Monday Night Skills

The trained professionals at Wayzata Hockey Clinics (WHC) have provided WYHA skaters of all ages with expert training and hockey skills nights dating back to 2013. The WHC staff is made up of instructors with many years of experience teaching skill development to all ages. What separates the WHC model from the rest is consistency in these areas:

• Top level instructors at each session
• Short list of instructors to maintain quality and consistency of message to players
• Organized and structured practice plans

The main focus of Monday Night Skills at WYHA is to teach foundational skills each week.

There will be a new theme each week, and it will follow a progression throughout the season.

2024-2025 MONDAY NIGHT THEMES

For the upcoming season, the WHC staff has identified these 14 areas of skill development that will serve as themes each week.

1. Puck Control/Stickhandling

2. Puck Control Advanced (with backpressure, deception, dekes, etc.)

3. Passing - catching and making passes properly

4. Advanced Passing (drop passing, one touch, indirects, area, sauce, etc.)

5. J-hook (forward to forward pivots) passing

6. Basics of shooting

7. Shooting Advanced (one-timer, tips, backhands, etc.)

8. Puck Protection

9. Body Contact/Angling

10. Timing Concepts

11. Puck Support

12. Puck retrievals

13. Individual Competitions (1 on 1 battles, races, etc.)

14. Small Area Games/Full Ice Concepts

PRACTICE STRUCTURE

The practice structure for each 45 minute Monday Night Session will follow a similar format, and

can be broken down like this:

• Skating Instruction - 15-20 minutes
• Theme of the Night station-based drills - 25-30 minutes

The WHC staff will take time throughout each practice to break down each skill involved in the week’s theme. During this teaching time, it is important for coaches and players to pay attention to the technical aspects of the skill, so it can be further developed at regular team practices.

COACHES EDUCATION

A big piece of what WHC provides WYHA on Monday Nights is coaching education. We strongly encourage coaches at all levels to attend Monday Skills Nights to learn, ask questions, and further their development as a coach. WHC will provide coaches with detailed practice plans for every Monday Night session. Coaches can take these plans and implement concepts from them in their own practices. The WHC staff is always available to answer questions about hockey development.

WHC STAFF

The WHC staff has many years of playing and coaching experience. WHC is continually adding and training new instructors. WHC core staff is listed below for the 2024-2025 season.

• Pat O’Leary, Head Coach - Wayzata HS, Owner - Individual Skills Clinics
• Miles Death, Assistant Coach - Wayzata HS, Directory of Hockey Operations, WYHA
• Bill Rooney, Assistant Coach - Wayzata HS
• Mikey Spencer, Assistant Coach - Wayzata HS
• Derek Olson, Assistant Coach - Wayzata HS
• Brad Podiak, Head Coach - Girls Varsity - Wayzata HS
• Addison DeBoer, Assistant Coach - Wayzata HS, USHL Scout
• Blake Sloan, Owner - Individual Skills Clinics
• Additional trained coachs Mike Morin, Sam Majka, Trey Rooney, and Alex Stevens