Power out of Your Wrist Shot?
Written by Jeremy Rupke from howtohockey.comThe wrist shot is the most commonly used shot in hockey, but you would be surprised how many players, young and old, are not harnessing all of their power and putting it into their wrist shot.
I know this for a fact because the topic came up in the dressing room at beer leagues. One of the guys asked me why my wrist shot was so much faster then his, and I was half his size. I gave him a few pointers, and many of the other guys were listening and added in their tips. A few days later I had a few players coming up to me and telling me how much of a difference they noticed by following my advice(and practicing of course). These guys are 30 years or older and all it took was a few pointers to help them get more power from their wrist shot.
I have added those pointers below to help you reach your full potential! Some are basic, the other tips are a bit more advanced, but I thought I would include everything.
- Pull the puck back
- When taking a wrist shot, think of it like a sling shot. The further you can comfortably pull the puck back, the more time the puck spends on the blade of your stick, and the more time you have to transfer energy, and put power into your shot.
- When taking a wrist shot, think of it like a sling shot. The further you can comfortably pull the puck back, the more time the puck spends on the blade of your stick, and the more time you have to transfer energy, and put power into your shot.
- Start with the puck near the heel
- When you set the puck up on the blade of your stick it should be near the heel of your stick. The location varies depending on the shot, but no further than the middle of the blade. The puck will roll off of the blade of your stick, so starting with the puck close to the heel allows it to stay on the blade of your stick longer, and add more power to the shot.
- When you set the puck up on the blade of your stick it should be near the heel of your stick. The location varies depending on the shot, but no further than the middle of the blade. The puck will roll off of the blade of your stick, so starting with the puck close to the heel allows it to stay on the blade of your stick longer, and add more power to the shot.
- Flex the stick
- A lot of the power actually comes from the shaft of your stick. When you lean into the shot, your are storing energy in the shaft of your stick (potential energy) When the shot is released, so is the energy, and a lot of that energy will be transferred into the shot, making your shot a lot more powerful.
- A lot of the power actually comes from the shaft of your stick. When you lean into the shot, your are storing energy in the shaft of your stick (potential energy) When the shot is released, so is the energy, and a lot of that energy will be transferred into the shot, making your shot a lot more powerful.
- Weight Transfer
- This goes hand in hand with flexing the stick. The more you lean into your shot, the more you are transferring weight, and the more power you will get from your shot. If you watch NHL players you will notice a lot of them lift their back leg when they shoot, this is because they are moving all of their weight into the direction of the shot.
- This goes hand in hand with flexing the stick. The more you lean into your shot, the more you are transferring weight, and the more power you will get from your shot. If you watch NHL players you will notice a lot of them lift their back leg when they shoot, this is because they are moving all of their weight into the direction of the shot.
- Use Your Legs
- Your legs have the most powerful muscles in your body, if you do not use your legs when you shoot, you are missing out on a lot of energy that you could be putting into your shot! It may sound strange (a lot of players think that your wrist shot is all arms) but try it out, use your legs to push into the shot, you may be surprised. Also don't forget to rotate your shoulder and hips when you are shooting, this helps you put even more power into your shot.
- Your legs have the most powerful muscles in your body, if you do not use your legs when you shoot, you are missing out on a lot of energy that you could be putting into your shot! It may sound strange (a lot of players think that your wrist shot is all arms) but try it out, use your legs to push into the shot, you may be surprised. Also don't forget to rotate your shoulder and hips when you are shooting, this helps you put even more power into your shot.
- Follow Through
- This is something most people learn as a youngster but I thought it was worth repeating. Don't stop pushing, push right through and continue into your follow through. In order to get full power from your wrist shot, you have to continue increasing the speed of your stick, this keeps the puck on the blade of your stick longer. Remember to point your stick where you want the puck to go.
- I thought I would tack this on for extra measure. Many players look down, fire and hit the goalie right in the chest. I see it too many times...solution? Look where you are shooting, you will be surprised how often the puck will go where you are looking and you will score more goals!
The last tip is to workout, but I will explain workouts to help your wrist shot power in another article. If you want more articles, videos and tips you can visit my hockey tips website. If you are looking for some more wrist shot tips you can read my article How to take a wrist shot, and if you really want to increase your shot speed; feel free to subscribe to my posts via email as I will be posting some more articles soon with workouts and results of my research (I have been working with a radar gun)
Thanks for reading!
4 comments:
Great article and video.
The tricky part about the wrist shot is that to do it right, one needs to follow all the tips you mentioned.
I know about them, but typically only follow a few of them and neglect others on my shots.
Therefore, need to put in more practice!
Thanks again! Great blog btw.
garbage... shooting off the wrong foot standing still looses power weight transfer he talks about is to go to the left leg with weight shift
it depends where you're body is squarely facing. if you're flying in on a breakaway and shooting it will often be off your inside leg, closest to the puck and direction of shot (like in the video). this demo is correct
@brainless Agreed, he should be pushing off the right foot, not the left foot. I also like to see more knee bend and more pushing off the right/back foot.
Post a Comment