One of the most daunting tasks many coaches face is designing successful hockey practices week after week throughout the course of the season. By picking the right hockey drills, coaches can keep teams fresh, sharp, and primed for playoffs.

Here are 3 simple recommendations:

  1. Plan the team’s growth in advance. Begin by analyzing your team’s current skill-level, then determine where you’d like to be by playoffs. Plan your practices in accordance with your long-term vision, and select hockey drills that will compliment this vision.
  2. Progressions within progressions. Try breaking down new skills into smaller elements. As the players perfect these smaller pieces, you’ll be able to rebuild the skill with proper technique. Good hockey coaches will also use progressions within progressions, meaning each practice will be a series of small steps (such as developing the ability to give and receive a pass while in motion), which permit the team to continue on to a higher step (such as a breakout progression). Your steps should bring all of your objectives together by the end of the season (such as being able to read and react to select one of four or five different breakout options).
  3. Practice makes permanent. Exactness must be insisted upon as players perform these drills. Coaching hockey in this demanding way can be hard. However, allowing sloppy performance in practice will lead to lazy performance in the game. Remember, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect!

Well-designed practices produce well-developed players. Poorly designed practices lead to “staleness” and “burn-out” from both players and coaches. This “staleness” often reaches its peak just as playoffs are starting, which is, needless to say, the wrong time.

These coaching strategies can be utilized whether you’re coaching a team or just running a simple training camp. Try implementing these three tips when selecting your hockey drills and watch your players grow, improve, win more games, and have more fun!