Worst Drills Your Coach Had You Do
There are a lot of bad coaches out there, and many of them have used these drills to "better their teams." Here are the top 5 worst hockey drills I've had to do:
- The Penguin Dive: Skate from goal line to red line and see how far you can slide.
Mostly used in the younger years but I remember even doing this in Pee-wees. This may be the only drill on here that you actually use in a real game…but as a celebration. Only reason I can think of for why coaches use this drill is to make practice more enjoyable. To be honest though, if you're a coach and you need a drill like this to make practice fun, then you are just an atrocious coach.
- Glove Stop & Start: Start and stop laterally between your own two gloves spaced about 7 feet apart in an attempt to cover your gloves with snow.
Just reading the description should explain why this drill is so dumb. I can at least see this giving the legs a good workout, but this is negated by the fact you are destroying your gloves. I know Coach Bombay used this drill but his team had access to a ton of new equipment in D2. Perks of being on Team USA and having Hendrix Hockey as a sponsor I guess.
- Sticks Upside-Down: A "game situation" defensive drill aimed to promote hitting instead of fishing.
This drill is just the worst. A lot of times it's handed down as punishment if a coach thinks his team isn’t taking the body enough. Still nobody has ever used an upside down stick in a game. EVER. The drill promotes illegal checks, holding and slashing. It also promotes that one hot-head player to pick up the puck and throw it down the ice when he's had enough of playing by coach's rules.
- Nets Back-to-Back: Place the nets back-to-back in the middle of the ice and play 3-on-3 hockey with basically no rules (you can score in either net).
Not even sure who came up with this one but I’m guessing he was hung-over when he thought of it. A drill where you can literally cherry pick by parking in front of the net and no one can get mad. Any scrub can score in this drill so you can see why I hate it.
- The Guantlet: Line up all players near the boards and have one skater move along the boards while getting hit by every team member.
This drill aims to help younger players get comfortable with hitting but is highly dangerous and unrealistic. Coaches make all players, big and small, participate and then proceed to call out anyone who doesn’t “take the hit.” Where is the puck though? And why is avoiding a hit bad in today’s game? Also the hitters aren’t learning too much by hitting players who are barely alive and told not to move. This has started multiple fights from teams I have played on as well.
