Team Building Ideas for High School Hockey

A high school hockey team that plays with unity and cohesion will regularly win over teams with similar skills but lower levels of teamwork. While working on fundamentals like passing, checking and shooting is important, a coach can't afford to ignore training that makes his players work together better as a team. Some specific exercises help hockey players learn to work together better.

  1. Blindfold Games

    • When one member of a team is blindfolded, he has to listen to and work well with his other teammates, while those with vision must learn to communicate well. Try a game where you lay a field full of several hockey pucks. Blindfold one player and have the other players try to coach him through the mine field. If he hits a puck, he has to go back and start over again. Divide the available players into two groups to turn it into a race.

    Balance Beam

    • This exercise was developed by physical education experts Donald Glover and Daniel Midura and was used during a 2008 study of team building activities for hockey teams conducted through McGill University in Montreal, Canada. During the activity, participants take a random order and stand on a balance beam. Then the coaches pick an order that the players need to be in, such as alphabetical order or by birth month. The players will then carefully get themselves into the correct order without anyone falling off the beam.

    Team Workouts

    • A team workout that requires group participation helps to build teamwork, improve conditioning and helps players have fun and relax by playing a game or engaging in an activity other than hockey. For instance, players could go on a short canoe trip together where groups would have to work together in a boat. Paintball is another option that would involve lots of exercise for the group while building team communication and trust.

    Volunteer Activities

    • Working together for a common good helps bring people together and unite them as a single work force. Organize a team day where the players volunteer for a worthy cause in your area to build team unity. You could provide players with a list of potential causes, such as helping on a Habitat for Humanity build or working to help clean up a local park or landmark, and then let the team decide where it wants to put its efforts.