Playing a Box Defense

Playing a box defense is one of the best ways to defend and to teach the kids.  Putting them in a position is the easy part.Getting them to understand where to move with the puck is the challenging part. This picture may help you to diagram on your coaches board or to even send to the player to review on their own.I've also built several slide shows that can be seen here that detail all of the player positions.Left wingRight wingLeft defenseRight...

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Breakaway Drill

Drill:1. Line kids up on both sides of boards2. Skate in and pick up puck from middle and stick handle and shoot3. Change linesFocus:1. Picking puck up while skating2. Stickhandling with head up, puck control3. Making a move on the goalie4. Picking a spot and shootingNotes:There are a lot of variations with this drill. 1. You could focus on backhand shots2. A coach could play defense by chasing the player from behind to put press...

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Stickhandling through the cones

Drill:1. Line up players on each side of the rink (or net if you only have a half rink)2. Players must pick up the puck and skate thru the conesNote: have one set of cones in a straight line and the other spread apart3. After completing the cones, skate in on the goalie and shoot.Focus:1. Builds stickhandling skills2. Work on getting faster each time3. Wide cones will focus on carrying the puck around tight tu...

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