Ice Hockey Drills Animations, Diagrams, Downloads, and Community

If you ever split the ice so that forwards and defense can work on specific drills, this is a great drill to do with the defense. Place the pucks behind the net and the two cones just outside the face off dots and just below the goal line.  Place one player on the boards just below the hash marks, one player at the blue line along the boards, one player in front of the net, and the rest of the players form a line behind the net.  D1 begins by skating out from behind the net with a puck and makes a pass to D2. D2 mkaes a quick pass up to D3.

Here are a couple of drills that are good when working with players individually or in small groups.  The focus of this drill is on a neutral zone turnover situation that happens numerous times in a game.  In order to do it well the players must have good footwork. 

This ice hockey drill is great for defensemen to work on their shots, passing, and pivoting. Each player will get three shots. To start, the defensemen receives a puck from the corner and gains the center of the ice as quickly as possible and shoots from the top of the slot. The player continues around the cones always facing the net. This forces them to pivot and receive the next pass going backwards. When they receive the next pass the player repeats as in the first rep.

This drill emphasises defensmen's footwork and passing abilities. This can be thought of as a situational drill for the neutral zone transition. As the defensmen receives the pass, they need to turn up ice with their head up ready to pass to an open player. On occasion they can turn the puck up with enough speed to keep the puck and generate their own rush into the offensive zone.

This goal of this drill is to get the defensemen working on their backward to forward pivot and making a good first breakout pass. As simple as this drill looks, make sure the p[layers are doing it right. When picking up the puck from the corner, they need to keep their feet moving and gain the far post. When turning up ice, they need to stay within the face off dots, make the pass, and continue up ice as fast as possible.

This is a demanding drill for defensmen. Defensmen need to focus on bringing the puck around the net inside the faceoff dots and square up to the center ice before making the pass to the forward. Once they make the pass they need to judge their speed to make a play on the oncoming forward. The goal is to make the play at the Blue line.

The drill starts when the defensive player passes the forward in the corner.  The forward cannot leave until they receive the pass.  Once they receive the pass they are skating straight down the ice on a 1 on 1.  The defensive player, once they make the pass, skates around the cone and pivots from forwards to backwards and plays the forward from the opposite corner.

This drill is primarily for defensive players.  The player is always facing forward and is to keep their feet moving as much as possible.  The player begins without the puck and quickly receives a pass from the next player in line.  After receiving the pass, they pivot around the cone and give the coach at center ice a pass.  They then skate forward to the red line and pivot to a backwards skate and gets in good position to receive a pass back from the coach.  Once they recei

This drill focuses on footwork, puck control, and passing.  D1 starts the drill by passing to D2 and skating through the cones.  As D1 skates through the cones they have to always face D2.  D2 side steps their way down the blue line and performs as many give and go passes with D1 as possible.  After the last cone, D1 passes to D2, gets the puck back and goes in for a shot on net.  the two players then go to the opposite lines.

This drill is good to help defense work on their puck control in neutral zone situations.  Players need to work on moving their feet, keeping thier head up, and making accurate passes. As players get better you can add passes so that they are required to make twice as many passes.  It is also fun to start timing players and compete for the fastest time. 

The goal of this shooting drill is to have the defense shoot low and to a target.  You can set out some cones in front of the net that are the defense's target.  The first pass comes out of the corner from a coach or another player, to a player along the boards at the blue line.  The player receives the puck and quickly passes the puck the the player in the middle of the ice who controls the puck quickly and fires a shot.

I highly recommend viewing the animation as this diagram gets pretty messy.  Very similar to the previous drill, 2 on 0 Flow, but there is one more element that is added after the defense takes a shot from the point.  The reason for this added wrinkle is that many times the shot is taken from the point and either blocked or re-directed to the opponents, who make a quick counter-attack.  The defense need to take a shot and be prepared to manage their gap and take on that quick counter a