Hockey Drills for Novice / Squirt players
These drills are great for any coach who is coaching novice hockey players. These drills focus on team tactics, individual tactics and technical tactics as outlined in the Skills Guide. The drills also focus on passing, skating, agility, and stopping.
This is a good warm up drill for novice players
Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 minutes | Back Alley Warm Up Drill |
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The hockey drill below is a really good fun hockey drill for novice players. I still remember playing this game when I was at hockey practice and it was a lot of fun, and also taught the players puck control if you have the puck, and defense if you do not.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Diminishing Pucks – Fun Novice hockey drill |
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This is a great skating drill because there are four different stations that will focus on many different areas of skating. This novice drill focuses on crossovers, skating, puck control quick starts and quick stops.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
20 Minutes | Novice Skating Evaluation |
Four stations, five minutes at each station
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This is a great puck control drill for novice hockey players. By breaking the drills into 3 stations every player can participate, and you will also keep the players attention by changing up what they are doing.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
15 minutes | Puck Control Circuit |
Three stations, five minutes at each station.
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This is another fun hockey drill. This drill teaches lateral movement, speed, and evasive maneuvers!
Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | British Bulldog Hockey Drill |
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Pond hockey is a great drill to use instead of a full game. By breaking the ice in half more players can participate.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
10 Minutes | Novice Pond Hockey Drill |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Chaos |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Indy 500 |
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This is a good novice shooting drill. The drills is broken into three stations to allow players to work on a new shooting skill at each station.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
15 Minutes | Shooting Circuit -Novice Shooting Drill |
Five minutes at each station
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This is a good novice hockey passing drill. There are four stations, with 5 minutes at each station. Don’t be afraid to change up the drills and add or take things away, that is what keeps practice fun and exciting.
Drill Time | Drill Description |
20 Minutes | Passing Circuit – Novice Passing Drill |
Players spend 5 minutes at each station
Coaches should work with goalies while players are doing the passing drills |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Shootout |
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This drill is good for building players balance and agility. Players learn well by dropping to one knee, diving and rolling, and jumping, they also have a lot of fun too! I remember always being the fastest on my belly and back up again back when I played novice!
Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Novice Balance and Agility Drill |
Players are divided into two groups and follow the patch as indicated in the diagram
Key execution points: Change direction after three minutes |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
15 Minutes | Novice Skills Station Drill |
Key Execution Points: Switch stations after 5 minutes |
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This is another fun hockey drill for novice players. For this drill players will develop speed, acceleration, tight turns and winning the race for the puck!
Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Mill Drill – Fun Novice Hockey Drill |
Key Execution Points: Teams cheer for their players, lots of pucks in the middle. |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | Moe Mania |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
5 Minutes | 3 Station Passing Drill |
Key Execution Points:Change stations after 5 minutes, Players need to think |
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Hockey Drill Diagram – Novice Hockey Passing Drill | |
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Drill Time | Drill Description |
10 Minutes | One Man Drive |
Introduce the one man drive but focus on principles that will be important for net drive and triangulation
Key Execution Points: Players must be ready to go, Keep drill going to keep players moving |
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I hope these drills will help you run a good practice, and help your players develop. If you are looking for more drills then punch your email address in the box in the left sidebar and you will get notified when I post something on the site! I am working on a lot more articles, and drills that you can share with your hockey team.
For more drills I recommend the Weiss tech hockey playbook and hockey Drillbook, you can buy them separately, or together as a bundle Learn more about the playbook and drillbook here. If you don’t know Jeremy Weiss you should definitely follow his blog as he is a very smart coach, and he is always sharing new drills for all age levels.