Angling and Defensive Development

Proper angling and defensive skills are critical in today's faced-paced game. This holds for all levels of play, but especially with younger players where body checking has been removed. Using whiteboard discussion complemented with on-ice drills, Blaise MacDonald presents his key concepts to good angling and defensive play. Coach MacDonald, who has won a national championship as a player and coach, shares drills that develop the tools needed to develop effective defenders in all three zones.

This video has over 16 drills to properly train good angling skills and techniques while teaching the critical concepts of playing solid defense in the neutral zone and defensive zone. In addition, you get a series of drills to improve your defensemen's ability to make plays on the breakout in their own zone and to be effective members on offense, as well.

This presentation is full of "read and react" drills where players compete against one another using transitional skating. Your players will learn how to judge the speed of an opponent while using controlled skating and steering techniques. They will learn how to use points of reference and how to establish a good angle, pushing the puck carrier into bad ice, taking away time and space, ultimately separating the puck carrier from the puck.

Use these drills to help players become more comfortable in uncomfortable situations, which, in turn, will help them select the right responses quickly during games.

The teaching concepts in this presentation combined with the game-like competitive drills make this a must-have DVD for players and coaches at any level.

62 minutes. 2014.