The Kick Out Warm Up from John Dean helps players get puck touches early in practice and practice getting to the middle of the ice.
Setup
- Set players up behind the the face-off dots just inside the blueline.
- On the whistle, two opposite lines skate towards the other line across from them and make a pass just before the red line.
- After the pass, the player curls back up ice along the boards, while the player with the puck skates up center ice.
- The puck carrier drives towards the players waiting in line and kicks the puck out to the boards just before the blue line.
- The player that was skating along the boards, receives the puck and then drives towards the middle of the ice and fires a shot on net.
- Both players follow up and stop at the net before returning to their lines.
Coaching Points
- All players should keep their sticks on the ice to let their teammates know where they want the puck.
- Everyone should be communicating loudly.
- Players should drive into the middle of the ice before taking a shot in net.
Variations
- Coaches can have players work on different shooting techniques (shooting in stride, changing shot angle) after they get into their shooting lane.
- Coaches can have players work on different zone entry concepts (player with the puck curls after they enter the zone and passes to the driving player, etc).
