Ice Hockey Stick Handling Mats

[conroy22 0]

Can anyone help me find a good ice hockey stick handling mat? Are the ones on websites like SnipersEdge.com and HockeyShot.com good quality, and do they really simulate the feel of ice well when using an ice hockey puck? I'm asking this because I went to my local Total Hockey and tried an ice hockey puck on one of their mats and it did not slide very well at all but rather stuck way too much.

Thank you if you can help!

[greyskull 21]

buy a sheet of HDPE plastic; spray it with silicon lubricant. Save lots of money.

[kr580 2]

I can't speak of the quality of the hockey-specific mats but if you're willing to try a cheaper route, I'd suggest getting a whiteboard from your local big hardware store for about $12. You can have them cut it to a smaller size if you wish. Then get a can of silicone lube spray and coat the whiteboard in a thin film. It'll be just as slick as ice.

[jimmy 194]

We have a local guy who makes ours for us, he uses a special white plastic sheet not sure if it's that HDPE but it's great and doesn't need spraying. It's very expensive but wont crack in the cold, etc. I don't think the Depot has it, you may want to try finding it an industrial plastic supplier. Take a puck with you for testing.

[flyers10 57]

Low cost go with the Thrifty white board. About $100 are 4x8 or 4x10 stickhandling/shooting sheets at Hockeyshot.

[JetsCanucks 6]

Hockeyshot roll up shooting pad is good I have one. It's really big 4.5 by 8 ft, lots of room to stick handle and shoot. You can line some pucks as obstacles and do toe drags and deke. Also you can get a full extension on your shot when shooting. Also you can line up a bunch of pucks and do rapid fire slapshots. It's about 100-110 bucks but it's really durable and slides well.

[Fasckira 0]

Maybe an even cheaper solution: pick up a green biscuit.

Depending on your surface, it can feel just like a puck on ice and it has the added benefit that you can store it in your kit bag. Quite often when we go off to away matches we'll drop the green biscuit in the car park while we wait for the rest of the team to turn up and start flicking it around between us too.

[CommodoreColt 19]

I did some cursory searching online and found a plastics/materials supplier for this. I had a rolled-up 1/16'' HDPE sheet shipped to my apartment for $50. It's 4'x8' and laid flat after a few days of being in a state of unrolled-ness.

It's probably not as slick as the $150 skill mats of equivalent dimensions, but it is slick enough to be worth the savings. Once every couple of weeks I need to rub in a small amount of silicone spray with a towel. With rubber pucks this is a necessity. With inline pucks it is not.

I've been power-leveling my hands all summer and feel mildly studly about it.

Saving the money, that is, not my stickhandling .