Please Note: The Practice of the Week is usually designed to be utilized across multiple age levels. With that being said, we highly encourage you to adjust the drills based on your team's age and skill levels. IHS should always be used as a starting point and you can add/remove layers to fit your team.

Practice Theme: The drills and games in this practice are designed to help your players work on the skills and will to win loose puck battles in different situations.

We encourage you to match up players to similar abilities when possible to create scenarios. 

We also encourage you to add/remove variables to make some of the battles 60/40 pucks or 70/30 pucks by moving starting points, etc.  Get creative with it and see if players are able to problem solve and find ways to gain control of the puck

3 Key Focus Points

1. Gain a Step: In close puck races players need to compete and problem solve to find a way to gain a step on their opponent to gain body positioning.
2. Body Contact: Encourage your players to initiate body contact when racing for the puck to gain positioning to win the puck.
3. Be Ready to Make a Play: Winning the puck race is meaningless if you aren't ready to make a play.  Encourage players to be aware of their surroundings and be ready to make a play once they win their race.