To maximize performance and minimize the risk of injury, it's crucial to start with a comprehensive warm-up. A general warm-up aims to get the blood flowing to all parts of the body. It is always recommended that players engage in a general warm up before jumping right into any drill, especially large muscle groups & joints after a day of school, or sitting in a bus or a car.
Here are several hockey drills and warm-up activities designed to improve various aspects of a player's game, from puck control and skating to on-ice awareness and decision-making.
Importance of On-Ice Awareness
Helping players develop their on-ice awareness will look messy at first. It takes lots of patience and practice to develop awareness. As a coach, it is important to encourage players to scan the ice and keep their head up in practice. However, if players learn how play hockey with their head up, it will make the game safer, and more fun, as they can easily spot open ice, their teammates, and the defenders.
In the drills below, pay attention to the players in the videos. No matter their age or skill level, you will notice them looking up to spot open ice, their teammates, and the defenders. In some of the clips below we show examples of both NHL players and youth hockey players doing the same drill. This shows that working on awareness is important at all levels of the game.
6 Pass Shooting Hockey Drill
Warm-Up Progression
Below we will give an example of how a hockey coach can start practice. The idea behind this warm-up progression is to use activities that require players to make their own decisions. You can choose from the activities listed above this blog post to build your own warm up progression that will get the heart, mind, and body ready for practice. We start simple and gradually add complexity and intensity.
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You can use one of the zones from the blue line down. All the players are involved so there is no waiting in lines.
- Speed #1 (15 - 20 seconds) - players' skates stay in the ice and they have a wide base using their inside edges to move in control throughout the zone.
- Speed #2 (10 - 15 seconds) - players pick their feet up out of the ice and move at about 75%.
- Speed #3 (5 - 10 seconds) - this is all out 100% speed.
Individual & Team Keep Away
Individual & Team Keep Away (with Multiple Pucks) helps coaches jump-start practice with a puck protection warm-up that can engage the whole team at once. In the first part of the drill, players battle to protect a puck for as long as they can. After a rep or two of individual keep away, the coach can progress to team keep away, where players work together to keep the pucks from the other team. Both parts of the drill encourage players to be aware of the puck, open ice and other players.
Variations:
- Add more pucks to make it easier for the players, or you can make the space smaller to make the game challenging.
- Coaches can use their whole team at once, or you can break up the team into groups.
If you would like to gamify these drills, watch video example # 3 and # 4 in the video above. Video example # 3 is called, or Finders Keepers With Teams (teams with the most pucks when time is called wins). Video example # 4 in the video above is called Finders Keepers (players with a puck when time is called advance to the next round).
Rondo Circle Passing
Rondo Circle Passing from Alyssa Gagliardi is a great activity that can be used as a passing warm-up, and as an activity to improve overall awareness. Rondos are popular activities in soccer, and are similar to keep away, where a group of players work to keep possession of the puck / ball.
Variations:
- Can set up rondos in face-off circles or in different areas of the ice.
- Can do Rondo Keep Away with 1 or 2 defenders.
- To make it easier for the passers you can have the defenders flip their stick over.
Head Up Scan The Ice Warm-Up
Head Up Scan The Ice Warm-Up from Dwayne Blais is a simple yet effective warm-up drill that is great for all age levels.
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Variations:
- Coaches can make this drill full-ice, half-ice or quarter ice.
- The coach can blow the whistle to change directions every 10 - 20 seconds for younger age groups or every 3 - 5 seconds for higher-skilled groups.
Triangle Tag
Triangle Tag is a simple and fun drill that helps players practice skating, edgework, puck control & on-ice awareness. Players need to look up to evade the taggers and also find players who are frozen and need to be untagged.
Variations:
- Can be set up in different areas of the ice, the smaller the space the more challenging it will be.
- Can use players instead of coaches as the taggers.
- Can add more taggers to make it more challenging for the skaters.
The Finnish 5 Puck Progression
The Finnish 5 Puck Progression from Ben Eaves is a progressive warm-up drill that can be done with 3, 4 or 5 players at a time. The video above shows two groups going through the full progression. Group # 1 consists of 4 different U18 players and Group # 2 is made up of 5 different U10 & U12 players. The first 3 exercises in the Finnish 5 Puck help players warm-up their hands and edges.
Variations:
- Can set up in different areas of the ice.
- Can have 2, 3, 4 or 5 players.
King or Queen of The Hill (Knockout)
King or Queen of The Hill is also commonly called Knockout. Every player starts with a puck and the goal of the game is to keep control of your puck while you knock other players pucks out of the designated boundary. Last player with a puck wins!
Variations:
- You can blow the whistle for an immediate start to the game or you can blow 2 whistles: first whistle is to start players skating in the designated area, and then the second whistle is to begin the game (the 2 whistle version is showed in clip # 3 in the video above).
- If you have 6 or less players you can play in the middle of the circle. If you have more than 6 players, we would suggest a larger area.
- If you play with a full team you can use the neutral zone or the space between the goal line & blue line of the offensive zone.
Chase The Rabbit
Chase The Rabbit is a puck handling & skating warm-up that helps to develop on-ice awareness. The Red Player # 1 (in the diagram above) is The Rabbit. The player with the puck (Blue Player # 2 in the diagram) is The Chaser. On the whistle, The Chaser tries to follow The Rabbit as close as possible. The Rabbit should make it challenging to follow! Allow the players to go for 30 seconds, blow the whistle, then have players switch roles.
Keep Away
Keep Away from The Battery Hockey Academy is a simple but highly effective game to help players develop their on-ice awareness.
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Variations:
Keep away can be set up in different areas of the ice and with different amounts of players. Can be 2v1, 3v1, 4v1, 5v1, 3v2, 4v2, 4v3, 5v2, 5v3, 5v4. If the defenders are taking away the puck too often coaches can require the defenders to flip over their sticks.
Competitive Puck Possession Drill
In this activity players are still paired up. Only one player has a puck. The player without the puck will go backwards all throughout the zone. The player with the puck will try to keep up while maintaining possession of the puck. This is a competitive activity where the goal is to have a puck on your stick at the end of 30 the 30 second shift.
Puck Hunting Game
Players start on outside the zone and you shoot half as many pucks into the zone as there are players. The players compete for pucks for 30 seconds. If they have a puck they skate to open ice and try to protect it. If they donât have a puck they need to hunt pucks to try and steal one. At the end of the 30 seconds players without a puck do 10 push ups.
