27Jun 2011 by Jeremy Weiss No Comments

Stickhandling: FlyPuck Review

Coaches' Corner, Hockey Equipment, Individual Skills, Off-ice Training, Puckhandling, Skills, Useful Products
The FlyPuck is a Great Tool for Achieving an "On-ice" Feel, While Off the Ice! Over the past few years, a number of off-ice hockey pucks have made their way onto the scene. Initially, most of these pucks were designed to be used for roller hockey, with the intent of using them on a SportCourt surface. Some of these pucks worked ok, some of them not as well... but at the end of the day none of them REALLY did what we needed them to do. Requirements For an off-ice puck to be an effective tool for stickhandling development, it has to have the same weight and feel as a real puck does on the ice, and it also has to behave like a real puck does on the ice.…
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22Jun 2011 by Jeremy Weiss No Comments

Stickhandling: Dryland Flooring Tiles

Coaches' Corner, Hockey Equipment, Individual Skills, Off-ice Training, Passing, Puckhandling, Shooting, Skills, Useful Products
Dryland Flooring Tiles are one of the Most Versatile Hockey Products on the Market Today In this post, I wanted to introduce an extremely effective and versatile product, HockeyShot's Dryland Flooring Tiles. The reason I say this is such a versatile product is that you can literally design your "floor plan" to fit your training objectives. This might mean using six or eight tiles as a shooting pad, or it might mean going wall to wall with them in your basement for a fully functional stickhandling, passing, and shooting facility. Not only are the flooring tiles versatile in how they can be used, but you also get a lot of flexibility when it comes to timeline. You don't have to outfit your whole room all at once... These tiles are…
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14Jun 2011 by Jeremy Weiss No Comments

Stickhandling: Roll-up Skill Pad

Coaches' Corner, Hockey Equipment, Individual Skills, Off-ice Training, Puckhandling, Skills, Useful Products
Save Your Stick with this Roll-up Skill Pad that Mimics the Feel of Real Ice! As is the case with off-ice shooting practice, when working on your stickhandling you need a good slick surface to work on. This is the case for two reasons: To save your stick: Sticks are expensive these days, and you want to be using your game stick for your off-ice stickhandling and shooting drills. To mimic the ice surface: It's no secret that pucks don't slide well on concrete. You want to work on a surface that will act and feel as close to real ice as possible. HockeyShot's Roll-up Shooting & Skill Pad will accomplish both of these objectives. It'll protect your stick, and give you a smooth, slick surface on which your pucks…
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10May 2010 by Jeremy Weiss No Comments
Finnish Half-Ice Drill

Finnish Half-Ice Drill

Half Ice Drills, Hockey Drills, Misc. Drills, Passing
Finnish Half-Ice Drill Over the past few weeks I've posted a few of my favorite half-ice hockey drills. I've had some really good response, and a few of our readers even sent me some of their favorite half-ice drills as well... THANKS!! This drill is from Petri Väisänen (from Finland), and is a fantastic half-ice drill. One of the reasons I like this one so much is that it's very customizable––you can create multiple variations to fit lots of different game situations. I show a few of these variations in the video, but feel free to get creative on this one! Here's the diagram and explanation: Finnish Half-Ice Drill Sequence 1: 1. on whistle, (D) skates up to blue line and pivots backward 2. after the pivot, (C) dumps a…
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24Mar 2010 by Jeremy Weiss 2 Comments

How to effectively teach a new hockey skill

Coaches' Corner, Individual Skills, Philosophy, Skating
Coaching hockey can be a complicated endeavor. The required skill-set to be a good coach is much different than the skill-set to be a good player. Because of this difference, many people find it difficult to make the transition from player to coach. I often hear new coaches say "I know what my players should be doing, but I don't know how to get them to do it..." or "I don't know how to explain proper skating technique, I just know how to show it..." In these situations, I usually recommend that the coach try to break each skill down into three key points that he or she can verbalize. For example, if I were explaining proper forward skating technique, I would say that each player needs to (1) maintain…
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