DRILL OF THE WEEK
DOTW: Carolina Half wall
“A great drill to encourage players to use low cycles and dynamic off puck movement to turn D and open lanes to the slot.”
The Carolina Half Wall drill starts with 3 attackers, and 3 defenders (we usually have 1D/2F attacking, and 2D/1F defending). Phase 1 of the drill encourages players to move the puck off the wall to the back of the net, pulling defensive coverage away and creating space for players to push to the net front and receive the puck in a dangerous scoring area. What’s great about the drill is it also demonstrates to the defending team how to priorities protection vs pursuit when the puck is in a non threatening area. Phase 2 opens the zone up and gives the attacking team reward of an overload if they can attack the net quickly – great for transition, if they don’t then they need to settle back into the concepts of phase 1 and look to apply the structured elements of the drill in a more realistic situation.
Start with the puck in the corner with F3
F3 and F1 make a switch along the wall and cycle the puck to F2 who has fallen to the back of the net
- Defending players can now activate and we play 3v3 from here, looking to draw defenders away from the net front and move the puck into the space they have left.
- On the coaches whistle, all three forwards regroup on a spotted puck in the neutral zone
- D1/D2 on the defensive team recover to face the rush 3v2, and X swings out through the centre circle to backcheck the rush from behind – looking to get back into a strong position or pick up the third attacker
- This element is then played 3v3, we encourage our teams to be reactive and look to generate fast offensive chances off the transition. If they are unsuccessful, the concepts from phase 1 of the drill are applied in a game situation as we look to recover chances, and extend our offensive zone time in a controlled manner.
