Understanding Practice Types

Last week, we talked about one of the biggest misconceptions in hockey development: not all ice time is created equal.

Two players can spend the exact same amount of time on the ice and walk away with completely different training experiences. That's why understanding both volume (how much work was done) and intensity (how hard the work was) is so important.

But once you understand those two concepts, a much more interesting question emerges:

What kind of practice are players actually participating in?

This week, we're breaking down the five most common types of hockey practices and why understanding the difference can help coaches, parents, and players train with greater purpose.

Once you understand volume and intensity, practices become much easier to evaluate. The reality is that not every practice should have the same goal.

Some practices are designed to build endurance. Others are meant to improve speed and explosiveness. Some should help players recover while continuing to develop skills.

The challenge is that most teams never clearly define which type of practice they're actually running. That challenge grows when there's also a lack of measurement to track volume and intensity.

Let's break down the five most common practice types.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRACTICES

HIGH VOLUME + LOW INTENSITY

Building Endurance & Capacity

These practices involve a lot of total work performed at a moderate pace.

In execution, that looks like:

• Longer practices
• Continuous skating
• High-repetition drill work
• Conditioning-focused sessions

The goal isn't maximum speed.

It's building the endurance and capacity needed to handle longer practices, games, and seasons.

Players leave tired, but not exhausted.

HIGH INTENSITY + LOW VOLUME

Building Speed & Explosiveness

These practices prioritize effort over duration.

This looks like:

• Sprint races
• Explosive skating drills
• Small-area competitions
• Maximum-effort acceleration work

The goal is simple:

Move faster.

These sessions help develop speed, quickness, acceleration, and explosiveness.

Because the effort level is so high, the overall volume stays low.

LOW INTENSITY + LOW VOLUME

Recovery & Skill Development

Not every practice should be hard.

Recovery sessions allow players to absorb training while continuing to sharpen their skills.

A low intensity, low volume session could include:

• Light skating
• Technical skill work
• Puck touches
• Mobility-focused sessions

The goal isn't fatigue.

It's recovery, skill refinement, and preparing for the next hard session.

HIGH INTENSITY + HIGH VOLUME

The Danger Zone

These practices combine a large amount of work with a high level of effort and look like:

• High-tempo practices
• Repeated small-area competitions
• Heavy conditioning mixed with intense drills
• Tournament weekends and multi-game stretches

The challenge is that the body can only sustain so much high-quality effort.

As fatigue builds, speed drops, technique breaks down, and the quality of the work begins to decline.

Occasional sessions like this can be effective, but spend too much time here, and the returns start to diminish. Recovery becomes harder, performance can plateau, and injury risk begins to increase.

The best coaches don't live in this zone.

They use it very strategically, then allow players time to recover and adapt.

THE GRAY ZONE

The Most Common Practice in Hockey

This is where many teams spend most of their time.

Practices are hard enough to create fatigue, but not hard enough to improve speed.

They're long enough to make players tired, but not long enough to build meaningful endurance.

Everyone leaves exhausted.

But exhaustion isn't the same thing as development.

The Gray Zone creates fatigue without a clear training purpose.

SO WHAT TYPE OF PRACTICE DID YOU JUST RUN?

That's where things get tricky. Most coaches can tell when a practice felt hard. Most players can tell when they're tired. But feelings don't always tell the full story.

A practice might feel intense because players are exhausted. Another might feel easy even though it delivered exactly the training stimulus players needed.

Without measurement, it's difficult to know whether a session was building endurance, developing speed, supporting recovery, or simply creating fatigue.

The best coaches don't rely on guesswork.

They rely on data.

Because when you can measure both workload and intensity, you gain a clearer understanding of how players are developing, how practices are impacting performance, and whether the work being done aligns with your goals.

And that's where development starts to become intentional.

MEASURE PRACTICE WITH HELIOS