UE Drill: Quarter Pie Breakaway Drill

Sitting in Fredericton watching the Senior Advanced Camp, I wanted to think of a drill idea to help simulate breakaway under pressure.  Originally, the drill concept was for goalies to learn how a breakaway (or near-breakaway) changes in terms of tactics when the puck carrier has limited options that result in backchecking pressure.  I have put together a simple breakaway simulation with my 1/4 pie concept and applied it to my Elite Saturday Night Session this past weekend.  The drill seemed to work very well and the shooters themselves found it very useful to work on breakaways (again and again) where their lateral movement options were limited.

The essential idea of the Quarter Pie Breakaway Drill is to create a breakaway scenario where the middle lane of the final 15 to 20 feet to the net cut off.  The drill breakdown is as follows:

1. Set to pylons in the middle lane from the low hash marks to about 4-5 feet outside the crease.

2. Player X can move in on the goalie handling the puck.  There is no need for the player to drive straight to the net.  Some lateral movement is preferred to help the goalie in the puck tracking and angle adjustment.  Attack with breakaway speed.

3.  Once X hits the top pylon, they must cut to one side or the other and continue to play the breakaway only on that side of the pylon line.  X can play the breakaway with a shot or a deke, depending on the goalie positioning.  Limited space in this drill will really challenge X's stick handling.

Teaching Points:

1.  Goalie (G) can play the breakaway with strong initial positioning outside the crease as a typical breakaway.

2.  (G) can be more conservative in their retreat.  The main reason why the goalie doesn't need to retreat as much as a penalty shot opportunity or an uncontested breakaway, is now X can only drive to the nearside post to beat the goalie wide.  There is no cut across option to the farside post.

3.  The aggressive positioning on X should really limit shot options as well, since X is forced out of the middle lane and will have a worsening shot angle.  If (G) is too passive and backs in too soon, they may give X the shot option or, in a real game situation, a passive (G) may allow X to cut back through the middle lane and give X the farside post as a deke option.

4. (G)'s objective remains the same as a typical breakaway and that is to force the deke and in this drill to force the deke to the nearside post. (G) must be as patient as possible to force the player wider and wider to the nearside post. Once X is at the point of no return, (G) can execute a butterfly slide if X is in tight or utilize other lateral options if X has faded away from the net in the hopes of opening aerial angle on a dead angle play.

Variations may include moving the pylons to a spot that is not totally down the middle lane or off-centre. This would create two 1/4 pie zones, one larger than the other. Goalies would be able to practice different forms of limited lanes on a breakaway switching up on the fly as the players make different choices when they approach the net. Also, to add to the challenge, players may be allowed to cut across the crease once they get below the low pylon. This would significantly change the focus of the drill, but would still be an excellent challenge for the goalie to maintain aggressive positioning to help limit the deking space a player would have. It would set up opportunities for "aggressive stick" plays for the goalie.