Player Skills Evaluation Plan

Hi Team,

Here are the player skills evaluation drills. There are changes since last year, it is simpler yet more challenging.

Objective
Five drills, five points each, maximum score of twenty five.

Shooting
There are four drills below. At the end of each drill, finish with a shot on net. The objective is to demonstrate a proper wrist shot with power and accuracy as many times as possible.

Score five - player demonstrates repeated wrist shots with accuracy near the corners of the net.
loose one point - cannot raise the puck from the ice.
loose one point - no accuracy, misses net, hits the middle of the net.
loose one point - does not prepare shot or demonstrate weight transfer to gain power, shoulders stay square to the net, pushes puck.
loose one point - does not demonstrate full motion in the wrist shot, does not draw stick back, does not follow through.

Key points for on ice help:
Make sure the players are taking proper wrist shots and at the cones/broomball line well outside the net. No slap shots.

Forward Skating



Instruction:
Forward skate with puck to far cones, take shot on net.

score five - player demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose a point - does not demonstrate power and both principles of the forward stride, misses fast start or long strides.
Want to see power developed by taking fast, short strides i.e. fast start.
As speed increases, want to see long and less frequent strides to maintain speed, uses full leg extensions.
loose a point - does not skate with confidence, skates upright, bends back not knees, knees not bent, does not use full extensions, head bobs up and down.
loose a point - does not maintain puck control, needs to use two hands, puck falls to sides of player, worries about the puck rather than skating.
loose a point - does not maintain open ice carry with confidence for the duration of drill.

Key points for on ice help:
Just let the players go.

Backward Skating and Pivots




Instruction:
Forward skate with puck. Pivot facing stands to backward at broom line/ cone. Backward skate to red line. Pivot to forwards again facing stands. Take shot at net at far cones.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose a point - difficulty with pivot, looses significant speed, clearly cannot pivot both ways, does not follow instruction to face stands when pivoting.
loose a point - difficulty backwards skating, skates upright, bends back not knees, knees not bent, does not use c-cuts.
loose a point - cannot pivot, stops or steps to turn to go backwards.
loose a point - cannot skate backwards, shuffles or steps.

Key points for on ice help:
Players need to be reminded that they need to always pivot facing the same way, facing stands.

Crossovers and Tight Turns



Instruction:
Forward skate around circle with puck, skate to neutral zone, skate around four cones in opposite direction, skate to far cones, take shot on net.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose two points - do not see the player performing crossovers through the turns, both directions.
loose a point - player does not maintain constant speed around circle and around the tighter circle in the neutral zone. Player does not accelerate through turns, slows down.
loose a point - player demonstrates poor puck control when going around the circles, cannot control puck on backhand.

Key points for on ice help:
Critical that players are started in opposite directions to avoid direction bias, one circle player starts on side boards, other end circle, player starts into the middle.

Stopping




Instruction:
Forward skate to blue line with puck, stop facing stands, skate forward to broomball line/cone, stop facing stands, Skate to center red line, stop facing stands, skate to blue line, stop facing stands, Take shot at net at far cones.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose one point - player does not stop with both feet, does a snowplow stop with one foot.
loose two points - player does not demonstrates stops in both directions facing stands.
loose one point - player does not crossover start after stopping, just turns and skates, does not demonstrate quick change in direction.

Key points for on ice help:
Critical to remind players need to stop facing stands to demonstrate they can stop on both sides.

Changes since last year and why:
Every drill is done with a puck at all times. This increases the difficulty of the drills, to a level expected of peewee level players. Players would rather have pucks and not just skate, which may increase player interest and get scores refective of their abilities.
Eliminate the need to do drills without pucks and then the same drill with pucks.
Every drill ends with a shot on net against a goalie. Players are not just skating in circles. Sort of a carrot or challenge for the end of the drill to try to get some interest in the skills drills. Again to increase player interest.
Try to eliminate stick hand bias in the drills. We are not doing repeated right turn then left turn that punishes left hand players since they turn with speed on their backhand.
Try to eliminate right left bias in the circle drill.
We only have one hour for skills, so focus on fewer drills. The tighter turns around the center cones in the neutral zone covers tight turns.
The stopping drills include a change a direction, so players cannot cheat with a snowplow stop and go, they have to change direction, which requires a proper stop. Not even sure we evaluated stopping last year.
Eliminate the confusing 1,2,4,5 marking system of and replace with clear criteria an standards.
Cover as much as we can following the Hockey Canada player evaluation and selection manual.