Schoolyard Puck

Guest post by Jeremy Rupke from Howtohockey.com

Ice hockey is an ever growing sport in the United States. There are a lot of players who are now making the move from ball hockey, street hockey, and roller hockey to ice hockey. While there are a lot of similarities between ball hockey and ice hockey, there are a few speed bumps that players will encounter when making the switch. I have found when making the switch from roller hockey to ice hockey these are the biggest problems

• Learning how to properly use edges when turning
• Learning how to hockey stop
• Learning to shoot a hockey puck

In this post I will be showing players the difference between shooting a ball, and a puck, and what they can do to make an easy transition. The reason players have a tough time firing a puck is because of permanent muscle memory. When learning a new task you are training your muscles to complete a task, with enough repetition your muscles will be able to perform the task automatically. You see the problem is you have trained your muscles how to shoot a ball, and they don't know what to do with a puck. Luckily you have me :D

The Difference Between a Ball and a Puck

By taking a look at the difference between a ball and a puck, we can see how the shooting style would change
You can see that the ball is more than twice the size of a puck, a different shape, and much lighter. All of these differences will have an effect on how to get the best shot.

The Difference Between Shooting a Ball and a Puck

There is a big difference between how a ball is shot, and how a puck is shot, lets take a look at the method I use for both

How I shoot a ball

 

• Keep the blade of the stick more upright
• Use a quick snap when shooting
• Follow through and aim

How I shoot a puck

 

• Pull the puck back to build speed
• Cup the puck
• Pull the puck towards the net, letting the blade of the stick become more upright
• Put spin on the puck to keep it from wobbling
• As the puck comes off the ice, roll the wrists and aim

There is a reason I shoot differently with a puck, and a ball. The ball is taller than the blade of my stick, and round, so if I pull it back and try to cup it, there is a chance my blade will roll right over the top of the ball and I will lose it.
A puck is heavier than a ball, and disc shaped, so I need to pull it back a bit to build more speed on my shot, but with a ball being lighter and having the rebound effect, a quick snap will usually get enough speed on the ball.

Shooting a Ball vs. Shooting a Puck

 

• A ball is light, which means a quick snap will get it going fast. A puck is heavier so you will need to pull it back to get speed, or snap it with a lot of flex on your stick to get speed
• A ball is round, which means no matter how you shoot it the ball will fly straight. A puck is disc shaped, which means you need to put spin on it to keep it from wobbling
• A ball is tall and round, so if you try to cup it like a puck it can roll under your blade, causing you to lose the ball.
• To raise a ball all you need to do is get under the ball and lift it up, with a puck you need to figure out how to get a disc shaped object off of a flat surface

From reading the summary, you may be thinking that learning to shoot a puck may be very hard, but it is actually not that hard if you already know how to shoot a ball. The motions are similar, but you will need a few tweaks to perfect it.

Final Tips for Shooting a Puck

Here are a few tips on how to shoot a puck, for more detail you can see my article how to take a wrist shot
 

• Get the feeling of the puck moving from the heel of the blade to the toe
• Practice pulling the puck back and cupping it with the blade of the stick (see picture above), then slowly pull it forwards and notice how the blade becomes upright. When doing this in fast motion the puck will come up on the blade of the stick (about the mid point of the wrist shot) then roll your wrists to put more spin on the puck.
• Remember to snap / roll the wrists to keep the puck from wobbling, add a bit of extra speed to your shot, and get better accuracy

I hope that these tips will help you make the transition from ball hockey to roller hockey. If you have been practicing shooting but the puck keeps wobbling you should read this great article that teaches you how to stop a puck from wobbling

Jeremy "Red Light" Rupke loves hockey and has been playing since he could walk! If you are learning to play hockey you can find large collection of hockey tips on his blog. Jeremy writes about how to improve shooting, dekes, stickhandling, skating, and also reviews hockey products.

If you've played roller hockey for awhile you've probably encountered a stuck axle bolt at one point. If you haven't experienced this yet, just wait because you will eventually. This can be very frustrating, especially when you are trying to rotate your wheels in a hurry. You want to be careful when freeing a frozen bolt because if you let your carelessness get the best of you, you might damage your hardware.

Here are some tips that I've put together based off the many times I've come across this problem.

• After your bolt is loosened, leave your allen key in the hole and push firmly on the bolt to push the other side out
• Lightly tap on the bolt when it's protruding (see front wheel on above image) with the butt end of your stick. Don't hit it to hard or you may damage the threads
• Give the bolt a quarter turn and try pushing it out with your finger. Sometimes hardware gets warped, giving it an oblong shape as opposed to being perfectly round
• Do not use grease or other lubricant when inserting bolts into the chassis. They may slide in easy, but they will be difficult to get out 

Have you ever dealt with a stuck axle? What advice would you give?

Riding your bike to work (or school) might be a great way for you to stay in shape during the off-season.  In most areas the weather is perfect this time of year, so now is a great time to get yourself into the habit. In addition to the numerous health benefits, you can save money on gas, help the environment, and get $20 a month for riding! (Check with your employer to see if they participate in the commuter tax benefit program). Since cycling is mostly an aerobic exercise while hockey is an anaerobic activity, you probably won't see huge gains in your one-minute line shifts, but your overall endurance should improve.  You could always power up a steep hill as fast as you can if you wanted to work on your explosiveness, but if you're training for hockey there are other workouts that you would be better off doing.  Riding your bike is simply a substitute for commuting to work in a car and it should not be used in place of a hockey-specific training regimen. If you are looking for a good off-ice training program, take a look at Jeremy Weiss' S3 Formula. The point is, and I think anyone would agree, that riding a bike will probably strengthen your quads, hams, glutes, and calves better than working the gas and brake pedals will. Your lungs and heart will thank you for putting down the keys, so give it a try!

The other day, while browsing the junk bin at my local thrift store I came across a pair of ankle weights. Lying between neon-green knee pads and mismatching dumbbells, they were almost overlooked.  At $4, the price was right. I bought them because I have seen others add weight to the end of their stick for resistance training, so I thought they would work well for this application. Best part is, they are the kind that have small, removable sandbags so the weight can be adjusted accordingly.

Why Train with A Weighted Stick?

The concept of using a heavier object when training has been around for ages. Have you ever seen a baseball player swing two bats while on deck to hit? He does this so when he steps up to the plate, a single bat will feel almost weightless. A hockey stick can be very similar. When practicing shooting or stickhandling with a weighted stick, you are using the exact same muscles you would in a game, allowing you to strengthen the parts of your body that will make you a better player.  If used regularly, you should notice increased handling speed and a more powerful shot.

Jeremy from HowtoHockey.com put together an excellent list of weighted hockey stick drills you can incorporate into your training.

The Hespeler UB offset blade was created by Gene Ubriaco and first appeared under the Hespeler name. Hespeler was a part of Gen-X sports, which was acquired by Huffy. The Hespeler name and remaining stock was sold to Forzani. Currently the tech is available from Combat (formerly Ballistic). The thought behind the offset blade is to line the puck up with the shaft, in theory; this supposedly will improve shot speed and accuracy. Other possible benefits could be better puck handling and an improved backhand shot. The following review will include what I experienced with the actual blade but will focus mostly on how the design element that makes this blade different affects performance.

Initial Thoughts

Upon receiving the blade I uttered three words that seem to go along with this design; What the Byfuglien!?! Looking at the blade it looks like any other wood standard-tenon replacement blade until you see the hosel. About one inch below the tenon, the hosel curves dramatically toward the backhand side of the blade. The offset is only about a half-inch but appears more drastic.

Blade Meets Shaft

The Hespeler blade was inserted into a TPS Redlite XN10 shaft and later into an Easton MM Z-Bubble shaft. As awkward as it looked initially, it looks more awkward in the shafts. Upon taping I always give my sticks a few moments with a Smarthockey ball, in my opinion, this gives me a more enhanced feel allowing for a greater comparison on the blade’s feedback or “feel.” The “feel” was, different, it almost feels like it’s coming off your stick while you have the ball in the proper “puck handling” position.

To the Rink

I always take at least two sticks with me to the rink. It's actually rather awkward to carry, you need to put the stick on the backhand side of the other stick otherwise it's just awkward. That is obviously just a little annoyance but an annoyance nevertheless. At the rink no less than five fellow players literally said those three aforementioned words; “What the…” You get the point, it’s awkward.

On the Ice

 

Handling

There is definitely an adjustment period with this blade, it just feels different. Typically I skate having my head up; if I lose the puck I can typically find it with my peripheral vision with this blade I had issue locating the puck without looking fully down. Typically this is not an issue with a wood blade as they provide better feedback than a composite blade, this seemed like a product of the design.

Shooting

Shooting was uncomfortable for me; I found myself having to locate (look down) the puck on the blade to shoot at times, that did not feel natural. After about 30 minutes I was more comfortable but accuracy was off. It seemed as though most shots would miss to the right (right-handed shot), typically if I miss it’s normally hooking it high and to the left. I did find that backhands were slightly easier to get up high, quickly and it felt like my backhands were slightly harder/faster than normal. I had a couple friends try it out and they also had similar experiences, although some didn’t have the consistently less accurate shots that I experienced. I believe this to be a torquing issue because it was soo inconsistent; sometimes I’d miss by five inches, sometimes I’d miss by a few feet. Torquing occurs when the blade twists and flexes which causes a loss in accuracy. In this case I would consider the accuracy issue to be a product of the Hespeler blade itself, not the offset design. I believe the puck handling issue to be a product of the design but this would likely go away with time and use.

Final Thoughts

In my opinion, the possible benefits are over shadowed by the adjustment period needed to be comfortable with the altered puck position. You can only be so accurate with shots, shot speed and accuracy comes with practice. You should never change your technique to use a stick or pattern, you find your ideal stick/pattern to fit your technique.

You may be wondering who TBLfan is, for some information on the author please see the TBLfan About Me blog located at Wordpress.