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Playing
On display in the window of a sporting goods store in Montreal, hung a scroll that gave a sarcastic discription about hockey and its players. One paragraph in particular offered a truculent interpretation on bodychecking. It said something to the effect that checking is when players drive opponents into hard wooden boards with the sole purpose of breaking every skeletal bone in their body.
While skaters like Tie Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs, sporting his military butch, may subscribe to this WWF form barbarianism, becoming an effective bodychecker is a little more complex than one may think. "I was told by a former coach," (Pat Quinn), said Dean Kennedy who played two seasons under Quinn in Los Angeles, "that hitting is just like a goal. It takes some setting up and it takes practice. Just like a goal scorer."
Arguably the most finesse sport among the big three (NBA, NFL, MLB), nothing can match the speed and display of skill gracing the ice for 60 minutes in boundry of 200 x 85.
As even the novice fan knows, the number one objective in hockey is to score more goals than the opposition. A team's fate rises and falls on its ability or inability to put the puck in the net. But what leads to these scoring chances? Why was the right side of the ice opened up? Where was the man responsible for covering the other team's center?
Often times checking creates or stiffles opportunity. It is an aspect of the game that is threefold. On one hand, a player can use his body to open up the ice and allow his teammates to get open and set up a scoring play or lead to an out numbered attack. On the defensive side, playing the body can result in unwanted turnovers and stall an on-coming rush. "It slows the game up for those players that hit well, because opposition players look up and they see somebody on the ice that can throw a big hit and it takes an edge off their game," said Kennedy a 10-year NHL veteran. It also forces less skilled players to think twice about dumping the puck in or whether to try and gain the line. These decisions all play a part in the final score.
"Hockey is a body contact game and the building is only so big. Because of a big hit, the puck isn't necessarily passed, it's more or less thrown away," said former St. Louis Blues left winger Basil McRae posting more 2,061 penalty minutes in ten seasons.
For some players, their livelihood is dependenant on how well they play physically. "I'm most effective when I take the body, and over the the years I've always had to do it and you kind of know instinctively the situations and how to take a guy out," Kennedy a former Kings second round pick in 1981 said.
"You don't want to say that you like to hurt people when you hit them, but within the legal limits I like to hit them as hard as I can. If it hurts them a little, maybe the second time they won't come as hard and give me an extra second," said Ronnie Stern, a 13 year NHLer.
"That's the difference of intensity between a guy just taking a guy out of the play, or a guy hitting him and making him feel the hit."
If an individual aspires to make it past the early stages of the amateur ranks, he will quickly learn to keep his head up after a pummelling or two, inevitably making him a better player.
By the time a player reaches the junior or college ranks, he usually knows what type of game he has to play in order to be successful. "Once I started playing junior hockey, I knew right away that I had to be a physical player to be good out there, and that I wasn't going to do it just with finesse," said Stern.
"The physical aspect got me more room and I was able to work within my talents to become a half decent hockey player." Stern's ability to skate well is also a major essential to his bump and grind style of play.
As an individual climbs the division ladder most coaches will always engage his players in checking drills at some point during practice. Once in the National Hockey League, checking is strictly reserved for games . "With so much travel if you started doing a lot of teaching in terms of hitting, I think you risk a real chance of getting injuries. So you talk about it, you show video on technique and you work on technique, but you never work on actual hitting," said King.
How many times have you seen the plexiglass sway back and forth after a hard hit? There is always display of emotion in the stands and on the ice when a player connects for a thundering hit. "It always gets your team going. Not only the fans but the players like to see a good bodycheck," said McRae sporting a cut on the bridge of his nose.
Assembling a quality hockey team is like putting together a machine. Several components are required to make it run smooth and effective. Former coach of the Canadian National Team Dave King offers this philosophy.
"I don't think you can have a team of real small players or real big players. You want balance. On every team you want speed, finesse, and some bodycheckers. You can't just be all big and slow because you wouldn't be effective. You look at the good team's in the league, and they got skill and they also got size."
Some players like Pittsburgh's Mark Reechi and Detroit Red Wing's winger Brendan Shannahan possess the ability to not only score goals, but take the body as well, without sacrificing one for the other. These players are well balanced athletes able to induldge in the best of both worlds. "You don't necessarily go looking for one or the other," said the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Shannahan. "You just react to the situation you're presented with. If the hit's there you take it. If the puck's there you take that."
Though size is a plus, a player does not have to be of hulking stature to be an effective bodychecker. A hockey player's legs are equivalent to a car's transmission. They are what propel him back and forth, side to side. Without strong legs an individual's game suffers immensely, and his mobility severly limited. "I've seen a lot of small guys that have big legs and they're usually the one's that are big hitters," Shannahan said. Having a strong center of gravity is also a benefit.
"To hit hard you want to get your last step into the opposing player and be anchored properly. If you're on your heels or not anchored right, your not as effective," Kennedy. said.
Math was never one of my favorite subjects, especially when it came to that pythagorean theory stuff. But if you stop and think about it, hockey is like an extended course in geometry. No matter what position you play, you are always concerned with angles. The same can be said for hitting. What is the correct method for lining a player up? "You look at his body position and you adjust yours to how he's lined up. You're not going to run at a guy straight on when he's coming right at you. It's probably best to take the angle on him otherwise he's just going to side-step you," said Shannahan .
It is a good idea to know the tendencies of who you are going up against. You have to know the player. You know the player's that are going to spin off you and a lot of times you won't step up on them. You'll just try to get them in a corner or along the boards. And there's the bigger players that probably don't have that kind of quickness, that you can probably step up on and hit them in open ice. It's a lot of your own judgement.
One thing is for certain. It is better to give than to receive.
This first appeared in the May/1993 issue of Hockey
Player Magazine®
© Copyright 1991-2003, Hockey Player® LLC and Hockey
Player Magazine®
Posted: Jan 3, 2006, 13:22
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