Line-ups 9F and 5D or 8F and 6D

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Line-ups 9F and 5D or 8F and 6D

Views: 698 | Replies: 2

Improve Your Forward Stride: Learn to Skate Episode 5

The forward stride is the most used movement in hockey, however many players neglect to try to improve it. Many players think that once they can skate and move forwards they are fine, however even PRO hockey players continue to work on their forward stride throughout their entire career!

The forward stride is the most used movement in skating, which means it should be the one you focus on the most. What can you do to improve your stride? Here are some areas that you might be able to improve

• Better balance
• Faster acceleration
• Quicker steps (faster stride rate)
• Better use of the edges
• Better recovery after the stride
• More knee bend (for more power)
• Better glide
• Improved arm movement

Forward Stride Fundamentals and Tips

The key to a good forward stride

The forward stride consists of a push, glide and recovery. In order to have a smooth stride you should have good knee bend, a good push using your edges, good balance glide and knee bend in your glide leg and a fast recovery.

The key to speed is stride length and stride frequency. This is true when skating in a straight line, which happens with the forward stride. Once you get into higher level hockey we also want speed in lateral movement, crossover speed, pivots, agility, etc.

Common Mistakes with the Forward Stride

• Stilt Skating
  • You know those guys who walk around on stilts at the circus? Some hockey players look like that on the ice. If you want better balance, agility and power, and a longer stride BEND YOUR KNEES!
• Rail Road skating
  • This is when the player skates with their feet very wide apart and just barely pushes with each foot. The stride length is very small, the skates are both only using the inside edges, and there is very little balance or glide in the glide leg.
• Heel kicks
  • You want your recovery to be efficient and quick. Many players skate like they run and kick their heels up before planting their foot again for another stride. This wastes time and energy. Your recovery should be almost straight back and under your hip for another push.

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ACHA Select Team Practice Part II

The other day I posted a few drills the select team used in the warm-up phase of their practice. Here are a few of the drills they used during the skill assessment portion of the practice over the three days. As I said in the earlier post, the coaches also ran a number of 3×3 small area games and standard 2×1 or 3×2 type of drills that I will not include because they are similar to drills already included on the site. I did get the chance to run a few of these at my practice on Monday night and they work really well.

ACHA-Continuous 1v1 With Support Or Backcheck

ACHA-Continuous 2v0

ACHA-Continuous 2v1 And 3v2

ACHA-Four Part Transition

ACHA-Strongside Turn-Up

ACHA-Transition Strongside Weakside

Click to Download the Drills

ACHA Select Team Practice

On December 26th and 27th I had the opportunity to watch the ACHA Select team practice in Albany, NY in preparation for their trip to Europe to play in the ACHA Challenge. My 22 year old son was fortunate enough to be selected to be a part of this team as one of the defensemen and I had to drive him to the facility in NY and decided to stay the night and watch all three practices. The team is coached by Mike Forbes a former NHL player and currently the head coach at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Coach Forbes has won a national championship and been selected as Coach of the year in his five seasons at GVSU. I was really interested to see how he would structure his practice sessions since he had just three sessions to get the team on the same page before they went off to Europe to begin play on December 29th.

The first session was mostly standard practice drills to get the team skating and to give him a chance to see what his team looked like. He also spent time walking through the defensive systems he would use. The second and third practice sessions had more detailed drills for specific areas of the team as well as 3 on 3 play. The practices were up-tempo and he kept things moving along at a very nice pace. The team looked good even as they were trying to find their way as a team.

In this first installment I’ll post the drills that were used in the warm-up section of the three practices. Drills that just had the team skating and getting the goaltenders ready. In part two I’ll post the other drills that I saw him run to develop specific portions of the team game. In all I picked up ten drills to post on the site and I also watched him run drills that are pretty standard type of 2v1 or 3v2 structured drills that I won’t post. Normally I don’t post anything that I haven’t run with my team first but since I was able to watch the Select team run through these drills I have a good feel for them and think they are solid drills for any of us to run with our teams.

ACHA Continuous Line Passing

ACHA-Cross-Ice With 7 Passes And Shot

ACHA-Drive The Net WarmUp

ACHA-Goaltender WarmUp

Click to Download the Drills

5 Balance Drills for Hockey Players – Learn to Skate Series

If you are dedicated to improving your skating, shooting and stickhandling then balance drills and edge work drills are going to give you the biggest results. You might be asking why would a skating drill help improve my shooting and stickhandling? I am glad you asked

Drills that help a hockey player improve balance will also improve other skills because without balance there will be no power or agility. A shot that is taken while off-balance lacks the proper weight transfer to generate full power into the shot. An off balance player can not properly execute the correct chain to take a good hard shot

An off balance player will be easy to knock off the puck, and take the puck away from because as soon as they make a mistake in their footwork, or stumble for a second the player with better balance will catch up and take the puck away. A good stance, proper balance and good edgework is the base to good puck control

Oh yeah, you will also be MUCH better at skating!

Why Balance is important + 5 Balance drills

The ultimate goal for a hockey player is to feel just as comfortable (if not MORE comfortable) in your skates as you feel in a pair of sneakers.

More balance drills for hockey player

• Shoot the duck – Players glide on one leg and squat as low as they can while keeping their other leg out in front
• Squat – Glide and then squat as low as you can
• Russian lunges – Players touch one knee to the ice, then the other in quick succession while pumping arms
• Belly slide – player skates, jumps and slides on their belly, then gets up as quickly as possible
• Spins – Players skate, go down on two knees and spin, then get up as soon as possible
• Edge work drills – These are more advanced and push the players to expand their comfort zone

The Fundamentals of skating

Balance is one of the fundamental skills of skating, but there are many other building blocks that will help you improve. Visit our Learn to skate series to see our other videos and articles on the fundamentals of skating.

Extreme Passer Pro – Full Review

Want to work on your dangles, shooting and passing? The Extreme Passer Pro could be the perfect training aid for you! With this new rebounder from HockeyShot.com you can work on a number of different skills off-ice or on the ice

What is the Extreme Passer Pro?

Unlike the new Extreme Passing Kit – which is a rebounder and shooting pad in 1 – the Extreme Passer pro is a standalone pass rebounder that is designed to be used anywhere! All you need is a smooth surface like a shooting pad, smooth cement, or hockey training tiles. Of course you can also use it on the ice (like I do in the 2nd review video below)

Close-up Look

In this video I give you a close-up look of the Extreme Passer Pro and explain all of the features

Extreme Passer Pro Specs

• Weighs 20 pounds – heaviest on the market to ensure it doesn’t get knocked around
• Heavy duty HDPE plastic mold makes it very durable
• Two bungee cords allow two people to use the rebounder at once
• 37″ front makes it the biggest rebounder on the market
• Can be used on or off ice
• Beveled front plate keeps puck flat
• Bungee cords rebound the pucks better than elastic band rebounders
• Can be used with pucks, Green Biscuits and other training pucks

Cool Features

I really like the double bungee cord feature! There is a bungee cord at the front, and a smaller one at the back. This means you can use both sides by yourself and come up with some creative drills, or two people can use it at once.

Another cool feature is the built in allan key that is used to activate the spikes in the footings. The spikes will help the unit stay put while being used on the ice.

How well does the Extreme Passer Pro Work?

I am very impressed with how well it rebounds pucks. The pass back is very crisp and for the most part accurate. The only time you will get a bad pass from the rebounder is if you give it a bad pass.

The only time I found it was challenging to work with the Extreme Passer pro was from a distance, and when I was skating past the rebounder and trying to give myself a give and go or bank pass.

On-Ice Test and Review

Where to Buy the Extreme Passer Pro

You can buy the Extreme Passer Pro on this page on HockeyShot. It is currently $149.95 but with our coupon code you can save $10 – coupon code: HOWHCKY001

Understanding Your Edges: 6 Edge Work drills to Improve Balance and Control

In order to be a great skater you need good balance. New hockey players are usually off balance, bow-legged, stutter stepping and some look like they just finished riding a horse for 6 hours. Why do new hockey players look so out of place on the ice? Because they don’t have good edge control. Learning […]

The post Understanding Your Edges: 6 Edge Work drills to Improve Balance and Control appeared first on How to Hockey: Hockey Training and Hockey Tips.

1 v 1 Drill Section Added to Site

From time to time you need to run 1v1 drills to work on those skills. Every player needs to know how to defend the 1v1 and how to create offense during the 1v1. Here is a selection of drills that I use throughout the course of the year to work on the 1v1 skills. As I stated in a prior post, I don’t allow my forwards to use the move where they put the puck between a defenders legs and try to go around him to pick it up again. In these drills I want my forwards to work on power moves to either the inside or the outside and to also use the defender as a screen and shoot through their legs. I also insist that they continue to work hard to the front of the net and look for rebounds. For the defensemen I want them to try and keep the rush to the outside whenever possible and to concentrate on the chest of the offensive player. My philosophy on defending the 1v1 is that the defensive player’s job is to ride the offensive player to the outside or off the puck and the backchecker should be there to pick up any loose pucks. Too often you see the defender look down at the puck to try and make a play and the offensive player goes right around him because of that look down. Keep your eyes on the chest and feel for the puck with your stick.

The one downside to running 1v1 drills is it causes a lot of standing around because only two players are working at the same time or four if you go in both directions, so be sure to make the drills run quickly and have the players clear the front of the net as soon as they are finished. I hope you find these drills helpful.

1 v 1 Drills Section

Using your Edges in Dekes – NHL Examples

When you you get a chance to go one on one with a goalie you want to make sure you use all the tools in your tool box in order to be more deceptive. It seems many hockey players forget about their skating and edge-work when they try to beat the goalie. Sure it’s important to have good hands when you deke, but if you incorporate some edge-work into your dekes you can be a lot more deceptive and score more goals.

Good Use Of Edges in Dekes

I recently uploaded this video breakdown to the How To Hockey Youtube channel. The actual deke is paused for the first 30 seconds while I set it up.

Wolski Deke Breakdown

• Wolski approaches from his shooting side, giving the goalie the constant threat of a shot
• He throws out a quick pump fake, keeping the goalie on his toes. If the goalie bites on this pump fake Wolski could easily beat him to the far post, but the goalie stands strong
• Next Wolski cuts to the far post, forcing the goalie to slide across
• Once the goalie slides across Wolski uses his edges to nearly stop, shift his momentum back to the other side of the net, and easily put the puck into the open side of the net.

NHL Examples

Nick Bonino pulled out this beauty a few nights ago against Mike Smith.

Bonino Deke Breakdown

• Bonino approaches almost straight on Mike Smith, just a little to his shooting side. He carries the puck in front of him to start, but then moves it to his shooting side when he gets closer
• When he gets close to the crease Bonino fakes a move to the far post, which sends Smith sliding
• Almost instantly after the fake to the far post Bonino uses his edge to slow down and cut to the other side of the net, giving him a lot of room on his shooting side to score.

Teemu Selanne – Uses his edges a little differently here, he’s pulled this move a few times in Shootouts

 Selanne Deke Breakdown

• Selanne approaches the goalie with a lot of speed, this forces Kiprusoff to back up into the net. If the goalie does not back up at a similar speed to the skater than the skater only needs one quick move to get behind the goalie and score. In other examples the goalie gets even further back than Kiprusoff
• Selanne reads that Kiprusoff is backing up and then uses his edges to slow right down. This buys him a lot of time to decide where to shoot, and because the goalie has backed up he can see more net to shoot at
• Selanne pauses for a second, and then Kiprusoff tries to poke check him, this puts Kiprusoff in a bad position, and Selanne easily shoots the puck over his glove hand.

More moves dekes, and Examples

Another good example of edge-work in a deke is the Datsyukian deke which I explained a few months back. Of course you also need some pretty good hands (and some practice) to pull this one off, but the hardest part of executing the Datsyukian deke is using the edge of the front foot.

If you want to learn the fundamentals of every move you can pull on a goalie, when to use them, and 20+ shootout / breakaway moves you can check out my Goalie Buster training course. I compiled a comprehensive list of pro shootout moves, organized them all into categories, and then shot over 2 hours of on-ice videos explaining each one.  I currently still have the summer special price so take advantage of the lower price As usual if you don’t learn anything I will give you your money back.

Thanks for reading – Be sure to subscribe to our Youtube Channel, and Blog (with the box below) to continue to improve your hockey skills.