The Underhandle Defense Passing drill from Phillip Barski focuses on under-handling the puck, delivering hard tape-to-tape passes, and communication defensemen.
Setup
- Five defensemen are involved in each rotation.
- Four defensemen are spaced in a passing sequence around the zone.
- One defenseman starts as the puck retriever.
- A coach is positioned with pucks to spot the initial pass into the corner.
Execution
- The coach softly rims or spots a puck into the corner to begin the drill.
- The puck-retrieving D skates backward, picks up the puck, gets it on his hip, and passes to the next D without over-handling ("no dust").
- Each D must take at least two hard strides before delivering a clean, quick pass to the next player.
- This continues around the passing sequence until the final D receives the puck, under-handles it, and takes a shot on net.
Progression
- After the shot, all five players rotate to the next position in the sequence.
- The shooter skates backward and becomes the next puck retriever.
- The coach spots a new puck, and the next rep begins immediately.
Coaching Points
- Emphasizes efficient puck movement
- Reinforce strong tape-to-tape passing
- Helps players avoid over-handling the puck
Variations
- Can add in light pressure so players have to pick their head up before passing to the next player in line.
Supplemental Materials
- The second video shown is from Phillip's presentation on A Defenceman's Blueprint To Breaking Pucks Out at the Brock University High Performance Hockey Seminar.
