DUNCANVILLE DRAGON ICE HOCKEY DRY LAND TRAINING DRILLS By: Dragon Coach Joe Dancy This is the birthplace of professional hockey in North America Dee Stadium in Northern Michigan on the shores of Lake Superior and Portage Lake. Unfortunately the Stanley Cup was awarded to amateur champions, not to professional teams at the time. The first U.S. professional team to win the World championship was the Portage Lake, Michigan, team of 1904 defeating teams from Pittsburg and Montreal in this facility. Ice was natural so the season was short refrigeration was introduced to the rink in the early 1950 s, and the rink is still in use today. Unlike today s ice surface, the quality of ice varied due to the lack of refrigeration technology and the primitive methods of maintaining the ice.
The first professional hockey game in North Texas was played in Hockey in November of 1941, with the Fort Worth Rangers playing the St. Paul Saints to a 2-2 tie. 5,500 fans attended the first professional game in Texas. Because of the lack of natural ice and outdoor rinks in Texas, and the lack of winter like experienced in Minnesota and other Northern States when players can spend hours outdoors developing their skills, it is extremely important that players take advantage of off ice skill development. Incredibly, I played with the starting wing for the 1941 Fort Worth Rangers Joe Bukovich (pictured) in Michigan s Dee Stadium in the mid-1970 s.) The following off ice drills might be fun, and productive, in developing on-ice skills (I use these drills myself to improve on-ice skills).
SHOOTING THE SHOOTING PIT This probably will be the most fun for the players. Shooting forehand, backhand, slap shots, snap shots, flips, and the like is a skill that can be developed off ice more effectively than on ice (unless you live in Minnesota and have access to an outdoor rink). Note this is a Wilson baseball backstop, available at Oshman s and most sporting goods stores, tied to the downspout so it will not move when the pucks are shot into it. The backstop can be easily moved behind the garage, or disassembled, when finished. This is a shot from inside the shooting pit, er garage. If the shooting surface is not smooth you can get a plywood sheet to shoot off of. If you are concerned about hitting the neighbor s vehicles (note Ford Expedition and Porshe behind our net) or house the net can be set up in the back yard, with a plywood shooting surface. We shoot a bucket of pucks generally 25 or so at a time. One bucket practices the forehand wrist shot, one backhand, one slap or snapshot. The backhand is one of the best shots to develop off ice many players at this age try to skate around to their forehand. Good defensemen know this and can take away the forehand shot and scoring opportunities. Note we wear roller blades and hockey
gloves the roller blades elevate the shooter so the angle between the blade of the stick and the cement is identical to the angle on the ice. Shooting in tennis shoes is fine but when you put skates on it takes a few shots to get the feel for shooting from the elevated position you have wearing skates. The roller blades also make the player balance and use the identical shooting motion they will use on the ice. One useful skill is the ability to flip the puck up off the glass or out of the zone or over a goalie that tends to go down quite a bit (especially at this age). When they can consistently flip the puck into the top of from both the forehand and backhand they have this one mastered. the net You can set up a shooting pit almost anywhere. All you need is a net, a backstop, and a shooting surface. To develop strength the player can attach a weight to their shooting stick. Note Tony Amonte s Pro Extreme velcro attachable weight on the lower stick. The upper stick has weights duct taped to the lower shaft. We can also use weighted pucks but they tend to be a bit too heavy for some backstops and tend to damage the net.
SKATING AND STICKHANDLING DRILLS One of the most difficult skills to learn is learning to carry the puck and effectively stickhandle while skating. In Minnesota kids can practice for hours in the winter and develop the balance and coordination needed to move the puck by opponents. Since we are ice time constrained here in Texas, an effective drill is to have the player use rollerblades and a street hockey puck to navigate an obstacle course. Using a puck versus a ball is important in my opinion it gives the player the feel they will have when skating and stickhandling on the ice. A ball is a substitute if the surface is too rough, but the puck really makes the player learn to control their stick and the puck. Note in this drill the player learns to take the puck from the forehand to the backhand and back again, while skating. The balance, coordination, and movement are very similar to what they will experience on the ic e. Gloves are not a bad idea here if the player falls they will not skin their hands. And they give the player the feel they will have on the ice, since gloves restrict the movement of the hand to an extent. The stick can be weighted, and a weighted puck can be used, to develop strength in the arms and wrist. This is also an excellent conditioning exercise, and helps the player develop their skating stride and ability to quickly turn with the puck.
Another good eye/hand coordination drill is bouncing a ball off the stick for as long as it can be kept in the air. Initially the basic skill can be developed in tennis shoes, but once the player masters the ability to keep the ball off the ground you can add roller blades. The player should develop where they can bounce the ball and skate at the same time, and once they can keep the ball in the air skating forward they can try it while skating backward. This is also a good drill to teach the kids how to tip a shot, and gives them a good feel for how to get the blade in position to deflect the puck. Occasionally the player will also knock the puck out of the air using the eye/hand coordination learned here. BACKWARD SKATING THE FIGURE 8 One of the more difficult skills to teach a player is the ability to turn sharply when skating backward a good asset to have, especially if you play defense. A great way to teach that is to have the player skate a backward figure 8 so they have to turn both ways during the drill. In most cases a player will feel much more comfortable turning one way or the other but this drill makes the player improve both the weak and strong sides.
We use pucks instead of cones as course markers, since cones tend to get kicked around a bit. This really works out the muscles in the front of the leg after three or so figure 8 s they should just burn they get so tired. But the ability to turn quickly to both sides while skating backwards is very important, especially when attempting to check an oncoming forward. Again, this is an excellent conditioning drill. Note also the cross over the players learn naturally (see picture at right). The ability to execute this crossover while turning both ways makes a player very mobile, and helps them transition from skating backwards (defense) to offense. BACKWARD SKATING THE BLUE LINE DRILL One skill that many defensemen lack at this age level is the ability to transition forward to backward, and to move laterally to either side. In this drill the player approaches the blue line skating forward then transitions to skating backward all while carrying the puck.
The drill teaches the player to keep the hips low, knees bent, and to transfer the forward momentum sideways and ultimately backward. A great stickhandling drill also on the ice the defenseman can carry the puck, pass, or shoot once they create the space using these lateral moves. There have been many studies of elite performers concert violinists, chess grandmasters, professional ice-skaters, mathematicians, and so forth-and the biggest difference researchers find between them and lesser performers is the amount of deliberate practice they ve accumulated.... Indeed, the most important talent may be the talent for practice itself. The Learning Curve, by A. Gwawande