Ice Hockey Instruction

• At the 1 second mark, the attacking forward dumps the puck into the zone.
• At the 3 second mark, the defensemen reacts to this dump in and pivots or turns towards the puck.
• At the 5 second mark, the defensemen is getting into the corner to pick up the puck.
• At the 6 second mark, the defensemen has the puck and is move from the strong side, towards the weak side behind the net.
• At the 7 second mark, the defensemen has the puck behind the net and is looking for puck support on the far side.  At this point, he makes the pass to his winger set up along the boards for the break out.
• At the 8 second mark, the pass goes in the wingers feet and not on the stick and the winger has to gig the puck out and he gets slammed up against the boards by the attacking winger.  Puck stays in the zone!
• At the 9 second mark, the other team is able to control the puck and it's in your net!

You see, most coaches come right from work to the rink. A lot of times they just don't have the time to draw up a practice plan for their practice the night before. 

This is why Pass the Puck started 10 years ago. To help coaches with their teams. Today, you can jump on the site and download any drill that you see on the site free of charge. 

All you have to do is just sign up. Yes, if you are looking at this page, you are already a member. But that we would like for you to do is send this page to a friend. Copy and paste anything you would like to send to friends. 

Don't stand on the ice wondering what drill to do next. We have this already set for you. Just go to the link that provides you with our 25 week coaching planner for both full ice and half ice practice plans. 

This way when you are at work, all you have to do is just print it out and take it with you.

I told him some day he would get the chance to hold up the cup, if he decided to make a choice between the Cup and the Wii. I told him that he would have to make a commitment to his craft and this meant early mornings, long weekends and an investment in time and money. 

Not everyone who does these things make it to the NHL. Only the ones that stand out from all the rest will make it. You can have great stick handling, powerskating, and passing skills. However, the great skaters are the ones that make it. And I am here to tell you that there are a lot of great skaters that never get the chance or get looked at. 

So in order for you to actually make it...you will have to stand out and stand out from all of the rest. USA Hockey has over 250,000 registered teams. This means that there are about 12 players per team maybe more. If you take the 250,000 times the 12 players, you will have 3,000,000 players all trying to make it to the NHL. 

But we didn't even include Canada, Russia, Finland...etc. in this computation. So what are the odds that you will make it? Trust me when I tell you this. You will have to work extra hard in order for you to make it in the NHL. If it possible? Yes, it just how committed you are to the undertaking. How bad to you really want it? 

You can want it really bad, but are you truly committed! Are you willing to give up the things that you want in order to get the final result? Yeah, only time will tell.

The hockey coach has all of the kids lined up on the goal line and little Johnny is goofing off. Then when it comes time for the hockey drills, little Johnny can't do them because he wasn't paying attention to what was going on before him. Or, I see and hear this all the time... 

Coach, can we scrimmage? My general response is..."How can you scrimmage if you can't skate!" 

You see, 80% of ice hockey is skating, and 80% of skating is...Balance. This means, that if you want to make it to the pro's, you have to be a better skater then the rest. In fact, you will have to stand out from all the rest. This is how you make it to the pro's. 

But the major problem that you will face is the amount to commitment you will have to do to make it to the pro ranks. Which might mean, you will have to do things other kids won't do! Instead of going to the movies with your friends, you might have to shoot 1500 puck in the backyard. This might mean, that you will have to go to bed early to get ready for practice tomorrow and not stay up later to watch that favorite show you've been dying to see. 

When the hockey coach has you doing dry land hockey conditioning, do you do each drill like it should be done, or do you just go through the motion? Do you do what little Johnny is doing, just getting by not paying attention. Or, do you actually give it all you have, each and every time? 

Which means, if you practice great, you play great. If you practice like you don't care because you are tired, because you stayed up too late the night before, then you are on your way to a great career in the men's beer league in your local town. 

Then you will be sitting on the bench "kibitzing" to each other about how life was when you were young and that you could have been a star, but it didn't happen for you because of one reason or another, all a while making excuses about this and that. 

How do players become professional hockey players? They stop making excuses and did things that other don't want to do...plan and simple! 

Lets get back to the "Standing out" portion of this rant. To stand out from all of the rest of the players that are trying to make it into the NHL is simply one thing. Are you ready? 

This is how you stand out from the rest. Because skating is 80% of hockey, everyone in the free world is trying to work on their stickhandling, their checking, their shooting. Yes these things are important. But skating, is what will make you stand out from the rest. 

Trust me when I tell you this. If you can skate forward, and spin 360 in the air to miss a check, land back on your feet and still have possession of the puck when you land, you are on your way to greatness. 

Yes it can be done...I have seen it and now this player is playing in the NHL. Do you think this players learned this over night? Ah...no! This player did things most players don't want to do. 

I have players right now, that don't want to do 360 spins in the air because they think it's turning them into figure skaters. Some will do it, other will not because they say it's stupid! 

So which one do you think will be the pro? The one that takes the risk and does it, or the one that is afraid to look funny in front of his friends because he has an image to up hold? 

This law states that..."How you give it, doesn't necessarily mean you will get it back the same way you gave it!"

Ouch, what the heck does this mean?  Have you ever been driving down the street and all of a sudden you get a flat tire, then looked up to the sky and shout..."WHY ME!"

Does it seem sometimes that bad luck kind of follows you where ever you go?  You know, walking through a door and then stub your toe on the furniture!

Have you ever walked into the store, bought some items, get home only to find out that you picked out bad ones!

Ok, how about this...

Have you ever gone into the store, and just before you walked into the store, you found a five dollars bill sitting on the ground? Did you keep it or did you return it to the front counter? 

Ok, what about walking down the street and someone handed you something that turns out that later down the road it worth something? 

You see, "What you give, is what you get, what you get is 10 folds over, but not in the way you gave it." 

So how do we make this law work for our game? If you go to hockey practice and you're in line getting ready to do the power skating drills, the hockey coaching drills are some times the same old thing.

Then the next thing you know, you are just going through the motions not realizing you are stuck in the same old rut, practice after practice. The next thing you know...you want to quit. So now what? How do you get to the point where you can understand that 10,000 hours is a long way aways andthat you have to get started...now. 

Well, it start with you. It starts with...what you give is what you get. If you give a good pass during your passing drills, you'll get a good pass. Example: When you get a crappy pass from someone, do you send it back the way you got it? Nope, you go into the locker room after practice and chew out the player that made the crappy pass. 

You get it! What you give is what you get, what you get is ten folds over, but not in the way you gave it. 

If I am driving down the street and out of no where someone flips me off, it doesn't really bother me because I know what he's going to get...maybe a flat tire, I don't really know. But I'm not going to loose energy worrying about him. 

My mom always said, kill people with kindness. What are they going to do to you, be nice to you? What's wrong with that! For me, I tell my players to skate as fast as they can, all the time. Be present in the moment all the time. And above all...have fun.

Can you have a relationship with a friend? Yes, that pretty easy to understand. But can you have a relationship with you car? Yeah, you see guys rubbing wax all over it all the time.  So, If this is the case, they you can have a relationship with just about anything, is this correct? 

Oh, what about women? Can a women have a relationship with their shoes? Hell yes you say. I know a young lady that has hundreds of pairs of shoes and each pair is placed in a plastic box with a lid and a picture on the front so she can't tell what's in the box...get it! 

So you see, we can have relationships with inanimated objects. Now here's the brain teaser.  Because of our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, we actually treat each relationship the same. Why? Because we don't have any choice, we are programmed to respond each and every time because of our beliefs...get it. 

Example: How you treat you car is the same way you treat all of the other relationship you have. Ouch, that's pretty tough isn't it. If you have a bad relationship with your car, you better check to see what kind of a relationship you have with: Your Boss, your Mom, Your Dad, your room, your school work and yes...your hockey equipment. 

Ah, no this is not a psychoanalysis on your hockey equipment bag. It is to show you the relationships we have with things that come into our lives. Kind of like the Greener Pasture Theory, why was the guys new back yard, now turning bad? Why, because the things that he learned in the past (attitude, beliefs and behaviors) allows him to treat things that way. 

Have you asked yourself when someone is being rude to you..."Man this guy's a real tool!" 

Why? If someone is being rude too you, you automatically put up sometype of guard or defense. But in reality, that person is just a reflection or a sounding board of our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. One of the ways you over come these relationships is to ask yourself..."Is this true, and am I really like this?" If you are...change! If you're not, then understand that this is a life lesson and move on. 

When is it time to leave a relationship? That's right...when it is working! Yeah, but if it working, why leave? If you leave a relationship when it not working, you take all of those new attitude bagage with you into the next relationship. 

So how does all of this apply to hockey? 

What kind of relationships do you have with your teammates? Your coach, your skates, your equipment? 

Ok, what kind of relationship do you have with yourself? Do you do or make the extra effort during practice? When the coach has you doing starting and stopping drills all the time, what kind of a relationship do you have with your coach or with yourself, then? 

This is when the things start getting tough. These tough moments are know as "Walls". Even though they are mental in nature, they are still as real as the physical wall. 

Next blog...Climbing Walls!

Let peer pressure work for you!  When I first started coaching hockey, I had all the players stand in a circle.  Big mistake! 

One time, a player that was behind me was mocking me and doing a little dance.  You should have seen the expression on the faces of the kids in front, they were holding back like deer's caught in head lights.

However, I could see past the kids in front of me and see the guy behind me dancing in the reflection on the glass.  The only problem was...the kid that was dancing, was the captain of the team. 

I pointed over my shoulder while looking ahead and told him that I had eyes in the back of my head. So, I had all the player get down and give me 50 push up's except for the captain. 

The captain stood up and kept cadence by counting off.  When we were done, they all hit the showers in the dressing room.  I never had a problem with them again.

I learned to place the players on the goal line and have them count off 1,2,3 from left to right...right down the line.  When running your drills, have the one's go first, then the two's and the three's go last with the goalies.

Bench Management: If you start the game with your team in the right side bench, the attacking zone will be on the left.  Place your wingers in the bench on the left hand side. 

This will give them a quick start to the attacking zone.  Have an assistant coach or team official work that door.  Have the defenseman exit into the defensive zone and have the extra goalie or assistant coach work that door as well. 

Have both lines enter the bench over the boards at center of bench. This will help keep the team from taxiing for position. Remember, a maximum of four team officials shall be permitted on the bench.

In the second period, you will find yourself with the attacking zone close to your bench. (like the one to the left)  In this case, you want your defenseman as close to the defensive zone as possible. 

Have them enter over the boards and exit to the defensive zone.  Because your wingers are positioned on the bench deep in the attacking zone, have then exit over the boards closer to the blue so they can quickly get on side. 

Taxiing is a coach's worst nightmare!  Why, you ask?  Because, if you have a player on the ice, waiting next to the open door while someone is coming out.  A player on the other team can put you into a short handed situation by passing the puck to the player that is waiting. (taxiing for position) 

This will cause a "too many men on the ice" situation and you will play short handed for the next two minutes.  However, if the "too many men on the ice," occurs with less then two minutes left to play, the other team will and can be awarded a penalty shot on your team. See "Official Rules of Ice Hockey: Rule 205 Changing of Players.

Teach your players to watch the player they need to change with and NOT always the puck. During a substitution of the goalie, he doesn't have a leeway within ten feet of the bench.  The "Official Rule" for players changing on the bench goes like this:

Players may be changed at any time from the players' bench, (here's the good part) Provided that the players or players leaving the ice "shall always be at the players bench" and out of the play before any change is made.