Learning new stickhandling moves

[jww83 0]

Not a very in depth question, but just wanted to gather people's opinions on the best way to go about learning a new move. Would you say it would be better to first get a grasp of the move with your head down, always looking at the puck; and then once you have learnt to do it that way, then start learning it again with your head up not looking at the puck at all?

Do you think this actually adds a phase to the learning curve (instead of just learning from scratch with your head up), or speeds it up? Any input appreciated. Cheers

[thejackal 46]

i find after a certain level i didnt even need to really look at the puck. having my head down was more of a comfort factor rather than a practical one - i'm seeing the puck in my peripheral vision only anyway, if i stared at it i'd only get dizzy. try to think that you're playing with the puck directly with your hand , if you focus on that feeling then you can pretty much know where the puck is on your stick without looking at it. after a while you can get a pretty decent idea of where the puck is even when it's not on your stick, but that comes with practice. in the meantime, it's fine to sneak a peek, but don't pull it out in a game if you play contact.

[McDougalfaschnitzer 32]

You can go either way and there will still be a learning curve. Usually when I practice I keep my head up at all times, but when I start, I'll start slow, then speed up as I get more and more used to it. Same factor would go if you start while looking down to get used to the feeling, and little by little raise your head.

[Bravada 442 0]

I think that you need to learn whatever move you are learning with your head up. If you can't see where you are going, no move is going to be very good without knowing where you are going.

Something can change, goalie can move, etc.. and if you have your head down you're going to be out of luck. I just think that you might get into a bad habit of keeping your head down if you learn a move with your head down, I think keep it up at all times.

[jww83 0]

You can go either way and there will still be a learning curve. Usually when I practice I keep my head up at all times, but when I start, I'll start slow, then speed up as I get more and more used to it.

Exactly what I did when learning just general stickhandling techniques etc when I started out. Seems like the general feeling is to do this at all levels of difficulty in stickhandling training, and its what my initial thoughts were.

Thanks guys for the input.

[masterpeice_patrice 4]

when eric lindros retired at the 3m center in london ontario he held a press confrence and said..

"i wish i practiced stickhandling with my head up more often"

be careful buddy theres alot of hard nosed guys out there who will hate you and do anything to put u out of the game. no one wants to get beat and embaressed by a stickhandler.