Purpose:
This drill requires tight skating around cones, correct puck handling, and ac- curate passing and shooting.
Setup:
This drill requires four coaches who each have a pile of pucks. It also requires four cones, placed near center ice on the inside of the painted dots.
How It Works:
- Players are split into four groups at each edge of the blue lines. Coaches are placed at the outside of the circles, facing center ice. The players start with the puck.
- Groups 1 and 2 are on the right boards. Groups 3 and 4 are on the left boards. First player in Group 1 and first player in Group 3 (diagonal to each other) skate with the puck toward center ice, inside the cones.
- When they reach center ice, they pass to the coach they are skating toward.
- The players then cut around the nearest cone, focusing on skating as tightly around the cone as possible. As the players skate back toward the center, they cut down closer to the net. At this point, the coach they passed to passes back to them, setting them up to take a shot on goal.
- The drill is then repeated with players from Groups 2 and 4, involving the other two coaches not previously passing.
- Run the drill for 8-12 minutes.
Coaching Tips:
- This drill should be run so that it is fast and busy, requiring athletes to multi-task and complete their functions cleanly.
- Make sure players are passing accurately, receiving passes correctly from the coach, and taking good, hard shots on goal.
- Also, make sure players are cutting properly around the cones.