Reddit mentions: The best hockey coaching books

It depends on what you want and what you are trying to accomplish really:

-Guidance on structuring and running a practice, then the USA Hockey and Hockey Canada materials recommended by others are helpful.

-How to teach specific skills or focus on skills, then youtube channel "itrain hockey" and "hockeyshare" (m2m hockey) are excellent. Especially the itrain "train the trainer" series.

-Overall team play and learning the game - I've used this one for my inline teams, modified slightly for 4v4:

http://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Plays-Strategies-Ryan-Walter/dp/0736076344/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1462802162&sr=8-5&keywords=hockey+drills

-One of the most overlooked elements of coaching is learning how to communicate with athletes, manage parents, and run the team itself. A really helpful tip a coach gave me was to "Put Jim's and Joe's before X's and O's". Get registered with AAU and take the Positive Coaching Alliance certification courses. It's some of the best instruction I've received.

Good luck!

I'd recommend hockey plays and strategies and coaching hockey successfully yes they are coaching books, but essentially you're just reading what a coach would read, and then coach to you. The first book is pretty high level stuff, a lot of systems and stuff you might not use but it does contain some fundamentals in there as well. The second book is much more x's and o's and basics with good teaching points thrown in.

You may also like simply the best and simply the best players: players performance

I'd be wary of trying to explicitly define one's style as stand-up (or conversely, butterfly) -- let your style develop organically as you learn, and focus on your skating ability above all else.

Save selection is really best approached from a "best tool in the toolbox" approach - some will be standing, some will be down. Don't throw out any save selection because it doesn't fit the "style" you want to play. As you learn execution of different saves, the way you read the play will determine whether you should stand or drop, and how you should do either one -- that sense comes with time and experience.

In terms of a single source of fundamentals, Steve McKichan / Future Pro's Essential Goaltending PDF is a good read, available from www.futurepro.com.

I'll also recommend Brian Daccord's Hockey Goaltending as another fundamentals-oriented text: http://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Goaltending-Brian-Daccord/dp/0736074279

Because hockey has so many random things happening quickly, I find it's useful to first start to try and understand the very general "game situation" of any individual point in time during the course of a game.

It's about pattern recognition. "Okay, the defending team recovered the puck and the defenseman has it behind his net, the attacking team is changing lines. This is a breakout play". Then you go research breakout strategies and will begin to recognize the different types.

"Okay, the attacking team has made the breakout to centre ice and now they are trying to cross the blueline. This is a zone entry play."

"The attacking team is on the powerplay. Looks like they only have one player at the top of the zone, the only powerplay setup I know that has one guy up there is the Umbrella."

Also keep in mind that modern hockey relies less on position (F, LW, RW, LD, RD) and much more on relative things. A lot of it comes down to where players are in relation to the puck.

"Okay, the team recovered the puck and is setting up to break out of their zone on attack. The defending team is sending one guy to chase the puck carrier, this is F1 (closest to the puck). Looks like the second closest player on the defending team, F2, is doing such and such."

This is a great book and a must-buy. Recommended by broadcaster and student of the game, Jeff Marek: https://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Plays-Strategies-Ryan-Walter/dp/0736076344

Also find things that Jeff Marek talks in (podcasts) and subscribe to them all. I also recommend Hockey Central at Noon podcast for keeping up with general hockey discussion. Very homerish Canadians, enjoyable banter.

Hockey is a lot like futbol, actually, but faster. You have to recognize the game situation at a very low-level of detail, and that then can be built on with more detailed knowledge you acquire about each game situation.

Let me know if I can describe this a bit better.

There are a lot of comments here advising you to learn about the current league players and such, and that's okay. However, you'll acquire more knowledge if you focus more on watching games for the sake of watching them and reading about different situations and plays. When I was getting into football, it was nice that I knew who Diego Costa was and where he was at all times on the pitch, but it was MORE useful to know that he was a striker, how a well-placed through ball might reach him for a chance, what formation Chelsea played and why, etc.

Congrats! Had a very similar experience in the playoffs this summer, just a surreal feeling. I started late too (played ball hockey in net since I was a kid but only could afford the ice equip in senior year of University) and it definitely gets better. If you're looking for info on improving your game after starting a little later, I picked up this and it was pretty helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0736074279

Keep it up!

If you're looking for a book on systems and the basics of things like breakouts, forechecks, etc. you cannot go wrong with Hockey Plays and Strategies. It's a great resource to have for sure! The Hockey Coaching Bible is also a good one!

Sounds like you’re ready. It’s going to be fun!

Work on that week side stopping and stopping from top speed.

As far as positioning and stuff, checkout this book- it’s worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Plays-Strategies-Mike-Johnston/dp/149256253X/

This is also super in-depth and a great reference. Too much to take in in one sitting, you'll keep going back over time. https://www.amazon.com/Hockey-Plays-Strategies-Ryan-Walter/dp/0736076344

Identifying break-outs is probably one of the easier places to start. Here's a short article on some.

The idea of dumping the puck in, is getting through all the defenders that clog up the neutral zone. Just skating the puck in is pretty hard to do at times, so toss it in and use the built up speed to get past defenders, then setup down low.

I think this book, Hockey Plays and Strategies is pretty awesome. There used to be an EA NHL site that had many excerpts but I can't find it. It has 'look inside' on amazon so you can check some of it out that way.

You absolutely want to hear digging in. That's the toe flick part of your stride, which gives you about a third of your power. As for the weight transfer, you want 100% of your weight to be on your pushing leg. That applies to all pushes, not just the forward stride push. If you want to know everything there is to know about skating, check out this book:

Laura Stamm's Power Skating https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036WWJEE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Qg2wDbQR33Q3M

Hope that helps!

Highly recommend taking a look at Saul Miller's Hockey Tough. Great book.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0736076344/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2IV0CFIBC6CNM&coliid=I3IX11FOZWQD69

is supposedly pretty good. however that is more of a book for coaching.

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0736076344/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1QYEER05O5WSK&coliid=I2LSUJUJ1HLOWO

This book is great

Bob McKenzie's book is great. Hockey Confidential.

I personally haven't read either of these books but they each have a few good reviews and might be what you're looking for.

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Got to play minor hockey my whole life but if you don't have that luxury, play the NHL series on xbox. Also, reading this book helped my Dutch fiend

What if you tried a book about the Hockey Strategies? Maybe this helps.

I'd like to see someone bring this to a game and have Hynes sign it.

Coaching Hockey For Dummies https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470836857/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_WQNODb4KR51SC

This one is a bit dry but worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1552090507/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1418420351&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

This one is really good.

Ryan Stimson's Tape to Space

Would it be seen as offensive to send Blashill multiple copies of the "hockey coaching for dummies" book? I assume one exists.

edit: Found it!