A bold claim to start the new year: the traditional methods of teaching skating development are terrible. There are many better ways that coaches have uncovered in the modern game to develop a player’s skating.
The next piece on the horizon is “puck-centric skating development.”
Puck-Centric Skating Development
Puck-centric skating development is skating development that is focused on the context of a relationship to a player with a puck.
How many times does a decent skater look capable, but quickly turn into a wobbly baby deer once a puck is introduced? More than you’d expect.
If a player cannot master skating within the context of the puck, their ability to be a functional hockey player will be greatly diminished. Just like coaches and players want to couple perception and action to avoid creating ‘practice players.’ They want to couple the relationship between skating and puck.
Traditional Skating Development
Coach-centric skating development is where a coach barks instructions at a group, has the players skate, and then repeats the drill. This often takes the form of skating down the ice in lines.
There are many problems, including:
Waiting around
Straight lines often lack use of outside edges
Fewer access to the desired skating movement
Look how this session could improve. Within two minutes, players have attempted the movement pattern barely at all. Yikes.
Here is another example of a traditional session that could be improved.
Better Skating Development
When it comes to developing skaters, it’s time to throw out the old and bring in the new. It’s time to embrace chaotic-looking practice and move away from using lines of players.
A few activity examples:
Freeze Tag (Skating forward or backward)
Skating races
Continuous movement (I like ovals when working technique)
For younger ages, an effective continuous movement activity is ‘follow the leader’.
For older ages, continuous movement with coaches in the middle to pull players aside for technical teaching is effective. This gives players the space to self-explore.
The future of player development when it comes to skating will involve a puck early. This skating development will see players develop great puck positioning, better puck protection, and create comfort with multitasking to process what’s happening.
This allows for development with proper puck positioning and having a better foundational relationship with the puck.
Related reading: Puck Positioning
If dealing with a wide range of abilities, you can take away or add pucks depending on where players are in their stage of development.
The Puck Moves First
We want to leave you with another fact that many ignore… the puck moves first.
Watch a player moving around the ice with a puck. Almost exclusively, the puck will move first and quickly followed up by the skater’s feet and body. “The puck leads the body.” Often this leads to sharper agility for the puck carrier.
Next time you’re working on skating, challenge your players by adding a puck or multiple pucks.
Further Reading