Beginner Knee Touches

I recently promised that I’d provide a follow-up to the “Beginner Boards Bumps“ as soon as I could. So, here goes…

– Dennis Chighisola

Now, I’d like to share with you something I’ve noticed over a lot of years, in that some players topple over easily in games, while others seem to find a way to right themselves and continue moving onward.

I know, you’re not thinking that’s anything real earth-shaking.  However, let me explain that in another way…

I think a lot of kids just don’t know how to pull themselves back on-balance.  So, once they’re put just a little off-balance, they give-up.  And, that’s the learning experience I try to give my players — youngest to oldest — with a drill I call “Knee Touches”.

The first video shows my beginner — Learn-to-skate — group performing that drill.  As with lots of other such drills, we practiced this for many weeks in a brief off-ice session just before we took to the ice.  (We practiced lots of other introductory-type drills in that off-ice “SkateDrill” format, because the rubber flooring provides a slightly more stable surface for the kids to initially experiment.)  Before you click on that video to see my little ones in action, understand that I’ve asked them to slowly touch alternate knees to the ice WITHOUT USING THEIR HANDS.  Of course, as you’ll see, the kids have varying degrees of success with that part of the drill. 

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The next video once again shows those Knee Touches, this time with my slightly more advanced group — my Learn-to-play kids.  Click away to see my little guys and gals in action.  As you watch, try to envision a youngster being put slightly off-balance during game action.  Like doing the drill, a player in a game really does have the choice between lazily falling or tightening his or her core muscles and rising back to action.  So, watch for that if you will, before going on.

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Now, you may have sensed that this was coming, in that I am going to suggest that there is very often a mental component as a player wobbles.  In other words, while there is surely a lot of physical wrestling going on as a player teeters, I’m here to say that there are also some subconscious forces at play.

Please think about what I’m saying…  The little guy in the adjacent photo may have been tripped-up or knocked off-balance in the game action.  As this happens, he surely will try to get back up.  However, besides the physical, there’s something going on inside him that involves a quick thought process.   Okay, click on the last video to see the Knee Touch drill in slow-motion.

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Finally, as you’ll recall, this brief series came about as I tried to troubleshoot a problem with my young Mighty Mites.  Ya, they’re only little guys, and they’re not all that experienced.  So, I figured I could give my kids a huge advantage if they could stay on their feet more often than their opponents.  Repetitive bumps against the boards gave them tons of experience in dealing with collisions, but I think that drill is more physical than anything else.  From there, having the kids constantly rise and lower themselves — and giving them the choice between falling or righting themselves — gets a little more into the mental side of this problem.  In a way, I think my kids got mentally tougher with this drill, or maybe they gained a sense that they actually did have a choice oftentimes between falling or getting quickly back into the action.

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PS:  If our Learn-to-play and Mighty Mite seasons went much longer, I’d have brought the older group to the next progression of this drill, which had players skating down one stretch of the rink and doing those Knee Touches while they’re moving — advance players even did this drill backwards.  Then, far down the road, that drill could be combined with puckhandling.