DOTW: Ottawa Centre Circle

DRILL OF THE WEEK DOTW: Ottawa Centre Circle “We love this drill as a warm up activity. Its great for defenders to get comfortable moving in all 4 directions with the puck, and making accurate breakout passes, as well as making sure forwards understanding timing, route and stick position when breaking up ice” This is a great drill to run at the start of practice to get everyone’s feet moving, and once its started it will run itself for as long as you need it to with plenty of people active, but plenty of coaching points to refer back to that could have a big impact on practice elements later in the session. How to run Ottawa Centre Circle Put all the pucks in the centre circle, and have forwards line up on all 4 blue line corners, with D lined up centre blue line – all facing centre ice.  The D will collect a total of 3 pucks from the centre, and back them out to the blue line before hitting their forward with a pass – giving them time to come low and swing away up ice. Diagonally opposite forwards go at the same time and receive the pass from the D on the far blue line, then skating to the net for a shot, and staying for a screen/tip on the next forward. After both sides have received the puck, the D collects a third and makes an ‘escape’, carrying the puck to the far offensive zone and shooting through a 2 forward screen.  There are multiple progressions you can adapt the drill, and these are just a limited selection, one of our favourite things about this drill is that its only limited by your imagination.  Have the D collect pucks on forehand/backhand only D can make a variety of moves before making the pass; fakes, turnaways, pivots etc Forward routes can be changed or adapted, for example instead of a hook back up the wall to be hit in stride, you could ask them to pivot around the NZ face-off dot always facing the puck.  MORE INSIGHTS DOTW: Ottawa Centre Circle Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Drills,Featured Read More DOTW: Carolina Half Wall Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Drills,Featured Read More What exactly is Performance Analysis? Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Featured,Players Read More Welcome to MyScout Hockey Bymyscouthockey Featured,News Read More

DOTW: Carolina Half Wall

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.  How to run Carolina Half Wall 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. MORE INSIGHTS DOTW: Ottawa Centre Circle Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Drills,Featured Read More DOTW: Carolina Half Wall Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Drills,Featured Read More What exactly is Performance Analysis? Bymyscouthockey Coaches,Featured,Players Read More Welcome to MyScout Hockey Bymyscouthockey Featured,News Read More