Working on your "hands"

[TBLfan 25]

I haven't seen any threads but I have a friend that is just starting playing hockey and her hands aren't the best. I normally play ball hockey and work on bouncing the ball on my stick and since I've been doing that my stickhandling(I credit this to playing with a ball since it moves faster than a puck) as well as my hands have improved a lot. I'm just looking for other tips to help out my friend... Maybe it'll help me out too :D

[millertime99 0]

get one of those balls that weigh as much as a puck and has the same slide or wood balls work good to... i have been doing this stuff for years: u can do around the clock where your stick handling all around ur body start all the way behind you and stickhandle to the other side and go all the way behind you and keep doing this...stick handlin on the heel of your blade, toe of the blade, and the mid section of your blade...get a piece of pbc pipe and put it on the stick for your bottum hand and stickhandle with the your bottum hand on the pbc pipe (this will hurt your wrists lol)..work on stick handling on both sides of your body left/right so u can work on the forehand and backhand...work on short between ur shoulders..then reach as far as you can forward to backhand..just mess around with a puck will help u a lot...work on going off your feet and thru your legs etc..

good luck! ;)

[millertime99 0]

oh yea...a skill pad would help out too..so u can work with a puck B)

[TBLfan 25]

I'll pass the info along, thanks... Any tips on working on your hands(knocking pucks down)?

[millertime99 0]

those are tips for workin the hands...what do u mean knockin pucks down? like flippin them up and catchin them or knockin them out of air?

[sdcopp 1]

if you get to the point where you're bouncing a ball off of the blade, work on knocking that down, and popping it back up. Doing it quicker will increase some reflex speed

[TBLfan 25]

those are tips for workin the hands...what do u mean knockin pucks down? like flippin them up and catchin them or knockin them out of air?

I mean like deflecting shots or knocking pucks out of the air with your stick.

[the_game 452]

http://edit.usahockey.com/ntdp/ntdp_featur...ce_drills_home/

this was posted on USA Hockey site, a lot of good stuff and examples.

[TBLfan 25]

if you get to the point where you're bouncing a ball off of the blade, work on knocking that down, and popping it back up. Doing it quicker will increase some reflex speed

I normally bounce it like 5 times on my blade then catch it and balance it on the blade then do it over again. My hands are getting really "soft" from it. I think i'm going to start trying to do it on my backhand.

^ cool, awesome link.

[sn1per 0]

I've heard some people use golf balls because they move so fast and they make a loud clicking sound so you can hear if the ball is on your blade.

[gavin 0]

http://edit.usahockey.com/ntdp/ntdp_featur...ce_drills_home/

this was posted on USA Hockey site, a lot of good stuff and examples.

Just do this. If you do these excercises you will become a good hockey player. All the best players have been doing these drills all their lives, it's only a matter of being disciplined and putting the time in.

As to hand/eye co-ordination, that is a VERY secondary skill: learn to stickhandle first. BUT the best thing for that would be a tennis ball and the garage wall or something. Just sit there, batting the ball against the wall. Or play tennis with hockey sticks. My friends and I used to to that... really challenging.

[LkptTiger 1]

Try stickhandling a ping-pong ball. Once you get good with that, try passing said ping-pong ball off of a wall, then recieving the "return pass" and immediately (which means WITHOUT settling the ball) begin stickhandling again.

Fun times.

[jbyun04 7]

i never had that great hand-eye till i started playing around with puck & blade or ball & blade drills.

if you have a brother or a friend that plays hockey, practice tossing the puck onto each others blades, flipping the puck onto blades and just practice keeping the ball in teh air.

ALWAYS keep your eye on the ball if you want to do something like this, even defelctions. Keeping your eye on the puck/ball will make it look slower to you as opposed to not looking at it

[kkancho 6]

Bouncing a tennis ball against a wall helped my hand-eye a lot

[Chadd 916]

The funny thing for me is that I've done a lot of the drills mentioned and I can do all kinds of stuff with a ball or a puck in practice. Then come game time I tend to either pass or shoot. I just tend to keep things as simple as possible in games and the fancy stuff just never even occurs to me to try it.

[dix0r 0]

i started playing around 2 years ago. around a year ago, i started going to sticktime with a friend and we'd spend around 10-15 minutes flipping pucks to eachother and knocking em down. i didn't notice much progress at first, but after 2-3 months i got tons better. before, i never was able to deflect slap shots, and i'm pretty consistant at tipping em now.

i'm not good or anything...but i feel like i'm doing pretty well for how long i've been playing, and i definitely think that helped.

[ejquin 0]

This might be a dumb question, but when you guys are doing these drills in sneakers, are you using your regular length stick, or do you cut one down so the stick is shorter when your on the ground? Just wondering if the height difference between skates and shoes would change much as far as the drills go.

[gavin 0]

I use my regular ice hockey stick length.

Here's a little game my friends and I would play during break in college. We would have two nets set up about 40 feet from each other. We would take turns shooting at each other. Scoring was like this:

5 points - stop the ball

4 points - hit post/crossbar

3 points - redirect the ball

1 point - score

Of course, both players could score on the same shot. If my friend shot, I redirected and it hit the post and went in, I would get 3 points for the redirect, he would get 4 for the post, and 1 point for the goal. First to get to 21 won, if you went over 21 you went back to 11.

Addictive game, sometimes we couldn't stop playing it. It develops all kinds of shooting, tipping and stick skills.

[Trippingblue 1]

Juggling and drumming help my hand dexterity a lot.

--nick--

[Grinder 2]

The funny thing for me is that I've done a lot of the drills mentioned and I can do all kinds of stuff with a ball or a puck in practice. Then come game time I tend to either pass or shoot. I just tend to keep things as simple as possible in games and the fancy stuff just never even occurs to me to try it.

I'm the same way in a game situation - keep it simple and make the smart play. I'd feel too badly if I cost my team a goal or a game by hot-dogging it and screwing up. The amusing side to this is that people start underestimating me. When league ends and we start playing pickup, I surprise other players by actually stickhandling and throwing in a move or two. I get asked "Where the hell did that come from?" a few times over the first couple of weeks of pickup.

I wish I could bring myself to be relaxed enough in a game to throw a few moves in, but it's just not my style.

[gavin 0]

The funny thing for me is that I've done a lot of the drills mentioned and I can do all kinds of stuff with a ball or a puck in practice. Then come game time I tend to either pass or shoot. I just tend to keep things as simple as possible in games and the fancy stuff just never even occurs to me to try it.

I'm the same way in a game situation - keep it simple and make the smart play. I'd feel too badly if I cost my team a goal or a game by hot-dogging it and screwing up. The amusing side to this is that people start underestimating me. When league ends and we start playing pickup, I surprise other players by actually stickhandling and throwing in a move or two. I get asked "Where the hell did that come from?" a few times over the first couple of weeks of pickup.

I wish I could bring myself to be relaxed enough in a game to throw a few moves in, but it's just not my style.

Those hand will get to show themselves in a game sooner or later. Especially behind the net, changing direction etc etc. You are SO much faster in situations like that with really good hands, even if you're not really dangling like Forsberg.

[flip12 711]

If you can do those moves in practice but not in a game, can you stickhandle without looking at the puck? I started playing late, and after two and a half years I finally found an obscure stick that I could feel the puck with without looking at it. Once in a while I would glance at it, especially trying to do toe-pulls, but if you can stickhandle with your head up, all of that fancy stuff gets easier and you can fake guys out with just your eyes.

[technophile 0]

The funny thing for me is that I've done a lot of the drills mentioned and I can do all kinds of stuff with a ball or a puck in practice. Then come game time I tend to either pass or shoot. I just tend to keep things as simple as possible in games and the fancy stuff just never even occurs to me to try it.

Well, for one thing, having good hands like that does help with your hand-eye coordination, and that does come up in games, even when you're keeping it simple.

For example, knocking down an attempted flip out of the zone so that you can keep the attack going takes decent hand-eye coordination. So does deflecting a shot or batting a bouncing rebound into the goal.

Also, up until a few weeks ago I tended to be one of those players that would pass as soon as I got challenged, even in the offensive zone; I was afraid of losing the puck and giving up a breakaway (I play defense). My wife commented that I have better hands than a lot of other guys in the league, and that I should be more aggressive. The same week our captain made a similar point about the team in general, and urged us to not be so timid, to try to make the move sometimes rather than just passing immediately. (Obviously this requires a certain level of trust that your teammates will back you up. ;)) I've been trying it--not every time, but maybe 25-50% of the time if someone challenges me I'll make a move around them--and it works pretty well. It doesn't have to be a fancy move, just sweeping the puck wide around them or throwing a quick head fake works pretty often, and it can really get things going--open up a passing lane or start an odd-man rush. Having good hands just gives you one more tool to keep the other team guessing; if they know you'll pass immediately, they can shut down the lanes and challenge you to force a turnover. If they know you can make a move, it keeps them more honest.

[technophile 0]

As far as what I do, I use a golf ball on concrete (garage floor) to practice stickhandling. The golf ball being so bouncy will force you to practice corralling it in some tough situations.

I've heard that video games (especially ones that require quick, accurate control, like flight sims, 1st person shooters, racing games, etc) can improve your hand-eye coordination. Tossing a bouncy ball or tennis ball against a wall is a good exercise, as is flipping coins and catching them.

[TBLfan 25]

thanks! I like a lot of the ideas I've heard. I'll pass them on to her as well as try them out myself. Any more ideas, keep em coming.