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Young Guns Hockey - Coaching Corner!

This page is essentially an eBook presented by our head coach.

        This eBook is intended to be used as our hockey team's Playbook and/or as a Coaching Manual.  It was never intended to be the 'end all be all' of coaching.  Young Guns Hockey began as a simple playbook intended as a supplement and/or addendum to a Level 5 masters thesis on 2-1-2 Russian forechecking and has since evolved into a more generalized coaching manual.  In all cases, all rights are reserved.  We thank Robby Glantz for his kind permission, allowing us to re-print his articles on power skating.  Coach Glantz retains all rights concerning his articles.

All materials are in Adobe (.pdf) format.


Young Guns Hockey - eBook

Introduction  (703KB pdf)

Strategic Overview
Basic 2-1-2 Forechecking
Tactical Break-in
Defensive Zone Coverage

Basic Skills  (476 KB pdf)
  1. Snow Cone by Robby Glantz (used by permission)
  2. Generating Speed by Robby Glantz (used by permission)
  3. 3 Common Skating Errors by Robby Glantz (used by permission)

Hockey Plays

   Basic Russian 2-1-2 Forechecking
  1. Basic 2-1-2  Standard Russian (2-1-2) layout.
  2. Break-in  Setting up the 2-1-2 forechecking layout.
   Breakout Plays
  1. Overload  Breakout setting up High & Low outlet-passes to 1 side.
  2. Slant  Breakout attempting to spring a forward between their D.
   Corner Plays
  1. Give-N-Go  Basic Russian Give-N-Go corner play to the near post.
  2. Hit Me  A 2-1-2 forechecking corner play.
  3. Standard Play  Standard Russian forechecking corner play.
  4. Dragon  Using a D2D Point Shot while setting up a Shooting Triangle.
  5. Pinch on the Rim  The 2-1-2 forechecking Trap.
   Cycle Plays
  1. Standard 2-Man  Typical NHL style corner cycling.
  2. Tight Figure-8  Reversing corner cycle.
  3. 3-Man Cycle  Corner cycling using 3 forwards.
  4. Large Figure-8  Experimental 2-1-2 corner cycle.
   Face-off Plays
  1. DZ Galofaro's Surprise  Trick DZ (Defensive Zone) face-off play.
  2. DZ Mancini's Sleeper  Great DZ face-off play, late in the 3rd period.
  3. DZ Standard  Basic DZ face-off.
  4. NZ Center  The basic NZ (Neutral Zone) face-off.
  5. NZ Double Shock  Good NZ face-off play for occassional use.
  6. NZ Edmonton  Gretzky's NZ face-off against a slow Defense.
  7. NZ Wing Wide 1  NZ face-off, when they don't cover the Wing.
  8. NZ Wing Wide 2  NZ face-off, when they do cover the Wing.
  9. OZ High Roll  OZ (Offensive Zone) face-off, Defense QB's the play in deep.
  10. OZ Pick  OZ face-off, Defense gets in alone.
   Special Team Plays
  1. Diamond Penalty Kill  A Neutral Zone trap.
  2. Power Play - Umbrella  Also known as the Spread power play.
  3. Power Play - Roll Decoy  Leading to a possible 4 on 2 in the slot.
  4. Power Play - Man in the Box  Best for (5 on 3) situations.

Half-Ice Hockey

   MultiStation Practice
  1. Multi-Stations 1  Figure-8 skating, Edges weave & Stickhandling.
  2. Multi-Stations 2  Keepaway game, Shooting triangle & Skating.
  3. Multi-Stations 3  1 on 1 Bump, Tarasov's Bump & 360 Spins w/ shot.
  4. Multi-Stations 4  Figure-8 with Passing, Star Passing & Touch Passing.
   Shooting Practice
  1. Give-N-Go 1  Simulates the primary Russian situation.
  2. Give-N-Go 2  Simulates the secondary 2-1-2 play.
  3. Diagonal Pass  A shorter/quicker version than most.
  4. Double Shot Figure-8  Far better than skating circles.
  5. Crash & Burn  Great for Goaltenders & to have skaters finish the play.
  6. Rebounder  Simple & quick. Great for Goalies, shooters & support.
  7. Shot Deflection  Best for 5-man units.  One-timers & deflections.
  8. Double Moon  Only good for PeeWees just learning their Slap-shots.
   Small Area Games
  1. Give-N-Go 1  Fixed players in deep, 3 on 2.
  2. Give-N-Go 2  Floater along the side, 3 on 2.
  3. Give-N-Go 3  Fixed in deep, Floater & Fixed D, 4 on 2.
  4. Point Shot  Wild-card for the Point-shot, 3 on 2.
  5. Rover 2 on 1  Rover (Wild-card) creates constant 2 on 1.
  6. No Pass 2 on 2  No passing 2 on 2 for support w/o puck.
  7. Tight 2 on 2  Two nets in the corner, 2 on 2.  Very quick!
  8. Tight 2 on 1  Confined space in the corner, 2 on 1.  Keepaway-Defend!
   Tactical Practice
  1. OZ - End Run  Setting up a Back-door play.
  2. OZ - End Run Deep  Behind the net play.
  3. OZ - Gretzky's Delay  Wayne Gretzky's signature delay play.
  4. DZ - Reverse Escape  Escape move for Defenseman under pressure.
  5. DZ - Curl Outlet  Clearing the slot area & beginning the Breakout.
  6. DZ - Reverse Curl  Reverse escape into a Breakout.
  7. DZ - Standard Curl  Curl into a Slant Breakout.
  8. DZ - Glass  Playing the puck off the glass.
   Warmup Drills
  1. 2 on 0 Crossover  A very basic widely used warmup.
  2. High School Warmup  Not very good.  Bad for Goaltender psychology.
  3. Czech Passing Drill  Good for passing, but usually a slow pace.
  4. D2D - 1 on 0  Skating, Passing & Shooting.
  5. D2D - 2 on 0  Better emphasis on Passing.
  6. Breakout 3 on 2  Great for practice, but not for a 3 minute warmup.

Full-Ice Hockey

  1. Full-Ice Practice  Alternate between ends, Small Area Games & skills.
  2. Russian Weave  Full-ice 3-Man passing weaves.  Rough on Goalies.
  3. 6 Stations Drill  Figure-8, Edges, Widths, Dribbling, Keepaway, Shooting.
  4. U of M (Michigan) Popa Drill  Primarily for Goaltenders.  Slow for skaters.
  5. Wisconsin Type Drills  (5.9Mb pdf) Includes the following 7 Full-Ice drills.

Wisconsin Long 1 on 0
Wisconsin Short 1 on 0
Wisconsin Short 2 on 0
Providence 1 on 1
Providence 2 on 1
D2D NZ 1 on 0
D2D NZ 2 on 0

Thesis  (1.6 MB pdf) Russian Hybrid Forechecking in North American Youth Hockey.

email: Coach Keith

Young Guns Hockey