When you are choosing what kind of drill your team should run for a practice, you have to make sure that you are working on what your team is not good at. I have heard many coaches say that you should look at the last game and see what happened, but I think that you should look at the last few games and see if there are any trends that need to be stopped. This article will focus on some of the most common passing drills that will teach kids how to pass better.
When you are doing passing drills you need to make sure that strength and accuracy in the passes is the thing you work on the most. You need to watch carefully and make sure that kids are not rushing their passes.
Passing Drills
1) The Star
For this drill you put a group of kids in a circle and have them pass to somebody else in the circle. This is usually done with 5 kids but it can also have more or less. If you just want them to pass the puck in a pattern then you should focus on technique, however, I think that it is a little better if you have the kids pass to people who are not paying attention to work on being attentive and concentrating during the game.
2) Cross-Ice Passing
This is a simple passing drill that can be used by any team. All you have to do is have each kid get a partner and have them pass across the ice. Make sure the kids are working on making good hard passes right on the tape of their teammate. If your kids are having trouble with accuracy then you should move the partners closer together and try the drill again.
3) Passing Lanes
Passing lanes can usually be taught to kids at a young age. In my opinion kids not only need to know how to pass, but when they can pass. An easy drill to help kids with seeing passing lanes is to have them skate down the side of the boards and try to pass to a teammate in front of the net. The catch is that they have to make the pass in between two coaches that will be creating a passing lane.