Shooting on / off ice and stick length

[devotee 0]

Hi!

After struggling for such a long time now with getting this right I thought I'll ask what other people here do. I've shot a lot off ice in the summer and entering the ice with the same stick length felt like a very bad idea as far as my shot goes.

With all the nice stuff available for off ice training these days I can't be the only one struggling. How do you guys compensate for this? When I played hockey in my youth (I've been away for a very, very long time, and only started because my kids started to play) I never took a shoot "off the ice", neither did I care much about curve patterns or lies. I just got a new (wood) stick already cut for me and the world was all flowers and love until it broke.

I shoot on tiles on shoes and I've built a platform to compensate for the height difference on skates. I thought this was a brilliant idea at first but this doesn't feel right at all.

Also, having two sticks in different heights is probably the solution but I can't just add the height difference that the skate vs shoe has because that is VERY significant / much and feels very strange.

I guess things like skating stance and so on come into play here.

My kids seem to adjust better than me which I find strange because the height difference must be even more significant for them. I'd like to solve this puzzle as it can perhaps make their shooting technique even better.

I'm going to continue experiment through trial and error, but this annoys me and I wonder if anyone has a rule of thumb or found something that seem to work ?!

For the records, I mostly use a Drury pattern (lie 5.5) but sometimes a "PM9" (lie 5). The "PM9" is slightly longer than the Drury pattern and normally I can adjust easily between those on the same surface.

Also, for those of you that normally use a Drury, lie 5.5, where does your stick reach you on shoes and on skates if you use different lenghts? My Drury is around my chin on shoes. I see kids using insanely long sticks these days (with 5.5 lie !!).

[z1ggy 81]

I use the same stick off ice than I do on ice. All I do is "choke up" a bit with my top hand so I compensate for not being on skates, and thus make the stick length a bit shorter.

[devotee 0]

Well, that's pretty much what I did last hockey season and what the kids have done. It doesn't seem so bad when you switch between on and off ice all the time.

But, the off season without any ice is long here and shooting like this for months, then going back to ice... Can't be good for technique?

[gosinger 122]

I try to do shooting practice while on inline skates, can't get any closer than that :/

[ChrisMolnar 14]

Choking up on a stick seems like the worst thing you can do. I've always just used my regular length stick

[thejackal 46]

I dont find it to be that big of a deal. If you use the same stick off-ice to train your shot, it'll take a few minutes to a few icetimes to get used to being on skates again, but you'll still have all the progress you've made training your swing and your muscles.

normally I use a different (short, cheaper, heavier) stick for off-ice shooting, just because it doesnt really matter how much pop I get when Im just shooting against a wall or a net, and I can swing away on my slap shot without worrying about breaking my "good" stick.

[hyster110 3]

i took my off ice stick and cut off the amount of height equal to the plastic holder on my skate. my ball hockey stick was a tuuk shorter than my ice hockey stick

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

i took my off ice stick and cut off the amount of height equal to the plastic holder on my skate. my ball hockey stick was a tuuk shorter than my ice hockey stick

This.

If you "choke up" on a hockey stick, that means that you're not holding the stick properly with your top hand. The butt end of the stick should be in the palm of your top hand.

[devotee 0]

Thanks for all replies.

I've also come to the conclusion that I need to keep a spare stick for off ice cut shorter. The plastic holder of the skate is a good starting point, but I've found it needs a little tweaking to compensate for stance.

The platform is also "usable" but it limits you a lot (e.g. if you have a larger area of tiles you are kind of stuck there on your platform.)

As an adult, there is a significant difference but for kids the difference is huge - as mentioned I also find using the same stick easier during hockey season but shooting off ice for months without any ice time and without using a correct sized stick must be horrible for their technique (not to mention the kids with way too long sticks already.)