Foxhunt is a fun tag game that challenges a group of players to race to catch the Fox and take the puck. It is a competitive race that can help with under-handling the puck, conditioning & edgework. It can be set up in a variety of ways depending on the skill level of your players. Add additional obstacles or turns for advanced players. Below we will discuss the setup, coaching points & variations.
Setup
- Put the fox, with a puck at an advantage. Depending on the skill & speed of the Fox, you can give them more or less of an advantage.
- In this example, we started the fox at the top of the circles and the chasers were at the goal line.
- Can use 1 to 4 chasers. We have found that 3 is a good number.
- On the whistle, the fox races around the net, while the chasers try to catch up and steal the puck.
- The fox attempts to skate two laps and get to the goal line before the puck is stolen.
- Get reps out of both sides so players work on different edges!
- Rotate through foxes & chasers.
Coaching Points
- Encourage the fox to under handle the puck so they can focus on their speed (push the puck ahead so players can take full strides instead of stickhandling with short strides).
- Encourage the chasers to keep their sticks on the ice and angle the fox and go stick on puck as they get closer.
- Encourage both the fox & the chasers to try to gain speed as they cross over.
Variations
- Call the Fox whatever you like! We have also used the name Turkey Chase.
- Can vary the number of chasers.
- Can give the fox a bigger or smaller advantage depending on their skill & speed.
- Can add additional turns so players are making turns on both edges during one lap.
- For more skilled players, you can require the fox & chasers to skate through an obstacle course (include tires, cones or a defender that tries to poke check them halfway through).
- Can reward the fox with a shot on the net at the end.
