Purpose

Defensemen practice the various types of skating they need to excel at in games.

Setup

  • Defenseman lines up at the goal line in the corner of the rink.
agility hockey skating drill

How it Works

  1. Coach blows his whistle.
  2. Defenseman skates forward to the blue line.
  3. He then uses chop steps across the blue line to the middle of the ice.
  4. There he skates backward to the faceoff circle.
  5. In the faceoff circle, he pivots and skates forward to the spot on the goal line where he began the drill.
  6. Next, he skates to the front of the net and stops.
  7. Then he skates to the opposite corner.
  8. Run the drill for 5 to 10 minutes.

Coaching Tips

  • You can run this drill from both corners at the same time to get your defensemen more work.
  • Make sure players are executing good, hard stops and that they are accelerating quickly when the start skating again.