How do I create and save a practice?

Creating a practice on icehockeysystems.com is a feature that can be extremely useful for youth hockey coaches who want to improve communication, save time, and be more prepared for practice.

The best feature of creating a practice on icehockeysystems.com is that you can reference any of your own content or content from the website to show up in your practice. The fact that you can add drills, systems, and off-ice exercises to your practice allows you to create a complete session for your team. To get an idea you can view examples of FREE Youth Ice Hockey Practice Plans available on IceHockeySystems.com.

Step #1: Click Add to Practice

From your dashboard you can find the "ADD PRACTICE" button under the Practices section. Click this and you will land on the form to add a practice.

Step #2 - Fill Out the Form Fields

Practice Title

Give your practice a title that will be helpful to yourself and your team. Keep in mind that when you share this practice with your coaches and team they will depend on the title ot make sure they are referencing the right practice.  If you have more than one team you may want to reference the name of the team in the title.

Practice Date

Choose a practice date (this can be changed when edited if you wish to re-use the practice at a later date). This also helps members of your team find practices that they should be referencing.  You can also refer back to this practice to see what you did on a particular date

Practice Notes

The practice notes are a great way for you to communicate with your team about the structure and theme of the practice. You can make an outline to show the drills and length of time of the drills.  This tab is the default tab for when a member of your team views the practice. You can use the HTML filter to format the text and make it easier to read and highlight areas using bold, italic, or lists.

Practice Plan Diagram

This field has recently been added for users that have a diagram of the entire practice.  This can be a great tool to show the layout of a station based practice or an ADM type practice. When you upload a diagram it will be visible within the "Notes" tab of the practice.

Practice PDF

When you upload a practice PDF then your team members will be able to download the pdf from a button at the top of the practice page. This is a good tool to use if you only have the practice in a pdf format.

The diagram below shows how the diagram and pdf will appear within the team access account.

Referenced Drills, Systems, and Exercises

To add hockey drills, systems, and off-ice exercises to your practice plan you will first want to save the practice.  Only add content to the practice from the form if you know the title of the content you wish to add.  It is much easier to add content by visiting the page for the content. If I have drills save to my drill lists then I can easily find some of my favorite drills.  When you are on a page of a drill, system, or exercise that you want to add to a practice then use the "Add" buttons on the left hand side to add it to any of your saved practices. See the screenshot below...

Once you have added all of the content to your practice then you can share it with your coaches and team. View a tutorial on how to share practices with your team.