Faster stickhandling tips

[Borsch 0]

I see kids every day that can do the Michigan/puck juggling but can't do anything in a game situation. Make sure you spend time working on skills that can be applied in the course of the game.

Haha our "Russian Kip" discussion springs to mind :D

Let me give you an example from piano: Lets say someone wants to play a fast peice of music (talking finger/wrist velocity/dexterity). You can try to practice-practice-practice particular bit for which you do not have the technique ("learn in game situation moves analogy") or you can spend time on horribly sounding, unmusical School of Velocity by Cherny AND THEN come back to the piece and within several tries achive pretty much perfection in terms of technique after a few tries. See my point?

[Chadd 916]

I see kids every day that can do the Michigan/puck juggling but can't do anything in a game situation. Make sure you spend time working on skills that can be applied in the course of the game.

Haha our "Russian Kip" discussion springs to mind :D

Let me give you an example from piano: Lets say someone wants to play a fast peice of music (talking finger/wrist velocity/dexterity). You can try to practice-practice-practice particular bit for which you do not have the technique ("learn in game situation moves analogy") or you can spend time on horribly sounding, unmusical School of Velocity by Cherny AND THEN come back to the piece and within several tries achive pretty much perfection in terms of technique after a few tries. See my point?

I see the point you're trying (poorly) to make. It's a pretty bad analogy and pretty irrelevant. My warning was mostly about wasting time on things that look pretty but aren't overly useful in a game. I've played against guys who have amazing hands but are utterly useless on the ice because the skills they have practiced have no practical use in a game.

Juggling a puck is not going to help you make moves on the ice. It may help you knock down passes, defelct shots or corral bouncing pucks but it's not going to help you beat another guy one on one or one on two.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

I see kids every day that can do the Michigan/puck juggling but can't do anything in a game situation. Make sure you spend time working on skills that can be applied in the course of the game.

That's a very good point Chadd...

[Borsch 0]

Catching the puck developes the ability for your wrists to give when recieving passes or stickhandling (catching is like recieving a pass onlu in a verticla plane), it also develops a fell for the puck on the blade. Similar analogy in soccer- once I've learnt how to catch a football on my feet, my first touch and feel for the ball when dribbling has improved no end...

"I've played against guys who have amazing hands but are utterly useless on the ice because the skills they have practiced have no practical use in a game."- SURE. We are dealing with many variables here- amazing hands, but crap skater, crap thinker (wrong move for the situation), maybe they look down too much at the puck when making their move... MDE3 support me on this! ;)

[Chadd 916]

The best players have all the tools in the toolbox. I'm just saying, don't limit yourself to flashy tricks.

[MDE3 0]

It was a two part lesson....the second part which was the "blind stickhandling" practice was to allow you to use your new found "feel and touch" without actually having to look at the puck..... they have to go together to be effective. Playing with the puck like I described may gain you some tricks to use in open hockey to impress the "rubes", but that's not why you are doing it....the gain is in the coordination and feel it takes to do these things...If you have never tried this you cannot appreciate how hard it gets on the forarms too..great exercise as well as a great skill development tool.

[Chadd 916]

I find that most people never take the second step, they just start using the same moves on the ice. My favorite is the guy who loves putting the puck in his own skates then kicks it back up to his stick. Looks great with tons of time but put him in a game situation and a good defenseman will plant him every time.

That said, I also know guys with incredible hands on the ice that can't juggle the puck on a stick.

There are a lot of ways to skin this particular cat. All of them require hard work and there really isn't a shortcut.

[Neo5370 132]

Holy crap

You've got great hands kovy.

I just go the mylec street hockey ball route. Unfortunately, I stickhandle like a jackass when I use a puck.

[biff44 0]

I think using those balls hurts more than helps. They do not handle like a puck, and when you finally do hit the ice, you keep leaving the puck behind.

[Guest pr0ph3t]

Golf ball screwed up my puck skills as well.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

Holy crap 

You've got great hands kovy.

I just go the mylec street hockey ball route.  Unfortunately, I stickhandle like a jackass when I use a puck.

Thanks Neo,

try that if you want, play at least 5 minutes a day everyday for all the remain of the season with a puck at home...I'm sure it will improve your puck skills if you do it everyday. ;)

[PBRyan 0]

Another thing to keep in mind is actually practicing stickhandling for game type situation. I am sure the recomendations given in this post will help develop better hands, but they cannot teach stickhandling in traffic or being "hard to knock off the puck", two qualities that I think nearly every stickhandler must be excelent at in order to be considered a good stickhandler. These characteristics can only be learned when put in game/on ice practice situations and require experience and knowledge, not just physically quick hands. Just my 2 cents.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

Another thing to keep in mind is actually practicing stickhandling for game type situation. I am sure the recomendations given in this post will help develop better hands, but they cannot teach stickhandling in traffic or being "hard to knock off the puck", two qualities that I think nearly every stickhandler must be excelent at in order to be considered a good stickhandler. These characteristics can only be learned when put in game/on ice practice situations and require experience and knowledge, not just physically quick hands. Just my 2 cents.

Maybe it's your point of view, but when I play everyone say it's so hard to knock off the puck from my blade, they say it's like if the puck is stuck on my blade...

[EBondo 232]

Golf ball screwed up my puck skills as well.

Hmm I guess everyone does have different ways, I feel golf balls help me, and they have, I just put on my roller skates, go into the backyard, and just skate side to side stickhandling, or like Chadd said, figure eights with the golf ball, or practicing some of the fancy stuff, and it works for me, I can pull of the toe drag when I get the chance to do it in real life situations, and it works

EDIT: Mad props to you Kovy, I wish like hell I could stickhandle that fast

[SB39 2]

Dude, Kovy, not bad, but put some damn pants on if you're gonna be broadcastin your pale skin over the net...

edit: To add something more productive, I just succeeded in an experiment. I took my TPS pro radius rubber and dumped a bottle of elmers glue down the inside of the shaft, then put in a koho abs blade, then started dangling with a roller puck that I poured the rest of the bottle of glue in the indentations. I stickhandled that until I thought I was going fast, then went to my starter, which is an M2 with a pro Z-carb blade in it, and it made WORLDS of difference. Try it with an old shaft you aren't using...

[2048 0]

And Man up. you've got some damn chicken legs in that freakish video.

[Accord 0]

How do I work on that....After seeing Kovys video lol, he makes my stickhandling look like shit.....any suggestions on how to stickhandle faster? When ever I try, i get too ahead of my self and screw up

I just watched the video and damn, wish I could do that .

[MDE3 0]

I think using those balls hurts more than helps. They do not handle like a puck, and when you finally do hit the ice, you keep leaving the puck behind.

Biff..100% agree.....balls have to be handled differently than a puck, you cannot cup them like you can a puck or the stick rolls over them, when you shoot a ball, you do so from a different "cock and release" point for the same reasons.

Everytime I had a team that played both ball and puck tournament hockey, they were useless with the puck after playing a game with a ball. Same thing goes for practice. If you want to practice on a surface, try to make sure it's the same surface you play on, and with the same pucks you will use in a game. Not to say the heavier balls aren't better than the lighter ones, but they still create some problems.

That's why I try to get kids to use the flip and catch technique..it does not involve the surface, and so change your timing, plus if you use it with the same puck you play with, it helps the feel and touch so much as well as being great exercise for the wrists. But then you still need to do he old "blind stickhandling" routines to be able to apply this touch to a game situation.

And Chadd. the player who drops the pucks into his feet to kick it back, will not be successfull against a disciplined defenceman who is focussed on the body..you are right.

But for the one who commits to a pokecheck a bit early, it can make him look pretty foolish. Hence the rule is body first, puck second when in a one on one...as long as you have the body covered solidly then you can snap out that quick stick to remove the puck without getting burned. The problem with inline players is they rarely ever learn to take the skating lane..like you were going to take out the body, and often over commit to taking the puck....one of the reasons scoring is relatively high in inline hockey...Those habits are hard to break, even when converting to full contact inline, if you were never taught correctly as a young player.

[Borsch 0]

And Chadd. the player who drops the pucks into his feet to kick it back, will not be successfull against a disciplined defenceman who is focussed on the body..you are right.

Like i was saying before- its not just having the ability to pull off a move, but also knowing when to make that particular move... In this case: dropping the puck to the skate and kicking it back again IS a very usefull move when a D is covering your side. Time it right and D's gonna believe you're going for a drop pass and (especialy if you have a man trailing) will either stop to meet the trailer, or at least stagger for a moment - either is good for the attacker. If seen David Vyborny (of Columbus?) do this very thing to defencemen several times. Mario Lemieux too, although he instead of kicking the puck back with a skate caught it again with a stick (skating in a very wide stance, drop pass between his legs and ctch it again from under his body.) OF COURSE doiung this with a d right in front of you is silly (as Chad has put it "you'll get planted every time").

[Chadd 916]

OF COURSE doiung this with a d right in front of you is silly (as Chad has put it "you'll get planted every time").

And doing it with no D around is just showboating.

[Borsch 0]

OF COURSE doiung this with a d right in front of you is silly (as Chad has put it "you'll get planted every time").

And doing it with no D around is just showboating.

Or practicing ;) :D

[EndBoards 0]

Dude, Kovy, not bad, but put some damn pants on if you're gonna be broadcastin your pale skin over the net...

Being new and all, I wasn't going to be the one to bring this up... But Dang... Dude, put on some pants or at least give us a warning..

And I've found that the roller ball kills my puck handling.. I was doing pretty well with it, then I played Roller for a summer. I was doing pretty good with the ball, but when I went back to ice in the fall I sucked..

[Neo5370 132]

Just recently put to use some sport court tile samples I ordered and a roller puck.

So far I've been at it for about 45 mins a day for the last three days.

I'm not even close to the kovy video but I can almost do things w/ the puck that I could w/ the ball.

I am now avoiding stickhandling balls like the plague. :D

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

So far I've been at it for about 45 mins a day for the last three days.

Great man, keep it up.

[Aussie Joe 0]

I am now avoiding stickhandling balls like the plague.

I had the same problem a few years back where the more I practiced with my street ball the more I screwed my on rink puckhandling. Especially seeing as I was practicing on carpet as well! (Don't even ask why guys, I was 17 and an idiot).

Anyways It was only 2 weeks that I was practicing on a sheet of wood outside with an inline game puck that I noticed the difference. Im not the greatest puckhandler. Dare say I never will be but its helped my heads up confidence dramtically. So much so I can now take shots and Slap Shots in particular with my head up the whole way. For me thats a pretty big acheivement! Thus the goals keep coming. lol.

:)