Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 18:31
By Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS
Every player has one thing they struggle with more than anything else on the ice. Same thing goes for each position on the ice. There are certain position-specific skills that are more challenging than others for goalies, defensemen and forwards.
Over the past 20 years of playing, teaching and coaching the game, I’ve noticed that there seems to be ONE skill that is hardest for players in each of these three positions.
So here are the hardest things for goalies, defense and forwards to do.
FOR GOALIES:
Playing the puck
Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a goalie coach. But with all the teams I’ve worked with and watched, it seems that many goalies struggle with playing the puck. The issue seems to be a mixture of technical ability (not knowing how and when to play the puck effectively) and confidence (not wanting to “screw up” and fearing making a mistake that costs the team).
Having your goaltender play the puck is a HUGE advantage in girls’ hockey. This doesn’t mean that your goalie needs to be able to make a saucer pass to the far blueline (although that’s never a bad thing). Simply coming out of the crease to redirect a dump-in to your defensemen or stopping a rim behind the net are critical for gaining puck possession and giving your team a serious advantage in terms of breaking out and attacking with speed.
FOR DEFENSE:
Closing the gap
I’m fairly certain that the defensemen I’ve coached over the years have heard me yell “gap up” more than anything else. Easier said than done, of course. Defensemen leave a big gap because they don’t want to get beat. Totally understood.
But in my mind, to be effective in girls’ hockey, you’ve got to pressure the other team at every possible opportunity. Being able to close the gap isn’t just something that happens in your own zone. It starts at the opponent’s blueline and works its way back to your own defensive zone. That means that your defensemen have to hold the opposing team’s blueline as long as possible, force turnovers in the neutral zone and make it very difficult for your opponents to gain the blueline and enter the attacking zone.
FOR FORWARDS:
Picking the puck up off the boards
Every winger hates having to pick up the puck off the boards on the breakout. Unless you get a perfect pass on the tape without pressure, breaking the puck out effectively off the wall is a very challenging skill.
In an ideal world, the defense would get the puck in-zone, make a hard tape to tape pass to a forward, who gave them a perfect passing target and already had their feet moving up the ice. This rarely happens. Usually the winger is under pressure from a forward or a pinching defenseman on the opposition’s initial forecheck or your team has been stuck in your end for a while and they are struggling with transitioning from playing the defensive in-zone coverage to breaking out. It’s all about timing and battling to gain possession of the puck.
To become effective at these skills requires lots of repetition in practice and there will be many mistakes made. There will be times that the goalie messes up while trying to play the puck, times when a defenseman gets beat badly trying to step up in the neutral zone, and times when a forward ices the puck trying to gain possession along the boards on the breakout.
It is unreasonable to expect players to be able to execute these skills at high speeds and under pressure in a game if we haven’t given them ample time to perfect them in practice. Confidence is king in girls’ hockey, and we must get players comfortable with these challenging skills in practice if we want them to perform them effectively in games.
To get complete access to articles, videos and secrets that addresses the specific needs of female hockey players, visit http://www.totalfemalehockeyclub.com. Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS, is an expert in the development of aspiring female hockey players. She is a former NCAA Division I captain at Dartmouth and played in the National Women’s Hockey League for six years. She is currently the Girls Hockey Director at the PEAC School for Elite Athletes in Toronto and is the Founder of Total Female Hockey.
