According to OMHA (Ontario Minor Hockey Association) an atom level comprises of kids aged 10 and less than 10 years.
Below are some atom hockey drills. They focus on checking, shooting, skating, crossovers, stick handling, evasive maneuvers, net drives and team tactics. Any of these drills can be mixed for a good practice plan for atoms.
Let’s start with a good warm up drill which takes up 5 minutes. In this drill, players are supposed to take off one by one but the trick is that they do this backwards between the blue lines. Also, they have to do a jump of two foot over each line. Along with this, they also have to touch their toes, do leg kicks and trunk twists.
The next drill is a useful passing drill. This also is of 5 minutes. This is done in pairs and the two skate over the ice and keep passing back and forth to each other. After a few laps, sides should be changed so that both players get to practice passing on backhand and forehand.
The next drill should be done for 10 minutes and this is also a passing drill for atom players. In this drill the pairs pass one on one. They start out at the end and form two lines at the corner. The pair is supposed to pass back and forth on the ice in between pylons and boards. When they reach the last pylon, the one with the puck is on defense and the other one who doesn’t have the puck is on defense and comes back 1 on 1 down the middle lane. Here the pylons should be put down at the middle so that players don’t crash against each other.
Now comes the shootout drill which is 5 minutes long. For this, there should be two lines facing each edge of the ice. The players one on the left should be down on a knee and the players on the right are the one with the puck. When the coach gives the signal, the players on the right (one’s with the puck), will skate towards the net to take a shot. The players on the left (the ones down on one knee), have to play the role of a keeper by trying to catch the players with the puck. After each attempt, the lines should be switched.
The stick checking drill also takes 5 minutes. This comprises of lifting, poking, pressing and doing a sweep check with the stick. Take a spray paint and demarcate eight zones for one on one’s. The players are supposed to play one on one and pay special attention to the checking skills. The “c” is the goalie’s zone.
The next drill takes 5 minutes and is a combination of skating, passing and shooting. With reference to the diagram, 2 passes to 1 who is skating around the pylon. 1 does an evasive move in the neutral zone onto C and moves onto the offensive zone to take a shot. This is followed by repeating this twice in the opposite direction.