Stick & Puck for 5 yr old tips

[deadphish23]

My son is in between learn to play sessions right now and we have been going to stick and pucks together. I play roller hockey and can ice skate OK, but don't know much about teaching ice hockey to a kid.

Mostly we skate around, making sure he is striding well, pass the puck back and forth, shoot on the net a bit. He's only been on skates for 2 LTP's so he is still falling quite a bit. Very green.

I'd love some tips or suggestions on drills or exercises for a new player. I do some fall-down/getup drills, and red light/green light with him. Any ideas are appreciated. The kid loves going to the rink and never wants to leave and I am running out of stuff to teach him lol.

 

[AIREAYE]

Drills? It sounds like whatever you're doing now is fine. Just make sure that having fun and being comfortable are priorities, as opposed to learning new things at that age.

Why not put him into house league?

 

[pelts35.com]

Personally I wouldn't worry about "drills" (leave that to the learn to play sessions) and just let him have fun skating with his gear on and playing with dad. If anything make up games such as counting how many times in a row the two of you can cleanly complete/receive a pass, score into an empty net, etc.

 

[Stickmata]

Just skate a lot and make sure he has fun. Once he can stick handle a little, play keep away to teach him to keep his head up and use his body to protect the puck. And please teach your son the importance of not lingering around the front, side or back of the net during one of these sessions. It could save his life.

 

[deadphish23]

Yeah, he loves doing "drills". Which for him doesn't mean anything advanced, just something with organization. I try to do what the coaches have him do at LTP, but I can't really remember everything. Mostly the drop down/getup exercise is what he is always asking me to do. Guess the kid really responds well to structure.

Anyways, the "just get out there and have fun" suggestions are great. I do need to keep that in focus.

Also, we have an outdoor roller rink right by our house. Any reason to not get him on some inline skates and learning the game on wheels (in conjunction with ice)? The outdoor rink is free!

 

[vyktor]

One of the things I would work on is getting him to hold his stick correctly, it's something that takes time to correct once they get used to doing it wrong. When they are young they tend to drag the puck beside them and hold their hands close to the body. Try to get him to keep the puck in front of him, hands away from the body two hands on the stick, stick blade on the ice, if he can learn that he will be way ahead of the game as a beginner.

Figure 8's around a pair of gloves with the puck on your stick is a great exercise at any age.

 

[Individual 1]

Well you could try doing some basic drills with him and doing them with him maybe a little bit faster and sometimes letting him catch you to keep it challenging, and fun for him because drills are most effective when being done at the highest level you can do them.
For skating you could have him skate around a circle doing cross overs around it fully then moving to another circle to do them the other way
You could mark an area for him where he has to skate through while gliding on one skate to improve his balance which will help him be able to take longer strides or skate by an area doing only like 3 strides where he would normally do like 5-6.
Try getting him to skate backwards

For things like stickhandling and passing these will just take practice between the 2 of you stickhandle it 3 times then pass it to you then you stick handle it 3 times and pass it back encourage him to keep his head up the whole time. Then the 2 of you skating a few feet from each other towards the far end passing it back and forth to teach him that you have to pass to where your teamate is going to be when the pass gets to him.

The most important thing at a young age is skating which requires alot of balance to do it well. Just getting out on the ice, or inline frequently will lead to improvement especially if hes having fun

 

[theFinn]

I've never coached anyone but I have watched a TON of 5 year olds getting coached. It's all about the learning to skate and building up that balance this early on. Here's some drills that have worked well for my kids:

1) One foot pushes. Start at the goal line and skate to the blue line keeping one food on the ice at all times and only doing good hard pushes with the other foot. Switch feet and go back. Do that a couple times then let him push with alternating feet, stress getting good long strides and a stable glide.

2) Jump the lines. Start at the goal line and race to the other end of the ice. Everytime there's a line you've got to do a good 2 foot jump.

3) Down and up. Again start at the goal line, at each line drop to your knees and get back up as fast as you can. (You can start out doing this one stationary just going down and getting up fast). The goal is to get down and up without losing much momentum. This can be altered to sliding on his belly then getting up as well.

4) Stopping. Red Light/Green Light is good for learning to stop fast when you're not expecting it but I like a more structured drill to perfect the form. Start at the goal line and skate the length of the ice, at each line stop facing the same direction. Then come back to work on the stops on the other foot. Since your kid knows where the stop is going to happen he can anticipate and make sure he's doing it right.

5) Edge work. If you've got pylons (or something) lay out about 5 of them and have your son weave in and out of them, focusing on keeping both feet on the ice and using the outside edge of his leading foot. Loop around the last pylon and come back. You can also introduce a puck to this to work on stick handling.

Above all just have fun, race, pass the puck, work on 1 timers, and enjoy yourselves out on the ice. I'd also say track down your local minor (youth) hockey association and sign him up for the initiation/pre-novce/tom thumb (whatever) level. You'll be amazed how fast they progress in hockey.

 

[thedonger]

Just skate a lot and make sure he has fun. Once he can stick handle a little, play keep away to teach him to keep his head up and use his body to protect the puck. And please teach your son the importance of not lingering around the front, side or back of the net during one of these sessions. It could save his life.

this statement cannot be stressed enough. if you care about your son's safety, tell him to shoot, get the puck and get out of the way. on a lessor note, him being in front of the net robs other s&p'ers of their time and money as well as it's a nuisance waiting for kids to finish their business in front of the net and get out of the way.

also, try to do your drills near the boards between the blue lines as he will be less likely to get run over in that area.

 

[newfr4u]

My son is in between learn to play sessions right now and we have been going to stick and pucks together. I play roller hockey and can ice skate OK, but don't know much about teaching ice hockey to a kid.

Mostly we skate around, making sure he is striding well, pass the puck back and forth, shoot on the net a bit. He's only been on skates for 2 LTP's so he is still falling quite a bit. Very green.

I'd love some tips or suggestions on drills or exercises for a new player. I do some fall-down/getup drills, and red light/green light with him. Any ideas are appreciated. The kid loves going to the rink and never wants to leave and I am running out of stuff to teach him lol.

congrats deadphish. sounds like you found something you'll both enjoy doing for years.

one of the biggest things you can teach a kid if you are not yourself amazing in hockey is profiency in skating. because you are much bigger and stronger than him, you will almost always be a tough opponent to him, until he grows up a bit and starts skating circles around you. make sure you play some semi-competitive games against him, where he will have to push through his limits.

for example, do a lap around the rink when you are trying to chase him and he has to run away from you. then gradually skate harder and harder after him.

another thing you can do to make him work on transitions is passing softly behind or just to the wrong side, and making him execute a quick transition in order to catch the puck. once again this can be made progressively harder.

doing line jumps and eventually stick jumps, etc. are also great.

at some point, puck possession is going to become important. having him on the puck skating in a circle, and doing light stick checks against him is also good, and does not require almost any skill from you. eventually you will want to start doing very light checks against his body, so he feels firmer on his skates on contact. pretty soon he will be a master at keepaway.

 

[deadphish23]

Great suggestions, guys. I'll try all of these that he is able to handle. Like I said, he's still pretty new, but very eager. The plan is to do a couple more learn to play sessions and sign him up for the mite level ADM in the fall. Long ways off, but that's the plan

 

[UvBnDatsyuked]

Agree with the responses about staying away from the nets. Not only safety but nothing is worse than having a bunch of kids orderly taking shots on net (as orderly as a bunch of pee wees and squirts can do) and having one little kid just stand there while everyone waits for him to move. Pretty soon kids are going to just start shooting and let Darwin take over. (Because the parents don't care to tell their kid to get out of the net)

Best thing you can do is to get one, two or three of his buddies from dev hockey and have them play keep away and if allowed, a little small area games. My son played hours upon hours of this at stick times. Used two cones against the boards as the net in the neutral zone. Sometimes it was just 1 on 1 and sometimes it was 5 or more playing as teams or "free for all" everyone being their own team.

Your kid will beg you to go play shinny at the rink once he gets hooked on the game. (game is the best teacher and develops the passion)

 

[nullterm]

He's five, just go out there an have fun. As others before me have stated. Biggest thing at that age is just to keep things fun. Keeping it fun at that age will do alot more for him long term than having proper form.

Think of "games" instead of drills.

Have him stand a bit from the net, you pass him puck, he scores. And vice versa.

Monster chase - have him try to skate past you with or without the puck. Tag without, steal puck with. Side board to side board. Or have him chase you, take turns alternating when the other person is caught.

Tag - chase each other, switch either by touching (no puck) or steal the puck

Follow the leader - stops, turns around dots, etc