to training that presents greater variety and variation in situation and challenge both to improve skill transfer and to have more fun and challenge and thus improve faster.
One more note: once I have finished this series of skill game posts grouped by skill, I will return to my theoretical focus and in depth analysis of specific drills, practice strategies, skill development, etc. I just wanted to establish up front that we have a large library of practical examples using the ecological approach, differential learning, etc.
Puck Protection / Puck handling
1 v 1 Guard the Gates -
Explanation: 1v1 Gates - Set up four cones in a rectangle. Adjust size to increase or decrease role of speed. Start with ringettes if you have them. The object is to skate your ringette across the opponent's line. No shooting allowed. The other player tries to stop you. Emphasize maintaining net side presence with an active stick for D, boxing out and using full arm reach and extension for puck protection on Offense. After each score, the scorer leaves the ringette/puck on the goal line of the opponent and retreats to play D. This should allow you to have continuous, high scoring games. The idea is to get a lot of reps so the players can experiment with which strategies are most effective. Then change to pucks, but emphasize that this is not a shooting game. They must skate it across the line. Notice that you can set up as many of these games as you have space for so that everyone is active.
Focus: Skating, Protection, (Dual Focus: Angling, Net Side Presence)
Using ringette in general - You can use the ringette in any game to prioritize body positioning, skating, etc.
Goal Line Defense / Guard The Gate -
Explanation: This game is similar to 1v1 Gates but it has set Offense and Defense. The offense can score two points - one for crossing the line and the other for shooting into the net on the other side of the barrier. The defense gets one score for a steal and another if they can make a tape to tape pass to the coach. This version emphasizes using more space and therefore more speed. It is also closer in function to a real game scenario and can help D understand the need for quick ups.
Focus: Protection, Puck handling, Fakes, Angling
Chaos Drill / variants -
Explanation: Everyone gets a puck and must stay within the area designated, usually a faceoff circle. They must be instructed to make creative moves, focus on puck protection, constant stickhandling, and keeping eyes up. The coach goes around harassing puck possession at random, especially anyone that looks lazy. At intervals, call out the name of a player. That player must then find a shooting lane through traffic to take a shot while the Coach tries to make it difficult. After the shot, they retrieve their puck and rejoin.
Focus: Stickhandling, Puck Protection, Eyes Up, Fighting through traffic
Shrinking area variant - You can also do this in a larger area, such as the whole zone. When people lose pucks, they become stealers as well. Last person with a puck wins. Then repeat in the circle, then below the goal line.
Pitt Passing - The Pittsburgh Penguins do a version of the chaos drill in which they have assigned 1v1 keepaway partners with either puck or ringette that must stay in the circle. Meanwhile, partners outside the zone attempt to pass through the chaos of the circle. This allows more space for the keepaway while keeping everyone else busy working on a skill. Another version has the players in the middle on either side of a dividing line drawn on the ice. One of the pairs is the leader and the puck carrier of the follower group must mirror the moves of the puck carrier of the leader group, thus requiring them to keep their eyes up while also maintaining puck control.
King of the Hill - In this variant of the chaos drill, everyone has a puck AND is also trying to knock other people’s pucks away. This requires faster hands and is therefore more effective with more advanced players.
Sharks and Minnows -
Explanation: Every player gets a puck and lines up on the goal line. Net is also on the goal line, with or without goalie. Coach and potentially another player or two, depending on size of crowd, is in between blue and goal lines. When the coach says go, players must skate from the goal line to the blue line, protecting their puck. Coach and any other "sharks" try to steal, but underneath the goal line and above the blue are safe zones and they cannot enter - although you may want to have a timer for entry into any zone the minnows are leaving to motivate them not to wait. The "minnow" can still get their puck back, but once the coach shoots it into the net, the minnow becomes a shark. Eventually you have a ton of sharks and very few minnows. Remind everyone to keep heads up, etc. The better players will naturally end up staying minnows longer and facing the bigger challenge as more and more sharks are in their way. Note: This might just seem like a regular coach keepaway, but importantly the offense always flows in the same direction at the same time. This makes injuries from blindside collisions much less likely. It also better simulates a game situation because player goals have directionality (one is trying to move in one direction while the other is moving in the opposite).
Focus: Puckhandling, Puck Protection, 1v1 rush, Awareness, Skating with puck
Two Puck Race
Explanation: Set up a simple race course. Allow a good deal of space. Each participant must stickhandle TWO pucks at the same time. This means executing two to three quick touches on one puck, then the other, and so on. They are not allowed to have both touching the stick at the same time OR to shoot the puck ahead - I usually set the boundary for this by saying that every time the puck moves forward it can't go beyond where your stick leaves it by more than 2 feet. You could also say by a stick length. In most cases, the players will get a better sense of what's ok and not through demonstration. Make sure to emphasize keeping the pucks out in front by enough so that they stay in your lower visual field and you can keep your eyes up. You can encourage this by creating a visual check - the coach can hold up fingers and ask players to identify how many there are at intervals. While learning the drill, allow slow speed, but move to a speed requirement as soon as you can. For another puck race variant that overloads technique and encourage handling out in front of the body, have the players handle one puck on the other side of a bumper. Race around the bumper.
Focus: Puckhandling (overload condition)
Crazy Ivans -
Explanation: Set up bumpers several feet away from boards - further will make it easier on offense, closer will make it easier on defense. Player with puck skates in one direction with partner trailing. On Coach's whistle, puck carrier must execute a U-turn and skate past partner while maintaining control of puck. You can set it up so that everyone is always skating in the same direction and the partners just make a big circle path around the zone. You can make it so they have limited space inside the bumpers but an easier time outside of them. But you don't need the whole zone - you can also have them just skate around the one set of bumpers with less room in between bumpers and boards and more on the outside of the bumpers. You can also set up gates or goals at one or the other end of each bumper delimited area and have the success condition change from just getting past the D to skating it through the gate or shooting into the goal. Emphasize need for puck carrier to do shoulder checks, protect puck on the turn. D needs to maintain wide body presence and keep ability to play either side on the turn.
Focus: Puck Handling, Puck Protection, Shoulder Checks, Awareness
Puck Vs Puck -
Explanation: Have players pair off with partners. Each one gets a puck. Have one stand with his back to the wall. The other stands some distance away (closer is easier, further is harder). The first stickhandles with eyes up. The second tries to shoot the stickhandler's puck off of his stick. Have them switch every five tries or so.
Focus: Puckhandling, Dual Focus: Passing/Shooting
Keep-aways -
Explanation: Obviously, keep away should be a major component of any hockey practice, but it can take a variety of forms. Here are a few that I have found to be useful:
2 v 1 keepaway in the circle - players can move anywhere in the circle, but must continue to pass with their keepaway partner. When the monkey intercepts or steals, whoever touched it last becomes the new monkey and the old monkey is now a keepaway partner. You can play this indefinitely, but allowing for scores to make it competitive will be FAR more effective. For example, I typically place a goal nearby and say that when the partners make 4 consecutive passes, they become Offense and the monkey becomes Defense. After that point, the Offense can score a goal or the Defense can pass to the coach for a point. Individuals keep track of their own points.
4 v 2 keepaway in the half zone - This operates the same as the 2v1 above but now we have more people and more space. When teaching younger players about spacing, you can draw lines or use cones to indicate dividers within the space and require each of the 4 keepaway teammates to stay within a designated area. By having 2 areas with 2 allowed partners, you can emphasize supporting the puck carrier. By having 4 areas with 1 partner per area, you emphasize protection. The 2 monkeys can go anywhere, so that you are always in a mini 1v2, or you can limit them each to a sub-area, so that it is never more than 1v1. Again monkeys/defense should be making constructive plays that transfer to a game, so have them pass to the coach on a steal.
Corner Keepaway - Use all the same principles above, but play within a cone-delimited area in the corner. This will make protection much more necessary and encourage passing from more difficult body orientations.
On the Spot Keepaway - The puck carrier must stay in a small circle - big enough to move a stride or so away. The stealer can go anywhere. Use a ringette, puck, and/or turned over stick for the D.
Net Tag Keepaway - This is essentially the same as above, but now we use the nets as obstacles behind which the puck carrier can hide.
Focus: Puck Protection, Puck Handling, Passing (Dual Focus: Support, Spacing, Movement away from the puck)
Explanation: From IHS: “Create a small space using borders and the wall as shown in the diagram. Place two mini nets back to back in the center of the playing area. The coach has the pucks between the two lines of players. The coach dumps a puck into the playing area and one player from each line competes for the puck. [Note: Can pass into open area or directly to player]. Players are allowed to score on either net. If a player scores the coach plays a puck into the playing area right away. Allow players to play for 30 - 40 seconds.”
Focus: Puck Protection, Puck Handling, Hustle, Awareness, Skating
Defend the Cone / On The Spot -
Explanation: Put a cone or tire on the ice. Between two partners, one will defend the cone and the other will try to touch it. Make sure players stay within a certain range of the cone, possibly by drawing a circular boundary on the ice. Encourage them to use all 360 degrees, stop and start fakes, etc. Also explain that fully extending the arms is not allowed for safety reasons (they need to use T-rex arms by keeping elbows glued to their torso so any pushing force is kept low). You can also have them use either a ringette or puck. Instead of just touching, they have to hold the object to the cone or tire for a count of one Mississippi. Alternatively you can use the dots and require them to possess the puck within the circle, but keep in mind that the other versions can be used with any number of players assuming you have enough space and cones, while there are a limited number of dots. Emphasize boxing out with the body, using fakes, keeping net side (or in this case cone side) angle and position, and active stick.
Focus: Skating, angling, Puck Protection, Stickhandling,
Explanation: Have all but one player line up along the circle. The player in the middle has a puck and must escape the circle. Make the circle of players smaller for more challenge. To require more of the defense, reduce the number of players but allow them to move along the circumference of the circle. You can use a ringette to emphasize body positioning, skating, etc, or a puck for puck handling.
Focus: Puck handling, Puck protection, skating, fakes
Battle in the Box (inside or outside) -
Explanation:
Battle Outside the Box - Set up a box of 2x1 bumpers. Put mini nets at either end of the rectangle. Players must stand outside and use their sticks to try to get the puck into the opponents net. Have two players from one team and one from the other on each side. The extra barrier formed by the bumper will require them to introduce more space between their stick and their body and require pure stickhandling in order to maintain possession and pass or shoot. The players have a lot of fun with this one.
Battle Inside the Box - Set up a box of 2v2 bumpers. Have 2 teams of two. Throw in a puck and they battle to score. Immediately throw in a puck after any score. You can require a pass before scoring if desired. You can also require two or three if you want to prioritize puck possession over scoring.
Focus: Puck handling, Puck protection
Chase the Rabbit / Truck and Trailer
Explanation: Chase the Rabbit is from IHS. The lead partner skates with an emphasis on evasive maneuvers. The partner following the leader has the puck and must match all moves, therefore keeping head up to see what they are and maintaining puck control while doing so.
In USA Hockey’s version, which they call Truck and Trailer, both players have pucks, and the trailer gets bonus points by touching their own puck to their partner’s skate.
Focus: Puck Control, Puck handling
Area Invasion Ringette or Puck
Explanation: Create two teams. Each team has a home faceoff circle. They want to possess the puck for as long as possible in that circle. The other team wants to take it and then get to and stay in their own home circle. Coach keeps count. Team that reaches 30 seconds first wins (consecutive or cumulative).
Focus: Puck control, puck handling, puck protection, passing
Puck Tag Attack the Triangle
Explanation:
From IHS: “The game is best set up in a zone or station. Each player will start with a puck. Designate 2 or 3 players or coaches to be the "taggers". On the whistle players will skate around the zone while maintaining control of their puck and trying to not get touched by a "tagger". If a player gets tagged they must hold their stick in their top hand with the puck touching the blade of their stick and the bottom hand high up in the air and their feet spread to shoulder width apart. They cannot join the game again until another player attacks their triangle by stickhandling through their legs or under their stick (triangle created by stickblade and feet). The goal for the "taggers" is to try and get all the players "frozen" at the same time.”
Focus: Heads up, puck control
Tic Tac Toe / Crossfire -
Explanation: Draw a square on the ice. Cones will do, but it is better if the players can see a boundary. Each team has one player inside the square and two players outside on opposite sides from each other. A teak scores a point by passing from one side to the inside, and then from the inside to the other side (like a tic tac toe). A team can also get a point if they intercept/steal and make a successful pass to their own outside player. You can permit or forbid sticks crossing the boundaries, but I recommend forbidding when using a smaller area. You can also insert two players from each team inside if the area is big enough and then either still require one pass in or an additional pass between the two inside players.
Focus: Puck Protection, Boxing out, Getting Open, Passing (The two players inside version will emphasize more protection)
Faceoff 1v1 with Support
Explanation: Game begins with a faceoff between two players in the circle. You can limit it to those two, but it helps on a number of fronts to add players along the circle - This essentially makes it a Rondo with a faceoff to start and a goal to win. The extra players can be neutral passers that have to pass back to whichever of the primary two players passes to them. You can alternatively assign two passer supports to each of the primary players. I like to have one closer to the defensive side and another closer to the offensive side. You can set a minimum number of passes prior to shooting. If you require one to each of the supports, then the middle player will have to spend some more time protecting. Even if the extra players aren't passers, you can use them to act like pinball flippers, whacking the puck back in bounds.
Focus: Puck Protection, Passing
Merry Go Round Protection
Explanation: This drill is a little hard to get right, but it's cool when it works. Puck carriers must skate the circle with at least one foot inside the circle or on the circle at all times. Meanwhile, they must protect the player from a defender who can reach outside the circle but whose feet must stay inside. Steals or pokes count as a point. Complete circles count as a point. You can potentially have two pairs going at once.
Focus: Protecting the puck using body while on a curved path (such as a net drive on the seam)