Shooting and Skills #1
We Don’t Need No Stinking Ice!
Who says you need ice to become a better hockey player? You don’t even have to be that creative or spend a whole bunch of time or money to work on your hockey skills during this nationwide coronavirus rink shutdown.
We’ve already hit you with a lot of information to digest and some off-ice workouts to get you motivated and get your blood flowing this week. So for now, when it comes to the hockey stuff, let’s keep it really simple.
Regain Your Feel for the Stick and Puck
Grab your gloves and sick – maybe your helmet to make things a little more realistic if you want – and find some flat ground. If you have a puck and a shooting or stickhandling board, that’s great. If not, any kind of ball that rolls smoothly and has some weight to it will do the job.
Thick plastic stickhandling balls are perfect, but not required. Lacrosse balls will work great as will field hockey balls or even baseballs. Even one of those thick plastic pucks with rollers can work. If the ball or puck is a little heavier than a normal puck you might even get a little more of a wrist or forearm workout out of it. If the only option you have that will work is something that is lighter than a hockey puck, that will have to do, but you really want something with some mass to it so it will feel more like a puck on your stick. Even a regulation golf ball can do the trick if it’s the only thing you have.
For now, let’s just spend 15-20 minutes a day stickhandling while remaining pretty much stationary. Watch TV while you stickhandle if you can to make yourself look up and to regain the feel for the puck on your stick without having to look down at it. It’s okay to lose the puck and screw up. Keep your head up and keep trying. We don’t get better by doing things we are good at, we get better by trying things that are outside our comfort zone and failing sometimes.
Start simple. Move the ball or puck back and forth for a bit, short and quick movements while rolling your wrists back and forth. Then take it back and forth and go wider, keeping the hands out in front and leaning to each side as you stickhandle in that direction. Reach out as far as you can, keeping both feet on the ground and then bring it back to the other side.
Perform each movement for a set period of time and then maybe try some figure eights, which will force you to use both sides of the stick blade. First try side-to-side figure eights for a set amount of time and then reach straight out in front of your body and pull back to do figure eights.
Do that for the same amount of time as the first movements and then work heel to toe with the ball or and puck and toe to heel for a while, just by flicking your wrists, to really get the feel of the ball on all parts of the stick. Do this for a bit and then add a little drag or pull to it to simulate a full toe drag.
After that mix in some backhand toe drags. Then repeat everything on your right side, performing the entire sequence with your head up – close to your body on the right first and then stretch it out farther from your body on that side. Once finished, do it all over again on the left side – close to the body first and then extend.
How are you feeling? A little fatigued in your forearms, wrists or hands? Is your back a little sore? Try to maintain a good hockey posture with your knees bent and a wide, athletic stance. Tilt the torso a little forward and don’t bend too much at the waist. It’s okay to feel a little fatigued or for your back or leg muscles to tighten up a bit. You’ve probably been away from the game for a few weeks, so that’s normal, and you are simply getting some of your hockey muscles back in shape again.
So, to repeat: Start out in front close to your body with all the movements then extend out farther but still in front. Do each movement for a set period of time and then switch to a new one. Once you’ve done them all in close and extended in front of you do the same thing on the right and then the left before taking a quick break. That’s one complete set. See how long each set takes you and try to keep it up for at least 15 minutes, taking a short break after each set. Develop a routine and maybe even incorporate some fancier moves once you have done everything on all sides and before you finish each individual set.
Let’s stop there for now. We’ll spice it up in the coming weeks with some cones and barriers and patterns, maybe add a ball for you to balance on while you stickhandle or even a blindfold. Get the feel back this week, and we’ll go from there.
Shoot for the Stars
One thing you can never do enough is shoot the puck, and you don’t need ice to work on your shot. If you have a goal and a surface to shoot off of or a driveway, get some pucks and get after it. And if you don’t have a goal, maybe you can hang or tie a tarp or sheet onto a fence so that you won’t destroy it, paint a goal or some targets on it and have at it.
The more pucks you have the better, but if you only have a few, that works, too. Chase them down every time and sprint back with them and turn it into a little conditioning drill. For right now, again to get back in the swing of things, try to shoot 200 pucks a day, incorporating every type of shot – wrist shot, slap shot, snap shot and backhand – into your workout. Shoot 100 as hard as you possibly can and 100 for accuracy. Develop a point system for hitting certain spots and try every day to break your record.
If you’re feeling ambitious maybe shoot 100 of each type of shot or just shoot until your hands and forearms are so tired that you can’t shoot anymore to build strength.
In the weeks ahead we will add components to your shooting workouts to concentrate on developing a quicker release, shooting off balance, shooting in stride, shooting off stride, deceptive shooting and learning how to shoot from awkward positions to add more game-like realism to your drills and help you when you get back on the ice.