Your ability to stickhandle effectively is a key skill that can
really make you stand out in girls’ hockey. And it’s important to
note that stickhandling isn’t all about having the fanciest moves
on the ice.  It’s about being able to beat people 1-on-1 while
maintaining control of the puck.  It’s about maximizing the
distance between the player defending you and the puck so that you
can beat them with speed and strength.

I tell the players I coach that puck protection is the most important
stickhandling skill.  The ability to put your body between the defender
and the puck is how to control the puck most effectively.  This doesn’t
require fancy “dangles” – it requires the ability to control your body in
space and to know how to protect the puck from the defender using
your body and stick. This is especially critical in the female game
since there is no full body checking.  In the men’s game, if a
player is handling the puck, they can be hit.  This is not the case
in the female game.  Therefore players can feel a little bit
“safer” carrying the puck – not having to worry about being run
over with a bone-crushing check.

There is certainly nothing wrong with having great hands and being
able to stickhandle with fancy moves.  But the reality is that
those moves have their time and place in the game – and that’s not
every time you touch the puck.  Players with great hands tend to
want to showcase that ability every single time they touch the puck
and quite often that strength actually becomes a shortcoming of
their game.  Players must learn when it is appropriate to try a
fancy move or whether it’s better to just lean into the defender
with your shoulder and try to beat them with speed and strength.
The vast majority of times in girls’ hockey, the second option is
your better one.  Think of it in the same way that a basketball
player will protect the ball from a defender.  In basketball, you
don’t just dribble the ball in front of you and leave it vulnerable
to the hands of the defender.  You put your body in between the
defender and the ball so as to protect it.  This is a concept and
skill that hockey players must embrace so that they can protect the
puck effectively and maintain puck possession.

Three critical aspects of stickhandling for young players to learn are:
HEAD UP, SOFT HANDS, FEET MOVING.

You can have the fanciest moves in the world, but if you can only execute
them with your head down, you aren’t going to be very effective on the ice.
This goes back to the idea of making the best decision possible with the
puck.  In hockey, you constantly need to be aware of what’s going
on around you.  When you keep your head down, you are only aware of
the puck.  With your head up, you can decide whether making your
fancy move is most appropriate, or whether you should simply
protect the puck, make a pass or shoot the puck.   It is absolutely
critical that players become comfortable with handling the puck
with their head up from a very early age.

The concept of having soft hands is another one that players must
embrace from a very early age.  Far too many young female hockey
players stickhandle like they are chopping wood.  When it comes to
having soft hands, it is absolutely essential that players get
their hands out in front of them and away from their body.  For
some strange reason I haven’t quite figured out just yet, girls’
hockey players tend to stickhandle with their top hand glued to or
next to their hip.  This makes it very difficult to have soft hands
as your top wrist has no room to roll back and forth.  It also
makes it nearly impossible to handle to puck on either side of your
body – it limits your range of motion around your body.  Players
must get their hands out in front of them and allow the top hand to
roll side to side and allow the bottom hand to slide up and down
the stick as needed.  Your hands cannot be surgically glued to your
stick. They must move and adjust to the puck in order to
stickhandle effectively.

Keeping your feet moving while stickhandling is another skill that
players tend to struggle with and must be embraced in order to
progress on to higher levels of women’s hockey.  For some reason,
when girls get the puck on their stick, they tend to stop their
feet moving.  It sometimes seems that handling the puck quickly and
moving your feet quickly are mutually exclusive.   Once players
have become comfortable handling the puck at slower more controlled
speeds, they must get their feet and hands moving at higher speeds.
My college coach used the analogy of the puck being an energy
pill.  When you receive the puck, it should make you move faster,
not slow you down.  Players must practice handling the puck with
their head up, hands away from their body and at high speeds in
order to truly have effective stickhandling skills.

Work Hard. Dream BIG.

Your friend and coach,

Kim

PS – For a step-by-step 8 week stickhandling program that will help you
take your “hands” to the next level without having to step on the ice,
check out the Total Female Hockey Elite Shooting & Stickhandling Video Series
by clicking on the link below:

https://totalfemalehockey.com/products/elite_shooting_stickhandling/

Kim McCullough, MSc, YCS
Director & Founder, Total Female Hockey