Knights Training

On Tuesday night we had the final in-season training for the year.  Again, a pretty decent turn out.  Tommy, Lachy, Mike, Christian, Henry, Andy, Foxy, Baden, Cam and me.  And almost as many from the Bombers, together with two or three senior grade players to act as coach assistants with Justine calling the shots.  A good solid hour.

Started with the traditional horseshoe, but with the additional factor of both corners departing their stations simultaneously, so there were often four skaters going in different directions on the ice at the same time.

Next, a point to point to point drill, with five players in formation passing to each other, skating to the point one had passed it to, skating in for for a goal.

Next, all D's in the centre, forwards in opposing corners, a goalie at each end.  D would pass to the F in front of them who then skated out down their wing and in for a goal.  Meanwhile, another D would be similarly passing to the F in the opposing corner.  While the F's skated down their wings, the D's would swing around behind the centre and try and defend against the opposite F as they skated in.  Hard to do if that was a quick skater.

Then we concentrated on a breakout drill.  This was the core of the session and went for quite a long time.  This was fine because it incorporated a number of aspects of our game into it and gave a lot of battle situations to keep everyone happy.  Essentially, one 'side' had a full lineup of five skaters, the other had two Defenders.  The goal was for the fiver skater team to start with their D passing to a wing on the boards, to centre, to the other wing, into the offensive zone and get a goal.  Their forwards would play low, their D's holding the blue line and looking for a point shot.  As a D, I got a lot of ice time as we had only one extra skater on the rotation and even then they didn't always come out for their shift.  By the end of the drill I was certainly pushing myself.

We concluded the hour with a shootout drill.

I used my new stick for the first time.  Got a couple nice goals with it, including on my first shot (!).  It's lightness certainly an advantage, and it seemed to be a bit more 'zippy'.  The continuous D rehersal in the breakout drill was good for me, put into play many of the skills and tactics have been trying to learn.  Am finding it easier to decide when to chase the puck and when to clear the slot.