How to read (and draw) hockey drill diagrams

• Solid line with an arrow — skating path (forward). The arrow shows the direction of travel.
• Zig-zag or wavy line — skating with the puck (carrying). Some books use a wavy line for stickhandling emphasis; both read as "player has the puck."
• Dashed line — a pass. The dashes travel from passer to receiver.
• Double line or arrow with two heads — a shot on net.
• Line with small perpendicular ticks — backward skating.
• Loop or curl in a path — a pivot or tight turn at that spot.
• X's and O's (or F/D letters) — players. Common schemes: X = forwards, O = defense; or F1/F2/F3, D1/D2, C/LW/RW for named roles. G is always the goalie.
• Small filled dot ● — the puck; a cluster of dots marks a puck pile for continuous drills.
• Cones, tires, nets — drawn literally; a half-net symbol usually means a net turned sideways or off its moorings for the drill.

Numbers next to symbols indicate sequence: 1 the first action, 2 the second. When two actions share a number they happen simultaneously — that's how diagrams encode timing.

• One phase per picture. The moment paths cross more than twice, split the drill into steps. A three-step diagram is read in ten seconds; a one-picture epic takes a translator.
• True-to-scale rink markings. Faceoff dots, circles and blue lines are coordinates — "winger at the hash marks" only means something if the hash marks are where they really are.
• Consistent color. One color per team or unit, every time. Attackers dark, defenders light, pucks black — pick a convention and never break it.
• Label sparingly. A short label at a decision point ("read F1") beats a paragraph in the margin.

Static diagrams have one built-in limitation: they can't show when. Timing — the center's swing arriving as the D touches the puck, the trailer filling behind the rush — is exactly what young players struggle to read from arrows alone.

That's the case for animating your drills. In the BenchIQ editor you place players and draw the same standard lines — skate, carry, pass, shoot — on a true-to-scale rink, then press play and the drill runs step by step, every route moving with real timing. Show it on a tablet in the room, print the drill card for the bench, or export a clip for the team chat. Browse the drill library to see the notation in action on a few hundred drills.