To be successful at the NCAA-I or NCAA-III level you’ll need to excel during practice. College practices are brutally tough, and require all out effort for 60-120 minutes, 5 days per week in-season. Your coach will typically stack Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays with “hidden bag skate” drills requiring stop/start forecheck and backcheck sequences from various 1v1, 2v1, and 2v2 scenarios. Sometimes, practices will be video recorded so your coach can keep an even closer eye on your overall practice performance. Therefore, it’s imperative you are strong, in-shape, and able to accelerate to top speed QUICKLY from a dead standstill. If you cannot do this due to lack of technical ability you’ll find yourself behind the play in practice, and pretty soon out of the game lineup come weekends.
The drills seen in today’s video aren’t necessarily exact duplicates of college drills, but they are great drills to help you practice your rush attack 1v1’s and down low 2v2’s in the off-season. As often as you can, get yourself into a complete standstill position when it’s your turn to execute the practice rep. Then front V-Start, or forward/backward side Crossover-Start as powerfully as you can. Do this over and over for the next 4-6 summers if you’re currently 14 years old. Come college, when you have the puck on your stick and you try getting past someone who’s just as talented you, it’s going to be a matter of who’s practiced the RIGHT habits more often that determines the winner.
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