U8 - 6 Station Practice Plan #2

Torpedo is a great warm up activity for young hockey players. It is most appropriate for U8 & U10 but even U12 players find it fun and engaging. The game gets players warmed up, excited, and raises the excitement level for practice.

How to Play

All the player will throw their sticks down behind the goal line so they are out of the way and line up all the way across the goal line. The coaches will collect as many cones as the can and station themselves along the wall. On the whistle the players will try to skate from one end to the other without getting hit by a "torpedo" (cone). If they get hi they have to take a knee until the game is over. The last player to get hit wins that round.

This small area activity allows players a chance to work on skating and stickhandling fundamentals in a creative way. It is a good station drill to compliment work on basic stick handling and control turns.

Setup

Use a combination of tires, cones, and sticks to create three types of obstacles. Cones will represent the gates and are to be placed in pairs. Tires can be placed on their own and the triangles are represented by a tire with a stick leaning on it. All of these objects are placed randomly throughout the station.

How It Works

All players will carry a puck and skate around the station. When they come to a tire they do a full 360 turn around the tire while controlling the puck. When they come to a gate (pair of cones) they do a figure eight around both cones. When they come to a triangle they slide the puck under the stick as if they are attacking the triangle of a defender.

This version of 1 vs 1 vs 1 is played in a sixth ice station for practices that are using six stations. If you have goalies you can use regular sized nets but you can also use mini nets.

How to Play

Three players will play at one time and each player is given one net they have to protect. The coach will dump a puck into play and each player will compete for the puck. The players will try to score on one of the other player's nets while not letting any goals get scored on their own net. After a goal is scored the coach dumps a new puck into play. After about 90 seconds the coach blows the whsitle and a new set of players enters the game.

Credit: Diagram and animation produced using Hockey Coach Vision.

This is exactly the same game as puck tag but it is geared towards the Mites & Novice age level because it allows the players to use ringettes instead of pucks. The game of puck tag goes like this:

• Every player has a ringette and is skating around the playing area.
• Designate 2 players or coaches to be "IT".
• If a player is tagged they must stand still with one arm holding their stick and one arm up in the air.
• In order to return to the game another player must stickhandle a ringette through their legs.
• Once all of the players are tagged at one time then the round is over.

Why this is a great small area game

The game forces players to control the ringette with their head up and taking inventory of their surroundings. They have to look for opportunities to free their teammates by being aware of where the "IT" are located.

Here is a fun small area game for Mites / Novice age players. The players will have fun while working on their balance, agility, knee bend, and awareness.

Set Up

Place three tires in a triangle formation in the playing area as shown in the diagram. Scatter as many pucks as you can around the outisde of the station. Divide the players up into three equal teams if possible and have each team start by one of the tires.

Objective

On the whistle players will skate around and pick up "toys" (pucks). The object of the game is to find as many "toys" (pucks) as possible and put them in your team's tire. The team that collect the most "toys" wins that round.

Soccer can be a fun way break away from traditional small area games and drills.

Set Up

The version shown in this diagram is on 1/4 ice station. Instead of using hockey nets try using cones and widening out the goals a little bit. The kids seem to have more fun when more goals are scored. Depending on the number of players in your station you can play 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, or 5 vs 5. Don't worry about shift changes just split up the players in your station as equal as possible and let them all play.

Why this game is good

Not only will the players have a blast, but they will be forced to use their edges, balance, and agility in ways they dont always get to.

In these relay races players will be working on their forward strides. There are two variations and for each variation the players simply skate out around the tire and back to the goal line. Once they cross the goal line the next pair can go. In every race each pair will go two times so that players can switch roles.

Push Partner

In this version one player is backwards and one player is forwards. The players hold each others sticks at about shoulder height together. The player going forward pushes the other player, the player going backward just glides and tries to steer them in the right direction.

Pull Partner

This is also commonly known as the chariot race. The player in front will hold a stick in each hand while the player in back will squat down and hold the sticks under their arm by the stick blade. The player in front skates while the player in back is squating down low and enjoying the ride.