Minor and Youth Hockey coaches, if you are working with young boys or girls 5 to 12 years of age, these early season hockey tips might be of some benefit to you or your program.

Many Minor and Youth Hockey tryout camps are over and the coaches have made their final selections.

Now what? Well, now the real work begins.

Coaches must plan for a full season of providing players with specific hockey information as well as running a multitude of organized and challenging on ice and off- ice practices.

Practices that will help all players improve both their individual and team skills over the course of the regular season so they can hit their peak performance right at playoff time.

The second big challenge facing many coaches is molding 15 or more individuals with different personalities, learning abilities and skill levels into a cohesive hockey team.

Both of these challenges can be accomplished by using the following 3 simple methods:

1. Holding weekly 1.5 to 2 hour off- ice teaching sessions in a school
    gymnasium or a large hall.

2. Conducting challenging up tempo on ice practice sessions that duplicate
    game like situations.

3. Using a number of experienced Assistant or Guest Coaches to help you at
    both practice venues.

These 3 methods will develop your player’s individual hockey skills and team skills, as well as build team unity, spirit and cohesiveness over the course of the entire season.

For first time Rep/Travel Team or House League coaches this can be a challenging time as to what to teach your players and when.

For players, this is also a challenging time, as steady improvement of their basic individual skills, then team skills, will determine how competitive your team will be throughout the regular season and how far you will advance into the playoffs.

One piece of advice for all Head Coaches, one person cannot coach by him/herself anymore, there is just too much teaching and communicating to do.

You will need a number of Assistant Coaches to help you run practices and to help out on the bench during a game and in the dressing/locker room prior to and after a game or practice.

Try to find the most qualified or experienced hockey people with a similar philosophy to assist you, and you will find the job of coaching young players much easier and very rewarding.

Another tip for Coaches, a good early season starting point is to assess your team’s skills during scrimmages, exhibition and early season games. Assess the Team’s positive points and strengths and the skills that will need more work. Make a list, and then decide what the immediate priority is and what skills, systems etc. can wait for a later time during the season.

Points to consider:

What physical condition are your players in?

Can your team score goals, prevent goals,

pass the puck accurately, are they good, quick skaters, or a bit slow of foot?

What’s the makeup of your lines and defence pairings?

Do you have secondary scoring?

Do your players understand the different forechecking and backchecking systems?

What about their positioning on clearing/breakout plays?

Do they understand the importance of the transition game and the difference between offensive and defensive hockey?

What about your power play and penalty killing?

What should be taught first?

Depending on the answers, your on ice practices and off- ice teaching sessions should be based on their assessed individual and team needs.

No matter what age or caliber of team or players you are coaching, i.e. "AAA" Travel players or Recreational House Leaguers, if you keep it fun, everybody will have a good time and will learn how to play hockey correctly and safely over the course of the season.

Also, I suggest you read the article “How To Outplay Your Competition” located on the Hockey Made Easy website www.hockeymadeeasy.com   

There are some excellent suggestions if you want to compete with the best teams.

John Shorey

Author – “Hockey Made Easy”

www.hockeymadeeasy.com