Youth Skills: Shooting Across Your Body

Looking at shot techniques in regard to scoring at the highest level, a player’s decision making process is crucial. How will I beat the goalie? What path do I take with the puck? What do I look for when trying to score?

Before reading this, I want to state that this skill can be utilized and capitalized on at pretty much every level from youth, JR, college to professional. We are talking about acquiring translatable skills, this would be one of the many skills that I would consider to be valuable.

First we have to do something strange and awkward, we have to think like a goalie - goalies are comfortable and confident playing at the top of their crease. Especially when their skates are “set” meaning their skates are “not moving”. Plus, they can only control so much out in their little confined space, so they like to play at the top of their crease because it makes them BIG and they feel safe.

As for the shooter, his job is to make the goalie move! How? That means using his skating stride and edge work in order to make the goalie shuffle and shift his weight back and forth. This can be accomplished by adjusting your body position around the puck in order to create a deceptive shooting release.

Here is a situation of this type of release off an offensive entry pattern.

Take a look at the goalie, how he is forced to move laterally, shuffle then drop. Notice he is deeper in the crease from when he started.

Looking at the shooter, his route with the puck and the technique used to release the puck. Notice the lower body, what direction his skates are in? Notice the upper- body rotation.

Here are more examples:

In this clip, the attack forward does a great job recognizing a soft gap from the defenseman and capitalizes on this by attacking middle ice by changing his speed.

In this clip, the forward has the puck on the outside of his body on his forehand on the entry, giving him an added little extra time and space to build up a softer gap from the defenseman creating a sort of shooting pocket when attacking middle ice.

TAKAWAYS:

1. Goalies like to play set at the top of their crease

2. Shooters need to find ways to make goalies move across their crease or go deeper in their crease

3. A player’s shooting release technique is crucial to scoring

4. In this release, the player’s route with the puck starts off a chain reaction of movement from the goalie, forcing him to shuffle

5. The player has created deception with his shot release by having lower and upper body separation

Want to understand where high-level player development is heading?

Read our core article: The Future of Hockey Development: Remote Coaching: https://www.goldenstickhockey.com/post/the-future-of-hockey-development-remote-coaching

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