Under-13 Recreational
Under-13 (U13) recreational hockey is all about building skills while enjoying every shift. Players will continue to grow their love for the game through practices filled with drills, fun activities, and small-area games that keep them moving and learning.
This is also the first age group where players are introduced to body checking, with a focus on safety and respect. These lessons help players gain confidence while developing strong habits for the future.
Recreational hockey offers the chance to play with friends, improve as athletes, and enjoy the game at a pace that is fun, challenging, and rewarding.
Importance of Small-Area Games
Small-area games are an essential part of player development, offering coaches an effective way to create practices that are both engaging and competitive. By using smaller spaces and game-like situations, players are challenged to think quickly, make decisions under pressure, and develop a stronger sense of time and space on the ice. These activities allow coaches to introduce and reinforce key hockey concepts such as puck support, breakouts, and special teams play in an environment where learning happens naturally through play. With no pre-determined outcomes, small-area games encourage creativity and adaptability, two qualities that are critical for long-term success in hockey.
Beyond skill-building, small-area games maximize the use of valuable ice time while significantly increasing the tempo and intensity of practice. Players are exposed to countless puck touches, competitive battles, and decision-making opportunities in every repetition, which accelerates their growth in areas such as skating, shooting, passing, and game sense. Goaltenders also benefit by facing a greater variety of shots in realistic game-like scenarios. By blending skill development, hockey sense, and systems play into one efficient and enjoyable format, small-area games provide a foundation for young athletes of all abilities to thrive in a positive and age-appropriate training environment.
Benefits of Small-Area Games
- Make Practice Fun
Small-area games are enjoyable for both beginner players and the most skilled athletes in the game. Players are constantly moving and always involved since there is less space. The freedom and creativity that come with game play have been shown to be much more engaging than standing in line waiting for a static drill. - All Ages and Skill Levels Benefit
Regardless of age or skill level, players benefit from small-area games by working harder, always moving, touching the puck more, and experiencing game-like situations. - Automatically Increases Practice Intensity
Small-area games naturally bring out competitive spirit, as each team battles to score goals and win. Static drills, on the other hand, can become repetitive and less engaging. - Players Practise Decision-Making
Small-area games require players to develop decision-making skills since there is no predetermined route to the net. Players must read and react to the ever-changing play. - Players Learn to Play as a Team
Players discover the importance of communicating both verbally and nonverbally with teammates in order to be successful. - Reinforces Valuable Skills
Small-area games reinforce essential skills like skating, passing, puck control, and shooting, while also building habits and concepts of game play. Offensively, players learn to create time and space by keeping their heads up and working with teammates. Defensively, players learn to take away time and space through body position, stick position, awareness, playing the body, and keeping the stick on the ice to close passing lanes. - Learn How to Apply New Skills
Instead of simply playing a standard 3-on-3 game, coaches can reinforce new skills or concepts by modifying the setup or rules. - Increases Number of Puck Touches
Small-area games provide players with more puck touches than full-ice games or scrimmages. This allows players to become more comfortable handling the puck and passing in traffic, accelerating skill development. - Beneficial for Goaltenders
Goaltenders face more game-like situations, forcing them to read, anticipate, and react to plays. This provides more realistic and quality shots compared to standard drills. - More Players Are Involved
Rather than one player skating while others wait in line, multiple players can be active at the same time. Coaches can also use resting players as outlet options or bumpers to keep the puck in play. - Can Be Set Up in Limited Ice Space
With the rising cost of ice, many teams share surfaces or divide them into stations. Small-area games can be set up in half-ice, quarter-ice, eighth-ice, or even within circles and corners. - No Need to Waste Time on “Conditioning Drills”
Small-area games mimic real game movements with tight turns, crossovers, pivots, and constant starts and stops, providing natural conditioning. - Encourages Creative Thinking from Coaches
Coaches can design innovative variations that reinforce specific skills or concepts, rather than sticking to a standard 3-on-3 format. - Encourages Creative Problem-Solving from Players
By introducing different rules, players are challenged to stay alert and adapt their creativity in how they approach each game.
COACHING RESOURCES
Many resources are available for coaches to hone their craft.
Hockey Canada has put its best-in-class skill-development resources into a new app, the Hockey Canada Network, giving coaches, parents and athletes at all levels the tools to succeed with drills, skills, videos, practice plans, and articles all available on a tablet or phone.
Introduction to Checking
Checking is a critical skill in hockey and when performed properly can create opportunities to help a team regain control of the puck. Just like skating, puck control, passing and shooting there are key progressions to the skill of checking. When these progressions are taught effectively, they can greatly enhance a player’s enjoyment of the game of hockey.
Part 1: Teaching Checking Skills
- Know the difference between body contact and body checking.
- Understand the age-appropriate skills needed to develop better checking skills with your players.
- Identify the inherit risks associated with checking.
- Coach players and teach & develop their safe checking skills.
- Teach and design specific drills to develop vision and awareness.
- Understand and implement the proper checking progression needed for safe hockey.
Part 2: Developing a Skill Base
What are the characteristics of a good checker?
Skating Ability
o Speed: Not only speed in skating up and down the ice but also laterally, quick change of directions. Also refers to reaction speed of poke check and skating checks.
o Strength: Refers to the strength of the upper body, to overpower opponent’s stick, manipulation of opponent in close quarters.
o Balance and Agility: Refers to the player’s ability to remain constantly in a ready position with a low center of gravity enhancing balance. Also refers to their skating ability to stop and change directions quickly, performing tight turns, use of crossovers, forwards and pivots or mohawk turns while skating backwards, all performed while under control.
Anticipation: Refers to the ability of a player to “read” the opposition’s weaknesses and strategies and counter them with checking techniques.
Positional Ability: Refers to a player’s knowledge of angles while checking an opponent on the ice. It also refers to a player’s timing and the ability to “invite” or force an opponent to go in the direction he wants him to go. In addition, the player must always be prepared to work checking skills from a defensive side position, that being, always between the puck and their team’s net.
Read and React Skills: Refers to the ability of a player to “read” and view the ice surface and player movements as the play progresses and be aware of options that are available to him should situations occur that precipitate a certain move or reaction.
o A defender watches a play and the players as they move towards him. He is watching both the opposition and their teammates.
o A forward fore-checking or back checking watches the opposition and is aware of potential pass receivers but also aware of fellow team mates and their proximity to opponents for checking purposes while fore-checking.
o A good checker not only knows the movements and position of their players but also the “habits” and patterns (i.e. favorite plays) of the opposition. He must also possess good body strength, especially that of the upper body, to out muscle the opponent in the various checking techniques.
o Overall body position is the final quality of a good checker. This refers to the “ready position” of a player to enable him to: proceed in any direction to pursue their opponent, resist an opponent’s “counter to check”, a good “ready” position requires a low center of gravity.
Tenacity: Refers to the hockey player’s desire to move quickly and aggressively to a checking situation or to the puck. The more a player moves to put pressure on a puck carrier, the chances of success are greater.
Desire: The player understands the need and the purpose to check the opponent. They are is willing to participate in this part of the game, knowing and understanding the importance and the dangers of checking.
Important Nevers
- Never cross check an opponent into the boards or anywhere on the ice.
- Never push, shove, or trip an opponent into the boards.
- Never use the butt end of your stick to hold or hook an opponent.
- Never check an opponent from behind or target a player’s head.
Canadian Player Pathway (U13) Checking Practice Plans:
IDEAL SEASONAL CHART (RECOMMENDED GUIDELINES)
Considerations:
- Pre-tryout (2 weeks): 8-10 sessions or 1 per day.
- Tryouts: 2 skill sessions + 3 scrimmages.
- Full-time goalies or in Competitive “A” level hockey they could play out.
- Rotate all players through all positions in “A” and recreational. Begin position-specific specialization in “AA”.
- Multiple station work in practices.
- Skill-based practices.
- Small-area Games in practice.
U13: Recreational Season
- Start Date for Practices: November 1
- Development Season (4 weeks):
- 4 practices
- 2 exhibition games
- Start Date for Games: December 1
- Regular Season (12 weeks):
- 12 practices
- 12 games
- Playoff Season: Begins March 15
- Playoff tournament (if applicable)
- Total Practices: 26
- Total Tournaments: 2 tournaments (roughly 8 games)
- Total Games: 20-22
U13 Coaching Staff Certification Requirements
- DECEMBER 15 – final date for any TEAM OFFICIAL to be removed from a team roster – the appropriate certifications will be required after this date.
- DECEMBER 20 – final date for all team officials to obtain appropriate certifications. Teams will be fined $50 per infraction by Hockey Saskatchewan as per regulation 8.01.01.b.
U13 A, B, C, D (Male & Female Teams)
*Female registered teams must have a minimum of one registered female coach.
- Head coaches – Coach 2 Level OR Hockey Canada Coach 2, Respect in Sport, Checking Skills 1
- Assistant coaches - Coach 2 Level OR Hockey Canada Coach 2, Respect in Sport
- Manager, Trainer, Volunteer, Stick boy – Respect in Sport
- Coach Instructional Stream Goaltending 1 – one of the Coaches must have
- Checking – the Head Coach must have
- Hockey Canada Safety Program (HCSP Level 1 or HU SAFETY) – 1 of the registered team officials (manager, coach, trainer, volunteer) must have this certification.
U13 AA (Male & Female Teams)
*Female registered teams must have a minimum of one registered female coach.
- Head coaches - Development 1 (or HP1), Respect in Sport, Checking Skills 1
- Assistant coaches - Coach 2 Level OR Hockey Canada Coach 2, Respect in Sport
- Manager, Trainer, Volunteer, Stick boy – Respect in Sport
- Coach Instructional Stream Goaltending 1 – one of the Coaches must have
- Checking – the Head Coach must have
- Hockey Canada Safety Program (HCSP Level 1 or HU SAFETY) – 1 of the registered team officials (manager, coach, trainer, volunteer) must have this certification.
Position-specific Programming
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