The Tag Up Forecheck drill from Tyler Bielby is an excellent drill to practice forechecking, breakout, and rush attack principles. It starts as a neutral zone forecheck and progresses to a full in zone forecheck.

Setup

• Line up the defensive line on the blue line and the offensive (forechecking) line at the red line. 
  • Part 1: Coach blows the whistle and each line skates up and tags up with the next line (players on blue line go to red line and players at center ice go to far blue line), and then heads back.
  • Coach passes the puck to the near side defenseman, and this is where teams can work on any breakout, forecheck and rush attack concepts that they would like.
  • The defending team is looking to get sticks in lanes and shut down the rush.
  • Each team is trying to score.
  • Part 2: After each line has 2 or 3 reps of the neutral zone forecheck, the coach will dump the puck into the corner instead for a full breakout and forecheck. Each team is still trying to score and coaches can work on various breakout and forechecking principles.

Coaching Points

• Defending team should all have sticks on the ice to block passing lanes and angle the offense to the outside of the ice.
• The offensive team should all work to support their teammates by swinging into lanes and being ready for a pass. Keep your head up to look for open ice and open lanes.

Variations

• If the offensive team is struggling to break the puck out, you can reduce the number of players on the forechecking team to 2, 3, or 4 before you build it up to 5 on 5.