I have also found that I have the same problem. Should I practice shots standing still first or moving? Usually I just skate around and shoot but I find that I have horrible aim and no power.
The power in the shot comes from several things.
- Puck Placement
- Hand on Stick placement
- Fulcrum point leverage
- Follow through with proper arm positioning
- Wrist rolling for arming
So lets look at the first one. While doing a wrist shot, the puck should be behind the skates if your skates are facing the goalie. The stick should cup the puck. By cupping the puck, it forces the top hand on the stick to push the stick down toward the ice surface allowing the top hand arm to go to full extension.
Second, If you move the bottom hand about 2.5 feet away from the top hand, this is going to allow you to use maximum force and leverage on the shot.
Third, By moving the bottom hand down the shaft, it sets up a stable "Fulcrum" point, kind of like a Teeter-tottor half way down the stick.
The closer that fulcrum moves towards the top hand, the less power you will have in the shot due to minimal force.
Fourth, As you follow through with the shot, you will see that the stop hand should move away from the body. As the top arm becomes fully extended, it is equally inportant to have the bottom hand add pressure to the shaft of the stick.
This added pressure will help bend the stick in the middle. This is why it is inportant to have a stick with a lot of flex. By having a lot of flex in the shaft, it allows you to make the stick work for you and you not working for the stick.
While both arms as coming to full extension, press down on the shaft to add force and to set the fulcrum. At the same time, pull the top hand back to your body as qucik as you can. The amount of pressure that you place at the fulcrum and the speed of pulling that top hand back will excel the puck like an arrow out of a compound bow.
Now to control the accuracy of the shot, you simple have to roll your wrist in the follow through and point the tip in the blade to the spot you want to hit. 9 times out 0f 10, you will hit the spot.
If you want to shoot the puck low on the ice, follow through low. If you want to shout the puck high, follow through high. If you want to get the puck to fly, simply allow the puck to stay on the blade a little bit longer on the follow through.
Example: If you place the puck off to the side of you and the blade is on the ice touching the puck, try shoveling the puck like you are cleaning the dog crap in the back yard with a shovel and you are trying to get it over the fence.
Well, during the follow through of the wrist shot, the puck need to be just a little forward of the release, in order for the puck to take flight.
I have a net setup in my basement, I have a couple pucks and one weighted puck. I plan on getting some more. Should I shoot off the concrete or use plexiglass or something?
Do you have roller blade? If so, use them. If not, make sure that you stand on a platform that will take you off the floor by about two inches. This is the difference that you must have, if you are actually going to shot the puck with not skates on.
Then make sure that the puck is on the floor, not the platform. If you want to get a plexiglass to shoot off of....be my guest. The inportant this is the platform. However, there are a lot of players that would say....Oh, that a bunch of horse sh**, just shoot! Which is fine, but try to have the actual shooting conditions as much as possible.
Also how far should I be from the net when in the basement? I usually shoot from like 10feet away.
That fine to began with. Once you get accurate....move back each time by 5 feet.
Hope this helps
Head coach
