Improving Your Wrist Shot Mechanics

For an awful lot of years, I’ve felt that a puck and opponents can distract from a player’s concentration as he or she is drilling. (Wait until you see the positional drill I invented years ago!) This segment, however, is all about a player’s wrist (or sweep) shot mechanics, and it gives me the chance to show you how removing a puck from a drill helps my players focus purely on a movement…

As a brief aside here, I’ve mentioned elsewhere about how I frequently invent new drills. The current topic is a great example, but it actually stems from a way I found to improve a player’s slapshot mechanics. That method of training is highlighted in something I posted a while ago as “Slapshot Visualization” — a video which allows a player to watch some great slow-motion examples of the slap shot, visualize the movement, and even follow along with some really good shooters. So don’t miss that (if you have access), because almost any level player should find it extremely helpful.

Now, please view the video below once you’ve read this explanation:

What my players are doing is alternating 10 sweeps at an imaginary puck with 10 actual wrist shots. (The reason you hear pucks hitting the boards throughout the video is because my kids are all working at their own pace, with some shooting and some preparing to do so.)

During the practice phase — done without a puck — I ask each player to concentrate on proper mechanics. So, hopefully a player is rocking back to grab an imaginary puck, then shifting his weight — backward to forward — as he pulls through hard and finishes with a point of his stick-blade towards his target. Hopefully too, a player comes close to applying those same mechanics as he next uses a puck. (As you might notice, my kids are at various stages of development in this area.)

In fact, you might have noticed that the smaller of the kids in that video is rather stiff — or mechanical, and there’s no real “snap” in his final motion. He came around, though, as I knew he would. The bigger guy, on the other hand, looks pretty nice up there, and he really rips his shots once given the chance.

Of course, as the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day!” Nor is a perfect wrist shot. So, it’s the constant going back and forth — from the practice phase to the real shooting phase — that will ultimately result in a pretty good shot.

By the way… After this segment of practice, my guys shifted around and began doing just about the same to improve their backhand shots. The mechanics are fairly alike, and we practiced these in the same sequence — with 10 simulations to 10 actual shots — for about 4 or 5 times through.