Feature Story

Puck protection is guaranteed poise

 

By Jack Blatherwick

Let’s Play Hockey Columnist

 

One weakness that gets reinforced daily in youth hockey is a lack of poise — or confidence to control the puck until there is a good play in mind. The star players with great skills and confidence get better, and the ones with less skill get worse.

We’ve arrived at a ridiculous time in which every youth game is a “big” game, so the outcome matters more than development. Of course, we might not admit this, because the better players do get better. But weaker players are not encouraged to learn things by trial and error during games. If they make an error trying to mimic a Sidney Crosby move — that’s it. Chip the puck out into the neutral zone; dump it in rather than trying to beat a defenseman. Keep it simple, meaning, “stop this trial and error stuff, because your errors hurt the team.”

And if you’re a below-average kid with hands like Blatherwick, errors would be common; except today you’re “encouraged” not to try. The 10-year-old a half century ago could try and err as long as daylight would allow. Errors on an outside pond had no dire consequences, except that you’d have to walk out into the snow to retrieve the puck. I made that walk a few times. There were no scoreboards, no statewide rankings, no tournament trophies, and you knew teammates would have patience with your weaknesses, as long as you volunteered to search the snow for the puck by yourself.

The problem is this: it takes years for a player with poor skills to improve to the point where his abilities would ensure more success than error. And trying out these poor skills in a game would only bring more pressure to stop trying. So weaker players just bang the puck north, and therefore, get worse rather than better.

One solution is simpler than we might think at first. Perhaps the most important skill-habit to practice daily on the ice and off, is puck protection. You don’t have to be good to turn your back and hold the puck until you have a play in mind. Once you try this in a game and coaches pat you on the back for good poise with the puck, confidence grows and improvement follows.

There are all kinds of drills to improve this skill. In warmup off-ice, using a stickhandling ball, players can practice the subtleties, like using an arm or leg to deflect the opponents stick when he reaches around for the puck — trying to protect the puck for a number of seconds without even touching it.

NHL players use this technique all the time.  Watch for it.  At lower levels, a “cool move” means the forward splits the D or dangles the puck through their feet.  You rarely see this in the NHL, because the best moves are ones that keep the body between the defender and the puck, so there are fewer turnovers while trying to beat the D.

Because this is so easy to practice, and because it doesn’t require superstar skills, it is a great way to teach young players to control the puck until they have a play in mind.  That is the definition of poise, and even players with weaker skills, can increase poise and confidence.

 

Visit Jack’s website at www.overspeed.info.

 

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