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Initiation Level Hockey Drills
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The following drills were designed by the OMHA for initiation level hockey players. These are great drills for beginner hockey players, or young hockey players. These drills were created to help coaches build their players hockey skills, and also have diversity in practices. Hockey players sometimes learn more if they are having fun (especially at young ages) because they will try harder, and want to learn more in order to improve. The following drills are from the OMHA drill book which can be found on the website at Hometownhockey. These youth hockey drills focus on technical skills and individual tactics as these are the skills that should be worked on the most at the initiation level.
This drill is designed to be a fun drill and is a good drill from young hockey players. Fun drills are usually good drills to start with as the players will enjoy them and it will help the players warm up.
| Time |
Description |
| 5 Minute Drill |
Chaos – Free Time |
- Players skate all over the ice, stick handling the pucks
- Coaches interact with the players passing the pucks back and forth
- Encourage kids to hand the pucks, forehand, backhand, kick the pucks with their skates, no shooting against the boards
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| Drill Diagram |
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The point of this drill is for the players to practice many of the fundamental hockey skills in 10 minute sessions. This is a good drill to have because players can move quickly from one station to the other and little time is wasted explaining and setting up new drills.
| Time |
Description |
| 50 Minutes |
5 Station Skills Circuit – 10 Minutes at each station |
- Skating
- Forward stride and bend, stop at blueline
- Forward jump stride, stop at blueline
- Forward crossovers
- Backward c-cuts
- backward striding
- backward crossovers
- Puck Control
- Stationary puck control
- Figure eights
- Toe drag
- Partner puck control
- Pond Hockey
- Passing
- Stationary forehand passing / rec
- Stationary backhand passing / rec
- Telescope passing / rec
- Balance and Agility
- Stationary balance 1 leg
- Stationary deep knee bends
- Inside / outside edges
- Gliding on one foot
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| Drill Diagram |
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This is a great drill for players to practice their skating and stick handling abilities. By providing the players with different equipment it allows them to develop different motor skills and also adds a fun element to the drill which will keep them focused.
| Time |
Description |
| 5 Minutes |
Free Skate |
- As each skates steps onto the ice they are given either a puck, tennis ball, or street hockey ball
- Skate in any direction on the ice
- On the whistle the player must exchange their item with another piece of equipment
- No shooting allowed, only puck control
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| Drill Diagram |
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This is a great drill for players to practice their balance and agility. Stations are kept at 5 minute intervals in order to keep the players attention and work on many different skills in a 20 minute time frame.
| Time |
Description |
| 20 Minutes |
Balance and Agility |
Four stations, five minutes at each station. Change stations on a determined signal.
- Station 1
(one of the end zones)
- Players do crossovers around circle 1 (two and a half times) and then around circle 2 (two times)
- Send 2-3 players at a time
- Repeat 2-3 times
- Do same as 1, but with pucks
- Station 2
(Between blue line and red line)
- Players run over agility boards. Execute a glide turn at pylons 1 and skate to pylon 2. Stop using tow foot front stop facing boards. Skate backwards from pylon 2 to pylon 3 and stop. Do lateral crossovers back to original position, repeat.
- Station 3
(Between blue line and red line)
- Group one skates backwards to pylon and pivots backwards to forward, then accelerates out of turn, skating forward and execute two foot stop at boards, then go to end of group two line
- Group two skates forward to pylon and pivots forward and backwards. Skating backwards to sideboards and stopping. Go to end of group one line
- Station 4 (one of the end zones)
- Player controls puck while weaving through pylons
- Player performs glide turn at last pylon, skating forward for ten metres before stopping. Face boards when you stop
- Skate backwards to opposite side of rink while controlling the puck
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| Drill Diagram |
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This is a good drill to use to help develop puck control among initiation level players. This drill adds some friendly competition and also puck control in the feet.
| Time |
Description |
| 15 Minutes |
Puck Control Stations |
Three stations, 5 minutes each, change stations on a determined signal
- Station 1: Tight Turn Competition
- Arrange players into two groups
- Arrange pylons as shown, and have players race for a spotted puck and finnish with a shot on goal (add a second puck for second player if needed)
- Station 2: Control puck with feet
- Players cross the ice using feet to control the puck
- Options are keeping the puck in feet at all times, or kicking puck slightly ahead (1 metre) alternate skates
- Station 3: Chaos
- Have each player skate randomly with a puck throughout the zone
- Coaches add pressure to check and encourage to keep head up
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| Drill Diagram |
 |
| Time |
Description |
| 5 Minutes |
Fun Time |
Players skate to the blue line and…
- Coast on both skates, jump the red line and blue line. Take off on two feet and land on two feet.
- Coast on both skates. Jump the red line, turn 180 degrees in air and land backwards. At the blue line jump and turn 180 degrees and land going forwards. Always take off on two feet and land on two feet
- Coast on only one skate. Jump red and blue line on one skate. Do not put other skate down
- Repeat last point with other leg
Do these 2 or 3 times each |
| Drill Diagram |
 |
This is a good alternative to a scrimmage. By breaking the players into three groups in three sections on the ice, more players will be involved in the practice at one time.
| Time |
Description |
| 5 Minutes |
Pond Hockey Drill |
- Use a puck
- Use three areas and play cross ice
- Use pylons as goals (instead of nets)
- To score puck pust hit pylon
- No goalies
|
| Drill Diagram |
 |
This is a fun skating drill that is also good to use as an opening drill to warm players up.
| Time |
Description |
| 10 Minutes |
Free skate |
Players skate clockwise around the ice. At blue line they perform four warm-up exercises
- Touch toes
- Squat low
- Pull knee to chest
- Touch one knee to ice
Between the blue lines: Skates stay on ice at all times, spread legs wide and then bring them in together. |
| Drill Diagram |
 |
| Time |
Description |
| 20 Minutes |
Balance and Agility |
- Cross ice touching knee on ice after each stride. I.e drive with left skate, touch left knee to ice and get up. Drive with right skate, touch right knee to ice and get up, repeat across ice. Do three times
- Cross ice doing forward alternate leg crossovers
- Players skate forward and perform a task at each section of ice.
- Jump over agility board
- Dive under obstacle (set on two high pylons)
- Jump over agility board set on pylons
- Dive under obstacle set on two pylons. Player gets up and turns 360 degrees around pylon, skates forwards (six metres) pivots forward to backwards and skates backwards to boards. Lateral crossovers back to original postion. Repeat
- Same set up as 3. Players can carry puck with them. Must slide puck under obstacles on pylons, skate around and puck it up. Perform an open ice carry on the return to position.
Repeat using route-2 as players should do on forehand and backhand |
| Drill Diagram |
 |
This is a good passing and skating drill. Half the players line up and practice passing and the other half practice skating with the puck. If desired the entire team can practice passing, and then the entire team can practice handling the puck
| Time |
Description |
| 10 Minutes |
Stationary Passing / Receiving and Stopping with puck |
Review and demonstrate key points
- Players partner off approximately six metres apart
- Practice forehand pass and receive
- practice backhand pass and receive
- Alternate with players spaced ten metres apart
- Players practice stickhandling across the ice stop and repeat.
Repeat 6-7 times |
| Drill Diagram |
 |
More Initiation Hockey Drills – Small area games
Check out this PDF that includes a lot of small area games that are great for younger hockey players.
I hope these drills will help you come up with some effective practices for your players. I am working on putting a post together for Novice level hockey drills and Novice level Practice plan. If you would like to get more posts like this sent right to your inbox then feel free to subscribe to this blog by entering your email address in the box to the left.

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Tagged as:
beginner hockey drills,
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initiation hockey drills,
initiation level hockey drills,
young player hockey drills,
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi there, I am currently coaching the little guys and am having troubles keeping them busy. We only have 10 players, and would like some suggestions and drills to keep them busy as I am the only coach on the ice with the 10 of them.
i’m coaching 4-5-6yrs olds and just looking for drills to help these young kids to develop. any drills would be a help, as many as possible. thanks.
I too am coaching an initiation team with 22 kids and only 7 have played hockey before. So I guess what I am looking for is some skating drills and other drills for begineers that would be easy to instruct and for the kids to pick up on and learn.
Hi
I would greatly appreciate if you could send me some drills on the initiation/tyke level.
Thanks
Wade
I am the on ice coordinator for the Mini Mite program in the Ann Arbor Amateur Hockey Association. I am looking for additional age related hockey drills (cross ice) that I can add to my arsenal of drills that I already have. would be willing to share my collection from over 20 years of coaching. Feel free to contact me at your convenience.
Hi Ron,
I’ve been asked to coach an initiation team this year and am really looking for some drills to do with the kids. I have been out of the game for quite a few years so i’m pretty rusty. Any help would be great!
Thanks
Kurtis
Wainwright, Alberta
Hi Ron,
I like Kurtis who funny enough I happen to know have also been asked to help coach the initiation team in my town. Any suggestions or help would be fantastic!
Thanks,
Travis Shaw
Devon, AB
Hi Ron
I’m coaching my son this year and would really like some ideas. The age group is 5 to 6yr olds with varied levels of skating ability.
Thanks
Char