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A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. - Wayne Gretzky

In my mind, hockey is the greatest game.  It's fast, tough and exciting.  I grew up playing the game, starting when I was five years old.  Which means I don't remember learning how to skate,  It was just something I always did, it was as natural as walking.

After college I decided to get involved in youth hockey and volunteered to coach a house league team.  That's when I realized that I knew how to skate and I knew how to play the game, but I didn't have a clue how to teach the game.

I think I did what most new coaches did then, throw the pucks out on the ice, put a couple of pylons on the faceoff dots and yell at the kids to listen…  Yeah, it was pretty much a train wreck.

The internet makes things easier today.  Enter "Hockey Drills" on Google and get over 38,000 results.  I haven't been through all of them, but there is one I wish I had all those years ago.  HockeyCoach.com has sections for coaching, practice plans, drills and a Discussion Board.  I wish there were more drills for beginners on the site, they are the group that needs the drills the most.  But I sure could have used this section on skating drills when I was coaching…

Whether the kids are Mites or Juniors, there are plenty of drills here to plan your practice or at least add a couple of new drills to keep your practices fresh.