How do you slow down for a second, before making the pass

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

12 games into summer league, coming off what can only be described as the worst game I've ever played, I'm asking....

I get the puck, and if I take an extra second or 2, I can make a pass, but the last 3-4 games, I've got the puck and made the pass/clear, often to our detriment, too quickly.

I've had the room, but just felt mentally pressured.

Last night, I had the puck, and clear space to clear, if I took time, but I just got the puck, and whacked it, it bounced off a shinpad, and never cleared our zone, the other team pushed in, and scored to go 1-0 up.

We ended up losing 6-1, and it all went downhill from my hurried play that caused the first goal.

Is it just time and playing that gives you the ability to hold the puck that extra second, or is there anything you do, that can help.

Last nights loss caught me bad, I played poorly, and felt rushed all night, even when I wasn't, so looking for tips or advice to help.

Cheers

[sc37 0]

Chill out before the game :D

I feel rushed some days when I'm in a hurry to get to the rink and get all my stuff on for games so being calm might help. And also I just remember I play with a buncha of lower level beer league guys, not that I'm not, but they are a bit slow at times and don't come in on the forecheck very hard at all, so I always make myself remember to look up and cause 90% of the time, there's time and open space. It also helps to have vocal teammates who yell if you got time or yell boards if you should be dumping it quick. It's all a matter of playing more too and just getting used to it. Forget your bad game and keep on going at it!

[Chadd 916]

Is it just time and playing that gives you the ability to hold the puck that extra second, or is there anything you do, that can help.

It's confidence and awareness. You need to know if anyone is around you before you get the puck. Once you know where everyone is, you can make the quick play if you're under pressure or take a second if you have space.

[sabre09923 0]

If you know for a fact that you're running out of room, and the backchecker is gaining on you, try stopping and/or changing direction. That will likely shake or at least slow down the opposing player, so it buys you an extra couple seconds to look up and make a pass. I know this doesn't answer your question exactly, but it's a good tactic to try. Another good technique to practice is to look up and figure out where everyone is before you receive the puck (via a pass or otherwise).

[willy0314 0]

It's confidence and awareness. You need to know if anyone is around you before you get the puck. Once you know where everyone is, you can make the quick play if you're under pressure or take a second if you have space.

Alot of the time, when someone isn't very confident in their game, they get the puck and just panic. Their first reaction is to just "get it away from me as fast as I can".

My advice, first just try and relax. Dont worry about screwing up. If you stop thinking about screwing up all the time, you'll play alot better, and you won't panic and make mistakes.

Seccond work on your stick handling and keeping your head up. The more you have your head up and the more confident you are in your skills, you'll start to feel like you have alot more time then you did before.

[chk hrd 164]

I think the biggest things are experience and confidence. When I coached or when I'm playing with new guys I try to let them now that they have more time than they think, so don't panic on the puck. Most young or new players don't feel comfortable handleing the puck so thier first instinct is to get rid of it as fast as possible. Take a look before doing something. It's better to hld on to the puck and fight it out than getting rid of it and loosing it.

[M-Cohen 0]

Try to make sure you're also not looking at the puck, at all. Cause if you have your head up and aware it make it much easier to scan, choose your passing target and pass in a good amount of time. Whereas if you are looking at the puck you are forced to then put your head up and choose/pass in much less time.

[Dan Tessier 0]

Hey mate, I think some good points have been made here. First and foremost always have your head up and moving around scanning the ice so that when u get the puck u know where your teammates are and what options are available. This way when u get the puck u have an idea of what u can do with it. As for what to do when u get it, I find the best thing is to slow the game down in ur head. This is easier said then done, but if u can slow the whole pace of the game down in ur head u will see the gamer evolve slower and be able to make a better decision. Personally, I think a lot of players think that the guys in the show always make complex highlight reel plays but if u watch a game they just make good simple plays, so dont try to force or look for the complicated option and just make the simple passes when u see them. If you focus on just executing the simple options from the start of each game u will build confidence and then gradually u will move on to more complex plays as ur confidence grows. A great book I recommend is called Hockey Tough, its about mental training for hockey and one thing it says is know ur ABC's. Think of 3 things u need to do to be a good player in ur position, and those become ur ABC's. So for u, A) could be head up looking around, B) could be sticking to the simple passing option, and C) could be executing with out hesitation.

[biff44 0]

It all goes back to basics! stickhandling basics in the case.

Your subconscious is telling you: "you stink at stickhandling...better dump the puck quick before someone takes it away from you!". So you panic and do just that.

The only way to counter that is practice you stickhandling over and over and over again until you can stickhandle you way thru a brick wall. When you are confident that you can stickhandle your way out of tight situations, now you have two options (stickhandle or pass) and the pressure is off. Also, once you opponents know you can stickhandle your way out of tough messes, you will find them less eager to commit themselves with an out of position poke check!

[srv2miker 0]

It's a mental; what I find helps is a visualization. If you're like me, you hardly ever have time to practice, so you get in game situations, and you end up making dumb plays like the one you described. Next time you're joggin on the treadmill, or riding the bus, or stopped in traffic spend some time thinking about that play, and what you'd different. Actually imagine yourself in the same situation, and then in the next game you'll be more likely to make the right play.

[All Torhs Team 0]

Like its been said, I think that if your not confident with yourself to hold the puck, you will make the bad passes. In order to slow it down, you have to know that there might not be a pass. And then you would need to keep the puck, even if your the last guy back.

So the confidence is knowing that you can control the puck on your own, and even use your body to shield off forechckers.

Once you feel comfortable holding on to the puck when your the last guy back - you wont be scrambling so much to make the pass because you wont have that fear in the back of your head -- "O I need to get rid of this puck because I dont want to be the last guy back with the puck".