Slapshot advice

[sweetblazer 0]

How much flex does your stick have cause i find flex VERY important with my shot. If you tell me that i might be able to help.

[Cavs019 710]

Sounds like your taking too much ice.

[flashgordon 0]

I'm the opposite. My snapper and wristers are average, but I have a hard slapshot. While you may have heard all of these tips before, here are a couple of suggestions that come to mind as I think about the technique:

1) Strike the ice a few inches before the puck - think about sort of driving the blade into the ice right before you strike the puck. This will help you use the flex of the stick against the ice to generate power.

2) Strike the ice / puck with a flush blade face

3) Your "downswing" toward the puck should come from the "inside" (ie between you and the puck) as opposed to straight down or the outside - ie it's similar to golf / baseball

4) Drive off your back foot onto your front (think Guy Lafleur), using your hips and transferring your weigh as you strike the puck.

5) When I strike the puck, my wrist on my bottom hand is sort of "locked" as is my elbow.

Hope this helps a bit

[gymmonster 4]

I use to over analyze my shot WAY too much trying to get the slapper down and I'd stare at the spot behind the puck I wanted to hit and I usually ended up slipping and falling from overexerting myself lol

I'm using an 87 flex bauer

[Langenbrunner15 0]

I have a good wrister and slapshot but not a good slapper? GOt any advice?

[Chadd 916]

Without seeing your motion, any advice may harm as much as it helps. Plus there are a number of different ways to shoot the puck and none of them is any more correct than another.

[badsk8ter 0]

3) Your "downswing" toward the puck should come from the "inside" (ie between you and the puck) as opposed to straight down or the outside - ie it's similar to golf / baseball

I've never heard of this but I don't doubt it. It may be why my slapper is so inconsistent. Sometimes, it's wickedly good, other times, it's just wicked. I rarely get slappers off in games so most of the time it's just when I'm practicing on the ice by myself at a stick and puck. Was this taught and explained to you by a coach and any idea as to why?

[flashgordon 0]

I've never heard of this but I don't doubt it.  It may be why my slapper is so inconsistent.  Sometimes, it's wickedly good, other times, it's just wicked.  I rarely get slappers off in games so most of the time it's just when I'm practicing on the ice by myself at a stick and puck.  Was this taught and explained to you by a coach and any idea as to why?

To be honest, I learned to take a slapshot as a young kid so I don't really remember the logic per se, but it was taught to me that way. But I suppose, just like baseball and golf, that trajectory works best with your overall arm movement and weight transfer in terms of squaring up the blade to the puck and power. It's also the quickest (ie least distance) and most efficient path from the "top" of the swing to impact, if that makes any sense. About half of my goals are on slappers - I concentrate on getting them off quickly. This can mean one of two things A: the goalies in my league suck or B: my moves and scoring touch in close suck so I opt for the big boomer whenever possible. ANSWER: B

[Jim A 4]

just my own experiences..but if your wrist and snap are fundamentally sound..the slapper falls into place easier...

not saying this pertains to you..but with the advent of OPS and even tapered type shafts...i've seen people with no wrist/snap be able to shoot 70+ with a roller puck...

[cobrAA 0]

i'm having the same problem...but mine is ''more important'' i used to have a big wrisht shot slapper( i was a forward that skated very fast so i shot needed to be quick(no big wide up and everything..)

now my coach place me DEF... and everytime i have the puck at the bleu i take a big wrist shot cuz i can't do slap shot!!! any advice...i use a r2xn10 Reg flex i tihnk the shaft is 54 inch long and with a iggy(5.5. lie)

i think my shot is a bit harder with my synthesis 85 flex but i feel it more when doing quick release/wrist...by the way i ordered a xn10 WHIP flex to see the difference...

Beside the flex...could it be the lenght of my stick?? i'M about 6-6'1 wihtout skate and 180 pound 15yr any advice!

[toroytorero 0]

I have a tps whip flex shaft and my slapshot SUCKS with that stick

[Jason16 0]

I agree with Chadd, without seeing your technique, it’s difficult to uncover your source of your problem. But I can draw upon personal experience. My problem was the lie of the blade. I also noticed that I was exerting a lot of force with no real effect to puck velocity. So I started to play around with my technique.

Much like a golfer does, I practice swung in a slow, controlled motion so I could see what I was doing wrong. I noticed when my blade was hitting the ice/puck that it was only the heel making contact. This meant 2 things: 1. The lie was too high, and 2. My technique needed tweaking. Because I have a rather low stance when skating, it was only natural for me to bend down a far ways when I shot – this was my main problem. I stood a little more upright and started practice swinging until I noticed the bottom portion of the blade was making flush contact with ice. Bingo. I carried this over with a puck and let ‘er rip. It was a moment of pure joy and happiness to see that piece of rubber ripple the mess.

I still didn’t feel too comfortable with how upright I had to stand and how close the puck had to be to my skates when I shot. So I tired to remedy the issue. I would have needed a longer stick (with same lie) if I wanted the puck further away but I wasn’t comfortable with that so I experimented with lies until I found the one that allowed me to keep my stick at roughly the same length. I went from a 6 lie Sakic clone to a 5 lie Sakic clone. My mentality when I take slap shots now is to place the puck uncomfortable close to my feet and I’ve seen a drastic improvement with my slappers. Of course, mentalities much like advice is all subjective, but I hope you found something you can use.

Good luck

Jason

[nazzy19 0]

Some tips I gave to my friends when trying to teach them: bend your knees, tinker with hitting the puck on the "upswing", visualize digging an inch into the ice before the puck and taking a chunk out with it, make sure your follow thru is correct and hitting the correct spot on the blade either square in the middle, slightly closer to the heel for more power or closer to the tip for getting it up in a hurry.

My friends were taking too much ice with their shot and their first contact on the ice with their blade was wrong or holding too low down the shaft.

Either way practice more and more starting with half slappers to get the technique down, and then add the bigger swing later. now all my friends have decent slappers!

on a side note about over-concentrating...this guy was barreling down on me trying to unload the slapper, but you could see he was spending alot of time making it just right, he ended up hitting his back heel and tripping himself....I felt sorry for the dude cause he was really trying to get his team going.

[Sticks of Fury 0]

Try using an abs blade first. I want it to scrape the ice and I feel I get more energy from it. <---don't tape up the blade. I get more feel and snap whereas a fully taped up blade doesn't let you feel the ice and the puck as much. Try to get a stick that you can flex a bit but not too whippy. Maybe try a woodstick first to get the feel better. I have a composite blade but I just don't feel comfortable with it.

When you slap try a half slap first and just before the come into contact with the puck(maybe about a foot or less before contact), try to give it your best "Hulk" imitation ie hitting as hard as you can. B)

On the follow thru, roll your wrists a bit (turn your lower wrist) but not all the way. When starting try to aim maybe a foot high as a target. Most people try to aim high and I think that is wrong starting out. Try pick a target too.

Also, for me I try to keep the toe blade down on the upswing and downswing. <--It just works for me. Maybe you can open it up a bit starting out.

[hockeydude_49 0]

Another thing is make sure you hold your bottom hand tight enough so the stick doesn't turn when you hit the puck.

[Chadd 916]

Damn, if I shot like you guys describe I'd be going through a couple sticks every game. I take very little ice and I've still managed to break a few goal sticks and my goalie's wedding ring.

[warrior37 0]

i curl my wrists ,almost of of reflex now, to the inside and snap them back straight when i make contact and a good follow through really helps

[LkptTiger 1]

Another thing is make sure you hold your bottom hand tight enough so the stick doesn't turn when you hit the puck.

...Then you're range of motion is greatly decreased; there is no way you would be able to stop yourself from taking the shot and pulling a toe-drag around a sprawling defenceman or something, should you decide to half-way through your down-swing.

I struggled with my slapper for quite some time before I started tinkering with the positioning of my bottom hand. I find I can get a much harder, much more accurate shot away when I keep my bottom hand low (and loose) on my stick.

[hockeydude_49 0]

Well its gotta be tight enough so the stick doesn't just slip in his hands. Also make sure you have good weight transfer, start on your back foot and end up on your front.

[notorious#29 0]

I used to have a similar problem. I would spend hours of stick and puck practicing and still come away with the same crappy excuse for a slapper. Even when I just tried to "grip it and rip it" with no technique whatsoever, I couldn't get much. My problem ended up being I was simply taking to much ice and hitting the puck farther back then I should of, robbing me of shot power. After I noticed this problem, the next shot I took was money. I'm not saying this will be your problem, but it's a very easy fix if it is.

[LkptTiger 1]

The slapshot is all about technique. Sometimes, if I've been shooting a bit off the mark, when we have time to ourselves at the beginning of practice, I'll stand in the high slot with a bucket of pucks and start out slowly, actually going through individual sections of the shot (much like you would with a golf swing - starting at the top, starting down, stopping and going back to the top, then going down a little farther and returning to the top). Once I get to the point where I'm actually shooting pucks again, I find that this helps me get back into the (my) correct motion and I am able to let my weight transfer do most of the work as opposed to trying to do too much with my arms.

[gymmonster 4]

gonna get some ice time on sunday and try to fix this ...i hope :S

[Overtime 0]

http://www.shotandagoal.com/teach/

hope this helps.

[Cavs019 710]

Damn, if I shot like you guys describe I'd be going through a couple sticks every game. I take very little ice and I've still managed to break a few goal sticks and my goalie's wedding ring.

Touche. Now I understand how the stories of people breaking "8 SLs in 2 weeks" are concievable.

[gymmonster 4]

what do you guys mean by taking too much ice?

do you mean hitting the ice too far behind the puck or driving your blade too hard into the ice?

I think my problem is I'm hitting the ice with my heel and not hitting it with the blade flush on the ice that's why I get the patheticly loud slap noise and then the puck dribbles forward :(