Tactical Problems in Hockey

Hockey is a game with may components that all coninside with one another to make the game run smoothly and safely for the players.

An important tactical problem is the ability to have quick starts and fast and short stops. There is basicallly 3 ways to stop that are to my knowledge.

1. the forwards skate facing forward and the skate behind goes horizontal to the front foot. Stoping like this is like trying to stop in the winter with your crapy summer tires.

2. there is also the classic learning to stop by using the pie shap toes facing inward while your heels face outwards. This is like trying to stop with your all season, it works but you are still going to slide quit far.

3. and the final way to stop is bending your knees and shifting your body weight to quickly shift your skates horizontally for a quick and smooth stop. This is like having the king or winter tires slapped on your car.

To help gain the skill and confidence in your ability to have quick starts and short distant stops.

The point of this exercise is to slip your team into 2 groups (1 team orange, 1 team green). at the start line you have a ready position and when the whistle is blown you skate hard to the cone and practice proper stoping techniques then you take the starting position again and skate hard to the next cone. As the first person starts to skate to the second cone the next person in line starts to skate to the first cone and this continues till all members on the team have made it to the other side of the rink.

A second and more basic way to introduce the skill of start and stop is to have the players evenly spred out around the rink with space to fall or lose the edge with out hitting other players. Then get the players to take two strides then practice the power stop. make sure all players go in the same direction to avoid colisions.