Advice: Any ball hockey fans here? Looking for tips to turn myself into a good ball player.
- Thread starter TimStrickland
- Start date
get a pair of rollerblades and a golf ball. practice at that speed and you will demoralize opponents in sneakers with a real ball
Jabroni
The People's Champ
- Jun 1, 2008
- 7,522
- 168
Praticing at the that speed with a smaller ball with definitely help. The only issue is transitioning from roller to shoes afterwards. Might be a small transition, but I don't think it would be too drastic.
Did you ever try roller hockey as opposed to ball hockey? I would think that would be easier on that joints and you wouldn't be as winded. Just an idea.
TimStrickland
Registered User
scoring winger, LW.
As an outside observer, I find the structure of ball hockey much more fluid than ice hockey. You cant tell whose who, and the fact that there's no coaching staff, defined gameplan for players is a factor that allows you to incorporate a lot of intrepretation into your game...you learn on the fly. Still, the basics are the same, you need to be smart, fit, talented(duh) and having a good grasp of the game.
TimStrickland
Registered User
I never hit the skates, I tried a few times as a kid, before I got these health issues, and it hurt.
Jabroni
The People's Champ
- Jun 1, 2008
- 7,522
- 168
I would recommend practicing your quick hands in front of the net. If you can be automatic in front of the net, it'll make up for your speed.
Hockey IQ is never a bad thing either. Pick your head up and be patient with the ball. Work on sharp passing. Try to be smart with intercepting the ball as well. Practice good positioning. Don't run around in your zone or the offensive zone.
Assuming you're going to be using the same orange hard plastic ball that they use around here, that thing moves like crazy. Practice getting as much flick off the end of your shot and it'll dip and curl like a beast. Goalies have a lot of trouble tracking that.
I had a lot of trouble at the start with catching passes. The ball is so light compared to a puck that it bounces off your stick unless you are really soft on it. Takes some getting used too.
Do they use a floating blue line? The points really open up if they do, especially if you've got some bombers back there.
I had a lot of trouble at the start with catching passes. The ball is so light compared to a puck that it bounces off your stick unless you are really soft on it. Takes some getting used too.
Do they use a floating blue line? The points really open up if they do, especially if you've got some bombers back there.
TimStrickland
Registered User
No, the community center uses a normal school gymnase. Its funny, they use a basket ball court to play hockey ball.
the hard orange ball works on school gym surfaces. It does the job, players can catch passes but the reception of tape to tape, hard, vivacious passes is so-so. The sticks used to play are low quality, made from plastic, with the stick proper and curve, made of plastic too. Most players bring their ice hockey sticks from what i've seen, they have a better reach(longer than plastic hockey sticks), can release a good hard, precise shot, and adapt better to surface conditions(ie school gym surface)
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bigbadbruins1
Registered User
- Dec 12, 2008
- 2,097
- 211
so based on this if you want to be a sniper I recommend using a smaller ball to get a good grasp on stick handling (golf ball as said before) but to get a real good feel for shooting you have to practice shooting. I used a ball even lighter than that of the average hockey ball as the lighter they are the more difficult it is to have a hard, accurate shot. I've used wiffle balls to work on the accuracy aspect. and don't just shoot on the net, put obstacles (to resemble defenders) and such in front to simulate what you would see after you catch a pass.
Don't get too fancy, everyone can stop on a dime in sneakers. Not much room for dangles in ball hockey.
I second this motion.
Ignoring the level at which NHL is played, you simply can't do as much in ball hockey as you can in ice hockey, in many ways.
Distancing yourself is difficult in ball hockey. As is dangling (the difficulty isn't much different) but what you receive from doing it is.
Active stick is even more important in ball hockey if you ask me. You're rarely ever dead to rights in ball hockey, you can always recover.
I'd say all of the ideas you've been given here are great, just make sure to remember in practice to be much more simple. I might be alone in this, but I have a huge ego when it comes to ball hockey and think I can walk through the whole team. You look like a hero the 100th you try it and succeed, but you're a donkey the other 99 times.
How much work can you body take? If you're trying to become serious about it, I would suggest trying HIIT. The agility would pay off exponentially.
This is all assuming you work on other obvious hockey skills. I'm more so talking about skills that are unique to ball hockey.
Cheers.
Islanderfan17
Registered User
- Aug 24, 2010
- 5,858
- 13
What makes me a good Ball hockey player is being good at putting distance between the guy defending me and the ball. I'm not a big guy either, it's really all about positioning and quick pivots at the right moments. Being a good stick handler helps a lot too, a lot of guys in ball hockey aren't that good at it.
NateTheGr8
Registered User
Having a quick release will do wonders for you in ball hockey. If your left handed go on the RW but I'm guessing your right handed. I'm going with that your right handed so just go down the wall and once you get 2-4 metres from the net, cut towards the right and once your in the middle the goalie will think your going top right but go top left or really anywhere on the left side. Do this quickly, don't go slow or take a weak shot. POWER yourself into the middle and snipe one.
I would assume the best ways to get better at ball hockey is to 1) Play a lot of ball hockey and 2) improve your fitness
Like any other sport.
Ball hockey is 10x easier than ice hockey in that you literally only need your stick and a ball. Try to go as much as full equipment as you can when you can. Be like Gretzky, practice all day and night, or as much as possible. The more you play with the stick and the ball the better you will get at it. Be challenging. Do corner drills. Shoot from different areas and different ways.
Then do some fitness improvement and your good to go.
Like any other sport.
Ball hockey is 10x easier than ice hockey in that you literally only need your stick and a ball. Try to go as much as full equipment as you can when you can. Be like Gretzky, practice all day and night, or as much as possible. The more you play with the stick and the ball the better you will get at it. Be challenging. Do corner drills. Shoot from different areas and different ways.
Then do some fitness improvement and your good to go.
Work on a quick release and ability to one time when you can. In game do a few simple things as a new guy to the sport that just take effort. When teammates look to be in a shooting situation get yourself to the front of the net, and make the effort to quickly pressure the opposition when they have possession.
