The Pit Chaos Handling With Passing drill is an excellent activity that helps players work on awareness, puck handling, and passing skills. This drill can be used as a warm-up in practice or games, or as a drill to reinforce keeping your head up.

Setup

• Setup 2, 3, or 4 players in the middle of a face-off circle. The more players involved will increase the difficulty of the drill because there will be more skaters to pass & stickhandle around.
• Setup 3 or 4 players around the outside of a circle.
• On the whistle, the players in the middle of the circle begin stickhandling within the border of the circle. The players on the outside begin passing the puck to each other. 
• After 20-30 seconds, players rotate.

Coaching Points

• Encourage players to keep their heads up and scan the ice.
• Players stickhandling should work to get to open space.
• Players passing the puck scan the ice and think ahead as to where they would pass the puck before they get it.

Variations

• Can set up in different areas of the ice.
• Coaches can require two touch or one touch passes for higher skilled groups.
• Can increase or decrease the # of players involved. More players inside the circle will make the drill more challenging.