Featured courses
- 3 Keys to Hockey Defense: Dominate the Defensive Zone by Jackson Chlebowy
- 4 Hockey Skating Drills for Youth Players: Building Speed, Balance, and Agility by Jackson Chlebowy
- 4 Hockey Passing Drills to Improve Team Performance: Mites to Peewees by Jackson Chlebowy
- Mastering the Hockey Forecheck: 6 Keys and Strategies by Jackson Chlebowy
- How To Coach Hockey: Creating a Winning Culture by Jackson Chlebowy
- 5 Principles of a Successful Hockey Power Play by Jackson Chlebowy
- Three Youth Hockey Shooting Drills to Score More Goals by Jackson Chlebowy
- 3 Hockey Battle Drills to Improve Compete Level and Team Chemistry by Jackson Chlebowy
- Ice Hockey Goalie Drills: Mastering the Basics by Emma Martin
- Tips and Tricks on Perfecting Your Hockey Slap Shot by Emma Martin
- 7 Effective Puck Protection Drills for Defenseman by Jacob Crabtree
- Strength and Conditioning: Tony Greco's Principles of Strength by Jacob Crabtree
- From Humble Beginnings to Highly Respected NHL Shooting Coach – A Sit-down with Tim Turk by Slava Paller
- Journey into Strength and Conditioning with NHL athletes to everyday people with Ryan Van Asten: Two time Stanley Cup Champion and Current Calgary Flames Strength and Conditioning Coach by Clarence Paller
Three Youth Hockey Shooting Drills to Score More Goals
Whether you're coaching a team full of newbies, or a locker room full of seasoned players developing shooting skills should be one of your primary goals. Developing A strong, accurate shot with a quick release will turn your entire team into scoring threats. Goals win games, and theres no better way to beat the goaltender than with a quick and powerful shot.
Shooting Fundamentals
Players are never too old, or too skilled to revisit the basics. The fundamentals are the foundation for any good hockey player and that is especially true about the shot. Coach Al MacCormack, a former collegiate hockey player and coach with over 30 years of coaching experience explains the fundamentals of shooting in his course ‘Win More Games with Al's Hockey Skills & Drills’.
Shooting can be broken down into a few key parts. Hand placement and body positioning, weight transfer, and the follow-through. All of these components of the shot will combine smoothly to create a powerful and accurate shot.
First is hand placement and body positioning. When shooting the puck, you want your players to slide their bottom hand down the stick bending their knees and getting low. Standing upright, with their hands in their natural position will result in a weak flip of the puck, not ideal for scoring goals. Getting low, and dropping the bottom hand down the stick will properly allow players to load their weight onto the stick putting pressure on the ice.
After a player has gotten low and dropped the bottom hand, they will need to transfer their weight to propel the puck on the net. The player should have weight on their stick, sweeping the ice while they shoot to generate that flex mentioned earlier. While holding a firm grip on the stick, pressing against the ice, they should shift their weight from their back leg to their front leg toward their target, pointing the toe at the target as Coach Al mentions. This leads directly into the followthrough, pointing the stick directly at their target as the weight transfer is completed.
These basic principles of shooting apply to all 3 types of hockey shots, the wrist shot, the snapshot, and the slap shot.
Moving Shot Drill – Patrick Burke
Coach Patrick Burke is a former collegiate and junior hockey player, playing for Connecticut College, the Ramapo Saints, and the New Jersey Rockets. He is now a USA Hockey Association coaching education director and certified USA hockey coach. Coach Burke has coached nearly every level of the game, from mites to elite high school hockey. Coach Burke has now turned his attention to youth hockey, focusing on youth player development.
Coach Burke's moving shot drill from his course ‘Coaching Youth Hockey: From Mites to PeeWees’ is a great way to introduce younger players to the basics of shooting while skating with the puck.
The drill begins with a line of players standing opposite a coach with a pile of pucks next to a net. The coach will pass the puck to the first player in line. The player should focus on properly receiving the pass before skating down on the net and taking a hard shot on goal. After the players have gotten the hang of catching the pass while stationary, you can have them catch the pass while skating down toward the net for a quick shot on goal.
Very rarely do scoring chances come while standing station in the offensive zone, so young players must become comfortable catching and shooting the puck on the move to convert on more chances.
Corners Shooting Drill – Al MacCormack
This is a basic youth hockey drill to get players familiar with shooting the puck while skating out of the corners, a situation that can happen often in games. This drill can be made more complex and challenging for older more experienced players by adding defenders and forcing players to change their shooting angle.
Coach Al outlines this drill in his course ‘Win More Games with Al's Hockey Skills & Drills’. The drill is simple, place pucks in both corners of the offensive zone. Players will take turns skating around the circles from bottom to top, picking up the pucks from the corner as they pass and quickly shooting the puck on the net as they reach the slot.
Slot Shooting Drills – Jari Byrsky
Jari Byrsky is the Head Instructor & Founder of SK8ON Hockey World, a hockey school located in Toronto Canada. Coach Byrsky opened SK8on Hockey World in 1993, and has helped develop young hockey talent for over 30 years. Coach Byrsky and the school have helped develop a number of NHL Stars including Brent Burns, Jason Spezza, and Steven Stamkos.
Coach Byrsky’s slot shooting drills from his ‘Hockey Skills with Jari Byrsky’ course are a great way to practice quick releases, deking, and hard accurate shots on goal from the slot.
These drills can use a variety of equipment, like rebounding boards and practice dummies but it is equally beneficial to replace the equipment with your own players to practice one-touch passing and slot defense. There should be 2 rebounding boards (or players to give a quick one-touch pass) on either side of the slot and a practice dummy (a coach/player to defend) in the middle. The drills begin with a line of players standing at the blue line.
The first drill is a slot deking drill. A coach, or the players themselves will start the drill by passing a puck off of the rebounder. They will then skate in, collect the puck, make a move around the practice dummy or player, and make a quick shot out of a deke. This drill combines skating, stick handling, and shooting with the goal of improving players' scoring abilities and quick release of the puck at speed.
The Second drill is all about the one-timer. Often times in the slot there is no time to settle a pass and set up shop for a shot on goal. Shots need to be off the stick quickly to beat the goaltender. The drill starts the same as the first. The players will be lined up at the blue line waiting for the coach to pass off of the rebounder. Instead of collecting the puck and carrying it in on goal, the player should quickly one-time the puck on the net. This version of the drill is good for forcing players to make quick shots without having time to get comfortable or into their ideal shooting position.