The Mathematics of Stick Targets

I’m half joking about the above title. I mean, you probably don’t believe we should have to get very technical about how to hold a stick blade when readying for a pass. Yet, I find passes being muffed so often that I feel compelled to get into this subject pretty deeply. In fact, once or twice over my coaching career you’d be likely to find me down on my hands and knees on the ice, holding a stick blade in various fashions, and explaining exactly what I’ll share right now…

Okay, if you’ll please click on the video below and attempt to gain an idea of what I’m showing — before I explain it to you you. It’s pretty common sense stuff, but…

Ya, I hope it is pretty common sense stuff, that…

• If the blade of a stick faces anything but perpendicular to the path of the coming pass, the puck is going to deflect away from the stick. No if, ands or buts.

• Nor is there any question that the puck has its best chance of sticking IF the blade faces directly at the oncoming puck.

It’s all obvious, right? Ya, you know it and I know it. Yet, a lot of players are forever carrying their stick blades lazily, with little regard for whether their targets are really facing the puck. And, when a pass does go bouncing 8′ off their sticks, they just bang their sticks or shake their heads as if the hockey gods had let them down.

Ha, hardly.

As a brief aside here, I truly believe one of the biggest mistakes we coaches and parents can make is to ignore the obvious, or skip-over the very basics. Again, you and I often know this kind of stuff. But, we’re doing our players a huge disservice if we don’t make absolutely sure they know it too.

Oh, one other thing in reference to good stick targets… If you can visualize a potential receiver travelling along and holding his or her stick blade any way other than perpendicular to the puck, there’s a good chance the guy or gal who wants to pass can’t really see the target. In other words, with the blade held uncaringly at a drastic angle, the player with the puck is probably only seeing part of it. On the other hand, the passer is sure to see where the receiver really wants the puck IF he or she shows the whole face of the blade.

Again, is it all common sense? If so, why is it so many passes are still missed because of what I’ve just described above?