My son is six (almost seven) and is either the best or second best on his team in hockey in terms of skating and puck handling. However, it seems that there are one or two kids on each team who can raise the puck and therefore score a lot of goals. He has a nice shot along the ice, but there's no way he can get it airborne. He really wants to, but it just isn't clicking with him.
I tell him that there is certainly no rush, and that his skating skills are more important at this time. I also go over the mantra of "work hard and just have fun". He's very competitive, though, and tends to compare himself to other kids. I've tried my best to teach him (for me, it was just an epiphany moment when I was a kid... nobody ever taught me how to raise the puck, it just happened). Any suggestions?
Two things, the second will make a huge difference:
First, get a 20 flex stick. Get it the right length off the rack, or a bit long. Do not get a stick that has to be cut down, you will then have a 30 or 40 flex, which is too high.
Second, understand and apply the design of the shaft, which is intended to flex when the butt end is well in front of the blade - when looking at in profile, the stick should be angled 30 to 45 degrees (butt end way in front, obviously up in the air, while blade is "roofed" on the ice with the bottom of blade flush to the ice surface.
Simply tell your child to make a 45 degree "roof" over the puck. Doing it will naturally force the stick angle.
This achieves two critical things:
One, they will develop proper technique for getting the most out of the flex of the stick later on when they are bigger and heavier, and
Two, (this is helpful for the little guys especially) the roof will push down the back of the puck/lifting the front of the puck such that when they release, the puck is already "pointed" on an upward trajectory. The follow through naturally "unroofs" the puck allowing for a higher shot, and the wrist roll mentioned in an earlier post can be used to get the puck even higher.
To prevent fluttering, shoot from heel releasing towards toe, puck should be spinning.
Get a red (10 oz) puck and a blue(4 oz) puck to go along with the 6 oz black puck. At the beginning of each session take 3 shots with the red puck (no more), then 3 with the blue, then go to the black puck.
The heavy puck forces the shooter to put their weight into it (but tires the wrist muscles quickly so only 3 shots)
The lighter puck allows a small kid to feel what a shot should feel like in terms of speed of release. The black puck puts it all together.