October 20, 2006, Newsletter Issue #91: How to practice shooting

Tip of the Week

Shooting involves transferring the weight from backward to forward. There are four basic principles for projecting any object from a baseball, to golf to a puck.
1. Wind up - draw the stick back, for a wrist shot behind the foot and players like Brett Hull have the stick blade pointing at the ceiling on a slap shot.
2. Transfer the weight from back to forward. With both shots the bottom hand exerts a lot of weight down on the blade and the shaft of the stick bends.

3. Crucial instant - the release or puck contact. On a wrist shot roll the wrists over and on a slap shot hit 2 to 6 inches behind the puck and roll the wrists over.

4. Follow through with the forehand blade of the stick pointing to the ice and the tip of the stick at the target.

The key to an effective shot is to be able to take it while skating and stickhandling and not have to coast and set it up first. Hull has his stick back, already in the wind up before the puck comes to him and his shoulders square to the puck.

I have skated with a few good NHL scorers and fed them passes while they practiced their shots and noticed that they shoot from the middle of the blade to the toe. This helps them get the shot off quickly and under the cross bar.

Another trait of good scorers is to make a head, shoulder,or stick fake, or to draw the puck in toward the body with the toe of the stick and then release it. All of these moves are to get the goalie to commit himself.

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