6-Point Tactical Curriculum
Tactical skills or “tactics” can also be thought of as the decisions or options available to you in a specific role or situation that can help you create an advantage over your opponent(s). Tactical skills require proficiency in technical skills to be effective.
Individual Tactics - 4 Roles of Hockey
Anytime you are on the ice, you are always filling one of four roles:
1. Offense with the puck
2. Offense without the puck (support)
3. Defense on the puck
4. Defense away from the puck (support)
You are constantly switching roles during your shift as puck possession changes.
Each individual role will have certain tactics, or options, available to them. Then there are many variations within each primary tactic.
For example, if you are in role 1 of offense with the puck, you can choose to protect the puck as your primary tactic. Within this, there are many different ways, or variations, for you to protect the puck. You can choose to shield the puck with your backside, with your knee, with wide legs, with one-hand, etc.
Team Tactics - Game Situations
Team tactics are guiding principles and strategies for how we want to handle specific recurring game situations we find ourselves in as a team.
Game situations refer to common patterns of play that we need to have an overall strategy for as a team. Offensive game situations can include breakouts, regroups, rush attacks, cycle plays, etc. Defensive game situations can include forechecks, backchecks, d-zone coverages, etc.
Team tactics give each player responsibilities to execute so we can effectively work together as a unit to create an advantage over our opponents during these recurring situations (ex. 2-1-2 stack forecheck).
Pillars
The first (and most important) set of tactics within each and any category are what I call “pillars”. These are the fundamental tactical skills that serve as the basis or launchpad for more complex tactics.
These pillars need to be in place every single time you look to implement a tactic, whether its offensive or defense, individual or team.
For example, one tactical pillar for the individual role of offense with the puck is vision. Without having your head up (or pre-scanning) as soon as you touch the puck, any tactic you choose to implement will be far less effective.
The Foundation
It is important to note, the foundation for all tactical skills is effort.
Effort can mean many different things. This can be sprinting to beat the opponent across from you to a loose puck, working hard to backcheck full-speed until you are on the defensive-side of the puck, getting to the net as fast as possible for potential rebounds, sprinting to attack the puck carrier when their head is down, etc.
Effort can be the determining factor in whether the tactical skill you select to utilize is effective or not. Many lesser-talented teams have won games and championships purely through their greater level of effort, even though their supposed superior opponents were more “skilled”.