well, the game wasn't pretty. The wrong team showed up. I'll try something a little different and see how it goes. On a side note, I am curious, what do all of you think about "skill drills" you know, skating around cone after cone for practice w/without the pucks. Who is doing the contradicting? The people that say we should do these skill drills and have fun(kids don't have fun skating around cones) or skating board to board and saying have fun. Just a little confused. I do a little of both with a few systems. Skills incorporated into the systems. Just wondering what the balance point is. If you look at the way the '80 Olympic team practiced, by todays philosophies, they shouldn't have won a single game.
Every coach is a little different, I realize that, and even if 20 coaches are given the same practice manual to follow, those twenty coaches would probably pick twenty different drills, depends on the ability of the kids and what needs to be worked on at that time. I am just looking for opinions.
I do agree that most drills take the fun out of learning a skill. And most younger skaters don't work the finer point of technique, so often your time explaining what you want to see goes in one ear and out the other.
I think adding non-hockey props to the drills can help with kids, though.
Example, if you are trying to teach cornering on the inside foot around a cone, having somethnig for them to knock over with their outside foot as they go by, can add interest to getting on the correct foot.
Creative obstacle courses are always fun. Making it so completion of the course requires them to work on a specific skating technique is always a challenge.
Been there, done that. Went somewhere else and did it again.
Make contests out of the drills...individual or make up teams (def vs. off always a fun one).
The team who hits the most cones (for example) has to skate an extra lap. Use relay races too - kids get caught in the competition they forget they're skating laps or moving around cones, etc.
I've already noticed some pretty good answers to the problem at hand. So, I might only add another wrinkle or two to what everyone else has suggested...
"Repetition is (still) the best teacher." However, "boredom is the greatest threat to effective teaching."
That said, I generally try rotating different drills and blocks of drills in and out of my lesson plans. I mean, I'll:
- 1) go for certain stretches (or consecutive practices) with some drills that have a special theme, and then I'll drop those for a few weeks in favor of some drills with a different theme (a few weeks later, I'll likely rotate some of the original drills back in);
- 2) I'll constantly rotate similar drills.
(On the latter... There are a kzillion ways to work on cross-overs and other basic skills. Even changing the movement patterns or adding some little twists will likely make old drills seem new to the kids.)
Then, as some coaches have (rightly) suggested, creating a race or competition out of a basic skill-drill also makes it seem different to the kids. In this case, I might do a few weeks of slow, methodical work at a skill, then add the challenge of a race (whatever) every so often.
Finally, if you think about it, guys, even elite teams work on very basic skills in their practices. It's just that they're usually asked to perform these in a more challenging, game-related context.
Former US High School & College Head Coach
Posts: 14 | Location: Whitman, MA USA | Registered: June 17, 2007
