Feature Story
Planning an overspeed practice
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Perhaps
the most challenging, yet important responsibility for youth coaches is to
provide each player the greatest opportunity to improve skills. This is also
one of the most rewarding aspects of the job, but since it’s easier to draw X’s
and O’s, team systems often take up too much practice time in youth hockey.
All
coaches could learn a valuable lesson about development from Herb Brooks. His
job in 1979 was to plan for the nearly impossible task of beating the Russians,
who were the fastest, most skillful team in international hockey.
The
1980 team committed a major portion of their on-ice practice time to overspeed skill
training. This was the tactical philosophy and also the nuts and bolts of the
conditioning program. Brooks knew from his days as a player in the Olympics,
that for every shift the entire game, you had to perform individual and team
skills and to compete intelligently and hard — at the fastest possible pace.
This, by the way, is the definition of a
well-conditioned team at every level of hockey.
It incorporates words like “fast, skillful, compete,” and has nothing to
do with long, slow aerobic workouts, nor slow, unskillful skating drills,
dragged out beyond the point of fatigue.
This uncomfortably fast practice tempo was
the training philosophy of the Soviets, and their practices established a
back-breaking comfort zone, in which opponents would attempt, but fail, to
compete for the entire game.
For
at least two or three practices a week, the main objective of the U.S. team was
elevating the comfort zone, because Brooks knew too well that with adrenalin
flowing and effort raised to a maximum, the Soviets could pass, shoot and
handle the puck comfortably the entire game. They’d done it that way their
whole life.
Puck control and skill determine the outcome in the
Olympic Games and since the re-acquaintance with the rule book,
it is this way in the
Kind of a novel way to determine the winner, don’t you
think?
To prepare for 21/2-hour games, the 1980 team had many 21/2-hour practices
at a tempo that simulated the fastest games of the year. Even though the level
of skill is vastly different from youth hockey, the purpose of these practices
is the same, and the basic interval structure should serve as a model.
• Players are told in advance their job is to attempt
each drill at a pace that is uncomfortably fast.
• Coaches plan practices that encourage quality
repetitions — work intervals short enough and rest intervals long enough to
allow recovery. This is the most important coaching guideline if practice is to
have a positive impact on skills. There is no skill which can be improved once
fatigue sets in.
• Each drill might take about 8-20 seconds with rest
intervals three or four times as long. The simplest way to do this in youth
hockey is to start a new drill every minute — allowing longer rest as needed.
• For the Olympic teams, colleges and professionals,
endurance is an important consideration, so players must often push themselves
beyond the first stages of fatigue. For youth teams, skill and speed are more
important than endurance, and intervals should be adjusted to reduce the
chances of lactic acid buildup.
• On overspeed days, coaches
explain new drills within a short rest interval, never longer than one minute.
There isn’t time for standing around, and coaches should learn to teach on the
move during the drill.
• The performance of skills deteriorates as practice
gets longer, so the difficulty of the drills must be adjusted. It is impossible
to learn skills — especially difficult, multi-tasking skills — when tired.
Secondly, as the ice gets cut up, puck skills will suffer. Finally, as players
begin to get tired, their focus is often lost and skill development is
compromised.
• Therefore, the earlier drills in an overspeed practice should be the most difficult and
creative. These can be flow drills with a lot of passing or competitive drills
like 3-on-3, 3-on-2 or 1-on-1 — usually with extra skating.
• As players lose focus, and along with it, the
ability to make quick decisions and perform difficult skills, the coach should
switch to drills with fewer passes. At this stage, simply carry the puck around corners and shoot at high speed.
• Get rid of the pucks when there is no longer enough
concentration or the ice is too cut up to maintain tempo and skill. The end of
the practice should include timed skating intervals, without pucks, where the
objective of each drill is speed, quickness, agility and improvement of
mechanics. For college and Olympic teams, this portion might be 30-60
minutes.
• At any time when skills are not performed with
concentration and speed, start a new series of drills at the next easier level
of skill.
Improvement requires three mindsets: Players always
strive for high tempo and improved execution of skills. Coaches create the
right environment by allowing adequate rest. Failure is re-defined.
There will be many times when players lose the puck or
wipe out attempting a fast corner, but this must be accepted by teammates as an
effort to improve.
In an overspeed practice, the only failure is to stay within your
present comfort zone.
Jack Blatherwick,
Ph.D., is a physiologist for the