Advice: What to expect in an 'Evaluation Night'?

[McMaster27]

Hey guys, so a friend and I just recently joined an adult co-ed beginners league for the summer, after just learning how to skate this year. Before the season starts, there's an Evaluation Night and it's described as so:
"There will be a quick warm-up and 2 drills, then we will spend the remaining time playing shinny".
So I'm just wondering what are a few possible drills these could be (reminder that this is for beginner adults, so like the lowest division possible haha). I've never played hockey before so I'm not sure what type of common drills there are! I want to make sure I'm prepared and don't look like a fool
Thanks!

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[mikitas donut]

Hey guys, so a friend and I just recently joined an adult co-ed beginners league for the summer, after just learning how to skate this year. Before the season starts, there's an Evaluation Night and it's described as so:
"There will be a quick warm-up and 2 drills, then we will spend the remaining time playing shinny".
So I'm just wondering what are a few possible drills these could be (reminder that this is for beginner adults, so like the lowest division possible haha). I've never played hockey before so I'm not sure what type of common drills there are! I want to make sure I'm prepared and don't look like a fool
Thanks!

I imagine they'll have you do circles and maybe suicides to see if you can stop.

 

[Kale Makar]

One of them will probably be a top and bottom skating drill (figure 8 around the circles, with or without the puck, sometimes facing the same way the entire time ie transitioning and skating backwards at the top of the circles) and then some sort of simple pass and shoot drill, possibly a horseshoe (groups in each corner, one skates to the blue line, other side gives them a pass and they go shoot and then the person who just passed goes to get the pass and shoot).

Hopefully that made some sort of sense.

 

[MattGTI]

I wouldn't worry about looking like a fool. Everyone that is there is in the same boat as you, and should be right around your skill level. So get that out of your head, and just go and enjoy it.

If I had to guess, the drills would probably be just some form of basic skating skills(someone else feel free to chime in if I am way off). I would guess basic starting and stopping. Along with turns. Nothing major. They probably just want to evaluate where everyone is, and break the teams up evenly. Skating is by far the most important "hockey" aspect of things at this point(and having fun!).

Like I said, these evaluations are more to get a base level of where everyone is at, and to break off into two somewhat even teams.

Good luck, and have a blast.

 

[jazzykat]

We play on ice = everyone falls down at some point. Have fun, be safe, learn as much as you can.

 

[McMaster27]

Aright makes sense! My skating has been improving thanks to public skating, but I'm frustrated at the fact that I can't find any opportunities to be on ice with a stick and puck. You'd think that living in the GTA, I would have tons of options, but Hamilton doesn't offer any, and Burlington only has it at noon on Monday and Friday (worst times possible for anyone with a job/school). Don't even get me started with Oakville lol.

 

[Sureshot]

The evaluation for the league I'm in right now was forward/backward skating, forward/backward stickhandling, stopping, turns, transitions and one-on-one shooting.

Don't be worried about it - it's just to balance the teams.

 

[TickleMeYandle]

I've done a lot of evaluation skates both as one being evaluated and one watching the evals in order to draft players.

Drills might be something like going around the circles, or it might be something like a 'circle the wagons' to see how well you can pass/skate/shoot. (If you're not familiar with it, circle the wagons starts out with skaters in opposite corners of the rink. You take off, skate around the center circle and receive a pass from the person in the opposite corner. Then you skate in and take a shot on net.) If it's beginner level, probably not much fancy stuff. If it's like my league, even among beginners there is a wide range of skill - some can barely skate at all, some can skate ok but don't have a lot of puck control. And others are able to skate fairly well and shoot as well as puck control.

As an evaluator, pretty much we were looking for basic skating skills, comfort on the ice, shooting ability, passing, puckhandling and hockey sense. Don't worry about standing out to the evaluators, there will be all skill levels and to keep teams even, the skill levels will be distributed (hopefully) evenly through the league. It's actually more valuable to watch the shinny/small area games than it is the drills - there are lots of people who can do wonderful skating moves in drills, but as soon as they get in a game situation, that all goes out the window. And others who may not be impressive in drills but then somehow they always seem to get the puck on their stick in game situations.

 

[McMaster27]

I've done a lot of evaluation skates both as one being evaluated and one watching the evals in order to draft players.

Drills might be something like going around the circles, or it might be something like a 'circle the wagons' to see how well you can pass/skate/shoot. (If you're not familiar with it, circle the wagons starts out with skaters in opposite corners of the rink. You take off, skate around the center circle and receive a pass from the person in the opposite corner. Then you skate in and take a shot on net.) If it's beginner level, probably not much fancy stuff. If it's like my league, even among beginners there is a wide range of skill - some can barely skate at all, some can skate ok but don't have a lot of puck control. And others are able to skate fairly well and shoot as well as puck control.

As an evaluator, pretty much we were looking for basic skating skills, comfort on the ice, shooting ability, passing, puckhandling and hockey sense. Don't worry about standing out to the evaluators, there will be all skill levels and to keep teams even, the skill levels will be distributed (hopefully) evenly through the league. It's actually more valuable to watch the shinny/small area games than it is the drills - there are lots of people who can do wonderful skating moves in drills, but as soon as they get in a game situation, that all goes out the window. And others who may not be impressive in drills but then somehow they always seem to get the puck on their stick in game situations.

Cool, thanks for the insider knowledge ! I guess the most important thing is to just have confidence, not think too too much, and just have fun. I'm playing my first actual game tonight (pickup/shinny) so this will be my own personal evaluation night haha.

 

[MattGTI]

Just go and have fun! Your going to find that as long as you aren't a complete jerk, nobody is going to care about your skill level as long as you are trying and giving an effort.

 

[shoeshine boy]

my league does an eval skate where we do probably half a dozen drills and then a scrimmage. the most important drill we do to separate the men from the boys is backwards crossovers.

 

[Jarick]

For ours, they had us skate through cones with and without pucks, did a couple rounds of shootouts, then shinny for the rest of the session.