How to Coach Novice Hockey

Coaching any sport is an experience like no other. Leading a team to learn the game and improve upon individual skill levels is challenging and rewarding. In particular, coaching novice hockey is involved, requiring plenty of planning and patience. The ability to assess quickly both personalities and skill sets is useful. Perhaps most importantly, coaching novice hockey requires a coach to keep the big picture in mind while still keeping a keen eye on the immediate details.

Things You'll Need

  • Whistle
  • Hockey playbook
  • Hockey practice drills book for beginners
  • Orange practice cones
  • Practice area
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Instructions

    • 1

      Get the right equipment. This includes a whistle, playbook, book of practice drills and orange cones to use during practice.

    • 2

      Execute simple skating drills with the team to assess team and individual skating skill levels during the first practice. This helps you determine the complexity of the drills later in practice.

    • 3

      Execute simple puck handling drills with the team to assess both team and individual puck handling ability during the first practice. Again, this will help you determine how complex your drills can be later in practice.

    • 4

      Plan the season's practices by the team's determined skill level using a beginner's hockey practice drills book, increasing complexity of the drills for each practice.

    • 5

      Implement a theme at each practice. For example, the second practice can focus on speed, the third on backwards skating and the fourth on specific plays from a novice hockey playbook.

    • 6

      Have the team scrimmage either amongst themselves or against other teams in between games to apply what they have learned in practice.