(Transcribed from How to Play Hockey: Our Minor Hockey Coaching Course.)
Hi, and welcome our next module on puck possession in the defensive zone commonly known as a “breakout”. If you’ve made it this far through the course by following every video we’ve covered a lot of terms and technique. That terminology will help you in the defensive zone and all over the ice. This module focuses on what we do when we have possession of the puck in your own zone.
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We always get a lot of requests to talk about and teach on “breakouts” but we believe strongly that you need to think of the breakout in terms of a philosophy of puck movement and a number of general concepts where you have to be able to read the pressure and you have some principles and concepts to be able to adapt to that pressure and make the appropriate decision. So rather than like a chess move or a football play you can’t have one set breakout ready and design. You need four or five options to get yourself out of your own zone depending on the situation.
You always have to be ready to read and react and know that mistakes are going to happen. Things could be going smoothly but if a bad pass is made or they have a good forecheck then you might have to battle again for a while, regain possession and try to make that next play.
We’re going to talk about breakouts from quick and under pressure to control breakouts which are very common in North America on the powerplay and are common in Europe even in a controlled five-on-five situation. So we’re going to talk about reading pressure and making good decisions moving the puck up the strong side or the weak side which we’ve discussed in other videos.
We will also label some specific breakouts being…
- Quick Up
- Rim
- Wheel
- Three Quarter Round
- DDD
- Controlled Breakout
Now there are many small variations amongst these, but we’re going to talk about the general concepts and some of the pros and cons of little tweaks here and there in the following videos. We look forward to presenting to you defensive zone, puck possession and breakouts in this module.
We’ll see you in the next video!
Looking to download half ice hockey practice plans, goalie drills for teams (not a goalie coach?!) or small area games drills? We’ve got you covered too. Click here. Perfect for recreational level coaches.
