Technique
Skating
The forward skating motion should be your first priority when learning how to skate. Although it may look easy, skating in a forward motion is very difficult and requires a lot of time and practice. Learning to skate with a proper technique will make you improve a lot faster and give you the confidence to develop into a great skater in the future.
Proper Technique
- Start with your skates forming a ‘’V’’, knees turned outwards
- Bend your knees (you should not be able to see your toes)
- Push one foot at a time and transfer all your body weight into each stride
- Reach a full extension on each stride with your driving leg and with your ankle
- When you fully extend one leg, rapidly return the leg back to the ‘’V’’ position and extend the other leg
- As you get more comfortable, work on extending faster (you will gain more speed)
Tips
- When skating forward, your feet should always be hip width apart
- Your body is always square to the direction of travel
- Your back should be straight, your head in the centre of your shoulders with eyes focusing forward
- Don’t lean your body to far forward (use the body lean that gives you maximum balance and lets you to take fully extended strides)
- Make sure to always bend your knees (beyond level of comfort) A good knee bend equals more power and more balance
- Skate one foot at a time
- Fully extend on each stride with a quick recovery
- As you become a better skater, focus on taking wider strides for more speed
- Skate with a proper arm swinging movement (arm and leg movements work in rhythm with their opposites)
- Always keep your stick on the ice, except when you are looking to gain top speed
Skating Backwards
Backward skating is one of the most difficult skating technique to master. To become a fluent backward skater, lots of effort and patience is needed. In a game, a player spends nearly half the time skating backwards, and it is especially important to play a solid defensive game. By learning the proper technique and following these simple tips, you will be on your way to becoming a solid backward skater.
Proper Technique
- Begin by bending your knees (they should be covering your toes)
- Keep your back straight and eyes looking forward
- Start each push from directly under your body (from the hips down)
- The pushing foot drives to the side to full extension (forming a half moon ‘’C’’) while the other foot glides back
- Push one leg at a time and use all your body weight on each stride
- Pivot the heel of the pushing foot up and outward so it is perpendicular to your glide foot (Form and upside down letter ‘’L’’)
- Try to maintain a straight line as possible (do not swivel your hips)
- Focus on one stride at a time
Tips
- Always keep your eyes looking forward and shoulders back
- As you improve, angle your upper body slightly forward from the hips (your stance remains almost vertical)
- Always keep your hips low to the ice
- Remember to have a strong knee and ankle bend
- Push your leg to a full extension and make sure your gliding leg goes back in a straight line on the flat of the blade
- Skate one foot at a time
- Always keep both feet on the ice (not like forward skating)
- Use sprinter type arm movement while skating with one hand on stick
Stick Handling
If skating is the most important skill in hockey, handling the puck is a close second. Everything you accomplish in a hockey game depends on handling the puck effectively.
Steps:- First try handling the puck while standing still on the ice. This will help you develop handling skills before you try to skate with the puck.
- Put the puck flat on the ice. It is impossible to handle when on its end.
- Hold your stick loosely in both hands - this will improve your touch on the puck.
- Touch the puck with the front-hand side of the curve of stick blade. The curve should hold the puck for you a little.
- Slide the puck across the ice toward your backhand, across your body.
- Move your stick over the ice to the other side of the puck and place it so that the puck will hit your backhand side of the stick.
- Make sure you provide some give when you catch the puck so that it doesn't bounce off your stick.
- Push the puck back to your forehand using the same method. This is the basic stick handling of the puck.
- Try skating with the puck, once you get the hang of it. Practice making turns and stopping.
Passing
Once players have begun to develop the skills of passing and receiving the puck, they need to begin to figure out just when, and more importantly, why, to utilize those skills. Hockey is not like football with designed plays beginning from a standstill, or even basketball for that matter, where the ball movement and player movement is slower and more designed plays can be used. In hockey, virtually every situation that a player is confronted with on the ice is different as there are players in a variety of different spots on the ice, moving at a variety of different speeds. When controlling the puck, a player needs to be able to assess the situation and make the best available play, whether it is passing the puck to a teammate, or keeping it himself to move it up the ice.
That’s not to say, that there shouldn’t be a “basic team structure” or “system” for controlling the puck, with players in the properly designated positions on the ice (in any of the zones) when their teammate has the puck. But what can’t happen is that the players feel they “have” to pass the puck to a specific teammate in a specific situation. That can’t happen, because they will never learn how to read the play and make the best play available. That is something that every player needs to learn to be able to compete effectively as they progress in the game.
Every pass should have a purpose. If it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be made. Teams, and individual players work very hard to gain control of the puck. Once they get it, every effort should be made to maintain it. So every pass should be made with that in mind, team puck control. The following are key points to instill in your players for better team puck control.
Make the Easy Play
Great players make the game look easy. That’s because they make the easy play. Going for the “home run” more often that not results in a turnover, when the intended result could be achieved with “a couple of singles”. Trying to pass through a defender or trying to connect on a sixty-foot pass, is not the right play, when you can make a 15-footer to a teammate with more time and space to make a play once they get the puck.
Make Quality Passes
It goes without saying that every pass should be on the stick. If a pass is not made “tape to tape”, that split-second it takes for the teammate to collect it and start to move with it is all of the time it takes for a defender to close in on him and take it away. Just as important as accuracy is velocity. Different situations dictate different passes, but in most instances where a direct pass can be made, the puck should be passed crisply and on the ice. Bouncing, wobbly, slow passes allow the defenders more time to adjust and pursue the puck. Crisp, accurate passes catch defenders out of position and don’t allow them time to get back into the play. Many players recognize the correct situation to make a pass, but if they don’t deliver the pass with authority, it doesn’t matter that they made the right choice.
Move the Puck Quickly
Recognizing which teammates are “open” and “where to move the puck” are essential skills in team puck control. More importantly, players need to be taught to recognize “when” to move it, and the answer is IMMEDIATELY. By waiting just a split second longer, that pass will probably no longer be an option, especially if it is a “long “ pass.
Short Passes are the Best Passes
Occasionally, you can catch 3-4 opposing players out of position and beat them all with one good, long pass. Short passes, 10 to 15 footers, are always the best passes for a couple of reasons. First, they have a greater chance of success. It is much easier to hit your teammate’s stick from 10 feet than it is from 50 feet. Secondly, the puck receiver will most likely have more time to make a play with it when he gets it. As a long pass makes its way to its target, so do the opposing players, as they have more time to adjust. Often, just as the puck arrives, so do the defenders, and the pass is never completed.
Create Something out of Nothing
If a puck carrier has no time or space to make a play, and is being confronted by a defender, the best thing to do, rather than try to beat the defender 1 on 1, is to move the puck to an open teammate, then get open. By moving the puck to a teammate, the player shifts the focus away from himself, which is only an advantage if he moves quickly to an open area to receive a pass back. The “give and go” is an essential part of team puck control and can be used anywhere on the ice. But it is only effective if the initial passer actually “goes” to open ice after making the pass, and breaks down if the payer “gives and watches”.
Use the “Extra Teammate”
Using the boards to make a pass to himself is the most basic “give and go” play a player can make. Moving the puck off the boards (or ff of the back of the goal net), then skating around the defender to pick it up is an effective move to create something out of nothing. The boards can also be used to “bank a pass” or “rim a pass” along the dasher boards in the corners, when there is not a direct pass available to a teammate.
Guides from betterhockey.com and hockeyshot.com
