Introduction: Warm-Up Drills That Develop Awareness
Isaropen – Warm-Up Drills That Develop Awareness. Warm-up drills are essential for enhancing awareness and preparing the body and mind for physical activity. To start, dynamic movements such as leg swings and arm circles help increase circulation and flexibility, which primes the muscles for more intense exercise. Additionally, incorporating balance exercises, like single-leg stands or lateral lunges, challenges coordination and spatial awareness. Furthermore, drills that involve quick changes in direction or reaction time can sharpen mental focus, ensuring that athletes stay alert throughout their training. By consistently performing these warm-up drills, individuals not only reduce the risk of injury but also improve their overall performance and readiness for any physical task.
Individual and Team Keep Away (with Multiple Pucks)
Individual & Team Keep Away (with Multiple Pucks) is a puck defense warm-up that coaches can use to get practice going right away. The whole team can be involved at the same time. They have to keep a puck safe for as long as possible in the first part of the drill. The coach can move on to team keep away after a few rounds of individual keep away. In team keep away, players work together to take the pucks away from the other team. Players should be aware of the puck, the open ice, and other players during both parts of the drill. In the video above, you can see the Buffalo Sabres warming up with this drill. There is also a version of the drill called “Finders Keepers” that is played by youth hockey players and turns it into a game.
- Variations: There are different ways to play. You can make the game easier by adding more pucks or harder by making the room smaller. You can use your whole team at once, or you can split them up into groups. Watch video examples #3 and #4 in the above video if you want to make these drills more like games. The third video is called Finders Keepers With Teams. The team that has the most pucks when time runs out wins. The fourth video example above is called “Finders Keepers.” Players who have the puck when time runs out move on to the next round. The game is over when no one has a puck left.
Rondo Circle Passing
Circle of Rondo Alyssa Gagliardi’s passing is a great practice that can be used as a passing warm-up or to make you more aware in general. Rondos are famous soccer games where a group of players try to keep the puck or ball. They are similar to the game “keep away.” People on the team should cheer when a partner makes a great pass!
- Variations:Set up rondos in face-off rings or in different parts of the ice for different games. Can play Rondo Keep Away with one or two players. In order to help the passers, you can have the guards flip their sticks over. The Advantages of Rondos and 15 Rondo Drills is a full piece that you can read.
Head Up Scan The Ice Warm-Up
Head-Up Scan The Dwayne Blais Ice Warm-Up is a simple warm-up drill that works well for people of all ages. The point of this warm-up is to teach players to keep their heads up while stickhandling so they can see where the ice is open and avoid obstacles.
- Variations: Coaches can do this drill on full ice, half ice, or quarter ice. Every 10 to 20 seconds for younger groups or every 3 to 5 seconds for more skilled groups, the coach can blow the whistle to change ways. High-skilled groups can have extra obstacles and/or guards that they need to avoid and stickhandle around.
Triangle Tag
Triangle Tag is an easy and fun drill that helps players improve their skating, edgework, puck control, and understanding of what’s going on in the rink. To avoid being tagged and to find players who are frozen and need to be untagged, players have to look up. People can get rid of tags by stickhandling through their triangle, which is the space between their skates and stick blade.
- Variations: You can set it up in different spots on the ice; the tighter the room, the harder it will be. It’s possible to have players tag instead of trainers. You can add more taggers to make it tougher for the skaters. Each player can keep track of how many people they untag. The winner is the player with the most untags.
Finnish 5 Puck Progression
This warm-up drill from Ben Eaves is called the Finnish 5 Puck Progression. It can be done with 3, 4, or 5 people at a time. The movie above shows two groups going all the way through the changes. There are four different U18 players in Group 1, and five different U10 and U12 players in Group 2. The first three movements in the Finnish 5 Puck help players get their edges and hands ready. For the next few tasks in the progression, players need to keep their heads up and talk to each other in order to make good passes.
- Variations: Set up can be done in different spots on the ice. Don’t have to follow the exact steps shown in the video above; you can work on different skills with each rep.
Gates of Buffalo Passing
Buffalo’s Gates Players can practice moving to open space and talking and body language with their partners during the Passing Drill. By passing through Gates (cannot pass through the same gate twice in a row), players can score points.
- Variations: This can be set up in different ice places. Can have two, three, four, or five people. Keep track of how many points each team gets! You can also make this a 3 vs. 3 game.
King or Queen of The Hill / Knockout
Knockout is another name for King or Queen of the Hill. Each player starts the game with a puck. The object is to keep control of your puck while knocking other players’ pucks out of the goal. The last person with a puck wins! The above movie shows this game being played by everyone from NHL players to Mites.
- Variations: You can blow one whistle to start the game right away, or you can blow two whistles: the first whistle starts the players skating in the right place, and the second whistle starts the game. Clip #3 in the video above shows the two-whistle version. Play in the middle of the circle if there are less than six people. We recommend a bigger space if there are more than six people. There is room between the goal line and the blue line in the offensive zone that can be used if you have a full team. Check out a video on Twitter of the Pittsburgh Penguins playing kockout with their whole team in the middle zone.
Chase The Rabbit
Chase It’s a warm-up for skating and handling the puck that helps you become more aware of what’s going on in the rink. The Rabbit is the first red player in the picture above. The Chaser is the blue player #2 with the puck in the picture. When the bell blows, The Chaser tries to get as close as possible to The Rabbit. After the rabbit, it should be hard to keep up! Let each player go for 30 seconds, then blow the whistle and have them switch places. To avoid running into other players, every person on the ice needs to keep their head up.
- Variations: Both the Rabbit and the Chaser can have pucks for teams and people with more skill.
Keep Away
Keep Away from the Battery Hockey Academy is a simple game that helps players become more aware of what’s going on in the rink. Because the game is always changing, players have to keep their heads up to see where their friends are, where the defense is, and where the ice is clear.
- Variations: The game of “keep away” can be played in different spots on the ice and with different numbers of people. It can be 2v1, 3v1, 4v1, 5v1, 3v2, 4v2, 4v3, 5v2, 5v3, or 5v4. The coaches can tell the players to flip their sticks over if they take the puck away too often. Different areas of the ice can be used by coaches to set up the Keep Away game for different types of practice. Corner 2v1 and Point 2v1 are two examples of these areas.
Conclusion: Warm-Up Drills That Develop Awareness
Warm-up drills that develop awareness are crucial for preparing athletes both physically and mentally for their activities. By engaging in drills such as individual and team keep-away, rondos, and head-up scanning, players improve their ability to focus, make quick decisions, and maintain spatial awareness on the ice. Additionally, drills like Triangle Tag and Finnish 5 Puck Progression help enhance agility, puck control, and communication skills. Incorporating these varied drills into regular practice routines boosts coordination and reaction times, ultimately leading to more effective performance and reduced risk of injury.