Jamie Rice: Creating an Explosive Transition Game

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

Transition is a constant in every game - happening hundreds of times. Coach Jamie Rice empowers players to make decisions based on time, space, and the urgency to get the puck moving north to capitalize on the change of possession. Transition is the key opportunity to create scoring chances and the teams that work best together to move from defense to offense score more goals.  You will see the dynamics of transition and how that can quickly move your team into the offensive zone and attack the under-prepared opponent.

Drill Segments and Notable Drills
Through the 14 drill segments, you will see the overall theme of reacting from defense to offense with urgency and how that translates into dynamic scoring opportunities. Two vs. Two Keep Away is a drill to engage multiple players, create head-up communication, and to get foot speed established at the start of your practice. Players are constantly moving in and out of the drill and need to bring a focused effort to compete in the drill.

Coach Rice uses the Breakaway Transition as a great warm-up drill to get your goaltenders both long shots and rebound opportunity shots. Players are moving up and down the ice understanding how to quickly change direction and bring pucks to the net. Too often players skate past second chance opportunities and this drill reinforces staying on the top side of the puck and with enough depth to capitalize on rebound opportunities.

Two vs. One – One Puck is a quick transition drill that emphasizes offensive assertiveness, first step speed, and releasing the puck quickly off the cross-ice pass. Players are challenged to get on the ice and off the ice quickly as the drill goes up and down the center ice zone quickly. Far too often players do not get on or off the ice quickly so this is a great rehearsal emphasizing that demand of the game. There is a back-checking element in this drill and, again, Coach Rice pushes the players to better their game away from the puck and explains why these little pieces of the game can add up to be big game changers.

This is an essential video for coaches who want to teach their team how to employ high tempo, quick transition hockey. Coaches will learn the important points to teach, such as first step explosiveness, moving the puck on first touch, under handling the puck throughout the ice, and the importance of quick release shooting.

Coaches need to understand that teams that are prepared to defend are more apt to limit goal-scoring attempts when they are structured. This magnifies the importance of being a great transition team and why coaches could use these drills to focus on goal scoring and scoring off the turn over.

Both team skills and individual skills of successful transition play are a part of the video so your team will have the opportunity to develop both skill sets! This video is for coaches and players at the upper beginning levels all the way through the professional levels of hockey. The drills and concepts can be broken down to easy to implement drills and ramped up using similar drills, but with an increased tempo.

Coach Review:
“Coach Rice once again hits it out of the park with this video as he empowers his team to develop offensive attacks through explosive transition play! Quick transition is the attempt to take advantage of the opposition’s team vulnerability immediately after turning over the puck. Most goals are scored within eight seconds of an opposition turnover. You want to score more goals … watch this video and learn how!”

69 minutes. 2024