The Value of Keepaway Games in Hockey

To begin, I like to use drills that simulate real game conditions.

Secondly, I like to use drills that sorta force players to deal with problems, consequently forcing them to solve those problems on their own.

Thirdly, I’ll quite frequently just toss players into a set of conditions and let them initially sink or swim without any help.  However, once they experience the challenges — as a frame of reference, the advice I’ll then provide tends to mean all the more to them.

– Dennis Chighisola

I hope the above sequence makes sense to hockey coaches and parents.  I mean, I don’t think players truly appreciate the value of our advice until they’ve experienced the problems we’d like to help them solve.  Make sense?  If not, I promise I will take some time to re-explain that line of thinking a little later.

For now, let me suggest that a game of keepaway (as shown in the following video) very much simulates conditions players regularly deal with in real game hockey action.  Hey, hockey is all about 1 against 1 and 2 against 1 battles!

In keeping with my second point above, I’ve thrown some of my young students into the drill you’ll see without much of an explanation at all.  In other words, I pretty much just told them, “Go keep the puck away from the other guy for as long as you can!”

With that, see if you can identify some of the things these kids are learning on their own.  I’ll add my own thoughts after you’ve had a chance to watch the video…

Perhaps not evident in these clips, one of the things I noticed was that the little puckhandlers frequently looked over their shoulders to locate the checker.  Good for them, because this is an extremely important hockey principle.

Similar to the latter point, I think we can see evidence that a puckhandler at times could almost “feel” or “sense” the location of the checker.

I also spotted times when a puckcarrier would realize he had a better chance of keeping the puck if he skated for open ice, or far from his checker.  To be honest, too many kids remain right along the boards, thusly giving the checker an advantage.

Please appreciate that the video shows my kids’ second attempt at this 1 on 1 keepaway game.  So, they are still just feeling their way, and perhaps only gradually arriving at some ideas for dealing with the challenges at hand.  Still, I noticed several youngsters starting to get the idea of keeping their body between a checker and the puck.  In other words, they’ve already begun learning to “protect the puck”.

Then, while we probably all tend to watch the kid with the puck during these kinds of confrontations, a review of that video might show how a checker is also learning certain basic defensive skills — like pokechecking, angling his man, etc.

Okay, I said in the beginning that I just threw the kids into this drilling without any real advice.  And I planned to do things that way for another practice or so.  However, that previously noted protecting the puck skill is one I planned to emphasize pretty shortly.  As for examples of this, notice a kid usually losing the puck as he turns towards the checker, thereby exposing the puck, or putting it within easy reach of that man.  On yet other occasions, a little guy has kept the puck because he cut away from his check — again, protecting it by placing his body between the man and the puck.

By the way, here’s how I’ll usually approach things when I’m ready to help my kids solve a problem…

I’ll gather them after a bout with a given drill, and then begin with something like, “Has anyone here had THIS problem?”  When it comes to that puck protection thing, I’ll explain — and probably demonstrate — how turning into the checker allows that guy to swipe at the puck.  With that, I might even ask the kids to help me find an answer, my hope being that they’ll tell me to cut away from the checker.

Okay, let me show you my little rascals giving this drill a try…

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Okay, any thoughts, questions or Comments on all this? You know I love talking the game with you guys!