Troubles with Hockey Passing & Receiving

Years back I worked with an adult roller hockey player, especially so I could use work with him as an example for other in-line skaters. And at the end of every week, my friend, Jerry Z, usually sent me an email update on his roller hockey goings on.

What I especially liked about these were that Jerry’s reports very frequently pointed towards a few things that were fairly prevalent in my line of work:

1) that I was obviously dealing with an intelligent guy;

2) that he often showed me some remarkable insight; and,

3) that he was quite often wrong. 

Actually, that last one wasn’t really a swipe at Jerry at all.  More often the incorrect stuff he relayed to me came from various guys Jerry skated with.  Wives’ tales I’m talking about here, or the kind of advice we could all do without.

Anyway, before I get too carried away, I think I’d better get into the topic at hand…

– Dennis Chighisola

To begin, here’s a quick piece from one of Jerry Z’s emails, these few sentences taken from an account of his second of two games that week…

“…on Saturday, I was working with another guy before the game to help corral passes with the puck. It’s getting better, I’m starting to understand the muscle memory it takes to cradle the puck as it comes to you.”

Now, this isn’t one of those wives’ tales at all.  In fact, Jerry is pretty much right — in that most sports movements involve muscle memory (of either the good or the bad variety), and that a player has to use soft hands in gathering-in a firm pass.

As a quick aside, I need to share with members the fact that there had been some changes in Jerry’s activities of late.  What I’m getting at is that he played on a rather small roller hockey court when I first started working with him, while he’d more recently started playing on a surface that was pretty close to the size of an ice hockey rink.

Of course, skating was going to become a far greater factor on the larger floor than it was in the little bandbox.  However, Jerry was also discovering that there is also a huge difference in his moving from playing with a ball to playing with a puck.

And it’s the latter part — about the difference between playing with a ball or a puck — that I want to make clear from the start…

You see, almost no strength or leverage is needed to either catch or propel a very light ball.  Let me say that again:  one could stand in the worst possible posture and still stop or fire a lightweight ball.  However, it takes a bit more strength and more stability to handle a slightly heavier puck.

That said, if you think I want to talk about skating tonight, you’re correct.  For, in almost every instance, the inexperienced skater tends to stand upright.  And, while he or she might get away with handling a ball from that posture, they’re going to have some difficulty once a heavier puck is introduced.  (Oh, Jerry had come quite a ways in the time we’d worked together.  However, he still was skating fairly upright.)

At this point, I know that someone out there is going to be scratching his or her head, thinking that there isn’t that much difference in weight between a ball and a puck.  And, although that might be so, I guess what I’m really getting at is the combination of weight and the force at which a given object travels that really spells the difference.  In other words, either passed or shot pucks have to be sent with a considerable amount of force to be effective.  And, on the receiving end, a player has to deal with the heavier puck arriving pretty forcefully.

Okay, Jerry mentioned the need to catch the puck with soft hands as it arrives.  Still, despite the fact that I spend lots of time drilling my players on such passing and receiving techniques, I’m going to suggest right now that there’s something else that’s causing Jerry’s passing and receiving woes.

Pardon this brag for a moment, folks, but I’m about to explain a trait that tends to separate me from a lot of other skills coaches…

You see, I accept the textbook stuff and the long established understandings of our game, at least for the most part.  However, I hardly ever stop there.  Naw, I’m forever looking for underlying causes of problems, and I quite often find them (far from where others would even think to look).  That describes a lot of what you’ll find here within the hundreds of pages in CoachChic.com (or, at least I hope so).

And that little sidebar brings me to something I discovered at one of my summer hockey schools probably 20-plus years ago…

I happened to notice that even some of my older players were struggling with their passing and receiving, and even in some very simple drills.  So, I pulled out my camcorder that day, and I taped numerous fairly close pairs of players moving down the ice and executing passes that were only about 5′ or 6′ long.

Later that night, I studied and studied those pairs, and I especially ran and re-ran the segments where a pass was flubbed, it missed its mark, and for whatever reason the puck began flipping and rolling.

In every single case where those things occurred, I finally found a common condition.  And, while you won’t believe me — until I explain it, the poor passes or catches almost always stemmed from a single skating problem.

As a preface to what I want to really tell you, let me first explain that a player’s “give” with the stick — or his cushioning of the incoming puck — calls for a considerable reach with the stick-blade at the start.  In other words, he or she has to reach a ways outward towards the puck at first, “give” with the pass next, and then continue that “give” beyond the midpoint of his or her body.  (Can you picture this?)

And the same thing goes for a decent pass, in that the player has to pull the puck off towards one side before he or she begins a long sweeping motion that also extends beyond the middle of his or her body.  In fact, just as in shooting, the longer the follow-through, the better one’s accuracy.

Now, do you see where I’m going with this?  For, what countless hockey school video clips showed me was that the poorer passers and receivers weren’t able to reach very far outside their centers of gravity (or they at least weren’t very comfortable in doing so).

By the way…  Some of the kids I’d video-taped were pretty decent teenage players.  Yet, they still seemed uncomfortable as I’ve just described.  And the point I want to make here is that all things are relative.  I mean, Jerry can be having his passing and receiving problems as a fairly inexperienced player, but so can far more experienced guys who might not have had the right kind of training.  Sure, the latter guys can likely motor around the rink.  But, extending their hands and arms outside their centers of gravity is quite another matter.  (Maybe you can appreciate now why I spend so much time developing athleticism in my players.)

Oh, yes, one other thing when it comes to not daring to reach far outward…  What I discovered within that video footage was that all the bouncing and rolling pucks resulted from the same problem, whether it was in the act of making or trying to catch a pass.

For, what happened is that a passer who didn’t dare to reach very far would chop at the puck with a very short motion.  And, when it came to catching a pass, that kind of player would brace himself with the stick held stiffly at mid-body.

In both instances — from either the stiff catch or the chopping send-off, the puck would bounce, wobble or roll immediately after contact.

And this all brought me back to my buddy, Jerry Z.  Oh, for sure he should have continued working on “cradling” his catches.  However, I was hoping my advice would give him further insight into the REAL problem.  Yup, improved skating is going to help his game in numerous ways, including his passing and receiving.

PS:  I also suggested that Jerry spend more time working on his puckhandling.  Why — when his skating needs work, as does his passing game, his shooting, his defending, etc?  Well, my feeling was that extra puck work would actually get him chasing the puck or ball, and thusly get him moving more on his skates.  Then, from my Building Blocks view of our game’s skills, you might recall that I see puckhandling as a prerequisite to better passing, receiving and shooting.