puck hopping over stick... Why?

[marka 526]

Howdy,

So, in a game last night I seemed to have a recurring problem.  I'm putting most of it down to me just having a shitty game and being new and all, but on the off chance there's a well known thing I just don't know...

 

I was having issues with the puck hopping over my stick last night, both with reception of passes as well as sending passes.  Curve I'm using right now is a TC2-5, which I think is a pretty standard Sakic clone curve.  It was particularly noticeable sending passes and what seemed to be happening is that the puck would come up some initially and then the stick blade would push under the puck, giving me this little drubber knuckle ball fluttery thing that would go about 20', vs. a "normal" pass.  This was not helpful when I was trying to thread a pass through to a forward.  :-/

 

Now, all my passes weren't like that and I'm 100% sure this is due to some technique thing I was doing wrong.  I was tired and off my game last night, plus was playing defense rather than wing like I'm more comfortable with.  Most times it happened it was after I settled the puck down and was looking up ice, then decided on a quick pass.   My guess is just that I had the puck out too far in front of me when I initiated the pass, or perhaps my top hand too far back or maybe I wasn't stepping into the pass or ??

Anyway, like I said, I figured I'd ask the experts on the off chance this is some well known "oh, you're having trouble with that, that means you're doing xyz wrong" kinda thing that everyone tells 6 year olds when they start out.  :-)

Mark

[asgoodasdead 74]

sounds like you're either turning your bottom hand up or not gripping with your bottom hand hard enough and the stick is turning on you. if you keep the blade straight, that won't happen 

[kmfdm86 112]

Yeah, all I can think of is you are opening up the blade too much and not closing it. Or the puck was messed up. Or maybe the tape on your blade is messed up. But I'm sure you would have noticed the latter. Haha.

[puckpilot 312]

There's a lot of different variables at play here, but it seems to me that the primary thing is you're tired and you're playing out of position. These things IMHO can throw your technique off. Nothing you can do about being tired except don't be tired. :p Moving from forward to defense, may put you into uncomfortable positions or unfamiliar positions that can throw technique off. 

If I were to guess, if you don't play defense that much and don't do a whole lot of backwards skating or transitioning, I'd say your hands are probably doing things just fine, but i bet what's throwing you off is in the legs. Maybe you're not bending your knees enough or maybe too little or you're too much on your toes or too much on your heels. But regardless, that change probably changes the angle and/or position where your blade is making contact with the puck, resulting in your flubs.

I wouldn't worry about it or try to "fix" things unless it becomes a regular thing. Sometimes all you need is a good night's sleep and fresh start and things will be back to normal.