ROGER GRILLO EXPLAINS GRID HOCKEY

[Music] [Applause] feels good you just get back out there and put it off and basically i'm feeling excited because i'm going back on the ice after a while i'm hyped because i got to skate with the boys that's great because i've played hockey in so long welcome back to hockey my name is paul moore from usa hockey i'm the coaching chief in the massachusetts district and welcome to grid hockey roger gorilla we'll be going over a practice plan for you today we're excited to see that in the meantime there's things that coaches can be doing throughout the country registering at usa hockey as a coach getting your age-appropriate module your safe sport and your background check we look forward to seeing everyone at the rank in the near future hockey's back and we're going to have a group of 18 skaters out here to show you what social distancing looks like in the time of the pandemic on the ice we'll show you the kids coming in the rink how they get dressed and what it should look like on the ice one of the things we're trying to work on is making sure that the kids are social distancing on the ice so they're being safe and also adding the components of the game of decision making reading competing having fun decision making spatial awareness visual awareness all within one simple little concept called grid hockey so here's what social distancing might look like on the ice during this phase two of mass hockey's rollout for letting kids back into the rink 10 grids at this end of the rink that are 11 by 11 squares and we have them marked off with tires and cones down here and they're numbered one through ten we'll have nine players down here with one coach uh and at the other end of the rink using my marker i built the same grid system as at the other end with the cones and tires but we just used the marker and it's the same 11 by 11 squares marked out grids one through ten okay i'm standing in grid number six right here now the idea behind this is that the players within their grids depending on what drill the coach is working on whether it's passing stick handling puck protection a little bit of shooting keep away whatever that the players have to be aware of what's happening around them so if i'm in grid number six which would be one of the more difficult grids i got to worry about what's happening in grid number five down below me and grid number three up above me in grid number nine and over next to me in grid number seven so i've got to be aware of what's happening in my entire spacing area as well as what's happening throughout the entire grid so kind of trying to simulate the game of hockey with five on five i can't just be worried about what i'm doing i gotta be worried about what everybody else on the ice is doing and reading off of them and having visual and spatial awareness so a little bit of taking a silver lining through this difficult time of social distancing and bringing it on the ice you