I spent this past week taking the Hockey Canada Certified Skills Instructor course with 30 other skills coaches from across the country. It was an awesome week of sharing and I am very excited to teach what I’ve learned at our upcoming summer camps.

One topic that was particularly interesting to discuss was INITIATING CONTACT to retrieve and protect pucks more effectively. This is something that needs to be taught and executed WAY BETTER at all levels of female hockey.

Here are some video clips of some of the best female players in the world initiating contact gain and maintain possession.

PUCK PROTECTION

It doesn’t matter if I’m watching U9, U15, college or pro players, far too often we just “accept the outside” of the ice when we have the puck. We prefer to skate in the more open ice along the walls, shying away from traffic and contact. We know that we will give ourselves many more options offensively if we get the puck to the middle, but we have to teach players exactly how to do this with confidence in skills sessions and practices before they will feel comfortable enough to try it in a game situation.

In the 2 clips below, you’ll see Team Canada’s Rebecca Johnston initiate contact to drive the net to generate two great scoring chances:

Players at all levels of the female game should be able to execute the net drive seen in the 1st clip. The “puck under, stick over” move in the 2nd clip is a bit more challenging and should be taught once players have mastered the body positioning and egde work needed to execute the basic net drive.

PUCK RETRIEVALS

Far too often, puck races in the female game look like a game of “chicken”. Both players are too puck focused and skate at it in a straight line which can result in some pretty devastating collisions. It is far safer and more effective for players to initiate contact to “cut the hands” of their opponent and use their body to build a wall between the puck and the player. Most players have probably heard the concept of “winning the lane” but initiating contact in order to do so isn’t always emphasized.

In the clip below, you’ll watch both Poulin and Jenner initiate contact to win a puck race and generate two virtually identical scoring chances on the same shift:

In both examples, Jenner and Poulin use their speed to get in a position to initiate contact. Both bump their check and skate through their hands to gain the inside lane and win the puck. They make it look easy but the timing of the weight shift to initiate contact takes practice and confidence.

I will film some of the drills we use to teach these key concepts at our upcoming camps and share them with you in a future newsletter.

Work Hard. Dream BIG. Initiate Contact.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey