Advice: Snap Shot Mechanics

[Bedards Dad]

I tore my MCL in January and since coming back I have lost a lot of velocity in my snapshot. Not sure the cause, maybe puck placement or hand location?

Does anyone see anything that can get a bit of power back into the shot?

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[Alexander the Gr8]

I tore my MCL in January and since coming back I have lost a lot of velocity in my snapshot. Not sure the cause, maybe puck placement or hand location?

Does anyone see anything that can get a bit of power back into the shot?

I think you could get your hands further out and lean a bit more on your stick. Drop down your left hand, push your right hand out and really lean on it (if it doesn't hurt to do so).

 

[puckpilot]

Don't claim to be an expert, so take this for what it's worth.

There are a are a couple of things I'm seeing. First, it doesn't look like you're driving your body forward through the puck and towards your target enough. It kind of looks like you're almost scooping it a bit. Might be because you're not bending your leading knee enough, which is understandable after coming back off a knee injury.

Second thing I see is it doesn't look like you're getting your trunk involved in the shot enough. The reason I say this is because your top hand and shoulder don't seem to be pulling back/rotating around with much authority. When you rotate your trunk, it gets those trunk muscles involved and pulls your top shoulder and hand along with it, and brings the puck under you more so you get more flex on the stick and more snap.

Take a look at this video from Base hockey. Take note of knee bend and how much their top hand and shoulder snap back when their trunk turns and compare it to what you're doing right now.

 

[tarheelhockey]

One simple thing is that it looks like you're shooting the puck from completely in front of your body.

Freeze your vid at 0:04 and you can see that the actual shot begins with the puck slightly in front of your toe. Your stick blade is right on top of the puck, so the shooting motion engages with everything slightly in front of you.

Freeze puckpilot's vid at 0:26 and you can see the shot begins with the puck about a third of the way down the skate, and the stick blade is actually near the heel of the skate when the shooting motion begins.

Independent of the injury issue, moving the shot back toward your heels a little will give you more power and more action in your shooting motion.

 

[Pez68]

Your mechanics are poor. I'm not sure why you're hopping into the shot? Both of your feet are off the ice at one point. The puck is also way too far ahead of you. You are not using any of your core or body weight when shooting. It is all arms. Lean forward on your stick more, bend the front knee, and let the stick do the work. I'm not sure what your skill level is, but off-foot snapshots are not really recommended for players below an advanced level. Off-foot snapshots are also not going to ever be your hardest shot. They are utilized mostly because the release is much quicker than a typical wrist/snapshot, because you don't have the big weight transfer of a standard wrist shot or snap shot.

If you are looking for maximum power, you are shooting off the wrong foot.

 

[HIFE]

Your mechanics are poor. I'm not sure why you're hopping into the shot? Both of your feet are off the ice at one point. The puck is also way too far ahead of you. You are not using any of your core or body weight when shooting. It is all arms. Lean forward on your stick more, bend the front knee, and let the stick do the work. I'm not sure what your skill level is, but off-foot snapshots are not really recommended for players below an advanced level. Off-foot snapshots are also not going to ever be your hardest shot. They are utilized mostly because the release is much quicker than a typical wrist/snapshot, because you don't have the big weight transfer of a standard wrist shot or snap shot.

If you are looking for maximum power, you are shooting off the wrong foot.

I wouldn't say his mechanics are poor, just need tweaking. Watching a few BASE videos they try to highlight the positive aspects in the analysis and there a some good things happening. Also it appears obvious the OP has a lot of experience based on the fact he can even perform a decent looking OFSS. I'm not sure I agree about it not being your hardest shot. Sure Ovechkin in the right position would rather a 1/2 slapper but for good reason off-foot has become the favored shot in hockey. In motion it can really sizzle.

OP- I 100% agree the jump at the beginning of the weight transfer is off. In the pro example there is a very slight leap... here it's huge jump and the motion is exaggerated wildly, throwing you off balance and wasting energy. Just need to tone the leap down and focus on bending the front leg deeper.

I agree with pp that you're not driving through enough. Notice the front foot is curving away from net. If the front foot can aim forward more it facilitate complete rotation and ending the shot leaning over the front foot. The video's say at completion your ear should be ahead of the front skate.

A big thing I notice is you're not looking directly at the net. You're peeking at the puck and partly the net until :06 when the head finally comes "up". Head has to be locked in at the target the entire way. This summer on the practice-pad I've focused on just this, resisting my terrible habit of looking at the puck before/during shooting. It's a tough habit to break but after time I'm improving a little.

It should be noted your shot is different than the usual shot training videos because of the approach to the puck from a distance. Here it's almost an off-foot slap shot if you see what I'm trying to say. I'd be curious to see the difference moving forward with the puck in a traditional manner instead.


2:25 is a great breakdown of shooting technique. It's fascinating the fundamentals of the wrister apply to all the rest of the shots.