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For as much as we all love hockey, the winter break around Christmas and New Years provides some much-needed rest and recovery. Spend time with friends and family, catch-up on sleep, watch some NHL or World Juniors games, and maybe do some outdoor skating.
The winter break also presents the perfect time to reflect on your season thus far and whether and how to realign your goals for the remainder of the season.
How are you tracking towards the goals you set for yourself or your team at the beginning of your season? What is going well, and what needs to be improved?
If your season is going well so far, then that’s great, and keep working hard at practice, in the weight room, and following your off-ice training regimen. Keep that relentless focus on training and self-improvement.
If, however, your season is not exactly shaping up as anticipated, time to reflect on where you or your team are falling short, and what you can do away from practice to fix it. The good news is that you still have three months of your winter season to make an impact, so it’s not too late by any means to put in the work to get the results you desire.
For many, the solution is simply needing to handle more pucks. Daily stickhandling drills such as through the middle around cones, figure-8s, out-wides, toe-drags, with eyes up, on forehand and backhand sides, both stationary and while moving, first slowly and then building up to a game pace, all help to develop a comfort level that can’t be achieved any other way. Use pucks or biscuits if you have tiles or synthetic ice, or stickhandling balls (or even tennis balls) if you train on concrete or other surfaces.
For others, the issue is confidence (or lack thereof) in one’s shot. Shooting pucks at home is the best way to get better, since there is not enough time at practice to work on what you need to. With every shot, you improve both in terms of muscle strength and accuracy. Yes, you can line up 15 feet in front of your Snipers Edge tarps and aim at the targets. But you should also practice from farther back, from in-tight, from either left or right faceoff dots, shoot with a mix of forehand and backhand, wristers, snap shots, and slap shots, and practice both stationary shots and while moving. Extra credit for practicing shooting on one leg (either leg), or under/through an Attack Triangle legs or chair. All the while, be shooting with your head up, visualizing the target. 100-150 shots a day only takes 15 minutes for most players. And if you’re hitting thousands of additional shots each week, your “shooting muscles” will start to strengthen, and your accuracy will be dialed-in.
With repetition comes both confidence and muscle memory, so that when you’re in game situations you can just react rather overthinking of second-guessing your ability.
While some players may have some great natural talent, the skills necessary to become an elite hockey player can also be mastered in the driveway, basement, garage or backyard through hard work and repetition. Consider how you can make this a part of your 2025 so you can finish the season strong for yourself and your team.
