Fun!
Fun drives everything. Desire to turn up, train hard and get better. The real magic is hiding hard work inside the fun and maximising time on puck. That's the only way to really improve. At Nova we love a good novelty game. Here's a few:
Scrag
2v2 or 3v3. Small teams trying to hold posession and keep the puck away from other team. No goals. Go anywhere in the pool and look out when you collide with another group doing the same.
Push back
The classic 1v1 or 2v2 flicking puck back and forward, trying to score by flicking puck into far end. Puck can be intercepted. Fowels (catching on glove etc) result in other person immedately advancing and taking another flick from infringement location. It's honorable to win with an inside flick as the final flick to the wall.
Power up swim push back
Same as above, but at any time anyone may swim the puck and NOT flick. Phase ends when the other person tags the puck. One player can't use their power up swim again until the other person has used theirs.
Rob the nest
You'll need lots of pucks. Ideally one per person. Multiple teams (usually 4 teams of 4ish people) set up "nests" in 4 corners of the pool, each holding several pucks. Start the timer... at the end of the phase (5min), see how many pucks you can steal and bring home. Normal hockey rules.
Capture the puck
2 pucks, 2 teams. Start at opposite ends, each team guarding their own puck. Try to go get the other teams puck and bring it back to your end. If you have the opposition puck on your stick, and the puck gets tagged, you must surface and return to your end before attempting again. If you tag the other team while they have your puck, get your puck and take it home.
Touch
Touch rugby style. No forward passes. If puck gets tagged, that's a phase. Hand over on the 6th phase. If you flick forward, immediate handover.
1v1
Hockey. The best way to get better. Play for 60 minutes.
Swim vs Flick
One team can only swim with the puck (no flicking), the other team can only flick it (no swimming).
The gifted and the cursed
A way to play with a diverse range of players from elite to novice. In a normal game of hockey, label your best players with a curse. And your beginners with a gift. Intermediate players may have no label. If a gifted players tags the puck on the stick of cursed player, they must immediately surface. If a gifted player has the puck, they cannot be tackled by a cursed player. The only option for the gifted player in this scenario is to try to hold their stick in front of the puck and make a stationary wall.
4 way
4 teams, with 4 goals laid out in a square shape. Every time you conceed a goal, you get -1.
Reverse goals
Normal hockey, but pull the goals out from the wall and spin them around to score from the otherside. Introduces flicking over the goal.
Piggy in the middle
Setup across the pool using the lane lines as zones. With 1v1v1 or 2v2v2. The outside teams attempt to pass between each other. The inside team tries to intercept. If they do, they swap with the outside team that failed the flick. Bonus rule: you can enter the other teams zone up to your elbow. For these brief moments, normal hockey applies with tackles.
Scrag
2v2 or 3v3. Small teams trying to hold posession and keep the puck away from other team. No goals. Go anywhere in the pool and look out when you collide with another group doing the same.
Push back
The classic 1v1 or 2v2 flicking puck back and forward, trying to score by flicking puck into far end. Puck can be intercepted. Fowels (catching on glove etc) result in other person immedately advancing and taking another flick from infringement location. It's honorable to win with an inside flick as the final flick to the wall.
Power up swim push back
Same as above, but at any time anyone may swim the puck and NOT flick. Phase ends when the other person tags the puck. One player can't use their power up swim again until the other person has used theirs.
Rob the nest
You'll need lots of pucks. Ideally one per person. Multiple teams (usually 4 teams of 4ish people) set up "nests" in 4 corners of the pool, each holding several pucks. Start the timer... at the end of the phase (5min), see how many pucks you can steal and bring home. Normal hockey rules.
Capture the puck
2 pucks, 2 teams. Start at opposite ends, each team guarding their own puck. Try to go get the other teams puck and bring it back to your end. If you have the opposition puck on your stick, and the puck gets tagged, you must surface and return to your end before attempting again. If you tag the other team while they have your puck, get your puck and take it home.
Touch
Touch rugby style. No forward passes. If puck gets tagged, that's a phase. Hand over on the 6th phase. If you flick forward, immediate handover.
1v1
Hockey. The best way to get better. Play for 60 minutes.
Swim vs Flick
One team can only swim with the puck (no flicking), the other team can only flick it (no swimming).
The gifted and the cursed
A way to play with a diverse range of players from elite to novice. In a normal game of hockey, label your best players with a curse. And your beginners with a gift. Intermediate players may have no label. If a gifted players tags the puck on the stick of cursed player, they must immediately surface. If a gifted player has the puck, they cannot be tackled by a cursed player. The only option for the gifted player in this scenario is to try to hold their stick in front of the puck and make a stationary wall.
4 way
4 teams, with 4 goals laid out in a square shape. Every time you conceed a goal, you get -1.
Reverse goals
Normal hockey, but pull the goals out from the wall and spin them around to score from the otherside. Introduces flicking over the goal.
Piggy in the middle
Setup across the pool using the lane lines as zones. With 1v1v1 or 2v2v2. The outside teams attempt to pass between each other. The inside team tries to intercept. If they do, they swap with the outside team that failed the flick. Bonus rule: you can enter the other teams zone up to your elbow. For these brief moments, normal hockey applies with tackles.