QuickStickz is a Fun and Effective way to Develop Stickhandling Ability

I’ve been really excited to get this post out, and let you know about a cool product called QuickStickz. QuickStickz is an innovative new way to work on your stickhandling abilities off the ice, and it’s a lot of fun too!

A few months ago I was invited to take a look at QuickStickz, which is a video-game-based, hockey stickhandling development system. I had seen the product before, but I’d never had the chance to get my hands on one. The idea seemed really cool, so I was excited to see what it was all about.

How it Works:
QuickStickz uses a special infrared camera that connects up to your PC via USB jack. The camera combos up with a customized SmartHockey stickhandling ball, that has been machined out with a whole bunch of tiny reflectors all over its surface. As you stickhandle, the camera picks up the movements of the ball, and sends the signal into the computer, which allows you to see your stickhandling movements on the screen.

Set-up is pretty simple, just plug in the camera, go to the QuickStickz member’s area, and install the plug-in when prompted.

Drills and Games:
Once you’re up and running, just select a drill or a game from the member’s area, and have at it! The drills are designed to help you work on various skills such as tight puck movement, wide puck movement, dekes, toe drags, etc. The games apply these skills in a more dynamic environment.

Member’s Area:
The member’s area is a great way to track your progress. You can check your own stats and progress, or see how your top score compares to other top scores from around the world. The member’s area also tracks how much time you’re spending on QuickStickz. This makes it easy for parents or coaches to check in on the player’s efforts and progress.

Conclusion:
QuickStickz is a great tool to help any player develop his or her stickhandling abilities. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a product that I think connects with kids on their level. The one weakness of QuickSticks is that it’s fairly sensitive to the ambient lighting in the room you’re using it in. Sunlight badly interferes with the infrared signal put out by the camera, and makes the ball just jump around on the screen. So make sure you close the blinds, and rely on your “artificial lighting” (regular lightbulbs), and you should be just fine!

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P.I.G. is One of my Favorite Off-ice Shooting Drills

When I was in high school, we had a hockey net and backstop out in my parents’ side yard. We also had a Shooter Tutor strapped up to the net, with about 100 pucks. Almost everyday my buddy and I would shoot pucks together. To keep it entertaining, most of the time we’d play a game called P.I.G.

P.I.G. is really fun, and can be played on or off the ice. Here’s how it works…

The Rules:
P.I.G. works a lot like H.O.R.S.E. in basketball, except that it’s a shorter game, so it’s a little more intense. Basically, a player calls his or her shot. The shots can be any typical shot, or you can get creative and start calling posts or crossbar, forehand, backhand, or even specifying shot type. If that player makes the shot, then the other player has to match it. If the other player misses, he or she gets a letter.

The player who called the first shot keeps calling shots until he or she misses the called shot (you don’t get a letter if you miss your own called shot). At that point it’s the other player’s turn to call a shot, and the process repeats itself.

You get two chances on the last letter.

In this video, my good friend Brett Fuller and I play a high-stakes game of P.I.G., to make it a little more interesting, the loser has to ride the bull (Happy Gilmore style) on camera. With so much on the line, neither of us wanted to lose!

I love putting a little additional pressure into practice drills––even off the ice! It gets you used to performing in clutch situations. Putting something embarrassing on the loser is definitely a fun way of doing this!

You’ll notice, 5-hole was giving us both a hard time in this video, and proved to be the game winner! Enjoy!

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