In order to shoot an effective snapshot, you need to:

– Get your hands away from your body

– Slide your bottom hand down the stick

– Close the blade

– Push hard through the bottom hand (like you are trying to break your stick)

 

You can see what I mean in these pictures:

While the bottom hand doesn’t slide as far down as it would with a slapshot,

it is further down the shaft than when you stickhandle. You can’t really see

the blade positioning in the above picture but the blade is closed just slightly

to allow more flex when pushing through the bottom hand.

 

 

Here you can see the hands are very far in front and the stick flexes as a result
of pushing hard through the bottom hand.

 

But there’s another key reason that there is such an effective flex
in this stick – STRONG TOP HAND POSITIONING.

 

You MUST keep the glove of your top hand VERTICAL!

 

Often when I instruct players to rotate their stick forward slightly
to close the blade, they roll their top wrist forward. The result
is an extremely weak top hand position.

 

If I can see the inside of your top glove when you shoot a snapshot,
you’re doing it wrong.

 

You close the blade by rotating the shaft of the stick forward slightly with the BOTTOM HAND, not the top one.  This keeps the top hand in a strong vertical position which allows for a lot more flex and force through the stick. This makes your shot a lot harder.

 

Look at it again – see how the top glove of the shooter stays strong and vertical.

In addition to working on snapshots in every single camp we run (all details found on our CAMPS page), I also cover snapshot, slap-shot, wrist-shot and backhand details in our Total Female Hockey Shooting & Stickhandling Elite Video series. There are 16 videos that take you through how to take your shooting and stickhandling to the next level without having to step on the ice.  You can check out the details here:  Elite Shooting & Stickhandling Video Series.

 

If you think any of your friends or teammates would benefit from reading about to take their shot to the next level, please feel free to pass this message along.

 

Keep Working Hard, Dreaming BIG and focusing on the little details that make a HUGE difference.

 

Your friend and coach,

 

Kim

 

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS

Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey