DIY Passing Rebounder

I built the one described in the video, and as he suggests in the video comments, I made mine three feet long instead of four.  Honestly, this takes about twenty minutes to build, start to finish.

This works great.



Details:  I used a 3 foot long length of particle board and a 40" long bungee strap.

I used the fat, wide bungees he mentions in the first comment on the video, but they're now unavailable.  So for my next one (to be built), I bought these "Highland Fat Strap Bungee Cords 4-Pack - 30" and 40" from Amazon.

Here's the Amazon link.

They're made by the same company.  Prime shipping, and only $7.99 for the set.  I do plan on making another one soon.

If you're worried about the bolts chewing up your floor or carpet, you can get non-slip material and put pieces under the legs.  The plastic dip for tool handles might work too.

Two Good Ideas

When my granddaughter was taking the Power Skating class, they carried their sticks with them the entire time.  The idea is that you get used to always having the stick in your hands as you move on the ice.

Likewise, when you're practicing stickhandling or other skills at home, you can wear your hockey gloves (if you have them).  Practicing bare handed is good, but getting used to the gloves is better.

Both sensible ideas.

Stickhandling Training Aids - What's Out There

There are some really nice stickhandling training tools out on the market.  Sweet Hands, Extreme Dangler, My Enemy Pro, XDeviator, and many more.  I like toys and gadgets, so I wish I could get them all.  Unfortunately, I'm not made out of money, and some of these are really pricey.




Luckily for me (and you), these are all the same thing in concept, and we can easily make our own for a fraction of the price.  It might not be as pretty or as versatile, but just like the commercial ones, just owning it isn't going to make you better.  You have to do the stick drills using them.

There are also things like Attack Triangles and other goodies that we'll worry about in another post.

Now, to be sure, none of these are essential.  You can do the exact same stickhandling practice with mini-cones or even extra pucks spaced out.  The primary advantage these have is that it forces you to lift your stick over the device as you move from side to side, as if you were stickhandling around someone's stick who's trying to defend.

In the near future we'll look at several different ways to build these at home.  In the meantime, you can look at the above examples for inspiration.

Bottom Hand Slide - DIY Training Aid

I've mentioned several times that the bottom hand on your hockey stick is more of a guide, and that the bottom hand shouldn't hold the stick too tightly.  Here's a great video showing how the bottom hand slides as you move the puck.



There are training aids you can buy that help you learn to keep the bottom hand loose, but here are two ways to make your own for almost nothing.

First, you can use the cardboard roll from toilet paper or paper towels.  Slip it over your stick, and hold the cardboard roll instead of the stick with your bottom hand.  Do NOT crush the cardboard!  Do your stickhandling, and be aware of your bottom hand sliding up and down the stick as you move, being careful not to squeeze the cardboard tube.

A second, slightly more durable way is by cutting the top and bottom off of a disposable plastic water bottle.  Once again, grip it lightly to keep from crushing it as you stickhandle.

My granddaughter really likes to practice like this, she prefers the plastic bottle.  It's fun, and it doesn't take long for you to forget that you're holding a tube rather than the stick, and it becomes the natural way to do it.

Related to this, because the top hand is doing so much of the work, it really pays to work on your hand strength.  Don't forget to do exercises for both arms though, both the top hand and the bottom hand!

Have you used a slider glove or other bottom hand training aid?  Or have you used one of the DIY versions above?  Let me know about how it helped your game in the comments.

Wrap Around One and Wrap Around Ice

The Hockey Wrap Around is a training aid that lets you use your expensive ice hockey stick outside without chewing up the bottom of the blade.  Here's a video about it (enjoy some pretty good stickhandling too).



I have the model shown above, and it really works well.  It does add some weight (between two and three ounces) to the blade of the stick, which isn't a bad thing.  When you take it off before heading out onto the ice, your stick feels lighter and your hands feel faster.  It's like training with a weighted stick.

I really like mine, and it has done an excellent job of protecting my stick.  I may not have a huge financial investment in my hockey stick (see buying my first hockey stick here), but the cost of the Wrap Around is still well worth it to me.  There are videos on YouTube about making a sort of DIY version using aluminum soda cans, but for me, the hassle outweighs the cost savings.  This isn't something that's going to wear out in a week.

I suppose giving the bottom of your stick an extra layer or three of tape would work too, at least for a little while.  So while I think this is a good thing to have and an excellent value, there are certainly ways to do more or less the same thing for less money.

The people who created the Wrap Around have continually improved it (as seen in the above video), and their latest version is called the Wrap Around Ice.  Instead of metal, it's made of a durable plastic.  It weighs about half as much as the metal versions.



I haven't tried the Wrap Around Ice yet, because my original metal one still has plenty of life left in it, and I'm not one to rush right out to get the latest toys.

As usual, I'll put a link here to Amazon.  The price at the time I posted this is $31.00, with free shipping if you have Prime.  You can find it cheaper online at other websites, but you might have to add shipping to the cost.

If you like to practice or play outside, especially with the same stick you use on the ice, then I think the Wrap Around is a solid investment.

One last thing, if you're eyeing those stickhandling aids that were shown in the video, I'll be posting DIY versions of most of them in the near future.

Do you have the Wrap Around?  What do you think of it?  I'm especially interested to hear your experiences with the Wrap Around Ice.  Leave a comment, and thanks for reading.

Taping Your Hockey Stick

If you go to YouTube and do a search, you'll find tons of videos showing how people tape their hockey sticks.  There is no right way, there is no wrong way, there's just the way that you prefer.

I saw a video of a pro player who gets teased by his teammates because he doesn't really tape his stick at all.  He likes the textured grip that comes standard on his stick, so he just takes about an eight inch piece of tape and randomly wraps it around the handle.  Mostly so he can tell his teammates that he taped his stick.

Here are two videos that I like showing one way to do it.  Maybe as I become more experienced I will change how I do it, but as a beginner, this works for now.



As for the color of the tape, that's another personal preference thing.  Some say that using white tape lets the goalie pick up the puck off your stick easier when you shoot, but goalies say that they're too focused on tracking the puck to notice the color of the tape.

I use white tape, because that's what I bought when I got my stick.  My granddaughter uses pink, except for a single strip of white that we put near the heel of her blade as a reminder to keep the puck there while stickhandling.

No need to overthink this.

Practice Pucks and Balls

A standard six ounce hockey puck slides nicely on ice.  Since you probably don't get as much ice time as you'd like, it helps to have a way to simulate the action of a puck on ice at other times.  There are quite a few tools to do this.  In this post, I'm going to talk about balls and pucks, in a future post I'll talk about synthetic ice.

 (top row, left to right)  regulation puck, Flypuck Pro, Green Biscuit Snipe, Green Biscuit, (bottom, left to right)  Swedish Stickhandling ball, muscle ball, Smarthockey stickhandling ball.

You can see that the practice pucks are all the same size as a regulation puck, but their weights vary.  The balls are all about two inches in diameter, you can see them compared to a standard puck.  There's a reason for that particular size ball too.  A two inch diameter means that the ball will hit the blade of your stick one inch off the ground, and a regulation puck is one inch tall.  So the balls are that size to feel closer to what a real puck feels like on your stick.

Personally, I consider the first three below to be essentials for stickhandling.  The next couple become essential when you start learning to shoot.

1.  Smarthockey Stickhandling Ball (lime green ball in the photo).  This training ball weighs slightly less than a standard puck and hits the blade of your stick in the same way as a puck.  I use one of these every day when I practice on carpet.  They come in many colors.

2.  Swedish Wooden Stickhandling Ball (brown ball in the photo).  This ball is the same diameter as the Smarthockey ball above, but it's made of solid wood and much lighter.  I like to use this ball to improve my hand speed, since I can stickhandle faster due to the lighter weight.  Surprisingly inexpensive, but even better, you can go to a craft store and buy a four-pack of two inch wooden balls for a few bucks.  They're the same thing.

3.  Green Biscuit Practice Puck (green puck on far right).  This is the best "dryland" puck out there.  The Green Biscuit is the same size as a regulation puck, but it's a little lighter so it slides easier to simulate the action on ice.  A good portion of each face is also inset to reduce friction.  The best part though, is the unique two-piece design, with rivets loosely holding the top and bottom together.  What this means is that the puck stays flat when it travels over concrete sidewalks or asphalt roadway, because the two halves dampen any vibrations that would normally lift the puck onto its edge.  The only drawback is that the Green Biscuit is not made for shooting.  The special plastic is rather brittle and can chip and crack if you use it to shoot with.  It also comes in various colors besides green, including pink (my granddaughter has a pair of these that she practices with).

4.  Green Biscuit Snipe (dark green, second from right).  This companion to the original green biscuit is made out of a slightly different plastic that allows you to shoot away.  The trade off is that it doesn't slide quite as nicely as the original.  Standard color is a darker green, but other colors are available.

5.  Regulation Hockey Pucks (far left).  Eventually you'll be practicing shooting, and having a few (or more) real pucks make it easier.  Rather than having to retrieve your Snipe after every shot, imagine having a bucket with 10 or 20 pucks that you can shoot all at once before having to gather them up again.  I've heard that Canadians can buy pucks inexpensively at any Canadian Tire store.  I buy mine on Amazon by the dozen when they're on sale.

6.  The Sweet Hockey Muscle Ball (silver ball in the middle).  This beastie is the same size as the other balls, but it's made of solid steel and weighs three times as much as a regular puck!  Just as the wooden ball allows you to practice speed because it's lighter, this ball is designed to strengthen your hands, wrists and forearms.  A few minutes with this ball is a real workout.

7.  "Practice" Pucks (orange puck).  You can get pucks that are lighter than standard pucks, the same weight, or heavier.  The idea behind this is the same as for the practice balls.  Green Biscuits aren't the only type of these pucks, just the best (in my opinion).

Note:  All of these are available on Amazon, but you'll probably find them at your local ice rink shop, sporting goods store, online hockey retailer, etc.  Sometimes they'll be cheaper than Amazon too.

You can also use a golf ball or even a tennis ball instead of the stickhandling balls above.  They won't feel as close to a real puck, but they're better than nothing.  The main thing to remember is that you need to work on your stickhandling on a regular basis.  Regular practice is way more important than the kind of ball or puck you use.  I try to practice for 10-15 minutes every day.  It's a nice stress reliever after a long day at work.

Do you have a favorite?  Something I didn't list that you like?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Holding the Hockey Stick

How hard can it be to hold a hockey stick, eh?

While passing the puck back and forth in the driveway with my granddaughter, I noticed that she didn't always hold her stick correctly.  Worse than that, she didn't always hold it the same way.  Later, when watching her team practice, I saw many of her teammates doing the same thing, being inconsistent about how they held their sticks.

Lorelei and I made "holding the stick correctly" the very first thing on our hockey check list.  Every time she picks up her stick, she takes a second to make sure she's holding it correctly.  Let me explain why this is so critical, and then I'll show you how to do it.

When you're playing or practicing stickhandling, you're teaching "muscle memory".  Eventually you don't even have to think about what you're doing or how to do it, because your body "knows".  Pick up a pencil, or a fork, or a video game controller and you'll experience the same thing.  If you're not holding it the way you usually do, it feels wrong, and you'll probably be clumsy with it too.  Imagine trying to walk if you had to devote your whole attention to every single step like a toddler just learning.

Think of it this way, if you're holding the stick correctly, then the blade will be facing straight up and down on the ice.  If, instead, you're holding the stick rotated ninety degrees in your hand (exaggerated, but I saw it), then the blade will be laying flat on the ice, and to bring it to the correct position you'll have to twist your wrist in an unnatural way.

So do this.  The top of the stick should fit into the "v" of your stretched out hand, like this:

Every.  Single. Time.  Soon you won't even have to look.

Wrap your fingers around the stick.  Do NOT choke up on the handle.

When the kids were holding their sticks, they kind of randomly used one of the two grips below.  Both are wrong, especially when you use both without thinking about it.

Nope.

Definitely nope.

Get into the habit of checking your grip.  Make it a "rule" with the kids and it won't take long for them to show improvement, just because of better consistency.

Did you or do you have this problem?  Have you helped beginners by showing them the grip?  Did it help?  Let me know in the comments.  Thanks.

Right Handed or Left Handed

Because the top hand does the majority of work when you're controlling the puck, many coaches teach that your dominant hand should be on top.  So, right handed people should have their right hand at the top of the stick, with their left hand down lower.  Lefties would reverse that.

What it really comes down to is comfort.  I'm right handed, but I much prefer my left hand on top.  Shooting with my hands on the stick this way just feels better and more natural to me, so that's what I do.

Don't be afraid to try both ways when you buy your first stick, but when you do decide, commit to it.  Indecisive swapping back and forth is not going to help.

Now, if your left hand is at the top of the stick and your right hand farther down, then you are a right-handed shooter (that's me).  Right hand on top and left hand farther down makes you a left-handed shooter.  The important thing is to do what feels right to you.

Left handed:  Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Connor McDavid.

Right handed:  Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Brett Burns, Erik Karlsson.

Buying My First Hockey Stick

After doing tons of research online in an effort to educate myself about hockey sticks, I finally did something smart and just went down to the pro shop at my local hockey rink.  All that research wasn't wasted, but it's easy to be overwhelmed with information that you don't necessarily need at first.  I was close to "analysis paralysis" because I was trying to juggle so many bits of knowledge, hoping to get the perfect stick on my first try.

Honestly, the perfect stick isn't going to help.  As a beginner, you're going to stink, and it doesn't matter much which stick you use.  In a way, it's very liberating to realize that.

But I pretty much knew what I wanted, and when I went into the shop I talked to the guys there, explained that I was an absolute beginner and let them know the following things:

1.  I didn't want an expensive stick.  In fact, last year's model on clearance would make me happy.
2.  I was pretty sure I wanted wood, mostly because it was cheaper than composite.
3.  I was pretty sure I was going to be a right handed shot.

Item 2 was right out the window.  This particular shop had gotten rid of the last of the wooden stick inventory months before, and had no plans to get more.

Item 3 was easy to confirm.  I made a few "shots" using both righty and lefty sticks, and it just felt better for me to use the right handed sticks.

Item 1 was where I hit the jackpot.  The stick I selected was on clearance from *two* years before, and was quite a bit less than I was willing to spend.  While "trying it out" the guy asked me how it felt, and I had to laugh because I had no idea whether it felt good or not.  My first stick is a GRAF PK330 Sr.

I bought the stick, a roll of white tape, and a stickhandling practice ball.  Now all I had to do was practice.  A lot.  Alone.  To avoid embarrassment.

I was very happy.

So what about you?  What stick do you have?  Are you happy with it?  I'm always looking for feedback, so feel free to leave a comment below.

Why "DIY Hockey"?

I started learning hockey as an absolute beginner.  Everyone does, but at 57 years old, being an "absolute beginner" seems a bit more daunting.  Maybe it's because I know just how far I have to progress just to get from hopeless to just plain lousy.

This blog is here to track my progress and collect stuff I've found all over the internet into one useful  place.  Except for personal experiences and opinions, everything here is from other, better, more experienced hockey people.   For beginners of any age, maybe you'll find some answers here, or at least get pointed to other places to get answers.

The "DIY" part is about making progress on your own.  I'm not worried about the skating part, for that you need ice time.  But I can practice stick handling at home, I can work on skills and do drills to improve my balance and agility.  I can focus on certain things to get stronger in ways that will help my game improve, without needing to be on skates.  You can too.

As far as practicing at home, I don't consider that work, although I am working at my game.  This stuff is fun, and the better you are at it, the more fun it is.

Finally, if you've looked online at the training aids that are out there, well, they're expensive.  I'm sure they're worth it, but I'm also sure that more than a few can be improvised at home for a lot less money.  So the "DIY" will also mean putting together my own training aids that will work as well as the ones online.