is my team ready for this drill?

[gamera]

hey everyone...this is a really helpful forum and i appreciate all the good info passed around here. i need your opinion on something....

i'm on a "beer league" team with my friends (i hope they're still my friends LOL) and the skill level among the players varies from awful (me, i'm new and learning to play and skate haha...i'm not the worst though!!) to "OK" or even "pretty good" (some of the guys have played roller, etc).

well here's my dilemma. i went to thrashers prospect camp the other day and they were doing a drill with 5 guys on the ice: 3 forwards and 2 D men. they'd skate down one direction, working together, the three forwards passing to each other and then shooting on the goal. then they'd turn around the other direction and practice a 3 on 2.

so anyway, i thought this looked like a fun thing for our team to try, so i suggested it and was completely shot down. "we don't skate well enough to do that at full speed" "our D men can't skate backwards well enough yet" etc

our practices are usually a few skating drills followed by a scrimmage. i thought this drill would be useful for us to be able to practice with our line mates (i suggested even just changing the drill to forwards only, practicing skating and passing to our linemates)

i have been met with nothing but a brick wall. it's like green eggs and ham.

am i insane? are we so bad we can't practice passing? i'm confused.

if you want to read the thread to get a better idea of the arguments on both sides, here's the link http://www.nastynest.net/mbbs2/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=5543&start=1

i really appreciate any input you can give me. and if i'm dead wrong, cool. i just would like to hear some opinions of people who have perhaps a little more experience, etc. i can take being wrong (this won't be the first time or the last time LOL)

thanks again!!!

Click to read more...

 

[Backstrom #19]

I say that you guys should give it a try, it seems like a good drill to do.

 

[CuriousGeorge]

What is the worse that can happen? Give it a shot.

Here is my argument to do the drill: The other team isn't going to back off because the D can't skate very well, so the team can use the practice to get better at skating and gain experience defending a 3-2 or 2-1 situation.

 

[Redden Hogalot*]

If you guys communicate you'll be fine.

 

[Bruins74]

How about this modification of the drill....

>7 players line up at centre ice(like opening face-off, only 1 team has their forwards).

>dump the puck down into a corner.

>the 7 players skate back to defensive zone and 1 defenseman picks up the puck.

>all players then turn up ice---you've got the start of a break-out (5-on-2)

>d-man passes up to breaking forward.

>forward then either passes the puck to breaking centreman or dumps puck once over centre ice.

>you've got your 3-on-2, just with a breakout added to it!

I have used this drill with my teams over the years, and it is great for puck retrieval, passing(giving and recieving), skating, shooting, forechecking.

 

[Crosbyfan]

Practicing 3 on 2 is pretty basic. I can't remember not doing it. I'm sure the drill is over 100 years old (when did they drop the "rover/7th man?)

 

[RangersMoogle]

Uhh, if your defenseman can't skate backward 'well enough yet', why wouldn't they want a drill in which they have to skate backward?

The mind, it boggles.

 

[Hank19]

Uhh, if your defenseman can't skate backward 'well enough yet', why wouldn't they want a drill in which they have to skate backward?

The mind, it boggles.

It sounds like most of the guys figure "this is a beer league. I'm more intersted in playing some hockey and drinking beer".

Are there any teammates that want to do drills? Maybe just run some with them and let the others stand around.

 

[Suzuki x 14]

ur playing on the wrong team if ur teammates dont wanna practice that.

 

[Crosbyfan]

They may just want to warm up and scrimmage. If that's the case then that is not unusual.

 

[MikeD]

Scimmage doesnt improve skill well at all. The average player will have a puck on the stick for a total measured easily in seconds. Practice drills will increase that time by a factor of at least ten(stats from the Canadian Sports Institute)

Sorry to hear that your team has no desire to improve in a realistic time frame...

 

[gamera]

Scimmage doesnt improve skill well at all. The average player will have a puck on the stick for a total measured easily in seconds. Practice drills will increase that time by a factor of at least ten(stats from the Canadian Sports Institute)

Sorry to hear that your team has no desire to improve in a realistic time frame...

that is exactly what i was thinking.

thanks for the input guys (and gals?)!! I really appreciate it. the compromise is that practice tonight will be skating drills and then next practice we will work on puck movement, etc.

 

[vexXed]

My team did this drill quite often back when I was at university, cept we did it with the breakout like someone already said. Also, when we got to the offensive zone one of the forwards would pass back to a defenseman and he would shoot it as the forwards crashed the net for tips or rebounds. It's a pretty standard drill and you guys should be doing it. If people have reservations about it then just slow it down for everyone, focus on the passing and skating technique instead of tripping over your feet trying to skate as fast as possible. Once you get that down then speed it up. The better backwards skaters on your team should be playing defense, and I think your team should be going to the rink to practice their skating often to help improve quicker.

It all depends on how serious they wanna take it. If they just wanna drink beer all the time and don't bother going off themselves to improve their skating then that sucks for the team as a whole. This may sound like I take it too seriously but once you guys get to a better level collectively then you will have SO much more fun together.

 

[frito]

if you want to read the thread to get a better idea of the arguments on both sides, here's the link http://www.nastynest.net/mbbs2/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=5543&start=1

I took a look at the thread. Hockey is a total sport, if you can't skate you won't succeed. If you can't stickhandle, or at least pass it once it's on your stick, you won't succeed. I personally have no eye hand coordination - they just don't talk together. I relish the rare opportunity I get to actually try stickhandling and passing. In fact, I have seen some guys who can't skate worth a lick that can do things with the puck because of the good eye hand coordination.

The drill you mentioned retty much combines all facets of hockey into a single drill - skating (forward and backward), stickhandling, passing, receiving a pass and shooting. Those are the basic skills. everything after that is concepts (i.e. positioning etc.). I'd say go for it regardless of skating ability. Your forwards will benefit by skating and passing and your defense will benefit in forward skating, transitioning and finally backward skating.

I saw a comment of "We can't do that at full speed". You don't have to start every drill at 100%. Start off at 75% or 50% even to focus on proper form. Then gradually increase to full speed.

Good luck.

 

[gamera]

hey we had practice last night (with a coach) and he had us practicing puck handling/passing/breakout drills...not the exact drill I had suggested to our team on that thread (and I certainly didn't bring it up at practice), but similar enough.

Needless to say, I lmfao. it was awesome!

hahahahaha

also went to a turcotte stickhandling clinic this morning (which our captain said would be a waste of time and so none of the rest of the team made an effort to try it ) and I loved it! No, I couldn't do everything just right every time, or as fast as everyone else, but hey, ya gotta start somewhere!!!

thanks again for all of your encouraging comments

 

[arcticwinter]

theres a few things i'd like to reply but i'll leave it at,those players that practice an give 100% get better very fast.