Today we’re going to talk about some basic defensive tactics and skills.
Defense Is Easy???
I am a huge believer in playing fun, offense first hockey. Teaching offensive creativity and tactics and putting them to use in a game is fun. That said, the first step to playing offence is getting the puck and protecting our net.
We’ll be working a lot more on turning defense into offense as the season progresses. For today, I’m just going to introduce some basic defensive concepts. When and how they are used will come later.
Defend in ALL 3 Zones!
The best way to play defense is to keep the other team out of our zone. The harder we work in the offensive and neutral zone to keep the puck out of our zone the more effective we will be.
8 Keys For Good Defensive Play
These are all things that we will practice.
1. Use Your EYES. Remember, we should be constantly reading and anticipating the play and then MOVING at full speed. Keep your head up and eyes constantly scanning. Some coaches call this having your “head on a swivel“.
Constantly scanning the ice with our eyes.
2. Protect the puck. When we have the puck, we don’t have to play defense. Create a Line of Protection between the puck, your body and your opponent.
Line of Protection
3. Pressure the puck carrier. When we don’t have the puck, hunt relentlessly as a team like a pack of wolves.
4. Hunt from above the puck. Stay between our net and the player/puck when you are checking.
5. Active stick at all times. Away from the puck, use your stick (and feet) to block passing lanes.
6. When checking… Stick to puck. Body on body. Being “in the neighbourhood” isn’t good enough. Try to break your opponent’s Line of Protection by getting into their hands.
Breaking the Line of Protection
7. No sloths! ALWAYS come back at full speed. We want to eliminate odd man rushes against with good back pressure. Outnumber… then overwhelm.
8. Keep your gaps tight. Ideally we’d like to be no more than one stick length away from our blue line in.
Defensive Zone Coverages
5-Card Zone
The 5-Card Zone formation is our basic go-to defensive structure. We call it “5-Card” because our players take the same formation as the suit on the Fives from a deck of cards.
When in doubt, return to your 5-Card position.
Always come back to the 5-Card position in front of our net. Whenever you’re not sure where you are supposed to be, go return to your 5-Card position.
This is a sagging zone coverage designed to protect the area where most goals are scored. Remember, 80% or more goals are scored within one stick length of the crease. The idea is never to be out-manned in this area.
Man-to-Man (Sagging)
Another formation that we’ll be seeing a lot of this year is “Man-to-Man“. You’ll see this type of coverage very commonly used in 4 on 4 and 3 on 3 situations.
In Man-to-Man, everyone has a partner.
Think of Man-to-Man like dancing… Everyone has a partner. Find a man and stay between them and our net.
Our particular version of Man-to-Man is known as a “sagging“ coverage. We’re not as concerned about tightly covering players who are farther from the net. We’ll trade off giving these players some extra space in exchange for being able to help out or switch off closer to our net. Again, we want to be sure that we are protecting close to our net where most goals are scored.
Today’s Assignment:
- Complete today’s workout on the TeamBuildr app. Be sure to mark each exercise complete as you finish it.
IMPORTANT: If you have other sports, camps or are doing a different workout that you’d like to substitute on any given day that is okay. Please make a quick note of what you did that day under the ALTERNATE Workout in TeamBuildr. It is still important to complete the stickhandling and shooting every day that it is scheduled. But it is okay to move it to another day of the week when you aren’t quite as busy. Even when you’re on vacation, you should still be trying to find time to get in your workout.
- Which of the 8 Keys for Defensive Play do you think is the most important in the Neutral Zone?Post your answer to the team WhatsApp group.