Fundamental Skills of Hockey

The most important hockey skills to master are most certainly the fundamentals. Like in any sport, youll find that the best hockey players are those that have a profound mastery of the fundamentals. So, what are the fundamentals in hockey? I dont know about you, but for me, skating, passing, and shooting immediately come to mind. Now, just because theyre fundamentals, it doesnt mean theyre necessarily easy to learn. Lets take a look at these three hockey skills one by one.1. SkatingSkating is probably the fundamental hockey skill. If you want to play the sport at a high level, you have to be able to skate, and skate well. And, lets face it; skating isnt exactly the easiest skill at which to become proficient. In fact, for many, its quite difficult. As ice is a commodity for most, half of the battle is getting time to practice. Unlike a football field or a baseball diamond, a hockey rink isnt necessarily something that you can find around the next corner. And, if you do, youre going to pay for your time on the rink. This being said, its important that you make the most of the time that you do get on the ice. Practice, practice, practice. Once you master one skating skill, move onto the next. Its important that you dont get caught up on what youre good at, because that can mean stagnation in your overall development. Instead, once youve attained the ability to do one skating move, move onto one at which you struggle more. For example, if youve become proficient at stopping with your right foot first, to the point at which you can utilize it without thinking or hesitation in a game, move onto stopping with your left foot. When you have time to practice, make most of your stops with your left foot first; and so on, and so on. Eventually, and Im talking years later, when you think youve gotten a pretty good grasp of skating in general, you can cycle back through the individual skating skills or work on other parts of your game.Heres a quick list of some of the skating skills that youll use often in games, that should be worked on incessantly until perfected.- Appropriate forward stride- Hockey stops- Tight turns- Crossovers (forwards and backwards)- Backwards skating (C-cuts)- Edge control (inside and outside)2. PassingUnlike skating, passing comes a little bit more naturally. I wont go into too much detail here, other than to say that the same concept that I described in skating applies to passing as well. Perfect practice makes perfect, or close to it; so dont think youre wasting time with passing drills. Passing is one of the essential hockey skills, in that without it, youll be hearing a lot of chirping from your teammates. One suggestion that I do have, similar to that of Coach Bombay in the Disney film "The Mighty Ducks", is to focus on sailing the puck, instead of whacking at it. So many times I watch players in effect "shoot" the puck at teammates, when what they really needed was a smooth and crisp pass. Pay special attention to keeping the puck on the ice when youre delivering a normal pass, as opposed to watching it bouncing to your teammate. Think about receiving a pass do you want it to come bouncing on edge? I dont think so. Id much rather take a pass that is firm and flat on the ice. Again, some passing skills to work on:- Forehand passing- Backhand passing- Saucer passing- Accepting hard passes3. ShootingAll the same goes for shooting, obviously. A good shot can change a player, and more importantly maybe, change a game. The best coaches often have the same philosophy when it comes to offense get the puck to the net. Shooting, in effect, is getting the puck to the net, sometimes with more velocity than other times. Hitting the net, of course, is a very important part of shooting. That being said, I dont encourage coaches to penalize players for missing the net every once in a while. Now, dont get me wrong, if a player continually misses the net, being irresponsible with his or her shots, they shouldnt be encouraged to continue. However, Ill reference something that I once heard that I liked a lot at the time, which applies here perfectly. Goal scorers arent made "trying" to hit the net. Goal scorers are made trying to pick the corners, sometimes failing, but nevertheless trying to hit the spots where the goalie is not. Lets be honest, if theres a concerted effort, mostly anyone can hit the net. I can hit the net every time, in fact. But, theres a problem. In a game, the part of the net that Im accustomed to hitting is guarded by a large moving barrier the goalie. So, hit the net, but hit the right spots the spots where the goalie is not. Oh, and dont get discouraged if you miss now a then. Try, try again. Now, some shooting skills to work on:- Wrist shot- Snap shot- Slap shot- Quick release- Backhand shot- Shooting hard- Shooting for cornersThese are just some suggestions to get you started. This is by no means the collection of all hockey skills that you should work on, just some of the fundamentals. Its always fun to try hockey tricks, hockey moves, and fancy dangles, but I urge you to first come to terms with the fundamentals of the game. Like I previously mentioned, look at the best players, the guys in professional leagues like the NHL; they are the best because they do the "simple" things the best. They have mastered the abilities that are mundane to the game of hockey, giving them time to throw in the fancy stuff. As Im just as guilty of trying tricks and dangles as you are, Ill take heed of my own advice and start to focus more on making the fundamentals second nature. Hard work, thats what it takes. Good old hard work. Have fun out there