How players and a team start practice can, and will, transfer to how they start games. We want practice to develop skills, tactics and habits in players that transfer to the game. But we also want practice to transfer what are known as moments of the game, and the opening minutes of a game are a crucial moment that needs to be developed.

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The start of practice is a great time to develop the start of game moment. Getting players on the ice, active, energized, engaged, and moving with purpose is a great way to develop the transfer we seek from the start of practice to the opening minutes of a game.

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The start of practice, what many coaches would call the warmup activity or drill, should focus on several key points:

• It should have all players moving as much as possible and avoid players standing and waiting their turn. Movement generates energy, standing in lines eliminates it. In addition, the nature of a warmup activity is to allow players to “warm up”. They need to be moving to do that.

• It should consume a maximum of 10% of the total practice time. So, for a 50-minute practice the warmup needs to only be 5 minutes. For an 80-minute practice, 8 minutes. These times also transfer well to the game warm up time.

• The warmup activity should be skill based and connect to the theme of the practice. A practice with a passing theme benefits from a passing warm up. Making your warmup activity skill based helps you bring more skill development time into your practice as well.

• The warmup should activate the complete player…feet, hands, eyes, brain. They should be moving, handling pucks, using their vision, and thinking. Not all warmups will check off all these but the more the better.

 

Coaching tips for warmups:

1. Do not stop them. Let mistakes occur and go unchecked. The warmup is not a teaching time…its only a “get warm and prepped time”. As such it is the one time in practice where you can toss away the whistle and let them go. Remember every time we stop them moving, we interfere with the energy and pace of practice.

2. To maximize ice time (it costs a lot) get the warmup started right away…as soon as they come on the ice. Not only does it maximize ice time utilization, but it also improves the pace and tempo of practice and transfers to the start games. Players that come on the ice for practice and coast around for 5 minutes will likely form that habit and have it transfer into how they are ready to start games.Keep in mind that 5 minutes wasted getting practice started over the course of 12 practices will equate to entire one hour practice.

3. Create a set of warmups and name them. Provide them to your players so they learn them and know them. At practice all you must do then is pre-ice them by telling them the name of the warmup you will be doing. You can cycle through the warmups so none of them become boring or stale.

4. Have your players do an off-ice warmup that focuses on the physical aspects to allow your on ice warm up focus more on the skill aspects. With this approach you do not have to worry about them having to waste ice time by stretching.

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Goaltenders:

• It can be difficult to find warm up activities that include goalies and allow for all players to be moving. As such you may have to prepare to have goalies warming up with a coach while the players warm up.

• When the warmup activity that starts practice is a skating, puck control or passing based activity don’t hesitate to include the goaltenders.

• Be careful of shooting flow drills being used as warmups. They are in fact great warmups for the goalie but not so much for players as they require lines and inactivity by large numbers of players while only a few are moving. There are some great drills that have lots of player moving with little standing around and the goalies also facing shots that do serve as good warm up activities if the reps are turned over quickly.

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Here are some sample activities/drills that possess the elements referenced above and make for effective ways to start practice: