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The 4 Components of Coaching a Hockey Season

The 'components' system is a way to plan your season to ensure your kids are having fun while also keeping them engaged and improving their skills. The season is split into 4 components that overlap through the season to ensure progression as the season carries on. The section below gives you examples of the skills and tactics you'll need to reinforce for your particular team and suggests drills to help you achieve these.

Helpful Resources

  • In the first (roughly) 4 sessions, you should ideally be focusing on the basics. The structure of your sessions will allow you to spend some time doing drills and playing games that begin your player's progression.

  • In the next 4 sessions, it would pay to being introducing some of the newer/more complex skills. Try to combine these into the drills that really work on the basics to give your players a solid backbone for their hockey!

  • These next 3 sessions will see you really test the kids' understanding and ability. Keep reinforcing the newer skills above while introducing games and drills that allow them to progress their hockey understanding on a tactical level - where they should be, how to make good decisions.

  • In the final couple of weeks you can really focus on bringing everything together. Their hockey mind and foundation of skills can see them trying harder, more complex drills and games.

Helpful Resources

Here at Wellington Hockey we're committed to giving new and established coaches the resources they need to feel confident helping the next generation. If you're coaching higher level hockey and want additional support, please reach our Performance & Pathways Manager.

Picking the Skills & Drills Best for You

Here you'll see the rough progression breakdowns for players in teams at different stages of their hockey journeys. Of the 5 stages, pick the one that best describes the team you're coaching and use the guides within to help plan your sessions. This will make it easy to ensure your players are learning and reinforcing the correct skills and tactics!

  • New Players, Fun/Mini Sticks

    People discover hockey in different ways and at various ages and stages of life. A positive and fun first exposure is critical to instilling a desire to get involved in the game.

  • Developing Players, Kiwi/Kwik Sticks, College Year 9&10

    As players get to know hockey a little more, you can encourage growth through their desire to really get involved.

  • Involved Players, Kwik Sticks, College Premier 2/3

    As these players find their feet with hockey and really want to become the best player they can, you can really challenge them both mentally and physically.

  • Top Level Players, College Premier Grades

    If you're looking for more help coaching at this level, reach out to our Performance and Pathways Manager to find a pathway and programme that works best for you.

  • These can be players from any of the above stages that have decided to make hockey their 'sport for life'

    If you're looking for more help coaching at this level, reach out to our Performance and Pathways Manager to find a pathway and programme that works best for you.

Making Great Hockey Happen
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