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Good morning and Happy Hump Day ☀️🐪 Wednesday is Clipboard day 📋: one drill, diagrammed, ready to run tonight. Today: hockey, 8U.

Three Lanes, Three Angles: three lines at center ice, a puck for everyone, one goalie. Five minutes to open practice.

Run it: One line in each lane: both wide lanes and the middle.

Three skaters go together. One wide lane shoots first, from the top of the circle. The middle shoots second, from the high slot. The other wide lane drives deep and shoots last, low, from a sharp angle. One shot at a time, so the goalie can get set for each. Then all three peel off to the boards, join a different line, and the next three go.

Coaching point: This one is for the goalie. Goalie Coaches' notes on warm-up shots put it plainly: "Shooters should take care to shoot the pucks in a place where the goalie can control the rebound effectively."

Tell the skaters before the first whistle. Left alone, most 8U shooters will go for a tight corner, and your goalie starts practice cold. On net, a beat apart, goalie set every time. (Goalie Coaches)

Why it works: Three shots, three angles, and the goalie has to move and set for every one: out to the top of the circle, square to the slot, then across to the post.

Simple enough to run on the first whistle, and every skater shoots from all three spots as the lines rotate.

Same idea, full-ice version:3 Lane Shooting — HockeyShare

LOOKING AHEAD ⏭️

Tomorrow on The Coach's Board 📋: THE FACEOFF 🤼 — our first guest episode of the podcast 🎙️. Gayle Jones spent 25 years producing the NBA, the Olympics and the NFL and won four Emmys. Now she's the founder and CEO of FuelBoxx, and she says youth sports has professionalized "everything but nutrition." Watch or listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and make sure to check your inbox tomorrow morning!

The week on the Board:

I Almost Threw Out My Keurig. It Wasn't Broken.

Every cup from my Keurig started tasting weak, flat, stale — so I unplugged it and stuck it in a closet. Then I learned the dirty secret of grocery store K-Cups: by the time a pod reaches your kitchen, it's usually spent months going from factory to warehouse to truck to shelf. The flavor oils are long gone. Some brands even over-roast to hide it.

The fix wasn't a new machine. It was fresh pods from Angelino's, a family-owned L.A. roastery that roasts, packs, and ships within 3–5 days — straight to your door, from 39¢ a cup. Over 1,000,000 happy customers. 50+ flavors, no subscription required, and 15% off your first order, applied automatically at checkout.

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The Coach's Board by Paul Variano
The daily executive roundup for youth sports leaders.