Ice Hockey Coaching Blog

Keep away games are a microcosm of the game of hockey. Teams with the puck want to keep possession, and teams without the puck want to gain possession. Coaches should be utilizing keep away games in their practices to help players be creative while practicing fundamentals in a fun and engaging manner. Make sure to keep score in every game, the players will love it! Coaches can easily modify...

Most goals in the NHL, or any league at any age level, are scored within 5 feet of the net. During practice, drills are often set up in a ‘flow’ like routine where players make passes & skate to the coach’s script finishing with a shot without any pressure from inside the circles. Very rarely is a goal scored where the offensive player has 2 seconds to load & release his/her shot without...

IHS is extremely excited to present the Brock University High Performance Hockey Seminar! Come learn, connect, and share with the hockey world for a 1 day event! TJ Manastersky, the Head Coach of the Brock Badgers, will serve as the event's moderator. Date Saturday, June 3, 2023 at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario (45 minutes from Buffalo, NY and 1 hour 15 mins from Toronto)....

Hi Hockey Coaches! You might have noticed we have updated the framework for printing practice plans, and after many requests, we added back the Grid Printing Format.  We made these updates based on our 2022 member survey along with all of the coaches that took time to write in and provide us feedback over the past year. Below we will explain the highlights of the...

The Team at IHS would like to thank the hockey community for all of your support in 2022. We are so very grateful to all of our members, associations, contributors, partners, and anyone who took the time to reach out to us this past year. Our objective at IHS is to create content and tools that inspire coaches and players around the world. Below is a list of the most popular practice plans,...

Kendall Coyne Schofield, the captain of the USA Women’s National Team, and a Player Development Coach for the Chicago Blackhawks discusses the benefits of a Battle Practice Day. Kendall explains how her teams at Northeastern College, and the USA Women’s National Team utilize different formats of a Battle Practice Day. Northeastern College created a year long competition...

Below we give examples of 7 different hockey drills and small area games that utilize face-off circles as boundaries. No cones, boards or barriers are needed! Use the ideas below and create your own drills with our drawing tool! Join Hockey's Premier Coaching Resource Sign Up Today 1. The Circle Warm-Up Series The Circle Warm-Up Series is from NewEdge Hockey Development. Utilize...

IHS for Associations is excited to announce our newest feature: Association Sharing. With this new update, any piece of content created by a coach in an association can be shared with the entire association with a click of a button. This will allow for easier collaborations across your association and encourage coaches to share what has worked well for them with drills, practices, systems...

The Importance of Using Progressions Progressions should be an integral part of your practices and development model.  When using progressions in practice, you can start with a very simple skill or concept that players can feel comfortable executing.  From there you can build on the skill by adding decisions and layers that puts the skill into a game-like scenario. This will allow you...