Last week we called the boys into the locker room and asked them to pick names for their lines. We, the coaches, would have final say over the names but the boys did a pretty good picking names.
UPS (aka the Delivery Boys)
Cannonball
White Lightening
and not to be out done the goalies informed me after practice that they would like to be known as "The Dippin Dots" OK Cross you got it.
Tonight's practice was probably the best I have seen from the boys. They are starting to put together the concepts and skills we have been working on over the last month or so and they are looking great. It was really fun seeing all the progress they have made.
See you Friday.
Coach
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Scrimmage with the Squirts
Today the Mites played about an hour or so of scrimmage hockey against their older Santa Clara Squirt buddies. All in all I was impressed with how well the boys skated,passed the puck and worked together.
There are a couple of things that need to be refined around positional play and frankly it's not as bad as I had expected. As the scrimmage went on and we worked with the boys, they got better and better about staying in position. They began to see that if they are in the right place they will get passes and open up the ice. Mites believe that by chasing the puck and skating really hard all over the place they are working hard for their team. Our challenge is to teach them to skate really hard but to stay in position and work together instead of trying to do it all through individual effort.
Bottom line: They looked better than I expected...actually they looked pretty darn good until they bigger stronger Squirts tired them out.
Here are some of the highlights:
Great work from behind their net.
Breaking in to the zone with support.
Countless 3 on 2 rushes.
Good passing in all three zones.
We'll see you tomorrow at the rink
Cheers,
Kevin
There are a couple of things that need to be refined around positional play and frankly it's not as bad as I had expected. As the scrimmage went on and we worked with the boys, they got better and better about staying in position. They began to see that if they are in the right place they will get passes and open up the ice. Mites believe that by chasing the puck and skating really hard all over the place they are working hard for their team. Our challenge is to teach them to skate really hard but to stay in position and work together instead of trying to do it all through individual effort.
Bottom line: They looked better than I expected...actually they looked pretty darn good until they bigger stronger Squirts tired them out.
Here are some of the highlights:
Great work from behind their net.
Breaking in to the zone with support.
Countless 3 on 2 rushes.
Good passing in all three zones.
We'll see you tomorrow at the rink
Cheers,
Kevin
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday School
The boys did great today. We started practice off with 10 or so minutes of obstacle course work. They worked hard at all of the drills and were having a good time. After a quick race to get the blood pumping we went into Coach Keith's 4 puck drill. T
For anyone who saw the drill you understand when I say this is a very very complex drill. But to the boys credit they worked hard at the drill and by the time we got to the end of it they had pretty much figured it out.
I like complex drills....but reserve them for the older guys. The fact that this group of 6,7 and 8 year olds was able to understand the drill and execute it says a lot about them.
Next practice is tomorrow Monday. I will be there late so Coach Keith will be running the show.
Cheers,
Kevin
For anyone who saw the drill you understand when I say this is a very very complex drill. But to the boys credit they worked hard at the drill and by the time we got to the end of it they had pretty much figured it out.
I like complex drills....but reserve them for the older guys. The fact that this group of 6,7 and 8 year olds was able to understand the drill and execute it says a lot about them.
Next practice is tomorrow Monday. I will be there late so Coach Keith will be running the show.
Cheers,
Kevin
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Mini Camp
This weekend the boys were on the ice for 7.5 hrs! That's a lot of ice time for everyone involved. They also spent some time in the blazing hot sun going over the break out play before returning to the nice cool rink for 30 min of stickhandling work with Coach Kendrick.
Camp was a lot of fun, I am pretty sure all the kids agree that laser tag wins as the most fun event of the weekend. We all learned a lot over the weekend...I for one had no idea that Cavemen played ice hockey. Simply amazing.
I was not sure what to expect Monday at practice after such a long weekend of hockey. However, the boys were great and they worked really hard. They were focused, skated hard and really gave 100% to every drill.
We all survived mini camp and we are underway. Our next practice is Friday then we will be at Vallco on Sunday at 8:30.
Cheers,
Kevin
Camp was a lot of fun, I am pretty sure all the kids agree that laser tag wins as the most fun event of the weekend. We all learned a lot over the weekend...I for one had no idea that Cavemen played ice hockey. Simply amazing.
I was not sure what to expect Monday at practice after such a long weekend of hockey. However, the boys were great and they worked really hard. They were focused, skated hard and really gave 100% to every drill.
We all survived mini camp and we are underway. Our next practice is Friday then we will be at Vallco on Sunday at 8:30.
Cheers,
Kevin
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Get F.L.O.B. !!!!
Mini-camp has started and the season is now officially underway! Wooohoooo!!!
The Motto of this year's camp is... "Get F.L.O.B." Get Fast, Get Low, Get On net and Get the Body. 4 key fundamentals of the game of hockey.
The goal of tonight's session was to get the boys together, divide them into teams and introduce them to some of the basic concepts of hockey. It's important that they understand the legacy of this great game they play and the fundamentals of being a good hockey player and a good teammate. Tonight was about "Marketing". Someone told me once that in advertising it takes at least 3 exposures to an idea or a concept before people acknowledge it. Tonight was the first exposure to power skating on an academic level. Tomorrow they will get 1 hour of practical exposure when Cathy Andrade runs them through 60 mins of skating drills. Throughout the season we will continually focus on power skating and skating fundamentals.
The rest of camp will be team building games, hard work on fundamentals and an introduction to team concepts such as...break out plays, zone entry, team defense and forechecking.
This is a great group of kids. I am really excited about this team and what we can teach them this season. I will see you all tomorrow at the rink.
Cheers,
Kevin
The Motto of this year's camp is... "Get F.L.O.B." Get Fast, Get Low, Get On net and Get the Body. 4 key fundamentals of the game of hockey.
The goal of tonight's session was to get the boys together, divide them into teams and introduce them to some of the basic concepts of hockey. It's important that they understand the legacy of this great game they play and the fundamentals of being a good hockey player and a good teammate. Tonight was about "Marketing". Someone told me once that in advertising it takes at least 3 exposures to an idea or a concept before people acknowledge it. Tonight was the first exposure to power skating on an academic level. Tomorrow they will get 1 hour of practical exposure when Cathy Andrade runs them through 60 mins of skating drills. Throughout the season we will continually focus on power skating and skating fundamentals.
The rest of camp will be team building games, hard work on fundamentals and an introduction to team concepts such as...break out plays, zone entry, team defense and forechecking.
This is a great group of kids. I am really excited about this team and what we can teach them this season. I will see you all tomorrow at the rink.
Cheers,
Kevin
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