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.
