Goalie Shot Chart

An interesting thread was brought up on LinkedIn about keeping stats during games.  The topic of Goalies came up and a great resource was shared for keeping track of stats for Goalies.   I’ve always kept player stats (which I will be a post later on), but never kept anything but SOG for the goalie.

Thanks to Ben Berland over at http://crazycoach.blogspot.ca/ for sharing his ideas and the chart below.

The top half (with the green shaded area) helps us understand where on the deck shots and goals are coming from.  The bottom half (the white rectangle) is like you are looking at the front of the net and you mark where the goals went in.

I like it because it now gives me a sense of a few things:

1. Where does my goalie give up the most goals?  Glove hand? 5 hole?  I’m all about stats and this gives it to me.
2. Tells me where we tend to give up shots (and more importantly) goals on the rink. 

No matter what level you are coaching at, you need to understand what is going on in your game.  You are no longer a spectator watching your kid play, you’ve got an entire team to coach.  Simple little stats like this will help you understand better what’s really happening during your games.

Shoot the lane and Breakout

Drill:

1. On whistle F2 passes puck to D2.
2. F1 breaks to the slot and looks for a pass from D2. 
3. After shot F1 cut thru middle and looks for outlet pads from behind the net from D2. 
4. After F2 skates by D1 follows in a puck support role. 
5. D2 is now the last man up the rink.

1. Playing your position
2. quick movement of the puck
3. puck support
   
   

Puck Retrieval – Breakout setup
3 on 2 Breakout

Dangle Glove Hockey Stickhandling Aid

The Dangle Glove Encourages Proper Stickhandling Technique by Forcing Players to Use their Top Hand

Every once in a while, a product comes along that just “makes sense.” The Dangle Glove is one of them. This special glove helps to “force” players to use proper technique while stickhandling.

Dangle Glove Overview:
I’m sure at some point you’ve seen players stickhandling using a piece of PVC pipe, or a toilet paper tube on their bottom hand. This old training technique has been around for a long time, and is used to help players develop the habit of using their top hand to control the stickhandle, while their bottom hand acts as a stabilizer. The Dangle Glove takes this training method to a whole new level, allowing for more flexibility in drill types.

Problems with PVC Pipe Method:
Although the old PVC Pipe method is a good start, there are some major limitations to this training method.

1. You can’t let go of your bottom hand. If you do, the pipe drops to the bottom of the stick, and the device is useless.
2. You can’t do on-ice, contact drills. Obviously, there’s no padding around a piece of PVC pipe. In theory, you COULD wear your glove, and hold onto the PVC pipe, on the ice… But then you run into the same problem we mentioned above; you can’t let go of the stick without the pipe dropping to the bottom.

The Dangle Glove:
The Dangle Glove fixes the problems with the old, PVC pipe method. Here’s how they’ve done it:

• Dangle Glove features an HDPE insert that mimics the effect of the PVC pipe, except it’s the shape of a half cylinder. This design lets you let go of the stick, then re-grab it, without losing the insert.
• Dangle Glove has attached their plastic insert into the palm of the glove (via velcro), which allows players to wear the glove in on-ice, full-contact situations.

Conclusion:
The updated design of the dangle glove let’s players develop their stickhandling skills in a multitude of situations. It’s great for off-ice use, as well as for use on the ice. It’s a fantastic tool, and one that I definitely recommend!

Technorati Tags: Acts, Bottom Hand, Conclusion, Flexibility, Full Contact, Habit, Hdpe, Long Time, Multitude, Padding, Palm, Plastic Insert, Pvc Pipe, Shape, Stabilizer, Toilet Paper Tube, Velcro

2-1-2 Spread: In Action

How to Execute a Proper 2-1-2 Spread Forecheck

In our last post, we talked about beating a 2-1-2 with a D to D pass. In the footage, we saw the NJ Devils using an aggressive 2-1-2 “Stack” against the Rangers. In this post, we’ll show you the LA Kings using another variation of the 2-1-2, the 2-1-2 “Spread.”

2-1-2 Stack vs Spread
There are two types of 2-1-2 set-ups; the “stack,” where the first two players enter the zone on the same side of the ice, the first player hits and pins, the second player takes the puck; and the “spread,” where the first player attacks the puck carrier, and the second player eliminates the D to D pass (this is what the Kings are using in this clip).

See our video on the 2-1-2 Forecheck here: 2-1-2 Stack & Spread Explanation

2-1-2 “Spread” Explained
The key to an effectice 2-1-2 “Spread” is for F1 (the first forward on the attack) come in aggressive. If F1 is lazy geting in, the play won’t work. F2 must also get in hard and take away the D to D pass. F3 reads F1′s forechecking angle, and takes away the strong side breakout. If done properly, there’s nothing the opposing defenseman can do except try to force a pass up the strong side, or dump it out of the zone.

Strategically…
The 2-1-2 is a great forecheck to set an aggressive tone at the beginning of a game. If your players are in good enough shape, and can execute it consistently, you can stick with it for an entire game. But I recommend having another forecheck to fall back on if the 2-1-2 starts getting sloppy.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Breakout, Defenseman, F1, F2, F3, Forecheck, Forechecking, Game, La Kings, Pins, Puck Carrier, Rangers, Shape, Stack, Strong Side, Ups, Variation

IHD Newsletter – September 2012

This months newsletter has been sent.  You can read the September 2012 Newsletter here.

Related articles:
Newsletter sign-up

Kids are Robots. Drills to get them thinking.

Views: 527 | Replies: 1

Toe Tape Follow Up

Patrick used Toe Tape for a while and found it to be awesome. Here is a short follow up.

Recycle Drill

1. Players start at opposite corners with a puck
2. P1 leaves and skates in and shoots on goal and then turns and skates back toward blue line
3. P2 leaves on the shot and carries the puck up
4. P2 hits P1 with a pass just outside the blue line
5. P1 then passes back to P2 as they cross the blue line
6. P2 continues in and shoots and follows steps 2 – 5.

1. Quick start with the puck and hard skating up the rink
2. Good passes
3. Give and go pass at the blue line
   
   

Product Review: Verbero Pucks

Recently the owner of Verbero Sports donated some pucks for an Ironman Tournament for an organization I help run.  So I decided to try them out myself and see what they were all about.

First I took them to a Summer work out and dropped one on the deck.  Right away, I noticed how it laid right down.  I grabbed it and started to work it around to get a feel for it.  Definitely a different feel, but in a good way. I felt more like I was on ice working a rubber puck than on the inline deck surface.  It’s lighter but the feel was pretty true.  I skated around making nice tight turns, stopping and dragging it around other players. I found myself in more control than with any other inline puck.  Next up, I started shooting it around.  Wrist shots, slap shots and a few one timers.  All felt good coming off the stick.  Again, it did have a lighter feel, but something I could easily get used to.

One of the coaches asked about what I was playing and said “I think those were the ones our boys played in a tournament and they bounced like super balls”.  That wasn’t something I noticed so he stepped out on the rink and we worked it over.  We couldn’t make it bounce for anything.  The only way I was able to get the puck to go on edge and roll was when I threw some back handers off the glass.  I was at about the half-wall and started throwing pucks off the glass behind the net.  A few hit the ground on edge and rolled for a bit before dropping flat.

We played the pucks in our Ironman tournament and many parents, players and coaches commented and asked what we were using as they noticed how smooth it was. A few even commented how the night before on the same rink, they couldn’t keep the puck they were using down for anything and they wished they had this puck.

Overall, I think it’s a great design and one I would welcome playing with more.  My kids are now asking for them in practice and if we can play games with them.  Hopefully our league discovers them soon and we can switch to them.

University of Denver Pioneers Transition Drills

Here are a few transition drills from head coach George Gwozdecky of the University of Denver.

These drills add to the growing library of drills given to us from Division 1 head coaches. Hope they can bring some benefit to your team.

Transition Drill #1

Transition Drill #2 (3 Passes)

Transition Regroup

5 on 0 Transition

Breakout V Pressure

Hinge Drill

.