A Few Tips To Help Improve Your Hockey Clubs Practice Times

Ice hockey is a great sport to play for kids who have extremely high energy levels. Even if your kids do not have high energy levels, if they play hockey long enough they will develop high energy, which will help them get the exercise and focus they need to succeed in the classroom as well as on the ice. Hockey clubs require a lot of skills to be developed, including the ability to be able to ice skate. Kids can learn this skill as well as learning all the various skills they will need to prepare themselves for competition.

If you are coaching hockey clubs full of kids, you might be wondering what you can do to improve the productivity of your practice sessions. One of the things you can do to get the most out of your time with your kids is to make sure that you work skill development and instruction first before conditioning. Conditioning for ice hockey is very strenuous on the body, and by the time all this portion of practice is complete, most kids are wiped out and have no energy left. Trying to get them to concentrate and learn something new at this point is almost impossible. Make sure to make teaching skills the top priority, and after doing all of the drills related to skill, you are then ready to move on to getting the kids in shape.

There are tons of hockey clubs full of potentially great, young hockey players, except for one small problem. Most of these future Gretzkys cannot skate well. Many coaches start practices assuming that every kid is already an expert skater. This is definitely not true. You should spend a few practices going over the fundamentals of skating. This will help improve those who already know how to skate and those who are struggling will get the instruction they need to become strong skaters.

Another key element of successfully coaching youth hockey clubs is to make sure that you are not too hard on the kids. Remember that they are not NHL hockey players. They are not getting paid millions of dollars, and there is no Stanley Cup trophy to win. Most kids are playing because they enjoy it. Do not spoil that for them by over working them or expecting them to play better than what they are capable of at their current level. Be encouraging to all the kids on your team and be constructive when helping them identify weaknesses in their skills.

By: B. Blandin

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