Hockey Skating Drills

Hockey skating drills are used to teach the players to skate better and with more agility.  Players need to practice balance on skates because they are only skating on a very thin blade.  Gliding will help build balance and should be practiced on one and two feet.  Leg lifts are also helpful because players need to try to balance with one foot while lifting the other into the air in front of them.   Once they have balance down, they need to work on speed and power.  They can build this skill by practicing their strides at different speeds and in different ways.  While doing this they can practice crossing over with their feet and start and stops because in the game all of these skills will be tested.

Hockey Passing Drills

It is never good to have one player control the whole game, because a team will never win that way.  You must practice sharing the puck and passing it around to the whole team in order to get it down the ice and then to put it in the goal.  Everyone wants to look like the hero that shoots the goal, but due to hockey being a team sport, the whole team must get involved.  Passing is very important so that you can get by defenders and also set up certain plays down on the attack to shoot the puck into the goal.  Passing can confuse the opposing team, but your own team needs to know where the puck is at all times.  The best thing to do is practice certain passing plays that you as a coach should set up for your team, and hopefully they will work to get by the defense and score a goal.

Hockey Shooting Drills

During a game of hockey, players will be given many opportunities to shoot the puck into the goal, however, it will never go in the goal if they never practice different kinds of shots and when to use them.  As a coach, you need to teach your players different plays and how to run them.  Players need to learn a give-and-go, which means that one player passes the puck to someone, and the puck is passed right back to him and he then tries to shoot the puck in the goal.  Many times the goalie stops the puck and it reflects back into play, so you should also work on hockey shooting drills such as a rebound drill ,where the other plays are right there to shoot again once the first shot is blocked.  Another good hockey shooting drill to try is a goal line stand where you shoot the puck right in line with the goal.  You should work on normal shots and also going around the goal and then shooting.  Both will be helpful come game time.

Hockey Goalie Drills

The best way for a goalie to develop their skills is by just having players practice shooting plays on them.  Skill comes from experience, so if players just keep shooting on the goalie, he will eventually learn the skills by constant practice.  It is very important for a goalie to know where the puck is at all times, so he can practice that by being in the goal while the team practices passing drills on him.  He will learn to follow the puck as it is being passed around the ice.  Finally, goalies need to dive and stretch for pucks, so you need to make sure that they are very agile and are constantly practicing stretching.  They should try and stretch their whole body because that will give them a great advantage in stopping pucks.

Hockey Team Drills

Once you have practiced all of the other individual fundamental hockey drills, you need to put them all together because they will all be used during actual game play.  Once you have developed certain plays, you can practice them with the whole team just like it would be played in the game.  You should have forwards and defenders and a goalie so that it is like a real game.  It is also good to scrimmage against your own team because they can develop all of the skills that they need to play the game of hockey.

With these hockey practice drills, your team should be able to play better together and learn the fundamentals better.  Experience will come as long as your players just keep practicing.  You as a coach also need to learn what the best way to coach your players is.  Hopefully these hockey drills will help your team play well and win games.