U12 - PeeWee 3 Station Practice Plan #4

In this video, Ben Eaves explains a hockey activity and progression that is excellent for every age and skill level. The activity can be done with 3, 4 or 5 players at a time. The video above shows two groups going through the progression. Group # 1 consists of 4, U18 players and Group # 2 is made up of 5, U10 & U12 players.

The major concept of the Finnish 5 Puck is to practice dynamic decision making which will help players learn to play with their head up instead of staring at the puck while they work to memorize a drill. The initial activities are set up to warm up your hands and edges. From there, the activities become more complex as more decisions need to be made within the group. Each Activity encourages players to keep their head up, move to open space, and pass the puck by interacting with their teammates through verbal & non-verbal communication.

If you commit to working on activities like this instead of memorization drills for a portion of each practice, you will marvel at how your team begins to work together. It will look extremely messy at first, but players will get better with each repetition. Moving to open space, and moving the puck will eventually become second nature to the team.

SETUP & ACTIVITY VARIABLES

• Players: great for 3, 4 or 5 players at a time.
• Time: You can rotate through groups of players in 45 - 60 second shifts. 5 players can be participating in the activity, while another 5 rest. Blow the whistle and the next 5 jump in.
• Space: can be set up to be within a zone, or half of a zone (station) or a smaller area. The smaller the space, the more challenging it will be for the players as they are forced to make quicker decisions.
• Added Challenge: add obstacles within the space to challenge the players further. Tires, cones, sticks, etc placed in the space make it harder to pass and skate around. As time goes on the added obstacles will help improve their reaction & decision making.

Activity # 1: Forward Skating

The goal of this activity is to get players warmed up and comfortable with skating forward to open space with the puck. They should be keeping their head up so they do not run into anyone or any obstacles that are out in the playing area. Players can work on their edges, control turns, mohawk turns, dekes, changing pace and whatever their creative minds (and coaches) can think of!

Activity # 2: Backward Skating

The goal of this second activity is to get players comfortable with skating backwards with the puck to open space. Since players are skating backward, it is crucial that all players keep their head up and look over their shoulders at all times.

Activity # 3: Forehand Only Puck Control

In this activity, players can only stickhandle with their forehand. This encourages players to move their body around the puck. This will help with puck protection along with changing passing and shooting angles. Continue to encourage players to keep head up and move to open space!

Activity # 4: Pass 1 Puck

Now that everyone is warmed up, this is where the fun begins. Encourage players to use verbal and non-verbal communication to pass 1 puck around between the group of players in the activity. Do not let players stand still and pass back and forth. Call out for constant movement and to skate to open space. When players receive the puck, they should take a stride or two, have their head up, and make a pass to an open teammate.

Activity # 5: Pass 2 Pucks

Here we go! With two pucks it is even more critical to keep your head up and communicate. It is important for all players to have an idea of where both pucks are so they can be ready to receive a pass and be ready to make a pass without passing to someone who already has a puck.

Activity # 6: Pass 3 Pucks

With three pucks it is important to read your teammates and anticipate what they are going to do with the puck. If you don't pay attention, you end up receiving a pass you are not ready for, or you pass to someone who isn't looking.  Communicate verbally, pay close attention and read body language! 

Activity # 7: Pass 4 Pucks

This could be the hardest of all of the activities. It is important to stress patience with the puck in this round. If players do not pay attention they end up all passing to the one open player at once.  Keep your head up, be patient and pass when your teammate is ready to receive your pass. Do not rush. If you are the only player without a puck, make it clear with verbal communication who you want the puck from.

Activity # 8: Pass 5 Pucks

With 5 pucks (or 4 pucks with 4 people) it is important to communicate with eye contact and verbal queues. Do not attempt rink-wide or long passes at first. Short and subtle drop passes and slides work excellent in this activity.

Activity # 9: 4 vs 1

Now that everyone has been challenged with passing multiple pucks, it should be extremely easy to pass one puck and keep it away from a defender. Use all of the lessons learned above (moving to space, verbal and non-verbal communication) to make sure that the defender does not have a chance to touch the puck.

Activity # 10: 3 vs 2

3 on 2 will be an increasing challenge to play keep away, but with patience, puck protection and communication, the defenders should still not be able to get the puck.  

Added Competitive Challenge:

• Group Challenge: After the group gets comfortable with the exercises, you can add a natural element of competition between the groups by counting the number of successful passes made in the passing activities. Or you can count the number of successful passes made in a row. Either of these can be a fun way to get each group to work harder by having them compete with each other and focus on getting open and making a good pass.
• With a Goalie: when you are playing 4 on 1 or 3 on 2, if the team makes 5 passes in a row you can allow them to shoot on a goalie.

Coaching Points: 

• Encourage players to always move to open space on the ice. Do not allow them to stand still and pass the puck back and forth.
• Encourage verbal communication (calling teammate by name, saying you are open, etc).
• Encourage non-verbal communication (good eye contact, showing a passing target, tapping a stick, etc).
• Allow players to make mistakes. It will take time to get comfortable with these activities. But as time goes on you will see them picking their head up to make a decision, which is the goal of this progression.

If you are interested in more hockey activities which require more decision making, reading, and reacting then please check out this article which discusses 11 Activities for Youth Hockey Practice.

Related Content

• Finnish Skills Series Part 1
• Finnish Skills Series Part 2
• Gates of Buffalo Small Area Game

This is a basic cross ice 3 vs 3. Depending on your numbers and the age level you can do 4 vs 4 as well. Keep in mind one of the goals is to get every player engaged and a lot of puck touches.

Set Up

Place two nets cross ice facing each other with three players from each team in the playing area. In this set up the goals are moved up to the face-off dots. This allows more space behind the nets and allows for more plays and shots on net. Allow the players to play for 60 - 90 seconds then blow the whistle for a shift change.

In this puck race the players we add a forwards to backwards transition and a backwards to forwards transition. The players also work on tight control turns.

Setup

Place a mini net in the middle of the ice inline with the dots. The coach is with the pucks at the far side. Please reference the diagram and animation for the positions of the tires / cones. Be sure to have players of equal ability compete against each other as much as possible.

Credit: Animation and diagram produced by Hockey Coach Vision.

This puck race requires quick, tight control turns in both directions. It is a nice progression from the Neutral Zone Puck Races #1 & #2.

Setup

Place a mini net in the middle of the station and inline with the dots. Please reference the diagram and animation for the placement of the tires / cones. It is also important to try and pair players of similar ability level to compete against each other.

How to play

The coach blows the whistle and the first two players in each line do tight control turns throught the tires. Then they skate forward to the far tire, do a tight control turn, and race for the puck thrown into play by the coach.

Credit: Animation and diagram produced using Hockey Coach Vision.

This game gives players an great opportunity to be creative and play a small area game with a twist. The game requires awareness as they are trying to score on two nets and trying to protect one net.

Setup

Place three mini nets in a triangle formation in one offensive / defensive zone as shown in the diagram. Divide players into three teams. Two players from each team will be involved at one time. Players will play for 60 - 90 seconds.

How the game is played

 Each team has a net that they protect. They are trying to score on the other two nets. If they score a goal on one of the other nets they earn 1 point. If they allow a goal on the net they are trying to protect then they lose 1 point.