By John Russo
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

For hockey players and most other athletes, gaining basic and advanced skills goes on throughout their playing careers. Even players like Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Zach Parise have skating instructors to help them skate more efficiently and to actually learn new skating skills. I was recently looking at some of the videos of the new breed of hockey skill instructor’s work.

One of the most creative is Maxim Ivanov, who so happens to be Crosby’s instructor. Crosby, for example, spends considerable time taking passes off of his feet from behind, or throwing passes into his own feet, then feeding them back out to his stick. Some NHL players are constantly trying to deepen their knee bends to get more power, speed, quickness and agility.

I spend considerable time “training” some of my grandchildren. I say “training” because I am not coaching them, rather I am trying to help them gain important skills. Some of them are basic – literally, like proper quick cuts, stopping properly both ways, full strides, etc. This has made me much more sensitive to the skills part of hockey. When I was coaching teams (I only “help” now), I had to deal with skills – and team play, discipline, systems, etc. – all of the aspects of the game. Now that I concentrate mostly on skills (I still do try to help with proper “play” with the kids), I find it actually very challenging and enjoyable.

So what is the best way for hockey coaches to teach hockey skills? I think there are four pieces to the puzzle.

First, there has to be a definition of the skills to be learned. That may sound pretty simple, but at different ages there are different skills – generally more advanced with age. And some skills or skill areas have to be worked on forever – not only to keep them sharp, but also to add more to the available “arsenal.” It would be tough for a high school player, for example, to have the same skill sets that made her successful as a 10U player. There are always different moves, different and harder shots, better backwards or crossover skills. 

Also, players are not all at the same skill level at the same age. Obviously, this is what makes for better players at each age level. This is what makes it harder for team coaches (as opposed to specialized skill coaches) to teach skills to a diverse group of youngsters. It is always, in my opinion, best for a team coach to separate the team players into skill levels and position groups to teach many skills. Just like in the classroom, it is hard to deal properly with 20-25 youngsters’ level of capability, so teaching is often to the average or the lower levels.

Most of the reasons that youngsters are placed on AA or A, or B1 or B2 teams is because of the difference in skill levels. And skill levels change even with individual players (sometimes substantially) over even one-year periods due to growth spurts, commitment levels and other factors.

So the first job is to decide what the skills are to be learned, then decide how the players can be situated (grouped) to best teach them the skills – at the proper rate, so they can best grasp them and learn them. Not be over-challenged or under-challenged. This is a tough task.

Second, there has to be much repetition. Hockey is mostly a “rote sport.” That means players learn by doing many repetitions. Experience teaches best. When I was a youngster, my coaches did teach skills but not so much. However, most of my skills were from repetition against increasingly better competition. Much of the repetition and competition was outdoors and informal. I learned how to skate and stickhandle and have various moves by hundreds of hours of play on small backyard rinks. If I didn’t learn how to quick cut or stop fast, I wouldn’t be very good in those games, and it was important to be good in the neighborhood games – then, of course in the city-wide team games as well. 

Now, most of the skills are learned on the indoor ice with drills. There are still outdoor “ponds” – and the kids that skate there in the winter are often the better players. People wonder why Edina is always so powerful. There are big neighborhood rinks, but there are also small backyard rinks and pond hockey nets and plastic shooting platforms. They are good because the kids get more repetition. Both of my grandkids’ families have hockey players. They also have pond rinks behind their houses and shooting ranges inside or outside their garages.

Repetition may be THE most important aspect of skill development. That means that to be really good, it takes effort, or many hours of fun on the outdoor rinks even at public skating.

At the younger ages especially, coaches should be spending a large majority of their practices on skill work. And skill work that is good for all team members, as discussed.

Third, there has to be some amount of fine-tuning of the skills. If youngsters had hundreds of hours of outdoor hockey like “the old days,” the fine-tuning would mostly happen by itself. However, that is not the case, so in practices, coaches have to be very vocal with players so they are practicing the skills properly. It is critical to demonstrate the skills many times to youngsters, then watch them exercise the skills, then fine-tune – then demonstrate over again. Coaches that don’t have, or don’t have anymore, the skills to demonstrate, need to have assistants that can do it.

Coaches need to have a plan for the repetition and fine-tuning skills over a full season’s practices. It needs to be progressive (increase in difficulty) as the season goes on. Coaches can do the same drills over a season, or even seasons, but must demand more as time goes on to have skills increase. There also needs to be more challenge for the players that master the skills. Crosby’s coach is not spending time working on stops, but he may be having him stop and do a 360-degree reverse at top speed. Still stops, but at a different level.

Coaches of young players often fail to give their teams/players as much opportunity to gain skills by not helping the players maximize their on-ice time. I often had outdoor shinny “practices” over Christmas break. They were eight or nine days out of 10, starting at 9 a.m., and going on all day for those who wanted to stay (I provided lunch and drinks). One of the coaches needed to be there, but it was pure shinny time. 

I also like youngsters to go open skating. I just took my two youngest granddaughters open skating last Sunday. They were on the ice for 99 percent of the 1.5 hours and were skating constantly (tag, follow the leader, just skating) and having fun – and getting more skill work than they would get in two or three hockey practices. What if coaches had 10 public skating “parties” every season; that would be 15-20 hours of skating skill repetition.

Fourth, there has to be constant monitoring so coaches have a very good grasp of the overall team skill levels and individual team member skills. There are only 15-20 players, so keeping track is not that hard. It takes this monitoring to properly plan practices and, at the young levels, to decide what positions the players are capable of playing. Remember, the defensemen need the most skills, then the centers, then the wings. 

Coaching also needs to not forget the goaltenders. They have a separate set of skills, but skating is still very important. There should be group skill work (skating some) with the team, then their own time and space to work on goaltender skills. There is generally enough time in practice, when only one goaltender is actively in the drill, that the other goaltender can be working on specific skills such as shooting, puck handling, in goal crease movements, etc. Inactive skaters can also have pucks and just move them, and bounce them on the sticks, and do other stick skill work.

That’s my take on skill development. If coaches will just have the proper thought process and plan/run practices to optimize skill development, it will make a difference over time. It is probably the most impactive thing a coach can do. Doing skills over and over a few minutes each practice gets results over the long run.

John Russo’s Coaches Corner columns have been running in Let’s Play Hockey since 1986. He hails from Sault Ste Marie and is a former captain for the Wisconsin Badgers, now a long-time resident of Edina, Minn., the creator of the Upper Midwest High School Elite Leagues; a youth and high school hockey coach for over 40 years; and the recipient of the Dave Peterson Award and Snooks Kelly Award  for his contributions to the development of hockey in the U.S. His most recent book is available at www.russocoachescorner.com.