Defensive Shadow Drill [Video]

This week’s video from M2 Hockey and HockeyShare.com features a great drill to work on defensive player mobility, footwork, and quick reaction.  The drill requires two players and 4 cones and only takes a minute to set up.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zpzNcl7mw

Teaching Key Points:

  1. Proper knee bend (stay low through entire drill)
  2. Get your feet moving quickly. Players must push themselves. If players fall, get up as quickly as possible
  3. Don’t let the defending player’s stick get out of position.  Keep the top hand just off the hip and stick in front.
  4. Always face the offensive player (players should never turn their back on the offensive skater)
  5. This drill is extremely tiring – run it for a short duration (10-15 seconds is usually plenty) to keep the the tempo high
  6. The pivots, stopping, and turning in the drill tear the ice up pretty quick, move the cones as necessary to get “fresh” ice

Common Mistakes

  1. Falling on the transition forward to backward – this is typically caused by the heel of the skate digging into the ice while pivoting
  2. Defensive players turning their back on the offensive skater
  3. Lack of power from pushes – players need to keep their feet moving, but also need to generate powerful pushes to maximize the ice they cover with a single push

2 Replies to “Defensive Shadow Drill [Video]”

  1. Great simple drill. These are simple to learn hard to master but effective when put into game situations.
    Perhaps have a box so that fwd/backward shadowing can also occur.

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