On February 24th’s practice, we worked on a few individual skills to try and smooth out the mixed success we had with breakouts from the 17th.

Note: Everyone’s looking about 10x better after the 1-hour practice. Kudos to all of you.

Powerskating: Line skates

Basic line skates with a variation of skills covered. Versions:

1. Forward strides
2. Forward acceleration (4-5 quick “chunk” strides leading into longer, wider strides)
3. Transitions at the bluelines
4. One-foot strides (hop on the other foot)
5. One-foot strides (tap heels together after striding)
6. Transitions using the heel-to-heel technique (no scraping sounds)
7. Stationary “wiggles” (side to side on flat edge)
8. “Wiggles” transitions in motion at the bluelines

All of the above skating skills were to develop and improve the ability to transition quickly so as to remain an effective passing target at all times. I’d recommend everyone continues to work on these skills whenever future opportunities arise as they are nearly as important for forwards as for defense.

Skills Development Drill 1: Passing In Motion

We did a slight variation on this drill where the skaters extended into the neutral zone. In this drill, we’re really focused on 3 things:

1. Making crisp passes
2. Timing (not getting too far ahead of the play so as to make the pass more difficult)
3. Ability to transition and receive the pass while opened up to the play

Skills Development Drill 2: Neutral Zone Arc Passing

We did a variation on the above drill except the skater circled behind the coach instead of in front (only possible due to our small numbers – the above animation is an example when both halves of the ice are doing the same drill therefore reduced footprint required).

The intent of the drill is to leverage what we had been practicing (transitions, passing, timing, receiving the pass) in a slightly more realistic situation. This drill also works on the 3 key components that we need before getting back to our breakouts:

1. Making a firm tape-to-tape pass
2. Timing the arc to ensure you (without a puck) are a good passing option for the puck carrier
3. Being able to lay out a nice area pass in an ideal situation (receiver has timed their arc perfectly)
4. In a non-ideal situation making a firmer, tape to tape pass if either:
   • The receiver is too far behind the play, and they are still skating directly towards you
   • The receiver is too far ahead of the play, and they have transitioned to open up to the play

Now that we’ve “mastered” all the basic skills we need to make our breakout drills more successful, we’ll get back to them over our last 2 practices. We’ll also spend some time at the beginning of each of the next 2 practices working on some shooting.