Shift Length - Youth Hockey

[puckie]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on shift length in youth hockey.

I coach 10U (full ice) and a big believer in around 1 minute shifts but fast paced. Another coach around 2 plus minute length shifts. We usually play just 2 lines.

Thoughts?

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[Tighthead]

Veteran hockey parent. Probably right down the middle.

Short shifts always sound great but at that age on full ice everything happens slowly, including line changes. At that age at one minute shifts I think they spend too much time actually changing lines.

 

[Schooner Guy]

If the kids are good skaters throughout the lineup, I like 35-55 seconds. If there is a wide range of skills with some weak skaters (e.g. house league), it takes some more time to get out the door and involved in the play and then back to the bench again so maybe strive for 0:45 to 1:15.

Two minute shifts are too long in my opinion. It either means kids are on the ice gassed at the end of a shift or they aren't skating hard enough if they can stay out that long.

 

[Saundies]

Veteran hockey parent. Probably right down the middle.

Short shifts always sound great but at that age on full ice everything happens slowly, including line changes. At that age at one minute shifts I think they spend too much time actually changing lines.

Agree with Tighthead about being right down the middle. As they get older, the quicker they'll go and the shorter the shifts will be. With two lines too, that gives everyone a decent breather before having to go again, as opposed to having 3 or 4 where some of the kids might be sitting for a while.

 

[Ozmodiar]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on shift length in youth hockey.

I coach 10U (full ice) and a big believer in around 1 minute shifts but fast paced. Another coach around 2 plus minute length shifts. We usually play just 2 lines.

Thoughts?

Rep: 1:00
House: 1:30
(give or take 15 seconds)

A couple of tips, from experience:

- take advantage of stoppages to change the lines, even if it cuts the shift a little short. I've seen coaches leave kids on the ice for a face-off at :40 in an attempt to match the ice time of the previous shift.

- on the flip side (from above), if the kids get stuck out there for 2 minutes +, don't leave the next line out there for the same to balance it out. Just give the kids a quick reminder to keeping shifts short.

- coach for tempo, focus and effort ... it will eventually become apparent as to when performance starts to suffer.

 

[Tighthead]

Agree with Tighthead about being right down the middle. As they get older, the quicker they'll go and the shorter the shifts will be. With two lines too, that gives everyone a decent breather before having to go again, as opposed to having 3 or 4 where some of the kids might be sitting for a while.

I forgot to mention that longer shifts let them set up in the O zone hopefully. Winning isn’t the top priority, development and fun (which includes winning). When my eldest was young she had a bench coach who basically wanted them crossing centre, dump and change fresh legs. He thought he was Mike Keenan.

I agree on the longer breather being helpful. Anyone who has played as an out of shape adult understands that.

 

[Tighthead]

Rep: 1:00
House: 1:30
(give or take 15 seconds)

A couple of tips, from experience:

- take advantage of stoppages to change the lines, even if it cuts the shift a little short. I've seen coaches leave kids on the ice for a face-off at :40 in an attempt to match the ice time of the previous shift.

- on the flip side (from above), if the kids get stuck out there for 2 minutes +, don't leave the next line out there for the same to balance it out. Just give the kids a quick reminder to keeping shifts short.

- coach for tempo, focus and effort ... it will eventually become apparent as to when performance starts to suffer.

Pretty much agree with all of this. Make it clear to parents at the start of the year that it’s a long season and ice time will balance out. If you pull kids on a face off after 40 seconds let them know it’s just that you wanted to get the change in.

With the younger age, changing D in the second period on the fly can be a nightmare. Try not to let the bench staff get so animated that the players on the ice lose focus in the moment.

Also give positive reinforcement when players do a good job of changing on the fly.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I'd go with the longer shifts. It's a big ice surface for that age - for our u-9 kids they're only playing half ice. It takes them a long time to skate over to the bench, and they don't change quickly. Every line change takes a long time for kids that age. They're fairly durable at that age anyways.

For our U7s (cross-ice) we give them 3 minute shifts, and we still lose a ton of time in the change. Obviously U10 is older, but not that much older. I'd aim for 1:30 to 2:00 - but not more than that.

If you have really talented kids who can do a really quick shift then maybe as low as a minute, but that's not most kids at that age.

 

[krown]

Don't forget to build in the inevitable 15-20 seconds of you screaming their name to come off lol

 

[Tighthead]

Don't forget to build in the inevitable 15-20 seconds of you screaming their name to come off lol

Rattling the door handle is the key. Lest distracting and doesn’t make you look like a madman on the bench.

 

[Perennial]

As a youth playing House League, there were times I'd play the entire period...

I just wouldn't look at, or skate near the bench...

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

As a youth playing House League, there were times I'd play the entire period...

I just wouldn't look at, or skate near the bench...

Ha, there are always a couple like that... even on my kid's U13 AA team last year. Selectively oblivious to the whole concept of shift lengths. You can't even Kovalev them because they'll just see it as a reward. At what point do you eventually sit them out a shift though to try to get the message across... that's the hard part.

Or you get some kids who take things too literally. The girls are actually really good at this. If you tell them to keep shifts to 1 minute, or come off as soon as they are a little bit tired, then you start to see those ones peel to the bench in the middle of a play and realize how important it is to just stay calm and relaxed and have fun with it all. It can take some time.

 

[Perennial]

Ha, there are always a couple like that... even on my kid's U13 AA team last year. Selectively oblivious to the whole concept of shift lengths. You can't even Kovalev them because they'll just see it as a reward. At what point do you eventually sit them out a shift though to try to get the message across... that's the hard part.

Or you get some kids who take things too literally. The girls are actually really good at this. If you tell them to keep shifts to 1 minute, or come off as soon as they are a little bit tired, then you start to see those ones peel to the bench in the middle of a play and realize how important it is to just stay calm and relaxed and have fun with it all. It can take some time.

It was a league with 12 and 13-year-olds... I was 13, and was our team's leading scorer by quite a bit... probably figuring in on 80% or more of our team's goals... so, if I didn't produce, we didn't win

Also, we only had 6 or 7 forwards at most, so the other kids were still getting plenty of ice time

I wasn't the only one though... my 13 year old neighbour was the best Dman in the league, and he'd be out there with me the whole time as well

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Ugh shift lengths drove me crazy as a kid, because I was big on changing when I got gassed- but then the next kid takes a 2 minute shift, then another guy goes 2:30, then a 3 minute shift.. meanwhile they aren’t playing their hardest and get hemmed in their own zone as a result, which kinda makes it a cycle.

The worst was my HS team, where the best players were the worst examples. Bad coach, bad captain- he’d say “skate hard and pass” and then have a four minute shift trying to dangle everyone and lazily back checking. We all saw it, just led to a lotta dysfunction instead of four lines hopping the boards at the right times.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I'd go with the longer shifts. It's a big ice surface for that age - for our u-9 kids they're only playing half ice. It takes them a long time to skate over to the bench, and they don't change quickly. Every line change takes a long time for kids that age. They're fairly durable at that age anyways.

For our U7s (cross-ice) we give them 3 minute shifts, and we still lose a ton of time in the change. Obviously U10 is older, but not that much older. I'd aim for 1:30 to 2:00 - but not more than that.

If you have really talented kids who can do a really quick shift then maybe as low as a minute, but that's not most kids at that age.

I posted this before regular play had started this season, so I'll just amend slightly.

My kid in U9 plays half ice, and the buzzer goes every 90 seconds. Ideally everyone gets off, but we're typically running a pretty short bench, so sometimes kids get double (3 minutes) or triple (4 1/2 minutes) shifted. Triple-shifting really does wear them down, but the smaller ice makes it more manageable.

My U11 kid plays full ice. Ideally yes we want to change after a minute. But the kids are just learning how to do shift changes on the fly. I'm not sure which is worse - the kids who just ignore you and stay out there way too long, or the kid who is super-diligent about changing even at the worst possible times. From working the bench I've seen both. So shift lengths are probably 60-90 seconds, and rarely get up to the 2 minute mark (unlike what I said in September).

For my U13 kid (only one I don't coach) yup they try to stick to a minute or less. By this age the kids are really hustling out there and can really be spent after a too-long shift. But yes there's always one kid who tries to take overly long shifts if they can get away with it.

 

[Goingintothe3rd]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on shift length in youth hockey.

I coach 10U (full ice) and a big believer in around 1 minute shifts but fast paced. Another coach around 2 plus minute length shifts. We usually play just 2 lines.

Thoughts?

It’s an anaerobic sport. Short and high intensity. Good habits

 

[tarheelhockey]

Depends a lot on how old the kids are. With smaller kids on a full rink, a 30-40 second shift is barely enough time to even get them involved in the play. A large part of that time is spent chugging back and forth from the bench. I'm inclined to hold off on those short shifts until they're a little more athletically mature.

Also, I have some reservations about playing NHL-style hockey at too young of an age. Longer shifts might slow the pace, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for players who are learning to "think the game". There's something to be said for a slower pace of play which reduces the emphasis on auto-pilot decision making, and allows the players a little more time and space to really get their eyes up and understand what's happening.

IMO, the best solution is simply to have an agreed-upon system for line changes. Automatically change lines at every faceoff, or blow a horn every 90-120 seconds. Youth coaches shouldn't be focused on game strategy until around age 12-14, in my opinion. Spend that time giving the players feedback and motivation, rather than worrying about shift length.