Purpose

Defensemen work on skating backward.

Setup

  • Players start out at the goal line in the corner of the rink.
three laps hockey defense drill

How it Works

  1. Coach blows his whistle or says “Go.”
  2. Defensemen skate backward around the outside of the rink three times.

Coaching Tips

  • Players should work on skating backward as fast as they can while maintaining good fundamentals.
  • One thing you can do is add the offensive players to this drill and have them skate forward. This may push the defenders to skate backward faster because they don’t want everyone else to be waiting on them to finish.