3-Man Horseshoe Drill – Hockey Resource

This drill is good as a warm-up during a practice or to make the players use their different shots (wrist shot and slap shot). It combines some skating with shooting. 

Have all the players lined up in a corner of the rink. Three players at a time skate forward while carrying pucks. The first player circles around the faceoff dot at the outside of the blue-line and heads towards the net. They take a wrist shot when they are in between the hash marks. The second player continues skating and circles the centre dot and heads towards the net. They take a slapshot when they reach the ringette line (top of the circles). The third player circles around the far blue-line faceoff dot and chooses to either take a wrist shot from the hash marks or a slap shot from the ringette line. Players should be skating full speed and leave little time between shots. After the drill, they should line up in the opposite corner they started from to practice shooting and turning both directions.

It is important for the players to take the correct shot! The objective is to practice the shot you should be taking at the appropriate location on the ice. Wrist shots from up close and slap shots from further away. Players will tend to favour one type of shot during practices and not be ready when comes game time.

Variations:

•  The third player can be given the option to deeke the goaltender. (Only use this as an “advanced” drill, players will almost always deeke when given the chance instead of practicing their shots which is much more important during a game)
• The drill can be shortened when there is less time or less skilled players by using the faceoff dot in the circle next to the goaltender, the faceoff dot outside the blue line and the centre dot. 
• while this variation does not work skating with the puck, you can work on passing and one-timers. Get the players to start the drill without the puck and after they complete their turn to heads towards the net, receive a pass from their teammates in the opposite corner. Changing the timing of the pass will mean the players either have to receive and skate with it before shooting or try to get a one-timer (wrist or slap).