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What’s worse than overhandling the puck? Losing it. In this blog, we’ll share some great videos that demonstrate how defensemen can effectively receive and shoot towards the net. Whether it’s a quick catch-and-release or holding onto the puck to find a better shooting lane, these tips will help sharpen your game.
We will focus mainly on the wrist shot/snapshot from the offensive blue line for this blog. By under-handling the puck when receiving and shooting, you allow for a quicker shot at the net and a better scoring chance because opposing players will have less time to get in the lane, and goalies will have less time to get set.
There are many ways to receive a pass. Your skates can be towards the net, or you can rotate your body around the puck because you were facing our D partner. In both cases, you need to show your target (blade) and move the puck quickly to your shooting position. If you are in the middle when you receive the pass, you can use the traffic in front of the net to help create a scoring chance, or maybe shoot the puck wide of the net on purpose to hit a blade for a tip-in.
If you receive the puck and you are outside the dots, you cannot miss the net. Eyes up and look at the target and analyze your options. Most of the time, the shooting lane will be there if you do it quick enough.
When teaching the technique, make sure to emphasize the quality of the first pass to start. Later on, ask the passer to make some “bad passes.” Your players will have to adjust, and it will make them better.
Five key points when teaching this technique are:
Below, I’ve outlined a five-drill progression that you can use to help your players work on “Catch and Release” shooting. All drills are located in the CoachThem Marketplace, so you can easily add them to your playbook.
Below Practice Plan can be found in our Marketplace.
Preparing players for receive & shoot technique
Getting players comfortable with receiving a lateral pass and getting the puck into a shooting position quickly.
It's a great way to challenge your players in practice to execute something you have worked in practice.
Game situation drill with pressure
Video's for the drills were provided by https://twitter.com/
Blog by CoachThem Contributor, Mitch Giguere
Mitch Giguere, ChPC, an assistant coach with the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL, affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Mitch has his High Performance 2 from Hockey Canada, Advanced Coaching Diploma from the Canadian Sport Institute and is finishing his Learning Accelerator at the Canadian Sport Institute. You can follow his popular video breakdown on Social Media for more excellent hockey content.
Written by the CoachThem Team
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