- Cute!
[peaceful violin music]
[intense music]
- Hi, my name is Nichelle
and I've been playing hockey for 20 years,
and I currently play for the Metropolitan Riveters
in the NWHL.
- My name is Ivo.
I've been playing hockey for 27 years.
I used to play professionally
and currently I am the head coach
of the Metropolitan Riveters.
- My name is Bulbul.
I've played hockey 12 years.
I play left wing for the Riveters.
- I'm Jen.
I've been skating for about 24 years now,
and I'm a skating coach at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.
- Hi, I'm Eliot.
I've been skating for 23 years,
and I'm a coach an international choreographer
in New York City.
- My name is Angela.
I've been skating for over 20 years.
I'm a professional figure skater.
I coach at Chelsea Piers in New York City.
And I guess I'm going to try hockey today.
[bell dings]
- Hey guys.
So first challenge is stick handling.
Stick handling important because you need move puck away,
protect the puck and give good pass.
Like this.
- No!
- [Bulbul] Okay?
- That was a lot!
That was a lot going on down there.
- [Jen] This is very precise.
You know exactly where it's gonna go.
- My eye-hand coordination is not up to snuff I feel,
but up for the challenge!
- Let's do it!
- Figure skaters, they are pretty good on the skates
but they don't know about sticks
so we'll see.
- You covering the puck side to side.
It's really easy.
You want to try?
- I want to try!
Put me in, coach!
- So let's try first without puck.
Like one, two.
- My hand is tired already!
[laughs]
- Yeah, good job!
All right, I think you guys ready for do
this exercise with cones.
So now we need skate and do this.
Look at me.
One, two.
- Okay.
- Yeah, good job.
Move your puck right there, yeah.
Almost right there.
Good job.
Do you want to try backwards?
- [Angela] Okay.
- Let's go.
[laughs]
- [Angela] It's coming over there.
- Not as bad.
- Basic handling.
- Angela, who are you?
- Yeah, good job!
- So first challenge was very simple
but it's basic for beginners,
and I think the figure skaters did great
for the first time.
- That was difficult.
We're so used to having to control ourselves in our sport,
now we're having to control a prop, essentially.
- I guess I hadn't thought about how many different ways
you could control the puck with the stick.
Are those the words?
I didn't know you could get it with the nose of it
and then the side.
It's more detailed than I was expecting.
- Yeah, and we have to protect the puck.
I don't know what happens when somebody tries to steal it.
- Oh yeah, that's gonna be bad.
[laughs]
[bell dings]
- Guys, good job with the stick handling.
Now the second challenge will be shooting.
The most important thing
because we gotta score goals, right?
I'm gonna teach you
how to take two different kinds of shots, all right?
One is a wrist shot.
Second one is a slap shot.
Wrist shot is the one which is more accurate.
Slap shot is the harder one.
It's all coming down to you
transferring the weight of your body, all right?
So when I'm taking a shot I'm leaning on my back leg,
and then I'm transferring the weight of my body,
moving the puck,
and I end up being on my front leg.
And don't forget,
when I'm shooting the puck,
all the energy is coming from your core right here.
Do not try to scoop the puck with your arms.
Always rotate your body.
- Follow through.
[screams]
Super intense!
- Great aim.
- Aim, bullseye.
- Yeah, we're gonna need to be pretty accurate.
- Okay, right.
Open your eyes, ladies.
[upbeat music]
- All right, guys.
So first one, all right, this is gonna be a wrist shot.
I have the puck on the heel of my stick, all right?
And I just whip my body, all right,
and I follow through.
I gotta finish that motion all the way.
- [Angela] Oh, nice!
- [Ivo] Pull the puck back a little bit.
Get the puck on the heel of your stick.
There you go.
And shoot it.
[bell dings]
- [Angela] Yay!
- [Ivo] Keep going!
Hold it.
- [Angela] Oh no!
- Bend your knees.
Spread your feet out a little bit more.
All right, stop, stop right there.
No, no, no, no, no!
There you go.
[laughs]
I mean, not a bad start.
Move that right hand lower on the stick.
Ah, that was much better.
- Do you look at the net?
- Yes, you should.
- Okay, just making sure!
Oh, that was [laughs].
- Just rotate your body.
- Okay.
[bell dings]
- [Ivo] Not bad, not bad.
- Woo!
My first goal.
Always wanted to do that.
- [Ivo] Let's take the slap shot.
- [Jen] Okay.
- All right, when I take a slap shot
I swing my body back
when I have the puck right in front of me
and then I hit the puck as hard as I can.
[puck thuds]
Ready to give it a shot?
- I'm ready! - Let's do it.
You're just gonna swing your body and hit it.
- Like golf?
- [Ivo] Yep, just like golf.
- But I'm horrible at golf.
I can't hit the ball.
- [Ivo] The good thing is it's not golf.
- Sorry!
- You were opening your blade too much.
- This blade, not this blade.
- Exactly.
The blade of your stick gotta be facing the net, right?
One more!
There you go!
That was actually pretty good.
Let's go.
- Slap!
Woo!
- [Ivo] Show me what you got!
[buzzing]
- It was bound to happen.
- [Ivo] That's all right, it happens.
- All right, no pressure!
- [Ivo] Close the blade!
There you go.
- [Angela] She shoots, she scores!
- It's another goal!
Woo!
That was so much fun!
- Yeah, that was really fun!
Lack of eye-hand coordination is really showing its face
on this one.
- You don't know if you want to look at the puck
or the goal.
[screams]
- Fabulous. - Sorry.
- It's fabulous.
To be honest I'm pleasantly surprised how well they did,
especially with the slap shots.
Angela kind of has that natural motion
so she did really good with that.
Jennifer, though, her shot was probably the hardest shot.
So it was way better than I expected, actually.
[bell dings]
- So the third challenge we have for you
is crossovers and pivots with the puck.
- Yeah, why not.
- [Nichelle] Crossovers are important
to gain speed in a hockey game
both offensively and defensively,
and pivots are a good way to get into a defensive position
when the person with the puck is coming at you.
And we're gonna start with just forwards crossovers.
- Oh give me a break!
Cute [laughs].
So I can see a lot of skills
that are things that we do in figure skates,
but the manner in which she did them was not the same.
- Yeah, the combination of stick handling
and skating at that speed.
I'm a little worried.
One or the other.
Can we have one or the other?
- Okay, so forwards crossovers around.
You guys just want to step over, extend your leg under.
Step over, extend your leg under.
The important thing with the puck
is if you're on your backhand, keep it out in front of you.
Like that.
Go ahead.
- Oh, I'm going first?
Oh boy.
Aha, crossovers!
- [Nichelle] Good!
[laughs]
There you go, there you go!
You got it!
- [Jen] Ah, it's one or the other!
- Good, let's go the other way.
Two hands on your stick.
There you go, cup the puck, two hands.
Good try!
Try to stay forwards.
Stay forwards the whole way.
Go ahead.
- Keep it close.
- Yeah, yeah, you got it.
Hey you're pretty good!
Yeah you got it.
Hold it right there.
Good.
Okay, we're gonna work on backwards crossovers now.
So we're gonna do the same thing going around the circle.
Putting your hands down towards the ice to cup the puck.
Okay?
If you lift your hands up here, the puck's gonna end up
sliding underneath your stick blade, okay.
All right, going that way.
Good.
Very good.
You do that better than forwards!
[screams]
- [Angela] That was a good pass.
- Now keep it out in front of you.
Don't pull it back to your feet.
Good.
- Oo, that's gonna be hard.
- Let your hands stay outside.
There you go.
Good, awesome, yeah!
[screams]
So now we're gonna go onto a pivot.
We're gonna go forwards around the crossover.
When we get to the top we're gonna pivot to backwards.
It's gonna go from my backhand when I pivot
I'm gonna pull it and pull onto my forehand, okay?
Okay, pivot!
Pull back, and good!
Keep pulling it!
- [Eliot] Wow.
- Okay, pivot and pull it.
[laughs]
Outside your body.
There you go.
[screams]
- That was incredibly difficult.
It really felt like
there was no way to control what the puck was doing.
It all came down to where you were holding the stick!
- That's what that's called. - The stick.
- [Jen] There's so much finesse between what you're doing
with your skating and what you're doing with your props.
[laughs]
- The figure skaters did really good at the crossovers.
They're kind of naturals with their skating work.
But I think once you put the puck in their hands that
it gets a little slippery.
They actually have so much speed
and so much power from their crossovers
that they're not able to handle the puck as well
and they're kind of letting it
get ahead of them a little bit.
A lot of things happening at once with crossovers, pivots,
turning the puck, keeping control of it, cupping it.
I think they did a really good job.
[bell dings]
- Okay guys, so fourth challenge is jumping the boards.
We using jumping the boards during the game
because we don't have time go through the door.
So you are jumping out and jumping in.
So it's making fast game.
So you're running to board
and just jumping.
Easy.
And when you're jumping, make sure your stick on ice
and ready to have pass and play.
Do you wanna try?
- I'm excited to do this
because figure skaters aren't allowed to!
- Yeah, we get in trouble.
- Can't touch the walls!
Strict rule!
So now it's time to jump over the rules!
- It's time!
- Okay, where?
Oh!
Okay, where, where, where.
[group cheers]
[laughs]
Here.
Here. - Hey.
And?
- [Bulbul] Go back!
- Ow!
- Okay.
Whoa, I got you!
[laughs]
- [Eliot] She's so tiny.
- Ta-da!
- [Bulbul] Go back.
Yeah.
- Oh, this leg first?
- Yeah.
And jump.
- I'm ready!
- [Bulbul] Yeah, good job, guys.
Let's do it.
Change, change, change!
[group laughs]
- That didn't feel too technical but it was a good time!
- I felt very afraid to hit my knees and my elbows
but then these pads are on there.
But then my butt that's not protected got in the way
so that was fun!
- Fourth challenge was more fun.
They did well.
I was impressed by they bravery.
[bell dings]
- Okay, so we're gonna have a coach standing right here,
and this is our player sitting on the bench.
They're gonna jump over the bench
and immediately pick up the puck,
pass it to the coach and keep skating at him.
They'll get the pass back.
Then they're gonna turn around the cone with the puck,
turn around the cone with the puck,
then they're gonna skate and go backwards pivot,
backwards around here,
then they're gonna shoot.
Then there'll be another puck over here.
They'll pick up that puck
and they're gonna pivot backwards around this one
and take a shot here.
And then we want to teach them how to celebrate
so they're gonna come back and do a celly.
We'll teach 'em a couple celly options.
- Sounds good to me.
- All right.
Okay, so now we're gonna bring all your skills together
in a complete little course here.
But before we do that
we're gonna go over the most fun part of hockey
which is the post-score celebration,
also known as the celly.
- All right. - Got it!
- So we're gonna give you guys
a couple of options on your celly.
I'm gonna show you one of the most famous ones.
After you score, come over, and you.
- Oh!
- Putting the sword in the [laughs].
And then another good one is just the good.
- Okay, okay, okay!
- So you guys think about what you want to do for your celly
and I'm gonna show you the course, okay?
Okay, so the first thing you're gonna do
is hop over the boards and get your stick on the ice
ready to go.
Pick up a puck.
Make your pass.
Get the puck back.
Turn around the cone.
Tight turn around the cone.
Top of the circle you're gonna pivot.
Pivot to backwards. - No, not this way.
- Pull the puck.
Pivot back to forwards.
Shoot.
Pick up a new puck.
Pivot.
Turn to forwards.
Shoot. [bell dings]
And then do your good old celebration.
- [Jen] Okay, I got that part.
- All right?
- Okay, she nailed it.
- She looked good. - She nailed it.
- [Eliot] She was great, major shiver me timbers for me
that looks really impossible.
- I think we're just gonna have to adjust
the pace a little bit.
- Try to protect the puck!
- Touch the puck!
[laughs]
I want to go first.
I need to get this out of the way.
Okay, come on, mama, let's go!
- [Nichelle] All right, pass the puck!
Good, get it back!
Good, come around the cone!
- Settle down, Eliot!
- [Nichelle] There you go, keep the puck
out in front of you!
Good, keep the puck out in front of you, good!
Now pivot backwards, good.
Pull it, pull it, yeah.
Good, you got it.
Forwards shot.
Go get a new puck.
Good, keep moving, keep moving.
Forehand shot, there you go.
Good shot! [bell dings]
Celly, celly!
[group applauds]
- Oh my God!
- All right, go!
Good, get your stick ready.
Pass that puck!
Get that pass back!
Good, turn around the cone.
Good, go around the cone this way, yep.
Good, keep the puck out in front of you.
Good, pivot.
Don't let that puck get ahead of you too much.
- I did, I did!
- [Nichelle] Good, turn to forwards.
Forehand shot.
Nice footwork!
You got it, there you go, shoot!
Good, get a new puck. [bell dings]
Yep, backwards.
Nice work!
Good pivot.
- [Jen] Oh, I did it, okay.
- Pivot to forwards.
Forehand shot.
Oh!
Bring it around, bring it around!
There it is, yes!
Celly!
[group applauds]
[laughs]
All right, here we go.
Hop over the boards and get your stick ready on the ice.
Pick up that puck.
Make that pass.
Good, get that pass back.
Right around the cone.
Good, around this cone here.
Good, up here.
Keep that puck out in front of you.
Pivot to backwards at the top of the circle.
Good!
Keep that pick with you, good!
Pivot to forwards.
Shoot on your forehand.
Good, pick up a new puck. [bell dings]
Nice work.
Pivot to backwards.
There you go.
- [Angela] Off the boards!
- [Nichelle] Pivot to forwards.
There you, yeah, yeah.
Turn and shoot.
- With this hand? - Yeah, forehand.
Good, yes! [bell dings]
Celly!
[shouts]
[group applauds]
- That was fun!
I loved it.
I think I'm switching to hockey.
No more figure skating.
It was a challenge to skate with another object
because we usually just skate with nothing.
I'm grateful to the hockey players for showing us
what their sport is all about.
- It's easy to see a hockey player
as just kind of brute force,
and so to see that there is a lot that's very technical
matched it to figure skating
and it was nice to see more of a connection
between the two that felt very far apart before.
To kind of let go and hammer away at the ice
was a different experience and one that maybe I needed.
- Hockey is something I've always wanted to try,
and the obstacle course to me was like
I'm really surprised I could do that on day one,
and gives me a crazy amount of respect for the difference
between our sports.
I feel like it was a success
but that's because we had good coaches.
- The figure skaters did a great job on the obstacle course.
They have so much energy and excitement.
It's really fun to work with players like that
and it was really interesting
to watch them develop the skills so quickly.
They scored a lot of goals and had good cellies.
- Most fun part was when they was jump over boards.
I think they liked it!
- I was most surprised by their stick handling skills
because when they're doing their routines
they focused just on the skating part.
They really got better at controlling the puck
and actually hitting the net and scoring some goals.
It definitely was a fun day and a great experience.
[upbeat music]