Help shooting in motion...

[gxc999 7]

in thoery its just like a pitcher in baseball... the longer you can hide the ball in the release the less time a batter has to react.... same thing in hockey...now add a quick in stride release with the puck "hidden" for a split second... makes it tough on a goalie for sure...

good vid... yes its exaggerated motiion for demonstration... but not much

The thing is, all my "best" shots in motion, the ones with good power behind them and aimed ideally for a top corner that was momentarily open, don't score. I constantly get stoned, but my ugly, fluttery, surprising wristers work quite often. I guess I should throw more knuckleballs at the goalie:)

[gxc999 7]

Just wanted to give another update. My shooting in motion is gradually getting better. I've stumbled across some important things I wasn't doing before, e.g. put all weight on the inside leg, lean into it more, instead of looking down, focus on better feel for the puck etc.

[Law Goalie 147]

You mean I don't have to try to stop the shot or block the shot? I'll take that trade anyday, as it's two less things I have to think about. Now if only I could master the flip clear and the flip dump, then I would never have to skate past the red line.

Blocking shots, I love. I had a guy for three years who was like a beer league Volchenkov: beautiful gap control, could drop one knee to block shots off the rush, or go full horizontal if he had to.

What really set him apart, though, was not the number of shots he blocked, but the number he *didn't* screen. I think he screened me once in those three years, and that was against a very, very gifted hockey player who almost turned him inside out.

What will drive goalies insane is waving the blade of your stick in the shooting lane as the shot is released.

Try an experiment: put a guy at the blueline taking slapshots on your goalie, and see how many he saves out of twenty; now remove the goalie, and try to block those shots with the blade of your stick. If your stick has a better save-percentage than the goalie, after careful comparison of their relative size, you are hereby authorised by the G.I.A. to throw your stick in the shooting lane whenever you like with that goalie in net, but are more strongly encouraged to find another goalie.

When the Leafs' goalie coach can the same experiment using game film, he was able to prove conclusively that over a season and a half (~120 games), the save-percentage of a goalie on point-shots (including screens, traffic, and opposing-team deflections) is about .950; the save percentage of a stick-blade in the shooting lane is about .500 (IIRC), even if you assume that all shots that hit the stick-blade would have hit the net and been counted as shots - nowhere near as effective as a goalie on his own. On top of that, sticks in the shooting lane were documented to lower than goalie's save-percentage from .950 to around .750 -- meaning that by sticking their sticks in the shooting lane, the players were lowering their goalie's effectiveness by *twenty percent* and actually costing the team goals.

The head coach reviewed it with a blank look, and said, "We want our players to activate their sticks." Roll eyes, leave room.

[HattrickSwayze 3]

I think Gaborik's one of the best at shooting in stride. He kind of disguises it with stickhandling, where as soon as he pulls it back he snaps it away again. This one against the Kings is a good example of what I'm talking about. Hard to do and get the timing right, but if you can pull it off you can do it in stride and load the stick at the same time.

[gxc999 7]

I think Gaborik's one of the best at shooting in stride. He kind of disguises it with stickhandling, where as soon as he pulls it back he snaps it away again. This one against the Kings is a good example of what I'm talking about. Hard to do and get the timing right, but if you can pull it off you can do it in stride and load the stick at the same time.

Good video. Gaborik does what I was describing in the first shot, lean all your weight onto your shooting side! I dono why it took so long for me to figure that out!