6U Cross-Ice & 8U RWB Practice Plans

1) Create a welcoming environment where kids will play, love, and excel at hockey.

2) Tons of puck touches. Use smaller spaces and games to engage all of our young skaters.

3) Have fun and compete. Use challenging drills that look like hockey and force quick decisions.

We can't ask kids this young to directly improve too many things on their own. Instead, we need to carefully design our practices to guide improvement and thoughtfully communicate with kids.

6U & 8U hockey practices should focus on:

1. Individual skill improvement (SKATING, hockey skills, activities, and games) —70%

2. Hockey sense (teaching of concepts through small area games) —30%

3. Systems (team-­‐play training) —0%

Station-based practices will keep players active and engaged while utilizing the ice more efficiently. Players will receive more opportunities for individual coaching. They’ll receive more repetitions which means more development. These best practices are designed to maximize activity in a fun and competitive environment. In addition to the core fundamentals (skating and stickhandling), players will develop contact confidence while battling for loose pucks in races and other small-area scenarios. Keep your players active and engaged. Players that have fun will want to return, and by getting them to return we can further their development.