Jamie Rice: Competitive Offense Drills for Mastering Strategic Scoring

with Jamie Rice,
Babson College Head Coach;
2022 New England Hockey Conference Tournament Champions;
3x ECAC East Coach of the Year;
4x ECAC East Tournament Champions;
2014 ECAC East and New England Hockey Writers Association Coach of the Year;
2007 New England Coach of the Year;
8x USA Hockey Select 17 Festival Coach;
USA Hockey Coaching Education Program lecturer;
was an assistant coach at Colby, Dartmouth, Brown and Northeastern;
played college hockey for Babson College

Coach Rice details his offensive philosophy throughout this video. He is a coach who believes ‘the game will teach the game’ and the chaos that comes in a game is where opportunities await.

Rice encourages players to learn how to be engaged and prepared in a highly competitive atmosphere and ready to dominate game situations in the future through creating and mastering a variety of scenarios in practice. Skills like learning to stop at the net, to hunt down rebounds, to always have your stick in the ready position, to have your chest and toes facing the net are focused fundamentals that lead to competitive and skilled hockey players.

Allowing the players to play games every day in practice, by having them focus on ‘the way we do things’ and by the standards taught, leads to player-driven success. Coach Rice states: “Being good means: great habits, hard work, adhering to a standard”.

The more fun the players have at practice by playing small area games he uses in his practices, the better they become at playing by the standards set by the coach. Keeping players engaged, motivated and highly focused on their execution of play with competitive games helps the player learn from different scenarios while competing.

Here are some of the ways Coach Rice sets up variances in practice that simulate game-like scenarios:

• Playing games in different variations,
• changing parameters,
• varying situations,
• adding constraints,
• changing the rules,
• changing the size of the rink,
• mixing up the numbers of offensive and defensive players
• participating in the games with numerical advantages and disadvantages.

There are 6 drills in this video:

• 2 on 2 tag,
• 2 on 0 pass & shoot,
• 3 on 3 short ice,
• 3 on 3 one time,
• Power Play game on both ends (no direction),
• 1 on 3 in the defensive zone – then 2 on 3 in the defensive zone.

One standout drill is the 1 on 3 in the defensive zone. This drill brings together many of the standards Coach Rice covers throughout the video:

• Teamwork mentality,
• Focusing on execution and attention to detail;
  • Including patience on the weak side, away from the puck.
  • Find quiet areas on the ice,
  • Staying on good ice,
  • Staying on the weak side of the ice – to be open and available.

This video is all about offense and listening to Coach Rice teach “No fear of failure”, which helps ease the players mind to try different ideas or maneuvers.

The end result/the goal is: Having high energy, highly competitive players with confidence and skill, who are ready to generate and create offense and score more goals. This makes for an exciting and fun style of play!

Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars!:
“I really enjoyed this video. Practices should be fun and deliberate, so the players will be confident in games. Coach Rice’s way of coaching and what he sets as the standard are exemplary - players will not be able to wait to get back on the ice after each practice!”

76 minutes. 2024.