While the adage “practice makes perfect” is slightly misleading in the game of hockey – there is no such thing as perfect hockey as many youth coaches can attest – practice certainly accelerates development when compared to games.
USA Hockey has a proven practice-to-game ratio for coaches teaching our youngsters.
“It does vary a little bit by age, but for us we love to see people hit 3-to-1 – three practices to one game,” said Ken Martel, USA Hockey Senior Director of Player and Coach Development.
Simple Math
For coaches who want to get the most improvement from their teams, the math of practice to games is pretty basic.
“The average youth game is played in an hour time slot, the same as practice. If you’ve got three lines on a team and you play one-third of the game, so if your periods are 15 minutes, you play 15 minutes,” Martel said. “Well in a practice, you’re out there for an hour – you get 60 minutes.”
Martel said that players get the best learning during time on task. Kids simply do not get enough time to work on skills required to excel at the sport during games – especially at younger ages.
“The best players in the world get about 60 seconds with the puck out of a 60-minute hockey game. It’s tough to develop skills with the puck when you only have it on your stick for a minute,” Martel said. “In practice you might have the puck on your stick for 30 minutes. A lot easier to learn how to handle it when you get more opportunity.”
Problem Solving from Repetition
Practice is also the best place for coaches to teach concepts and scenarios. In a game, a player might get an opportunity to do something and not see a similar situation for the rest of the game, or even the next. In practice, coaches can set up a particular situation and have the kids get multiple reps at it.
“It’s difficult for younger kids to learn from the big game because they don’t get to see the same situation repeatedly, fast enough,” Martel said. “In practice, you can set up a drill where they can see the same situation or do the same thing over and over and over. Get lots of repetitions within a very short amount of time that allows them to connect the dots.”
For kids to improve their hockey sense, they must learn how to think on their feet. Multiple chances in similar situations gets kids out of their comfort zone and willing to try different methods.
“If you want to work on a 2-on-1, a kid could do that in the game and get one attempt at it. Where in a practice I can set it up so they get 20 attempts, one right after another,” Martel said. “They have to learn how to manipulate and solve the problem.”
Make it Game-Like
If coaches are putting players in situations to develop, great competition can happen on the practice rink.
“Kids come to ice hockey to play, and practice should replicate a little of that,” Martel said. “If you’re a good coach and you’re efficient, practice is where it’s at. It’s where you have the most influence and where players are going to learn the most.”
Practices should have plenty of game-like scenarios and competition between players. Coaches can use small area games to not only build in concepts, but to teach skills as well. USA Hockey has a number of resources to help coaches build a competitive practice plan, including the Mobile Coach app, practice planners and small area games page.
For Martel, coaches have the ability to make practices fun, competitive and get the most out of their players.
“We always say get good at your local rink. You don’t need to travel all across the country to play games looking for competition when, chances are, it’s pretty close to home and you can get good competition in your practice setting if it’s set up right,” Martel said. “But it’s got to look like the game.”
Source: usahockey.com