In the world of hockey skill development, there is no single definition of skill training. The variety in approaches and training modalities can cause confusion for athletes and parents. Should athletes be doing overspeed or edge work, fine motor skill work or game speed drills? Should they focus mainly on position specific training or generalize? Or even more fundamentally, what does any of these skill development programs look like? The goal of this article is to provide some definitions for these different types of skill development programs and then to give some guidance on what athletes should generally be doing. 

Soft Touch Work: this category of skill acquisition is defined as “fine motor skill” development and requires the athlete to make precise movements utilizing hand/eye and foot/eye coordination. These movements are not done at full speed. Examples include stationary stickhandling and partner passing drills. 

All hockey players should do soft touch work. Squirt and Peewee players are in the golden window for fine motor skill development and a larger percentage of their training should center around this type of programming. As athletes get into the junior to professional hockey ranks, fine motor tuning is advisable at the start of the offseason and periodically during the remainder of summer training.

Position Specific: these drills are defined as those skillsets that are more often associated with the forward or defensive position. With the increasingly fluid nature of positions in hockey, position specific drills are increasingly relevant to every player. A forward in today’s game should learn how to walk the blue line, although he won’t use that skill nearly as much as a defensive player. Position specific skills are generally hyper technical or more advanced skills. 

Position specific training can begin in Bantams (15U) but athletes should not largely train for their position until after HS. Even then, having forwards work on defense specific drills and defense work on forward specific drills is a good way to mix things up, provide variety, and increase the overall utility of a player. Athletes in HS and younger should not exclusively specialize in a given position.

Edge Work and Skating Mechanics: edge work is categorized as skating drills that focus intently on the inside and/or outside edges so as to maximize smoothness, glide, and ultimately speed. Skating mechanics drills are a set of exercises on the ice that help with improving the mechanics of forward and backward skating. This might be a single leg push drill that helps re-enforce a 45 degree angle stride and proper glute activation.

Every athlete should do skating and edge work every offseason until they stop playing hockey. It’s that simple.

Overspeed: defined as skating drills, with or without a puck, that are done at maximum speed. Proper overspeed training pushes an athlete beyond their comfort zone – athletes should fall every so often when doing overspeed training.

Athletes in the speed window (roughly males 14-18 years old and females 12-16 years old) should do a lot of Overspeed work to improve their speed. They can and should continue to do speed work on the ice as their gains diminish after exiting the window of trainability for speed. Overspeed training should generally be used toward the end of offseason training for junior hockey athletes and older. 

Compete and Small Area Games: these drills and games are simply defined as skaters competing against one another. Within this category, there are a number of subcategories:

No Goalie Games: these games focus on possession and passing and do not include any scoring option.

Puck protection drills: compete drills where one player maintains possession against an opponent. 

Power play games: games with one team having a numerical advantage over another.

Normal compete: 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, etc games with a scoring component. 

All other types of training are akin to being on the driving range in golf. We are working on one aspect of the game but doing that skill within a game setting is a far different manner. All athletes should view competitive drills and small area games as the final expression of skill development – can you make that soft touch sauce pass or puck protection movement in real time against an opponent? As athletes get older, small area games can get more intricate. At the younger levels, just let them play!

CNS Overload Work: this category of drills are separated from position specific or even general skill development because the intent of the drill is to introduce numerous obstacles and movements that overwhelm an athlete beyond what the athlete is generally used to in a game setting. An example here would be a drill where athletes need to jump over and tap through pass throughs in a random pattern set. The game applicability is low, but the movements require extra thinking (think of the difference in cognitive load when turning with a puck around a cone versus turning, jumping, tapping the puck through an obstacle).

CNS overload work probably provides the best return on investment between the ages of 12-16. As athletes get older, this type of training can still be valuable but it often lacks game application. A skater can get very good at jumping over obstacles and tapping through pass throughs yet still be unable to effectively play the game.

General Individual Skill Development: the broadest term of all the skill development definitions here, these drills are defined in part by their lack of uniqueness. Puckhandling, passing, and shooting drills that are good for all positions and athletes. Think of line skating, puckhandling through a series of cones and then shooting, and a multiple pass and shoot drill. Especially at the youth ranks, many drills can be defined as “general individual skill development.”