Learning Hockey:
Swing with control and hit with power on every shot

It would appear that hitting the ball in hockey is easy enough, but there’s actually quite a bit of technique involved in getting the power and control just right. Read on to see what your coach has to say from experience.

Posture

First things first – posture is important in any sport, but more so in hockey. It can impact mobility, the power with which you hit the ball, your balance when you run, apart from other things. Keeping your knees slightly bent forward and feet shoulder-width apart, bend your upper body forward from the back.

Position of the Ball

It’s best to place the ball in the middle, equidistant from both feet and in line with your forehead. Choose an optimum distance such that the ball is neither too far from your body, nor too close. This is for beginners hitting the ball. There are other positions where the ball is kept a bit away for the one-step hit, and the double-step shuffle and hit.

Holding the Stick

The correct grip involves placing your left hand near the top such that a little bit of the handle protrudes out of your hand. Your left and right hand should be touching each other, leaving no gap between them. The ‘U’ that’s formed between the ring finger and thumb for both hands should be facing the tip of the blade.

Executing the Shot

For beginners, we have what is known as the dead ball hit. Once you have your posture right, grip in place, and the ball in position, use the following technique to hit the ball. Place the blade of your stick behind the ball and begin a backward swing to generate power. Make sure it doesn’t go above your right shoulder. Using the same momentum and without stopping the back swing, start the forward swing towards the ball, ensuring the middle of the blade makes contact with the back of the ball.

Note that to hit the ball hard, you need to build up and leverage the strength from your shoulders as well as employ a half rotation of the hips. Also, at the time of hitting the ball, just when the stick is about to make contact, the blade should be slightly tilted – facing the ground. Once you’re comfortable with the dead ball hit, try the step and hit, and the double-step shuffle and hit.

An important point to note is that you should keep your blade slightly closed, towards the ball, when you want to hit it along the ground. And when you want to hit the ball into the air, open the blade a bit. With that bit of clarity, it’s time to look at some practice exercises.

Practice Exercises

First, place the ball diagonally in front of your left foot. Then step in with your left foot and hit the ball. Next, dribble the ball at a slow pace for about 10 steps, then bring the ball to your right, step and hit towards the target. Finally, do a slow run with the ball for about 5 metres, then dribble forward and bring the ball to your right; step and hit it straight at the target.

Group Exercise

For group practice, stand about 10 metres apart. On the whistle, players run with the ball to reach a line or cone on the ground, and then try to hit the ball into the goal. Whosever ball reaches first into the goal is the winner. A change of positions is advisable after every round or five points. Another exercise involves getting into groups of threes for triangle hitting. This will improve your footwork and ease of changing direction.

In the next post, we’ll be exploring a variation of the hit which is useful when you don’t have the luxury of time to execute a full swing. This is called the short handle hit.