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Better Puck Control Begins With Your Training APPROACH
by Shawn Killian - Director of Planet Hockey Skills Development & Training
Close your eyes and stickhandle. Gently
sweep and cradle the puck side to side, with soft hands. Welcome to hockey,
you are now operating by FEEL, a skill vital for on ice confidence and control.
We can NOT always look at the puck for several obvious reasons. Instead,
gently control the puck, feeling & sensing its placement on your blade,
gradually decreasing the time your eyes focus downward and increasing the
time your eyes and head are up and scanning the ice.
Our stick is an extension of our arms and we want the same coordination and FEEL with the stick blade as we have with our fingers. You should hear very little when you control the puck. Treat the puck as if it was an egg, cradling it with flowing wrist, shoulder, and forearm movement. Control the puck, don't let it control you and NEVER over handle the puck.....EVER.
Sounds simple, so why can creatively controlling the puck with control be so challenging? What can be done to maximize puck handling performance on the ice?
First of all, mastering any skill in hockey requires focused training and repetition of correct technique. Successful hockey players are "smart" hockey players and "smart" players train OUT of their "Comfort Zone".
Our "Comfort Zone" is a zone many players become accustomed to, where body momentum determines the outcome rather than YOU telling your body what to do. It is simply moving in a way that "just happens" on the ice. This destructive approach stems from a lack of on ice confidence, which often results from poor specialized skills instruction.
Doing what comes natural, or what feels good on the ice is almost always wrong. Hockey is a challenging game riddled with precise movements.
We all are born to move on land in a simple upright posture. However, on the ice, we must "TRAIN" to create thrust, control our body movements, and to be aware of what's going on around us, often while controlling the puck.
Understand your boundaries, then continually aim to expand them by training OUT of your "Comfort Zone". Now the game becomes even MORE fun!
Next question. How are your skating skills? Do not be quick to answer "fine", as most stickhandling difficulties stem from skating weaknesses. We can all name our favorite puck handlers. I personally get a chill watching players like Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Nemchinov control not only the puck, but frequently the entire flow of the game through magical stickhandling.
What do the best puck handlers on the Planet have in common other than sharing the same last letter of their last name "v", or speaking English as a second language? They can all skate like the wind. They define grace and beauty, poetry and control. They all have confidence when they lace up the skates, and a lot of it!
As a spectator, when watching a player "control the puck", or "dangle", do not watch the puck. Rather, focus on their body control. Take note of how their hands and feet, arms and legs, vision and awareness all work TOGETHER.
Developing correct skating technique will improve your "on ice " confidence, which in turn will allow you to develop your stickhandling skills much more quickly.
Many of us learn our stickhandling skills at the same time we learn our skating skills, which is the same time we learn to shoot and pass, and learn the rules of the game, and learn how to prepare for a big game, and learn how to work with our teammates. You can see what happens, we become "fine" at most things, instead of "great" at everything. The Europeans and Russians in general, learn their skills sequentially, by stressing fundamentals. They have great hockey instructors who understand the game and teach it in a logical, building block order, one skill at a time.
Besides developing better skating skills and training out of the "Comfort
Zone",what other secrets will produce immediate stickhandling results?
This article was written by Shawn Killian,
Director of Planet Hockey Skills Camps and the Planet Hockey Ranch in Salida,
Colorado. For more information on all Planet Hockey Programs including Training
Videos and coordinating a Planet Hockey Skills Camp for your Association
or Group contact Planet Hockey at 1-800-320-7545 | www.planethockey.com
| shawn@planethockey.com