Stickhandling is a crucial skill to master when playing a game of hockey. After you have mastered the art of skating, handling your hockey stick with ease and precision is the next big step in learning the ropes of hockey. Here are five easy ways how you can learn the basics of hockey stickhandling with ease and practice.
malte_berg/Pixabay. Your stickhandling skills can greatly improve using some simple hockey practices.
Making figure-8s According to most experts and hockey instructors, the basic drill for excellent stickhandling is moving the puck in figure eights around the obstacles. This will train your hand and arms to stickhandle effortlessly.
Squirrel_Photos/Pixabay. Learning how to dribble is a great way to upskill your stickhandling
Dribbling The practice of dribbling requires one to use short strokes of the hockey stick. Simply cup the stick blade over a puck and use your stick to gently tap on the puck or the ball.
Reach Side-to-Side In order to reach wide, place the hockey ball in front of your body. Next, cup the stick blade on both your backhand and forehand and reach wide, from side to side. Simply bring the ball to the forehand side next, reaching wide yet again, now in the front-to-back position.
malte_berg/Pixabay. The Triangle drill is a popular trick among hockey coaches.
Triangle Drill The triangle drill, as the name suggests, involves constructing a triangle for you to practice your stickhandling skills. Using three obstacles, make a triangle. Now take the puck and move it through the three obstacles forming the triangle without creating any movement in your feet. This is a somewhat difficult task, but with practice, it would help you immensely in sharpening your stickhandling skills.
Moving Blue to Red This is a practice drill utilized by the head coach of the Providence College men’s hockey team, Nate Leaman. According to this drill, the entire hockey team is divided into three groups, and each group is asked to move from the blue line to the red line. The task is repeated until the two groups left cannot skate any further. This creates a barrier for the skaters and is an excellent way to practice stickhandling for competitive hockey games
These are the topmost utilized drills to improve your hockey, particularly the stickhandling aspect of the game.