Enrico Blasi's Hockey Concepts & Transitions 3-Pack

The emphasis of this fantastic hockey session is on Defensive Concepts. Coach Blasi does an effective job setting the tone of the drills covered on a whiteboard before taking it to the ice for the majority of the drill; the multiple reps ‘on-ice’ give you the opportunity to digest his concepts. With the key defensive elements in mind, learn how to train those concepts at a high ‘compete’ level, as well as how to defend the execution of key offensive elements.

Train Key Defensive Concepts

Through a progression of 10 drills, you will see Coach Blasi work on gap control, awareness, proper positioning, movement, and energy. From the dynamic ‘pass & shoot’ warmup through the ending conditioning skate, learn how to work on a number of breakouts, face-offs, transitions, net-front battles, 1v1 play, and various even and man-up/down situations. 

Train to Defend Key Offensive Concepts

Throughout these Defensive drills, see how Coach Blasi trains his defensive players to defend against the offensive concepts of attacking open ice, speed of attack, movement and support, awareness, and opposing energy. 

Additional points of emphasis for the defense are made, and demonstrated, in regards to effective puck movement and protection. In his ‘Defensive Zone From Face Off’ drill, Blasi has the defensive unit work in both zones to emphasize the relevant defensive elements.

Keep it Simple

A common theme throughout this session is to keep things disciplined and simple. Through both the drills themselves and the stoppages in play in which Coach Blasi reviews or emphasizes points, the concept of not over-complicating execution is highlighted.

Crash Course in Defense

Coach Blasi provides a comprehensive set of drills to fully prepare his defense. Learn to teach the defensive key concepts in highly competitive drills which emphasize simplicity, discipline, and the will to ‘stay in the fight’!

This excellent video will quickly become one of your go-to resources for getting your team defense ready for the games ahead!!

68 minutes. 2023.

This excellent hockey session builds on the defensive keys worked on during Coach Rico Blasi’s ‘Creating a Game-Ready Defense’ session and shifts focus to the defensive unit supporting the transition to offense. As in his other video sessions, Blasi does an effective job setting the tone of the drill on a whiteboard before taking it to the ice for the majority of the drill; the multiple reps ‘on-ice’ give you the opportunity to digest his concepts. Learn some high intensity transition drills which you can immediately implement in your environment and be more prepared to run effective and efficient transitions for game day.

Defensive Discipline

The nine drills in this session reinforce having discipline in executing defensive concepts. The ‘breakout’ drills emphasize the importance of intelligent puck and player movement, while the ‘zone’ work focuses on winning battles, not over-committing to the puck at the risk of losing position, and desire to win battles. Coach Blasi shows you his ‘D Zone Funnel Drill’ in which the concepts of gap control, “don’t go fishing for the puck”, communication, and the importance of stick-on-stick defense are highlighted.

Effective Support of the Forwards in Transition

Coach Blasi works through a series of drills which involve the defense winning the puck back and being in a position to transition to offense. His session works on “winning the battles” inside the D-Zone and effectively starting a breakout. These drills isolate the role of the defense in the transition through all three zones and focus on being successful by paying attention to the details of both key defensive and offensive concepts.

Awareness and Compete

The execution of this training session supports the idea of “practice like you play”. Each of the nine drills in this session is run at game speed with a high level of compete. Coach Blasi is sure to inspire you to incorporate this attitude into your sessions, and provides a great set of drills to use as templates!

63 minutes. 2023.

This hockey session, featuring Coach Rico Blasi, is all about offensive transitions; he does an effective job setting the tone of the drill on a whiteboard before taking it to the ice for the majority of the drills. The multiple ‘on-ice’ reps provide an excellent visual opportunity to digest, and see, his concepts. With a focus on individual offensive skills, team offensive concepts, and effectively evaluating the game situation, this practice will help your offense be ready on game-day!

Team Offensive Skills in Transition

Through a series of ten drills, learn to put your offense in a number of man-up situations that emphasize the main points that coach Blasi wants to solidify prior to the game. Through a series of breakouts and power plays, learn what to focus on in quick transitions and getting the puck to the net with speed. Also you will see Blasi reinforce the importance of handling the passes and jumping on loose pucks immediately in order to not lose offensive rhythm.

Effective Puck Movement

You will see how Coach Blasi has his team work on quick and efficient puck movement in order to create the time and space to control the offensive situation and you will learn how to more effectively engage the first defender to help create this space, as well as working in a number of situations to work on opportunistic finishing.

Reading the Situation and Creative Offense

Through multiple reps, across multiple drills, you will see excellent examples of how Blasi puts a priority on making the best decision by being both in the moment and correctly reading the data in front of the players. Not only does this reinforce the individual and team concepts being worked, but it also encourages creativity in the attack. In particular, his ‘4-3-2-1 Cross-Ice’ Drill works the “read and react” situations by presenting the players with a continuous change of scenarios.

Crash Course in Offensive Transitions

Throughout this video session, Coach Blasi provides a great series of drills to fully prepare the offense. Regardless of the scenario in front of the offense, he effectively works quick transitions with a focus on quality puck movement, creativity, and efficient finishing.

65 minutes. 2023.