An effective warm-up can consist of various skills such as skating, puck control and puck movement, shooting as well as movement and save drills for goaltenders.
The 4-Dot Warm-up has all of these elements and can be used by teams from Novice to Midget and can even be used by two teams in a shared-practice format.
Players on all four neutral zone dots with pucks; opposite sides (O1 & O4; O2 & O4) go at same time on whistle
Drill starts with Player - O1 skating up across centre and cutting across ice and receives pass from O2. O1 then drives wide into zone for shot on goal. On whistle, opposite sides go (O1 & O4; O2 & O4). Player skates the following pattern: Up, across, up
Player O1 starts the drill by passing laterally to O2 then skates same pattern – Up, across receives return pass from O2, and up – driiving wide into zone for shot on goal (O4 would go at same time)
Player O4 starts the drill by passing laterally to O3 then transition skates around centre circle pivoting backwards at top of circle and then opens up to receive return pass from O3 (O4 would go at same time)