I worked this drill at practice last night and really liked the results. You have to keep the tempo high and make sure the players are focusing on making a good pass off the wall. I prefer the players to pass the puck off the yellow dasher and not up off the wall. I think you get a better pass with less flutter to the puck. You can start with the basic drill and then add pressure on F1 and even have F1 join the rush after the pass and have it be a 2-on-1 or 2-on-2. I think getting players familiar with making indirect passes off the wall is a skill that can really help your zone exits and really help a team work with speed through the neutral zone. Hope you find this drill helpful.
Now that it is halfway through the season your hockey equipment has likely acquired a wonderful and unique odour, a stench that would put a skunk to shame. Don’t worry, I am here to help, in this article I will teach you how to prevent (or delay) your hockey equipment from stinking, and also how […]
The Limited Edition Bauer APX hockey stick has all the same specs and technologies as the original APX hockey stick, but with a blacked out color scheme. The large Bauer logo on the side of the shaft is in a bright pearl white, so it really stands out.
The APX Limited Edition shaft has the popular TeXtreme® construction and Monocomp technology that makes this stick as lightweight and responsive as possible. The flex profile utilizes the premier dual taper for exceptional torsional deflection and shot control. The Vapor line’s signature Intelli-Sense shot technology provides for a “variable” flex point to allow for maximized loading for quick wrist and snap shots.
The APX LE hockey stick comes in grip and non-grip.
Bauer has also introduced a new resin they are using in the APX stick. This new resin has a lighter overall weight as well as offers superior durability to help lengthen the lifespan of the stick.
Model Year: 2013
Heritage: Bauer APX
Level of Player: Ideal for the advance to pro level player
The Limited Edition Bauer APX hockey stick has all the same specs and technologies as the original APX hockey stick, but with a blacked out color scheme. The large Bauer logo on the side of the shaft is in a bright pearl white, so it really stands out.
The APX Limited Edition shaft has the popular TeXtreme® construction and Monocomp technology that makes this stick as lightweight and responsive as possible. The flex profile utilizes the premier dual taper for exceptional torsional deflection and shot control. The Vapor line’s signature Intelli-Sense shot technology provides for a “variable” flex point to allow for maximized loading for quick wrist and snap shots.
The APX LE hockey stick comes in grip and non-grip.
Bauer has also introduced a new resin they are using in the APX stick. This new resin has a lighter overall weight as well as offers superior durability to help lengthen the lifespan of the stick.
Model Year: 2013
Heritage: Bauer APX
Level of Player: Ideal for the advance to pro level player
The Limited Edition Bauer APX hockey stick has all the same specs and technologies as the original APX hockey stick, but with a blacked out color scheme. The large Bauer logo on the side of the shaft is in a bright pearl white, so it really stands out.
The APX Limited Edition shaft has the popular TeXtreme® construction and Monocomp technology that makes this stick as lightweight and responsive as possible. The flex profile utilizes the premier dual taper for exceptional torsional deflection and shot control. The Vapor line’s signature Intelli-Sense shot technology provides for a “variable” flex point to allow for maximized loading for quick wrist and snap shots.
The APX LE hockey stick comes in grip and non-grip.
Bauer has also introduced a new resin they are using in the APX stick. This new resin has a lighter overall weight as well as offers superior durability to help lengthen the lifespan of the stick.
Model Year: 2013
Heritage: Bauer APX
Level of Player: Ideal for the advance to pro level player
Improve your Physical Skills, Mental Skills, and Physical Conditioning to Dominate your Opponent!
In this post I’m going to discuss what I call the 3 AREAS OF HOCKEY DOMINANCE… now I know that title sounds a little dramatic, but the reality is, if you implement the information I’m about to share with you into your hockey development strategy, you will be miles ahead of your opponent, EVERY TIME YOU STEP ON THE ICE!
This video will be equally beneficial for both players, coaches, and even parents who want to be on-board with their players’ development. So, let’s go ahead and get started!
The 3 Areas of Hockey Dominance
The 3 Areas of Hockey Dominance are Physical Skills, Mental Skills, and Physical Conditioning. Now we can break each of these areas down into sub-categories, and get very specific, which we will, but at the end of the day, the best players at ANY age group (that’s correct, I said ANY age group), will be the ones who perform the best in each of these 3 areas… neglect even one of these areas, and we’re giving our opponent the opportunity to gain an advantage over US!
Physical Skills
We all know hockey is an extremely dynamic game… there is so much going on at so many different levels of cognition… our strategy will be to systematically eliminate as much THINKING as possible on the PHYSICAL and TACTICAL aspects of the game, so that our players’ brains can free to function at higher levels during game play. I know that might sound a little confusing, so let me give a quick example:
There are three key components that go into an effective skating stride:
Proper knee bend
Correct pushing angle – which is to the side at about a 45 degree angle
Full extension (including the toe-snap) with a full recoil back to the starting position
Well… that’s a lot to think about! If a player had to worry about all that on the ice, the likelihood of he or she to be able to read, anticipate, and react at any level of proficiency would be extremely LOW!
So, we need to teach and reinforce proper technical skills until they become second nature. Our players should execute the three elements of a skating stride properly, every single stride, of every single game, without ever having to think about whether or not they’re doing it properly!
Now obviously, skating isn’t the only physical skill that players need to be able to perform in their sleep. A few years ago I put myself through an interesting thought exercise. I wanted to map out ALL of the skills a hockey player needed to be able to perform. So I sat down and wrote out every single variation of every single skill in hockey I could think of. I might have missed a few, but I think I got most of it.
I knew the list would be big… but I was surprised by HOW big it really was! Here’s what I came up with:
Skating Skills
Forward Skating in a Straight Line
Inside Edges
Outside Edges
Forward Crossovers
5-Step Crossovers for Drive Skating
V-Starts, Crossover Starts
2-Foot Stop, Inside Edge Stop
Outside Edge Stop
Crossover Stop
Backward C-Cuts
Backward Cross-Unders
Backward 3-Step Cross-Unders for Drag Skating
Pivots – Forward to Backward to the left side and to the right
Pivots – Backward to Forward to the left side and to the right
Inside Reverse Pivots both directions
Inside Mohawks both directions
Power Turns both directions
That’s just skating! At some point you’ve gotta put a puck on your stick, and hopefully be able to execute the following, WHILE maintaining proper skating technique on everything we just mentioned:
Puck Skills
Stationary Stickhandling (to the Left Side, Right Side, and Center of Body)
Toe Drag
Deking
Puck Protection & Body Positioning
Puck Control While Skating
Passing
Cushion Puck While Receiving & Sweep While Delivering
Touch Passes
Drop Passes
Saucer Passes
Bank Passes
Chip Passes for Breakouts
Backhand Passes
If everything got as planned… hopefully you get a chance at a shot on net. SO… you’d better have a solid shot selection to choose from!
Shooting
Wrist Shot
Snap Shot
Slap Shot
One-Timer
Deflections
Backhanders
Flip Shot for Dump-ins
Now obviously it takes YEARS to become 100% proficient at all of these skills… but that’s all the more reason to begin implementing these training methods AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Structured training sessions are key to making this happen, and it can, and should be done at even the YOUNGEST age groups!
Get Skills “Out of the Way”
As I mentioned earlier, our objective is to get our players to become SO well-skilled, that we can psychologically “get skills out of the way” so to speak, opening up mental real-estate for the more complex aspects of the game. This development strategy will allow our players to think the game more quickly and clearly than the opponent.
So… what are the MENTAL SKILLS that we should be teaching our players? well, I’m glad you asked! The same day I penciled out all the physical skills of the game, I also went through and mapped out all the MENTAL aspects of the game, which include both tactical skills and positional, or situational, understanding.
Defensive Tactics
Gap Control
Force vs. Contain strategy
Angling
Checking
Pinning
1 on 1’s, 2 on 1’s, 2 on 2′s, 3 on 2’s
Defensive Support
Offensive Tactics
Triangulation
Cycling
Front and Backside Support
Delays
Give and Go’s
Angling and Body Positioning on Forecheck
Neutral Zone Tactics
Area Passing
Timing
Neutral Zone Support
Backchecking (which sort of happens in any of the 3 zones, depending on where the turnover occurred)
Positioning
Continuing along on the mental skills side of the equation, we progress into POSITIONING. The objective with positioning is not only to BE in the right place at the right time, but our players must be capable of DOING the right thing, while in the right place, at the right time, or in other words, applying the proper TACTIC while in the proper POSITION.
For example, let’s say the other team has the puck in the corner, and we’re in the defensive zone… it’s great if our strong side defenseman is near the puck-carrier, in proper position, and ready to make a play, but if he FORCES when he should have CONTAINED… that’s a huge problem. Our players need to be able to read and react both positionally, AND tactically, in order to execute at the highest level.
Tactical Play can Become Instinctive too
Now, in case you haven’t noticed… many of the tactical skills can also be developed to the point where they become INSTINCTIVE, meaning, players don’t have to THINK about them anymore… just like our objective with physical skills, we want to develop these mental, tactical skills to the point where our players no longer have to think about how to react.
Continuing with our example… The decision of whether to force or contain when the other team has the puck in the defensive corner can be made LONG before our defenseman steps on the ice. Our players should be able to simply RECOGNIZE the ques because they’ve been there a million times in practice, and then react correctly WITHOUT HAVING TO MAKE A CONSCIOUS DECISION EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Once a player gets to the point where he or she is no longer THINKING about the Physical and Tactical skills of the game, but acting and reacting instinctively, the game SLOWS down for the player, and his or her effectiveness increases!
Physical Conditioning
Developing a player’s physical and mental skills is obviously EXTREMELY important… but it’s flat out NOT ENOUGH, if we truly want our players to reach their highest and best.
Our third area of hockey dominance is the one that is most often over-looked… PHYSICAL CONDITIONING. Let me start by saying that ANYTIME you hear about something that is commonly overlooked, your ears should perk up, because that means there’s an area where you can gain an ADVANTAGE over your opponent… well, THIS is one of those areas!
Without getting into a whole bunch of “Jeremy Weiss personal history,” let me just say this… I’ve played some fairly decent hockey in my day, with some fairly decent players… including quite a few who are in the NHL now. Even at high levels of play, including Jr “A” in the Ontario Provincial League, and College Hockey, I was always surprised at how FEW players got to the weight room with ANY level of consistency! There is a HUGE advantage to be gained by the player who consistently executes a top-notch, hockey-specific, conditioning program both in the off-season, as well as the in-season.
Intrinsic Factors
Developing our strength and conditioning will not only help us to physically out-muscle our opponent, and go harder for longer without getting as tired… but there are many intrinsic benefits as well that play a huge role on the ice. Some of these include confidence, leadership, motor coordination, and a whole host of others.
Weiss Tech Hockey is associated with a few high-quality, hockey-specific, off-ice training programs that we use and recommend. You can check them out here:
Everything is Interlaced
So those are the three areas of hockey dominance. The interesting thing about implementing this development strategy is that each of these skills play into each other, and as one improves, it brings aspects of the other two up with it. For example, as a player’s leg and core strength develops because of his or her OFF-ICE CONDITIONING PROGRAM, he or she is able to execute and hold a better knee bend, which results in an improved skating stride – a PHYSICAL SKILL, this improves the player’s ability to maintain better gap control on a 1 on 1, which is a MENTAL & TACTICAL SKILL… You see… it’s ALL INTERLACED! The trick as a coach is to get the ball rolling, and provide the type of learning environment where progress can be made skill upon skill, concept upon concept.
A Huge Thanks!
I just wanted to take a minute and say thanks for checking out this post, and thank you for participating on our drills and skills blog. If this post has been helpful to you as a player, coach, or parent, please feel free to continue to spread the word to your hockey friends, teammates, and associates… we sure appreciate it!
We’ve reached a point
in time where training for hockey off the ice is a must if you’re
looking to go places in your hockey career. Sure there’s the odd
exception to the rule, where a phenom comes along once every 10 or 15
years that just seems to have the natural ability and skills that were
meant for big time hockey. But if you have any fantasies about playing
big-time hockey, I wouldn’t count on yourself being that exception.
That doesn’t mean that you should give up all hope though. There’s
plenty of big-time hockey to go around, besides the NHL, and putting in
the hard work off the ice will improve your chances drastically of
achieving your dream. Off ice training is where your focus needs to be
because the benefits of strength training for hockey are numerous.
We’ve all seen the kid that seems to skate faster than the rest of the
group growing up. He has a huge advantage over the rest of the pack
because his speed gets him to places on the ice faster than everyone
else. But as time goes on, the pack starts to catch up. Kids mature at
different paces. And once these kids reach a certain age, like around 10
to 13 years old depending on their physical maturity, strength training
can take the kids that were trailing a bit and make them into the
faster kids on the ice.
If you think that being fast is only about
being lucky enough to have been born with it, you’re only partially
right. Some guys are just born faster than others, but speed is one of
those things that can be improved with training. You see, the greater
the amount of force you can put into the ground, the faster you’ll be.
So in order to get faster, you need to improve your strength.
I’ll
be the first to admit that running short sprints is a great way to get
faster, but that will only take you so far. When you increase your
strength, the ceiling for how fast you can get all of sudden gets
higher. Doing sprints as well as strength training together then becomes
a killer combo.
Increasing lower body strength with strength
training has other benefits as well. If you’ve ever gone into the corner
to fight for the puck and are always the one that ends up on the ice,
you’re probably lacking the strength in your lower body to keep yourself
upright while an opponent is trying to move you. Becoming stronger in
the lower body suddenly helps you become the player that does the
knocking around in the corner.
The other half of your body, the
upper half, also needs to get stronger too if you have visions of high
level hockey. Just like how lower body strength helps you in the
corners, upper body strength. What’s even better than being able to move
guys around is the ability to rifle the puck by goaltenders. That is
what wins games right? Although lower body strength plays a huge part in
shot power, you also need a strong core and upper body to really blast
the puck.
The benefits of strength training for hockey keep adding
up when you really think about it. I’ve seen players’ confidence sore
once they start adding muscle and strength to their frames. Mindset is
huge when it comes to hockey in particular because of the physical
nature of the game. So the next time you think you’re doing enough to
become a great player, hopefully you haven’t left out strength training
off the ice from your development program.
=================================================================================== Conor Doherty, PTS, is an athletic trainer in Dryden, Ontario, who
specializes in sports performance. The majority of his clients are
hockey players. Conor has a well-rounded background in the training
field with an Honours Bachelor of Kinesiology degree as well as being a
certified trainer with Canadian Fitness Professionals. Learn more about
his training methods and programs at http://starfactoryfitness.com
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