When you think of games inside of practice, what comes to mind?
For hockey coaches, it's often 3v3 small area games.
Let's think about video games for a second to shed some light on changing your immediate thought from 3v3 to something more...
The Juice is in the Journey
Your players love video games because they get to go on journeys and "unlock" new things.
You can make drills "mini-journeys" to create a ton of engagement:
3 players touch the puck= unlock new advantage
Great chance in 4v2= unlock new feature
The Squeeze is in the Framework
Drills to journeys follow this pattern.
Achieve, unlock, repeat.
Achieve an objective, unlock a new feature, repeat.
Engagement City
Population: 20 players and a Coach
Update 3/28/2023: New Wave Coach, Alex Grose puts a spin on it