As the off-season continues, players looking to improve their skills despite a lack of available ice time are desperate for a challenge.
There is a lot you can do in the off-season to work on conditioning and shooting, however, not all of it is realistic for everyday families.
Coaching in a big city often means smaller houses, no backyards, or little to know room to really work with synthetic ice or to safely be on rollerblades in the streets, etc.
And I wanted my players to focus on their shooting this off-season as much as possible.
So how can we continue to develop positive shooting habits? A lot of coaches issue challenges like shooting 100 or 1,000 pucks a day, and these are cool, but how are we ensuring they aren’t developing a bad habit 1,000 times a day that later hurts them on the ice?
I do want my players shooting 100, 500 or 1,000 pucks a day, but only if they are doing it right. I would much rather them only shoot 10 pucks the right way, than 100 the wrong way.
So to start, you can ask players to have their parents take video of them shooting 10 pucks and send it to you so you can help correct errors and get them shooting up to 100 pucks the right way, and then increase the challenge.
Off-season training can get tricky. Learn how to keep things simple and challenge your players with some shooting drills . . . SEE MORE OF THE COACHES SITE Join The Coaches Site to access the latest drills, tactics & leadership lessons from hockey's top coaches. Already a member? Login
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Dan Arel
Dan Arel is the Director of Coaching Education and Development for the San Diego Oilers and head coach of their 12U A team. He was also named the 2020 San Diego Gulls Foundation's Coach of the Year. You can email him at [email protected].
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