Coach's Corner

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Experiences

I would guess that most sled hockey coaches start similar to the way I did. I have been involved with the sport of ice hockey as either a player or coach for nearly 40 years. Naturally, my son who is disabled inherited my love for the sport. When he was eight years old, his interest got to the point where he really wanted to play the sport regardless of his physical disability. While I had heard of sled hockey, it was very difficult to locate a local program. After days of searching, I stumbled upon an email of the Colorado Springs Sled Hockey Association (CSSHA) coach at the time buried in an article by Colorado Springs Sports Corporation announcing a grant to CSSHA. I immediately contacted the coach and started my son with the sport.

My role within the program began as a volunteer, mostly helping out my son who needed to be pushed at the time. While I had prior coaching experience at both the recreational and competitive levels of ice hockey, I quickly learned that this sport would be a challenge to both participate and coach. My son picked up the sport quickly and overcame a mobility limitation to the point where he could skate by himself without the aid of a pusher. At this time I was asked to become an assistant coach, which I gladly accepted. Over time I took over as head coach.

While coming up to speed with sled hockey, I discovered that while there are plenty of team sites on the web, there are very little dedicated to the aid for coaches. My intent with this guide is to provide some of my experiences so that any others consider joining the ranks of sled hockey coach might benefit. Also, I would be open to any dialog with current coaches. Feel free to contact me, Chuck Gruber, via email at coach@cssha.org. In particular I would like to hear of your successes and any critique of my methods. The way I see it, this is a continual learning process. I will only improve if I hear from others.

Coaching

When coaching this sport, the natural tendency is to take what is known in traditional ice hockey and apply them to sled hockey. For the most part I found this is acceptable so long as you keep in mind:

1. Reduce speed

2. Compress distance

3. Increase rest to participate ratio

Reduce Speed

When compared to ice hockey, the overall speed of sled hockey is a bit slower. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of advanced players that can literally fly around the ice on their sleds. However, in the recreational setting where the players are novice to intermediate a coach needs to be aware of the limitation this will present. For instance, stationary passing. When first instructing this, the players should be place very close to each other (2 or 3 sled lengths maximum). You will quickly find out that this a difficult task for some players. It is much more difficult to move laterally in the sled to reach for a puck; this usually requires the player to turn and move the sled, much slower than a simple step to the left or right. If players are positioned too far apart, a barrage of errant passes will ensue, transforming your stationary drill into a sprint to the puck. Only as a player progresses, gradually widen the field.

Compress Distance

This is related to the reduced speed in that your recreational level players will benefit if you shrink up your drills a bit. For instance, a common drill seen in ice hockey is the Wagon Wheel (aka Horse Shoe). In ice hockey, it is common even for novice players to run the drill with player skating from the goal line all the way to the blue line dot (offside faceoff). For a novice sled hockey player this can be the equivalent of skating a full ice sprint. Don't be afraid to compress the drill to half or even 1/4 of the zone. Your players will not only benefit from not over exerting but will be able to concentrate on the other important aspects of the drill (passing and puck handling).

Increase rest to participate ratio

While you will find that the athletes even at the recreation level have vastly developed upper body strength, do not assume that they can keep up at a break neck speed for 60 minutes. Take care to develop your drills to maintain a minimum of 4:1 ( rest : active ) ratio.

Drill Planning

Planning drills is very similar to ice hockey. For our recreational level, I try to keep to the following:

25% warm-up
25% conditioning
25% skill
25% fun

Click on the buttons below to see a library of drills for each type:

Another bit of advice, your team will most likely be comprised with a combination of pushed and self mobilized players. The tendency is to split the players into two separate groups. I have purposely worked against this as you will quickly find the players limiting their interaction with the team members. Sled Hockey is a team sport, all of the players must be integrated as equally as possible. This is a challenge for the coach. When developing drills keep your pushed players actively engaged in the same drills even if it requires slight modification. For instance, if a pushed player has difficulty moving a puck let him use a ball. I have found variety in ball size helps, anything from a street hockey ball to a dodge ball are good to have available.

For diagramming I have found Microsoft Visio with the hockey stencil from Colorado Hockey Institute to be very helpful. Here is a link to the product http://www.coloradohockeyinstitute.com/Visio_Stencils.html . Note, you will need Microsoft Visio (sold separately) in order to use the stencil. Part of the package includes a Microsoft Excel template to help with time management.

Warm-up

A drill I setup at the beginning of every practice is similar to what I was taught in my power-skating days. We want to both concentrate on long even glides, good form, but no racing. With ice hockey, we would setup 3 evenly spaced cones along the length of the ice, at each cone a single long powerful stride is taken. With sled hockey I do something very similar. Keeping in mind the rule of compressed distance, I setup a mini rink spanning the neutral zone. Between the blue lines our player take no more than 3 long powerful glides. Our pushed players are also instructed to lean into the turns. Pushers also need to be instructed to help the player by tilting the sled slightly into the turns.

Conditioning

In this next phase of practice I like to help build up stamina in the players. Also need to keep in mind this can be strenuous for our pushers.

Skill

There are fundamentals in common with ice hockey such as passing and shooting. Other areas differ a bit such as stick handling and turning.

Fun

Don't forget the end goal is to make this an enjoyable activity. Be creative and don't restrict yourself with a "hockey only" mentality.

Time Management

For our practices we are usually limited to one hour of ice and are under a strict curfew as the rink tightly schedules other events around us. With ice seemingly ever in short supply everywhere, you will most likely be in the same situation. Be prepared! Before arriving at the rink for practice, develop a practice plan. Also have in place contingencies in case a drill does not go as planned. If something does not work out try to reduce the drill into it most basic aspects and only teach one of those. One experience I can relate is the first time I introduced the Wagon Wheel to the team. At first the players became confused about the alternating of passing then skating. Upon observing this, I stopped the drill and tweaked it to have the coaches pass for the players, letting them get a grasp of alternating the skating and shooting. The next time I ran the drill I re-introduced the passing aspect. It went much more smoothly.

Rules of the game

Sled Hockey is very similar to Ice Hockey however there are some twists unique to its sport. The following is a link to the Ice Sledge Hockey Rulebook as adhered to by the International Paralympic Committee. It is a quick and easy read, and a must for coaches.