U11 Competitive Minor Hockey Program

U11 COMPETITIVE MINOR HOCKEY PROGRAM

This curriculum is designed to be a 20 week guiding document for a competitive U11 program during a hockey season. The drills provide an overview of skills as well as basic tactics that are required to play at the U11 level. The focus is on skill development and encouraging the players to learn the game through physical exploration and small area games. The overall goal of the program is to provide a coaching staff the tools necessary to effectively train a team over the course of a season.

Phases

Practice Design

The curriculum is based on a team of 15 skaters, 2 goalies and 3-4 coaches. All the drills are flexible to be augmented for number of participants and size of surface.
Most practices are 5 drills and its expected that the team could go through them in a 60 min ice session. For the 5 practices that have 6 drills they intention is the first 2 drills are positional drills. The group can be split up according to position they play and coaches can take a section of the ice to work on the appropriate skills.
Lessons are designed with a 4/1 work to rest ratio, ensuring players remain engaged and are learning through “doing” versus “watching”. Drills have been selected to encourage at least 3-4 players participation is maximized.
Players should be provided two or three 2-minute water breaks, during each 60-minute lesson. Everyone would be able to get water otherwise but coaches should keep the practice moving at all times.
Some drills are half ice or in stations. This is to maximize ice usage, these drills should be replicated in as many areas as possible based on the size of the team and availability of coaches.
Drills at this level should be simplified to reduce the length of the coach’s explanation and increase each player’s number of repetitions.
Drills are repeated or augmented throughout program to increase the players’ focus on executing the details within the drill and not just learning new drills.
As much as possible drills should be run in mirrored setups over the course of the program so players learn both directions (ie. practicing left and right turns).

Implementation Strategies

Skill acquisition is enhanced through quality repetition (movement < feedback < repeat).
Skill retention is enhanced by learning through an age or ability- based progression towards a specific milestone.
Coaches must be coordinated in executing the lesson plan and engaged the entire lesson (physically active in setting the pace and energy level for the lesson).
Individual skills are a culmination of details or specific physical mechanics. The drills performed in each lesson are a vehicle to transfer those details or mechanics to the player, therefore coaches are not teaching players to perform drills, they are teaching them the details of an in-dividual skill by having them perform the drills.
Learning is enhanced through a Whole-Part-Whole framework. Hockey is a dynamic sport and using unstructured play and/or small area games allows players to execute their skills in a read-and-react environment. The small area and competitive games included in phase of the program act as the “Whole” component of the Whole-Part-Whole framework.
Players are motivated by coaches recognizing when they perform a drill or a part of a drill correctly versus recognizing when they perform it incorrectly. Therefore, a player’s motivation is enhanced when a coach approaches teaching with a growth mindset.
This curriculum is not meant to be the be all end all of coaching. It’s purpose is to be a resource for those who need support or are looking for inspiration to include in their own practice.