Advice: Shooting technique help

snizzbone*

Guest
Me and my sister were just shooting some pucks and figured we'd record ourselves and try to figure out how to improve our techniques. I've watched some videos on 'proper' technique but have not really tried to implement much into my shooting. Any pointers would be awesome.

me


sis
 

kr580

Who knows.
Aug 9, 2009
1,386
18
California
Disclaimer: I'm not great at hockey so take my advice with a grain or twelve of salt. I may or may not have any idea what I'm talking about.

For you the things that stick out like a sore thumb are your hands, your balance on the follow through with the wrist shot and your lack of utilizing your body to generate power.

Hands: Your motion starts well with your hands out in front but when you get to the snap part of the shot your top hand goes wild. Watch this whole video, but pay special around 4:39 when he shows how you want to pull back with that top hand in the middle of your motion: Link 1. Notice how his top hand gets pulled back into his stomach almost? Your top hand goes sailing over your shoulder. It has no business being up there for the most part. There's times you might want to do that to help aim a weird angled shot or something but for the most part that's all bad. Keep your hands low and in control. Also, on the follow through make sure to roll your hands over so the toe of your stick is pointed sideways or almost down, not up at the sky. Rolling the blade over really corrals the puck during the release and lets you put it where you want it to be. If you get that down it'll increase your accuracy. That goes for both the wrist shot and slap shot.

Balance: Your balance is off for both the wrist shots and slap shots but definitely more of a problem on the wrister. When you release the puck you stand more upright and seem to lean backwards a little bit. You're wasting a TON of power by doing that. You want to drive forward into your shot, not away from it. The video I linked speaks about the proper balance and weight transfer for the wrist shot so be sure to check that out. Here's a good video on the slap shot motion and weight transfer: Link 2

Power: Lastly, to maximize your shot power you'll want to work on incorporating all the muscles at your disposal to generate all that power for the shot. It looks like you're mostly arms and shoulders on the wrist shot. The slap shot doesn't look bad but there's room for improvement. Work on using your arms, shoulders, stomach, hips and legs to all generate power and find out how to make them all work together for a big release of energy into the puck. Drive with your legs, explode with your core, power through with your shoulders and snap with your hands. Pretty much every "How to shoot" video on YouTube will discuss this so check those out.



For her, it's more of the same but slightly different.

Hands: Get your hands out in front of you during your wrist shot. When your hands are in that close to your body you're stealing mobility which hurts your wrist shot greatly. Hands out in front lets you flex the stick more as well as lets you pull that top hand back to your stomach while driving with your lower hand for a nice explosion of power. Also, after you release the wrist shot keep your hands more in control. Your bottom hand tends to swing through the shot, which is good, but continues upwards until it's level with the top of your head. Keep those hands low and snap hard at the target. You should be pointing at your target after you release the puck, not up at the sky. Also, roll those hands over. On the follow through the toe should be pointing sideways or slightly down, not up that the sky. That goes for both the wrist shot and slap shot.

Balance/Power: Your balance looks like a pretty good place to build from but you're definitely not using your weight transfer to your advantage. For your balance you seem to be steady all the way through which is good. You start and end well balanced. Aside from that bottom hand on the follow through your body doesn't do anything too wild. However, your weight transfer is a different story. It looks like you start strong, driving off your back foot but you never really transfer that weight over into your front foot. It just dies somewhere in between. Let that power drive through your back leg and land hard on your front foot letting all that power explode forward, don't let it die in between. Same thing with your upper body. You start leaning into the shot well but as you release your chest just stops dead in its tracks and you stand up just a tad. Lean into it, drive your upper body forward into the shot.


Hopefully this helps some. :help:
 

sanityplease

Registered User
Jun 21, 2011
1,096
0
Good job!

The main thing that I see: Wrist mobility, while handling the puck & shooting, 'roll' your wrists while stickhandling. I'd also 'close' my lower wrist grip (turn the cuff of the glove towards the target). That will also make it easier to get your body weight over the stick & lean into it a bit more.

How long is the stick with skates on? Hard to see, but it looks a bit too long for you. Your sister seems to be able to get 'over' the puck a bit better, is her stick shorter (relatively)?
 

snizzbone*

Guest
How long is the stick with skates on? Hard to see, but it looks a bit too long for you. Your sister seems to be able to get 'over' the puck a bit better, is her stick shorter (relatively)?

Mine is up to my chin on skates. Hers is about the same I believe. Definitely felt different shooting without skates for both of us.
 

jorbjorb

hello.
Dec 28, 2010
1,056
191
your sister has a better shot but remember to start with your top hand in front of your body. there are many youtube videos showing how to do this.
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
kr580 nailed it. I have nothing to add for you, but there is something else with your sister's shot. It seems she has trouble flexing her stick. It might be too stiff for her.

I can't comment on accuracy since you don't have a net or a target. You both have good shots, but your techniques aren't perfect yet.

Nice sticks BTW.
 

snizzbone*

Guest
kr580 nailed it. I have nothing to add for you, but there is something else with your sister's shot. It seems she has trouble flexing her stick. It might be too stiff for her.

I can't comment on accuracy since you don't have a net or a target. You both have good shots, but your techniques aren't perfect yet.

Nice sticks BTW.

I realized when we went out shooting again today that she actually can't really flex her stick much. Gonna find her a softer stick.

Anyways thanks for the comments guys. I'll probably upload another set of videos later tonight with us trying out your suggestions.
 

CarpeNoctem

Chilling w The Chief
Oct 29, 2013
7,203
1
In The Night
kr-580 had a great post up there but I have some additional thoughts that will hopefully add on.

1)He's right that getting your arms outside of your body is the best idea... but you usually won't get that much time or space in a real game. Practice both ways.

2)It is most important to practice shooting WHILE SKATING. This point cannot be understated. The ideal is to shoot accurately at full speed but this is very hard for every player. Try to find a way to be accurate while you're halfway between coasting and striding, with a medium amount of space.

3)Don't forget to practice the backhander. It will surprise goalies and you can learn to be accurate with it from 10-15 feet away, while skating of course.
 

snizzbone*

Guest
kr-580 had a great post up there but I have some additional thoughts that will hopefully add on.

1)He's right that getting your arms outside of your body is the best idea... but you usually won't get that much time or space in a real game. Practice both ways.

2)It is most important to practice shooting WHILE SKATING. This point cannot be understated. The ideal is to shoot accurately at full speed but this is very hard for every player. Try to find a way to be accurate while you're halfway between coasting and striding, with a medium amount of space.

3)Don't forget to practice the backhander. It will surprise goalies and you can learn to be accurate with it from 10-15 feet away, while skating of course.

Thanks.

#2. I Definitely practice this at stick times.

#3. I'm going to start practising this a lot more. My backhander is not good at all. Part of that is because I have a massive toe curve.
 

haveandare

Registered User
Jul 2, 2009
18,929
7,463
New York
The two biggest things I can see, and I'm no expert myself, are that you aren't transferring your weight from your back foot to the front foot enough, and that you aren't rolling your wrist enough after the release. Your sister seems to transfer her weight more, but she also needs to roll her wrists after the release.

Good call posting a video and getting some input, and great idea brining the shooting pads out to a tennis court! I gotta try that.
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
Just a question about your video. How long did it take you to upload it to Youtube ? I have 5 min video of myself shooting, and I'd like to share it with you, but if I upload it in HD like you, it will take forever.
 

snizzbone*

Guest
The two biggest things I can see, and I'm no expert myself, are that you aren't transferring your weight from your back foot to the front foot enough, and that you aren't rolling your wrist enough after the release. Your sister seems to transfer her weight more, but she also needs to roll her wrists after the release.

Good call posting a video and getting some input, and great idea brining the shooting pads out to a tennis court! I gotta try that.

Loads of fun. Would just do it at home but we don't have much space for a net and would rather not disturb the neighbours all day :P.
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
Here's my shooting video. Filmed it today. No editing, save for each time that I had to get my 2 pucks. All shots off target were kept. Please give me feedback on my shot and on the quality of video.

 

snizzbone*

Guest
Just a question about your video. How long did it take you to upload it to Youtube ? I have 5 min video of myself shooting, and I'd like to share it with you, but if I upload it in HD like you, it will take forever.

Took me 10 minutes or so. I have a 3mb upload speed or something like that. Definitely takes a lot longer to upload than it does to download (25mb download speed).
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
Took me 10 minutes or so. I have a 3mb upload speed or something like that. Definitely takes a lot longer to upload than it does to download (25mb download speed).

Here in Canada, we pay outrageous prices for a much service than what you have. I have a 250kb upload speed and a 5mb download speed. I could only upload it in 480p, and it still took an hour. When I first tried to upload it, it was in 1080p, and the estimated time was 10 hours.
 

snizzbone*

Guest
Here in Canada, we pay outrageous prices for a much service than what you have. I have a 250kb upload speed and a 5mb download speed. I could only upload it in 480p, and it still took an hour. When I first tried to upload it, it was in 1080p, and the estimated time was 10 hours.

I'm in Vancouver, paying $60 a month for the connection I have. I'm sure there are better options for you if you're in Montreal.
 

snizzbone*

Guest
Day 2 on the left, day 1 on the right.. tried to incorporate what you guys said but it was extremely weird trying to shoot like was described.

 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
Day 2 on the left, day 1 on the right.. tried to incorporate what you guys said but it was extremely weird trying to shoot like was described.



You flex your stick more than before, as shown in the first frame, and you roll your wrists on your follow through, making your shot harder and more accurate. Good job.
 

kr580

Who knows.
Aug 9, 2009
1,386
18
California
Day 2 on the left, day 1 on the right.. tried to incorporate what you guys said but it was extremely weird trying to shoot like was described.
It will take a lot of practice, don't get discouraged. You still lean upwards instead of forwards. Really work on leaning forward onto your left foot so all your weight ends up there. Bend that left knee as you transfer your weight forward. You should end leaning over that front foot with a very deep knee bend. Also, work on pulling that top hand hand into your stomach area during the shot, not to the middle of your ribs.

Keep at it. It will feel more natural before too long.


What do you guys think of my vid ??

If you want feedback you're going to have to show more than the stick blade. Nobody can tell a thing from the video you posted, unfortunately. Show your whole body, head to toe and enough room to get your follow through in there. snizzbone's first video is what it should look like as far as getting everything in frame.
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
It will take a lot of practice, don't get discouraged. You still lean upwards instead of forwards. Really work on leaning forward onto your left foot so all your weight ends up there. Bend that left knee as you transfer your weight forward. You should end leaning over that front foot with a very deep knee bend. Also, work on pulling that top hand hand into your stomach area during the shot, not to the middle of your ribs.

Keep at it. It will feel more natural before too long.




If you want feedback you're going to have to show more than the stick blade. Nobody can tell a thing from the video you posted, unfortunately. Show your whole body, head to toe and enough room to get your follow through in there. snizzbone's first video is what it should look like as far as getting everything in frame.

Fair enough, I'll shoot a second video.
 

kr580

Who knows.
Aug 9, 2009
1,386
18
California
Fair enough, I'll shoot a second video.

D'oh, just noticed it shows your body in the last couple minutes. My bad.

First thing that's immediate is your motion is all over the place. When you shoot you're planting at a 45 degree angle to the left of the net, not at the net. Your energy is going to the left while your shot is going straight. You're stealing power by doing that. Also, your chest is upright on the shots. Lean forward into it a bit.

Your follow through is way off in no man's land. If you tighten up your follow through and point it where you're shooting you'll have much better accuracy. Look at this video of the NHL Accuracy Challenge. Watch Spezza at 2:00. His follow through is tight and too the net, not wild and pointing to the side.

On the slap shot, it doesn't look bad. It does look like you kinda pop upright during the follow through. Drive forward towards the net. Collapse on that front foot with a deep knee bend.
 

Alexander the Gr8

Registered User
May 2, 2013
31,814
13,130
Toronto
D'oh, just noticed it shows your body in the last couple minutes. My bad.

First thing that's immediate is your motion is all over the place. When you shoot you're planting at a 45 degree angle to the left of the net, not at the net. Your energy is going to the left while your shot is going straight. You're stealing power by doing that. Also, your chest is upright on the shots. Lean forward into it a bit.

Your follow through is way off in no man's land. If you tighten up your follow through and point it where you're shooting you'll have much better accuracy. Look at this video of the NHL Accuracy Challenge. Watch Spezza at 2:00. His follow through is tight and too the net, not wild and pointing to the side.

On the slap shot, it doesn't look bad. It does look like you kinda pop upright during the follow through. Drive forward towards the net. Collapse on that front foot with a deep knee bend.

Thanks a lot :). I didn't expect such a long answer. I'll try what you said in a second video, and I'll post it here. I have to move somewhere else though, I nearly hit a window of the house in the background today while taking shots.

The thing with my shot is that it's powerful (75 mph top speed) but my accuracy is mediocre at best. The technique you describe for the wrist and snap shots, using Spezza as an example, is not only great for added power and accuracy, but also for a quick release.

My game revolves around my shot. It isn't bad at all, but I want it to become excellent.

Again, thanks a lot. I'll keep you updated.
 

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