Coaching hockey requires a well-organized and disciplined approach to leading your team. You must work on drills that improve skating, stickhandling, shooting and defense. You must ask your players to follow the strategy and philosophy that you set out for your team, and you should find a way to make practicing and playing fun and enjoyable to keep interest high.
Whistle
The whistle is essential when coaching hockey. Every time you blow the whistle, you can get your players' attention. It signifies the start of a drill, the conclusion of a drill and time for a brief discussion. Use the whistle when you want your players' to do conditioning drills. Have all players line up on the endline. When you blowy our whistle, players skate from the endline to the near blue line and back, the end line to the red line and back, the end line to the far blue line and back, and then the endline to the endline and back.
Cones
Use cones to help players improve their stickhandling ability. Set up five cones as just past the red line. The cones should be set up every 6 feet. Have the player skate to the right of the first cone, the left of the second cone, the right of the third cone and then continue on it that same manner. When you finish stickhandling through the set of cones, turn around and reverse back while following the same pattern.
Goalie Cutout
Use a goalie cutout to help your players shoot the puck accurately and with a purpose. The goalie cutout has openings at the two lower corners and the two upper corners. Have each player fire five shots at each corner to improve shooting accuracy and the speed of the release of the shot. While hitting the open spots on the cutout is not the same as shooting on a live goalie, it does get a player used to shooting at a particular spot and that will help in game competition.
Powers of Observation
The most important tool any hockey coach has is his powers of observation. By watching how each player performs in drills, scrimmages and games, you can make on-the-spot corrections to help that player get better. You need to know the game and see mistakes when they are made. You need to recognize when players make subtle changes that lead to improvements.
Videotape
Use videotape to record games and practices. You can go over the tape with your players so they can see what they have done right and what they have done wrong. You can also use videotape of top pro players to show your players how to make plays in the correct manner.
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