Coaches: Youth Coaching

[TheBluePenguin]

Going to be a head coach for a peewee house team this year, I have ran a learn to play program for about 2 years at the rink but this will be my first actual team. Do any of you fellow coaches have any pointers or any websites that have good drills for kids getting a late start, a lot of peewee's have been playing since they were 4-5. Most of my team is playing for the first time, I know a few basic drills.

P.S. I also have 2 goalies to split time, not sure if this will be an issue. I have read where some teams play every other game and other teams split the game no matter what. Im thinking of letting this decision up to the players/parents of the goalies.

P.S.S. I also have multiple girls on the team, one of them might be my best player, but any tips on how you handle the locker room, The girls have their own dressing room at our rink but I was thinking more of the pregame talks.

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[patty59]

USA hockey really good practice plans. Check this website. I'd say it's better than what Hockey Canada has right now.

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[Pez68]

I second USA Hockey's practice resources. They have some great stuff in there. And they are obviously doing something right in recent years.

They even have an app for your phone. Check it out.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I assistant coached last year, and have coached soccer for a few years.

There are tons of drills that can be easily googled. Find some that work for you. Also watch other teams practices if you can, and feel free to steal their ideas if you like them.

If you kids are just starting out... work on skating, skating and more skating. You'll have to throw in some stickhandling and shooting drills, but your emphasis should be just on fundamentals as much as you can.

Goalies... I think you're on the right track, but try and leave it up to the goalies themselves, not the parents, on how they want to split up their time.

Not sure what you mean by having "multiple on the team" - does that mean you have two or more of your own kids on the team? That's always going to be a tricky issue. As a parent you're always going to be somewhat harder on your own kid. All I can suggest is to be aware of it.

As for handling the locker room/pre-game talks? You're no Knute Rockne, and you're not going to tell the kids to "win one for the Gipper". Hockey is a fun game to play, and the kids should be all excited to play anyways. Just make sure everybody know what position they are playing, and with what lines if applicable. Then tell 'em to have fun and let them go.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

I assistant coached last year, and have coached soccer for a few years.

There are tons of drills that can be easily googled. Find some that work for you. Also watch other teams practices if you can, and feel free to steal their ideas if you like them.

If you kids are just starting out... work on skating, skating and more skating. You'll have to throw in some stickhandling and shooting drills, but your emphasis should be just on fundamentals as much as you can.

Goalies... I think you're on the right track, but try and leave it up to the goalies themselves, not the parents, on how they want to split up their time.

Not sure what you mean by having "multiple on the team" - does that mean you have two or more of your own kids on the team? That's always going to be a tricky issue. As a parent you're always going to be somewhat harder on your own kid. All I can suggest is to be aware of it.

As for handling the locker room/pre-game talks? You're no Knute Rockne, and you're not going to tell the kids to "win one for the Gipper". Hockey is a fun game to play, and the kids should be all excited to play anyways. Just make sure everybody know what position they are playing, and with what lines if applicable. Then tell 'em to have fun and let them go.

Sorry I missed a word, I have two girls on my team is what that should have said, thanks for the tips!

 

[I am toxic]

Going to be a head coach for a peewee house team this year, I have ran a learn to play program for about 2 years at the rink but this will be my first actual team. Do any of you fellow coaches have any pointers or any websites that have good drills for kids getting a late start, a lot of peewee's have been playing since they were 4-5. Most of my team is playing for the first time, I know a few basic drills.

P.S. I also have 2 goalies to split time, not sure if this will be an issue. I have read where some teams play every other game and other teams split the game no matter what. Im thinking of letting this decision up to the players/parents of the goalies.

P.S.S. I also have multiple girls on the team, one of them might be my best player, but any tips on how you handle the locker room, The girls have their own dressing room at our rink but I was thinking more of the pregame talks.

Regarding goalies, I won't comment on playing every other game or splitting games (most goalie parents end up preferring the former, get the goalie in warm and play warm thru the game) but I do have six other pieces of advice re goalies:

1. take a goaltender coaching course (in Canada there is Instructional Stream 1 and 2, 1 would be fine for peewee house but more is better; Pasco wrote the course and teaches it here, I was fortunate to take level 1 from him, ohsix goes to his sessions)

2. have an assistant coach take the goalie course as well

3. give the 2 goalies and the assistant coach (goaltenders) the ice from the top of the circles down for the first 15-20 minutes of practice; work on their down movements. Do NOT have the goalies doing crossovers and laps around the ice with the players, it is a monumental waste of time. This time should be focused on movements, not shots, although shots can be incorporated as part of movement drills; movement (including positioning and stance) is everything for a developing goalie

4. space out the shots on any drill, this refers to the amount of time between shots; the goalie must have time to 1) gain depth 2) decide and execute on save selection 3) track the rebound 4) get re-set and then back to 1) - this takes about 4-6 seconds, so if you have shots coming in faster that this you are compromising your goalies' development

5. Encourage the goalies to take whatever goalie training your association offers


6. Read up about Head Trajectory, and get them to start doing this. It is way too complicated here, but basically I would suggest leaning forward (both standing and when in butterfly), narrow butterfly, weight over the knee on the side that made the save - this allows for instant unweighting of the other leg into the push position for the backside push to cover any rebound. Narrow butterfly (good) is enough to deflect the puck into the corner, wide butterfly (bad) can deflect the puck back into the kill zone, and even if deflected into corner requires multiple weight shifts to get back into position

 

[MartinS82]

Going to be a head coach for a peewee house team this year, I have ran a learn to play program for about 2 years at the rink but this will be my first actual team. Do any of you fellow coaches have any pointers or any websites that have good drills for kids getting a late start, a lot of peewee's have been playing since they were 4-5. Most of my team is playing for the first time, I know a few basic drills.

P.S. I also have 2 goalies to split time, not sure if this will be an issue. I have read where some teams play every other game and other teams split the game no matter what. Im thinking of letting this decision up to the players/parents of the goalies.

P.S.S. I also have multiple girls on the team, one of them might be my best player, but any tips on how you handle the locker room, The girls have their own dressing room at our rink but I was thinking more of the pregame talks.

This is late, but hopefully someone will find this useful.

1. Specific Praise / Criticism: Don't say things like "Skate harder" or "support". Rather give the player specific examples of when they do things well, or could use a correction. Peewees are old enough to understand.

2. Assessment should drive instruction : Go into practice with a well thought out practice plan. It should be flexible, and you should be able to add to or simplify the drills if the kids are struggling. Also, have an idea of what the team needs to work on and focus on that - ie passing, skating, stick handling, moving to space, etc.

3. Don't use the whiteboard on the ice if you can avoid it. Icetime is expensive, spend that hour skating. This goes along with having the kids skating and moving as much as possible. No lines if you can avoid it.

4. End the practice on a "fun" note - scrimmage or fun game. They should be wanting practice to keep going, not looking at the clock waiting for it to wind down.