I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer working on shooting in stride with my players. Being able to get a good shot off while carrying the puck is absolutely critical if you want to score more goals next season. Sure, shooting one timers off the pass and finishing rebounds in tight with quick little snapshots are important too, but being able to shoot effectively in stride while carrying the puck is one of those skills that makes you stand out in girls hockey. So whether you’re trying to impress club team, college, provincial or national team scouts or you just want to help your team win a few more games next season, this is a skill you must improve.

Here are 3 things you need to do well to shoot effectively in stride:

1. Keep The Puck In Primary Position
Far too many players carry the puck out in front of them when in the scoring area. When they’re handling the puck out in front of their body, instead of in the primary position, they are no longer a shooting threat. The goalie knows you can’t shoot from that position so you aren’t making them nervous. When you carry the puck out on your forehand side (ideally slightly in front of your inside leg), you are a constant shooting threat which forces the goalie to respect you as a potential shooter. Whether you’re simply carrying the puck on your forehand (I call this under-handling the puck) or stick-handling the puck while in primary position, you are a threat to shoot and score. Practice carrying the puck in this position more often – both while under- handling and stick-handling. You definitely want the puck to be in primary position by the time you cross the top of the circles if you want to score more goals.

2. Keep Your Feet Pointing At The Net
This one drives me crazy when watching girls hockey. Players will be carrying the puck in with speed and maybe even with the puck in primary position, and then right when they go to shoot the puck, they turn their hips and feet to face the side wall. I affectionately call this shot the “butt wiggle” wrist shot. All that momentum and speed gets wasted when the player swivels their feet and hips to the side wall, resulting in a weaker slower shot. Don’t get me wrong – you can use this change of speed and angle pretty effectively to mess with the goalie’s reaction time, but that’s not what I’m observing most of the time. The girls aren’t using it as a tactic, they are doing it because it’s the only way that they know how to shoot. Shooting while keeping your feet pointing at the net (and moving) is a skill that must be practiced. You can shoot both a wrist shot or snap shot from this position and still keep your feet moving towards the net for rebounds. So when you’re out working on your shot this summer, do tons of reps with your feet pointing at your target.

3. Hide Your Release
This one is the most challenging of the three and also the most effective. If the goalie can’t tell when you’re going to shoot it, it makes it much harder for her to stop it. By keeping the puck in the primary position and your feet pointing at the net, you’ve set yourself up to be able to hide the release. Now you’ve got to get yourself comfortable with being able to shoot effectively off both your inside and outside foot. To clarify this concept – if you’re a right handed shot, your inside foot is your right foot (the one closest to your stick) and your outside foot is your left foot (the one furthest from your stick). You can practice shooting off either foot out in the backyard this summer – get used to doing it while stationary and it will be a lot easier to do when you try it on the ice.

In addition to being able to shoot off either foot, you also need to be able to let the shot go without too much of a wind-up. You can do this with a little snapshot by bringing your stick back away from the puck for milli-second before letting the shot go. You can also do this with a wrist shot by letting your body get ahead of the puck a bit. So if you’re carrying the puck in primary position (not stick handling it), you need to let the stick drift back a bit while getting your feet ahead of the puck to let that wrist shot go. It’s not a big sweeping wind-up – just a small adjustment that allows you to shoot without breaking stride.

If you want to check out a basic ‘shooting in stride’ drill with a little bit of pressure to make it more game like, you can watch a few of my players in action here – https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsXjeGnTAc/

Take some time this summer to work on shooting in stride and you’ll get a goal scoring payoff in season.

Work Hard. Dream BIG.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey
www.totalfemalehockey.com