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- Hey guys, it's Jeremy from howtohockey.com
with the Hockey Movement bringing you the final video
in the building blocks of a good shot.
In this video, talking about using the stick
to generate power and this is one thing
a lot of hockey players forget about.
So I'm gonna show you how to flex that stick
and how to utilize it in your shot to get more power.
To get that extra power from your hockey stick,
you gotta make sure that you flex it first.
Kinda like a diving board, it pushes down,
and then flings you up in the air.
So you're storing that energy and then it sends you flying,
same thing with your stick, you flex it, you bend it,
it has potential energy stored in it,
and then that's released, all that energy's
released on the puck, gives you a lot of extra power,
so you can use it in your slap shot, wrist shot, snap shot,
and even the backhand a little bit.
It's really important that you have the proper flex
on your stick so you can get the maximum performance.
You don't want it too whippy, you don't want it too stiff,
so if you're interested in what the right flex is,
I do have an article, I'll throw a link down here
in the video description so I don't have to
ramble on forever in this video.
So let's talk about flexing the stick in the slap shot.
To get extra flex in your slap shot,
there's a few important key points.
So the first one is that you actually hit the ice first.
You don't wanna hit the puck,
if you're just hitting the puck,
you're not gonna be able to flex that stick at all.
You actually wanna hit the ice so you can drive
and get that extra force into that stick.
The next important point is that the shaft
is in front of the blade.
If you hit the ice like this, you're not gonna drive
that force in, because you're just skimming the top.
With the shaft in front of the blade,
you can really drive in there and get that extra flex.
Last one is really important, is to have that knee-bend.
If you're standing up too tall,
you can't put your weight into the shot.
So we're hitting the ice, we're dropping our weight,
and really driving in with this bottom hand
and pushing and flexing that stick.
And with that bottom hand at about the middle of the shaft,
maybe a little bit lower, you're putting that force
right in the center, really flexing that stick
and that's gonna give you a lot
of extra power on your slap shot.
Now let's work on getting some flex in the wrist shot.
This is an area I notice a lot of hockey players miss out on
and it's because we're all taught the same way to shoot,
where you start with the puck on the heel,
you roll the puck to the toe, and then release.
And that's a standard, fundamental basic wrist shot.
However, once you get older, you can start working
on more advanced ways to shoot and this is a way
that you can really flex the stick in your wrist shot.
So if you watch the pros, what a lot of them do
is they start with the puck on the toe,
they start with it on the toe, they pull it in
towards their body, and then really lean on it here.
By pulling the puck in towards your body first,
it allows you to drop your weight over the stick
and flex that stick and really get a little extra power.
So instead of having your arms out here the whole time,
where you can't flex the stick, you're now pulling
towards your body, dropping your weight,
flexing the stick, and then releasing.
Just gives you a little extra power on your wrist shot.
Let's head over to the high speed
and look at some slow-mo shots here for ya, just to give you
an idea of what the wrist shot looks like in slow-motion,
so here's just a few clips, giving you a better idea,
and we're gonna do a frame-by-frame, so I'll break you down.
So right here, got the puck at the toe, pulling it towards
the target but also towards my body a little bit,
right there, freeze frame, I'm gonna push down
on that bottom hand to flex that stick,
this is when I'm really loading it up,
notice how much bend I get right here,
pulling back that top hand to get that extra snap,
follow through, there's a good hard shot.
Let's take a look at the snap shot.
To get more weight in the snap shot,
it's similar to the wrist shot,
you wanna get your weight over the stick, so I'm here,
my chest is facing that, doing a quick snap on that.
Instead of just shooting like this,
where I'm having my weight equal on both feet,
I basically wanna put my weight over the puck
or move my weight towards the puck,
so watch, instead of just shooting like this,
I'm going like this first and then snapping
and it allows me to really lean on that stick and flex it.
You watch guys like Phil Kessel,
he's really good at doing that, he'll move over,
get that weight on just this one leg,
weight over the stick, lean on it, flex it,
and get a really hard shot on that.
Let's take a look at the snap shot in slow-mo,
so here's a few half-speed shots giving you an idea
of the mechanics and I'll walk you through it,
so freeze frame right here is when I'm about to push
with that bottom hand and load up that stick.
So I'm gonna pushing through with the bottom hand,
pulling back with the top hand,
and you'll notice a nice bend in the stick right there.
Now when you're skating, you can load the stick up
even more 'cause you can weight transfer right onto it,
get the weight over the stick even more.
So you'll notice that when you're on the ice.
Then I'm gonna continue, pull back, push,
nice follow through, good hard shot on that.
Alright guys, that wraps up our five-video series
of the building blocks of a good shot.
Watch every single video, hopefully it helps you a lot,
really become a better shooter, and score more goals.
If you're looking for more details on how to take
any of those shots I was just talking about,
check out How To Hockey, I have videos
on how to take every type of shot.
Also, I'm gonna be adding new ones here
from different instructors on the Hockey Movement,
so make sure you subscribe to both channels.
And of course the products that I'm using
for this whole series, the hockey stick is from Cold Hockey,
has this cool nano-stell coating on the bottom.
The training aids that I've been using,
the net is the Easy Goal from Hockey Shot
and I'm using the intermediate shooting pad
also from HockeyShot.com, and the shirt,
this one, from Scrappers Hockey.
If you guys are interested in any of that stuff,
I'll throw some links down there in the video description.
Thanks a lot for watching the video,
thanks for subscribing, I'll see you in the next one.
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