Once again, my Czech coaching friend, Oldrich, comes up with some great off-season puckhandling drills. The timing is right, as far as I'm concerned, because individuals and teams should be working on such skills during these off-season months.
-- Dennis Chighisola
Great Off-season Puckhandling Drills
Just thinking here for a sec... Isn't it odd that North American youth hockey federations -- like USA Hockey -- tend to use foreign federations as models, yet they don't seem to follow them at all? I've taken them to task in a number of recent publications -- as in "Are People Really THIS Dumb?" and "What to REALLY Do During Your Hockey Off-season", and I'm not about to change that approach until they get a little more honest with their membership. Anyway, if my members would like to know what elite level coaches are doing with youth kids in a place like the Czech Republic, have a look... http://coachchic2.s3.amazonaws.com/Olly-Skills.flv As always, I like to add a little to Olly's awesome videos, this time beginning with the on-ice segment...
In particular, I'd like to call coaches' (and parents') attention to the bungees being used in that video. Those were popular in old Soviet training sessions, which made me start using them sometime around 1980, in both on- and off-ice venues.
Olly seems to mainly use the ropes as a means of resistance against the skaters, or as a way of making the skaters really fight to get to a puck. The Soviets did that, too, but they also used the bungees to suddenly jerk on a skater, as if he was being jolted by a body-check or collision.
One can spend an awful lot of money on bungees... My most expensive ones came from marine supply stores where I could get varying thicknesses or strengths. On the other end of the spectrum, I borrowed an idea from my late friend, John Cunniff (former NHL player and coach), who suggested using old bicycle tubes. Local bike shops are always looking to get rid old tubes -- because they have to pay for their removal, so I'd get them by the box-load.
Rewatching that video, it struck me that most of Olly's drills could be used on the ice, in in-lines, or even in sneakers. Yes, it helps his kids' skating as they work against resistance, but the effects wouldn't be totally lost if kids did the same without skates.
Knowing his stuff, notice that Olly moves his kids to a fairly forgiving grassy surface for the kids' agility and jumping work. I know I've been trapped to paved areas at times, but pounding on such surfaces can take a toll on the legs (and more)...
He's included some pretty good agility drills here, and among them one of my favorites, with the kids playing tag in an isolated area. To me, nothing simulates 1 on 1 play like that drill.
If I had to make one correction to that video, it would be to have the young players carry their sticks low -- or on the grass -- as they negotiate the pylons, etc. Believe it or not, it is a skill to control both the body and the stick through various physical challenges.
Getting back to the bungees near the end of the video, I was thinking that I wish some audio from the rink was included. Ya, viewers might think that the kids being flung around with the ropes would be moaning, but I know that my kids were always laughing from their bellies as they flipped and flopped around.
Seeing the video wind down, I was hoping my member friends haven't missed a couple of key points...
While some might be spoiled by frequent access to $300 per hour full sheets of ice, I've frequently joked that I could out-coach a lot of guys if I only had access to a closet. I sense that Olly would say the same. In fact, the narrow confines his kids are working in create a lot more game-like situations than does a huge surface.
Lastly, I've noticed in most of the videos I've seen done by Oldrich, that he includes a little bit of everything in a training session. In other words, even though a lot of the on-ice stuff he's doing in this video is aimed at great off-season puckhandling drills, he also includes various shooting drills, which have to be fun to his players.
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I think one of my best entries ever started with some footage from a great Russian hockey friend, in a post called "An Unbelievable Hockey Workout — Russian Style". Do read the post, see the video, and discover some other training gadgets.
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Just click his name if you'd like to know more about Oldrich Jindra and his work.
