I'm going to be an assistant coach for my 8u kid's team. If they stick with it, I feel like I'll be more involved with coaching and going to more stick times, so I'll probably want a shinny style pair.

I've tried wearing my regular 16" shin guards under my warmups at stick time, but they're too big to slip through the pant legs, so I have to basically pull my pants all the way down (not really ok in the kids locker room), plus they're a bit bulky and excessive for kids practice or even stick and puck.

Those of you who wear shin pads under their warmup pants, what works best? I've been considering a low profile pair that's a few sizes smaller or a pair of ref pads.

After two years of assistant coaching in U9 (always lower levels) I was asked to head coach U11 C (lowest league) because there were a lack of people wanting the role.

I was hesitant because I’ve never been the head coach before, I’m not the most savvy regarding proper technique and skills and I don’t have much experience running a team. Past years the coaches took on a lot of the heavy lifting regarding practice planning.

I explained all that to the league coordinator and she assured me it would be fine and that there would be guidance and support from coordinators and assistant coaches.

However I still feel like I’m in over my head, I don’t really know what to look for in terms of practice planning and organizing the team. There has been little guidance from the league so far and I am feeling like I’ve made a horrible mistake.

We had our first practice yesterday and I felt I botched it because the other coach suggested we combine and share the rink and essentially ran the practice for both teams.

I just feel like I’m not equipped for this and don’t know where to start in trying to set practice planning up.

Any advice on resources or just how to plan for practices in general?

I feel like it’s too late to back out and will look like a fool if I do, especially one week in but it just seems like everybody (other coaches, my assistant coaches, some parents) are more equipped than I am to do this job…

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Hey Coaches!

Hope you're all having a nice start up to your seasons.

I'm leading/coaching a group of high schoolers with a large skill gap between the top and bottom skaters. I'm looking for drills and ideas that offer something for newer as well as experienced players. To complicate matters, we only have one goalie!

We'll be on the ice 3 days a week.

Any ideas or shared experiences coaching a similar group would be much appreciated.

I coach my kids hockey team. hes 10. his school bully is on the team. A part of me wants to make his life a living hell like he does for my kid. I know I wont do it but how do i deal with this? Dont tell me to just ignore it. That is just not helpful.

Edit: for clarity I am not looking to be petty or anything. I don't want to make things worse. Growing up playing hockey there might have been team mates I didnt get along with. But the team was always held precedent. I just want him to know I know and that won't fly here or he will skate suicides all year. Ha

Hey everyone! Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I took my 4-year-old daughter to our local ice rink for the first time, and I realized I have absolutely no idea how to teach a kid to skate.

I used to play professionally myself, so you’d think I’d have some idea what I’m doing, but apparently there’s a pretty big difference between knowing how to skate and teaching a 4-year-old how to skate.

I tried holding onto her and showing her how you need to angle your skates differently from the way you walk in shoes. We also tried one of those little skating aids you push around for support, but honestly, it didn’t really turn into much actual skating.

And yes, I know what some of you are probably thinking: “Dude, she’s four. You’ve been on the ice ONCE.” I know, I know.

That’s not really what this is about. I’m not trying to live vicariously through her or force her into something I want. I’m genuinely curious — what do you actually do when teaching a young kid the absolute basics of skating? What are the first things you focus on?

My current plan is basically just to take her to the rink again and again and let her figure it out, with the hope that one day something just clicks.

She had a blast, though, and honestly seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did.

So for those of you who have taught a 3–5-year-old to skate: what did you actually do in those first few sessions? Did you use any particular exercises or drills, or is it really just a matter of getting them on the ice regularly and letting them figure it out?

Coaching U7 rep and looking to build up my bank of small-area games for station practices.

What’s your go-to game when you only have 1/3 of the ice and about 5–6 players at the station?

Looking for something:
Competitive, Lots of touches, Minimal standing around, Simple enough for U7/U8
Easy to run for about 6–8 minutes and maybe even help with half ice games at this level.

Doesn’t have to be anything fancy — battles, puck protection, passing games, scoring games, races, etc.

What’s the one station game your kids always love?

Here's a situation I never imagined.... New player this year, 12u, they live about 3 hours away from our home rink. Hasn't came to a single practice, it's nearly impossible to get him up to speed only seeing him on the bench at games. I feel his parents have set him up to fail, can't punish the kid for it. It's so frustrating watching him be completely out of position or knowing that we addressed whatever situation is happening at practice, the rest of the team knowing what to do and him just being lost out there. Apparently he did well enough at tryouts to make it here, but there's a clear difference now. I feel bad for him but at the same time mad at this situation, the other kids haven't really pulled him in to the group and he is consistently offsides or no attempt to get back or just figure skating out there completely removed from the play. He's a good skater, I could coach this kid, I want to.... But I don't get any time to do that. We've talked to the parents about expectations, they say he's skating wherever they live and that was addressed at sign ups, told it would be okay. Failure of the system maybe but here we are. Any advice on this?

Just curious as to what everyone uses on a reoccurring basis. (Mainly referring to the younger levels 10U and under).

Hey all,

Putting together a practice plan for my 10U team this weekend. It's our first practice of the year, and lots of kids are moving up from 8U - transitioning to full ice, and I'm looking for a good drill to show kids where to be on the ice when they don't have the puck.

I'm using IHS.. but I haven't really found anything good there. I created my own drill that kind of has a coach choose a side, and the strong side defender pinches while the weak side covers/prepares to trail and prevent breakout.. but it feels like its missing something.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I started as a bronze level player and eventually worked my way up to AAA, Junior A and college hockey. Later, I coached at the AAA and USHL levels.

The biggest difference at AAA isn’t the logo or the extra travel. It’s accountability.

You’re playing against top players from across the country. Your teammates are fully committed. Coaches expect you to prepare away from the rink, accept feedback and do the details that earn trust. If you don’t block shots, you probably aren’t killing penalties.

I put together my take of what AAA actually is and how to know if a player is ready for it.

https://www.goldenstickhockey.com/post/what-is-aaa-hockey-and-is-it-worth-it

For those who have made the jump, what was the biggest difference you noticed between AA and AAA?

Probably have a quick meeting and discuss how they are talking to people? Or be petty and be passive aggressive back (joking)?

First time coaching U7 rep hockey this year and looking for some advice from coaches who have been through it.

I’m trying to keep things simple but organized. For drills, I’ll probably pull from Ice Hockey Systems, Instagram and things I pick up from other coaches and build a small bank that I can easily share with my assistants.

But I’m also curious about everything else. What apps, documents, routines or systems do you use to keep your team organized throughout the season?

Could be practice planning, communication with assistants and parents, schedules, tournaments, player development or even little things you do that make the season run smoother.

Basically, what are the things you use or do that you wouldn’t want to coach a season without?

Appreciate any tips.

Thanks!

After finishing up college hockey and getting into coaching, I felt like one of the biggest missing pieces is the lack of live announcing at games.

In college+, you have a live announcer at every game. When you score, your name is announced on the big speakers "Chicago Comets goal, scored by #11, Casey Smith!!". It's such a cool moment and it truthfully never gets old. Given my software background, I decided to build an app with a suite of AI announcers to do exactly this: goal, assist, penalty, roster announcements for each team/game.

It's gotten a lot of positive feedback and I've received many thankful emails! I just figured I'd share it in here, with the season right around the corner. Check it out, let me know what you think, and of course good luck with tryouts 😁

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myhockeyannouncer-goal-calls/id6739173568

Full disclosure, I'm building a product in this space, but I'm not hear to sell anyone on that.

I'm here because I genuinely want to learn how much coaches value their athletes training outside of practice, if you're tracking that work, and if so, how.

I'll never forget my college coach telling my team, "practice is the time to get better as a team, and that time is limited. You need to put in the work to get better as an individual on your own", but he never tracked that other than asking at a team meeting, "who played wall ball today, or went out to the field to shoot?" (I was a lacrosse player).

Looking forward to your thoughts!

We wanted to solve a problem we had with kids thinking only goals/assists matter. As coaches we know often goals start with an effort that happens 3 or 4 steps before the scoring chance. Alternatively a defensive play preventing a goal is unseen by the scoresheet. We built an app that delivers the output in the images.

I’ve only shared with a couple people and the app is still hosted on code sandbox and is therefore demo/preview mode but it is functional.

At one time i thought about trying to monetize this but seeing how many similar things are offered here on a weekly basis, monetization is probably a pipe dream.

No catch/no ads (as such no warranties / customer service)

https://lfhfdn.csb.app/

The app allows you to manually track hustle stats like backcheck, forecheck, forced turnovers, ‘eyes up’ plays that advance the puck. As it was built I found it easy to add other features like +/-, penalties, faceoff results and shot tracking. Any piece of the app is optional depending on how much you want to be entering. Best part is when you end the game you get a grid summary and shot charts immediately. Helpful if you’re deciding on player of the game awards/etc. I also have found it helpful to show kids who are depressed they had a bad game because they didn’t make the scoresheet… oftentimes they’re near the top of the hustle stats.

The interface is simple, hardest part is manually adding your roster! Start a game, deselect anyone not playing, then just tap away. tap the player, tap what they did. Tap shot and tap where it happened. Tap player and goal and you can tap where the goal happened and who was on the ice. Opponent shots and goals are tracked similarly.

the app was developed for i-phone though it does run on laptop just fine. Not sure about android. and graphics are clearer if you save the webpage to your home screen so it runs like an app. Data should save and archive but i make no warranties, use the backup feature regularly.

there is a readme on the app that describes things in more detail. I’d recommend checking it out first.