21 years old, have 1 season under my belt, and i suck please help

[datsyukianLIKE]

this is all very good advice the only thing i would add is if you do get better remember where you are now and dont chirp or disrespect the people where your at now...not saying you would i just see it alot and i always remind people at my rink that they sucked at one time

 

[tarheelhockey]

You know how I learned to skate? When I was in 6th grade I went to a roller rink for the very first time, having zero knowledge of how to even stand up on skates. Being young and stupid, I went round and round that rink, falling and sliding and probably annoying a lot of people in the process. Every time I fell down I got back up and kept moving my feet the way I knew skaters did. Being a big hockey fan, the only thing I wanted to do was skate... I couldn't have cared less about how it looked or how many bruises it might cause.

After about 20 minutes of busting all over the place, I could skate in a straight line. 20 minutes later I could turn awkwardly. Altogether it was probably about 2 hours at the rink, and I could go fairly fast in an oval without stopping or falling down. That's pretty much the way it is with skating. You have to just swallow your pride, forget about being a superstar, and just work in tiny increments on gaining your balance... if you're not paying any attention to how much you suck, the improvement actually comes pretty quickly... or at least it seems that way because you're not tracking your mistakes.

 

[SnowBlue]

The most emberassing thing is watching a tape of yourself play. You might think you are fast and trying really hard, but it might not look that way Thus, I try to no longer critique NHL players for not trying.

My advice is to practice individually. I have trouble stopping with my left foot, only way to improve it is doing the same thing again and again. Not going to fix it in a game or a team practice. Too bad its hard to get free ice in the summer.

 

[flamer82]

I was in the exact same situation my family never had enough money so i saved up for it and being from Australia hough theres not that many places to go for hockey but when i was 17 i found out one of my school teachers son played so i went along and ended up starting to play with the senior (Adult) team id never really been on the ice bar one or two free skating session but i could stop or anything and the start of the season was 3 weeks away so i went to every single free skating session i could and i worked as hard as i could on the things i needed to learn like stopping, crossovers sharp turns that sort of stuff. But i can tell you by the time the season started i could stop really well and skate at the same pace and speed as most guys in the league its all about repetition. Ive only played 2 years now i missed one with injury and it felt like i had to start all over again cause of the broken ankle but last season i was 3rd in points in the league so honestly just work youre but off dont be afraid to fall or worry about how you think youre going just use that passion to want to play hockey to push you dude.

Try getting to the rink for a just skating practice twice a week if you can to keep on working on the skating side. Get a golf ball and put electric tape around it and use that for stick handling practice it works for me and then just shoot as many pucks as you can off the ice try to make sure youre a couple inches higher that the shooting board to simulate you being on skates. Those are the things that have worked for me good luck!!

 

[HowToHockey]

For skating you just have to skate as much as you can, go to public skating lessons, try to find adult power skating classes, play every game of pick-up hockey that you can etc.

Also over the summer get some roller blades and roller blade on a regular basis.

For shooting and stickhandling I have a tonne of articles and videos on my hockey training site. It is all free and I do it to help players like you who don't really have a coach.

Stickhandling and shooting you can practice off the ice, and I sort of see it like 2 steps forward, one step back. You will learn a lot off the ice, but then you get on the ice and it's not quite the same. The important thing is you are improving, you just have to adjust what you learn off the ice a bit to make it stick on the ice.

Also I don't really know if this would help a player who doesn't already have a decent stride but I have been using a slideboard a lot and really like it.