Our Hockey Checklist

I've mentioned a few times that my granddaughter and I came up with a checklist to help us improve our game.  It's kind of a mish-mash of things, but important enough to need reminders.

The first five are fundamental skills that you want to make habits.

• Hold the stick correctly.
• Hockey stance.
• Hands out in front of the body.
• Bottom hand loose and slides when needed.
• Top hand controls the stick.  Rotate the wrist.

The next one is simple, but oh, so important.

• Tap the stick one-handed to build hand, wrist and forearm strength.

Drills can be frustrating at first, but keep practicing and you will get better fast.  Be creative!

• Ball or puck at the heel of the stick when stickhandling, for better control.
• Drill:  Around two pucks, then figure 8's.  Clockwise and counter-clockwise.
• Drill:  Stickhandle around the body: forehand, backhand, out front, in close, out wide, behind, etc.

These last two items are things to work on regularly.  They're important and will give you an edge on the ice.

• Saucer passing.
• Elevating the puck when shooting.

So that's our list.  What would you do different?  What did I miss?  Let me know in the comments, and thanks for your feedback.

Agility - Five Dot Drills

What is agility?  Here's the formal definition:

1.  The ability to move quickly and easily.
2.  The ability to think and understand quickly.

So there's physical agility and mental agility.  We're going to talk about the physical side here.

There are lots of agility drills out on the internet.  The "Five Spot" (AKA Five Dot) drill is one that I've seen used by hockey coaches and players.  To do the drills, you'll need to lay out the following pattern.

You can buy mats or carpets with the dots already there, or you can use chalk outside, or even bits of tape indoors.  The diagram below shows the standard layout, but for younger, smaller players, you can shrink it to fit their size (slightly wider than shoulder width).  Ideally, the spots should be four or five inches across.

So how do you use this pattern?

This .pdf page lays out the drills and time goals for the drills.  Clicking that link will open a file you can download for reference.

Here's an excellent video showing each exercise in action.