Hello

I will be coaching in a hockey initiation program this coming season.

What I am looking for are fun ways to practice the beginning skills of hockey.

For instance (so you see the way I am thinking) to teach the players how to get up once they have fallen down,
I would teach them how to safely fall down on the ice and then
have them crawl on their hands and knees about 10 feet to their sticks,
pick up their sticks and then
use their stick to help them get back up on their skates.

I would have them do it all at once so they get the idea, and then break them up into teams of 4 players.

Suppose 3 lines of 4 players.

On my whistle the first player from each line, falls safely to their hands and knees, crawls out to the pile of their sticks, picks up their stick and then skates back 10 feet and touches the next player who falls safely to the ice, etc.

Although they would be having heaps of fun, they would be learning

1)How to fall safely on the ice, with skates on
2)How to get up after falling on the ice, with their skates on

A little long winded, but I hope you coaches out there get the idea of what I am looking for.

I have used this same kind of fun method of learning to play when I was coaching Beavers and when I was coaching Little League Baseball.

Regards,

Ron Lessor