Many fans are dazzled by the skills of elite hockey players. Their abilities with the puck can bring a crowd to its feet and make defenders look like traffic pylons as they weave through them on the ice. Learning how to do tricks with the puck is certainly challenging, but learning them will also improve your basic hockey skills.
Step 1
Make sure you have plenty of room to work with to avoid running into walls or other obstacles. A basement or garage floor would work well. Set up two pylons in front of you in a line, about a foot apart. Face the cones with your hockey stick at the ready. Slide the puck next to the cone on your right if you're a right-handed shot, or to the cone on your left if you're a left-handed shot. Pull the puck back toward you with the toe of your stick: turn your wrists over to make the face of the stick blade, the part of the stick used to strike the puck, parallel to the ground, so the razor thin end of the blade, called the toe, can pull the puck back towards you. This is called a toe-drag. Pull it around the cones in a figure 8 pattern. Do this about five or six times.
Step 2
Bend your knees deeply and turn your wrists so the face of the blade is parallel to the ground. With your stick in this position, put the face of the blade on the puck and apply a strong amount of pressure to the puck. In one quick motion, still applying pressure to the puck, rapidly flick your wrists so the face of your blade is facing the opposite direction, pointing toward the sky. If you did it correctly, the puck should be resting on your stick blade.
Step 3
Use a tennis ball to practice this trick (or a puck for more advanced players). Push the ball or puck ahead of you, setting up for a toe-drag (see Step 1). Turn your stick over so the blade's face is parallel to the ice, and quickly pull the puck toward you with the toe of the blade, the part of the blade farthest from you. The puck should be pulled tightly towards the side of your body; in one quick motion, flick your wrists over so the blade's face is now facing the sky and you're able to bat the puck or ball into the air. Balance the ball or puck in the air and continuously hit it as many times as you can before it hits the ground. It has to be done in one motion, otherwise the ball or puck will not have the momentum to get it in the air.
Step 4
Use a tennis or golf ball for this trick. Face forward but have the tennis or golf ball on the side you use for shooting. Put your legs about a half a foot wider apart on each side than the standard shoulder-width, and pull the ball back behind you with your hockey stick. Your torso should be twisted to the side from which you shoot. Now rapidly pull the ball from behind you back through your legs and collect it with your hockey stick in front of your legs.
Step 5
Do the one-handed back-hand toe-drag. This trick is quite challenging. Put the puck on the opposite side from which you normally shoot. Put only your top hand on your stick, and turn the blade over so the blade's face is facing the sky. With your stick in this position, put the blade on the puck and pull the puck towards you as rapidly as you can.
Tips and Warnings
- Practice these skills as often as possible, and a basic skill like puck-handling will probably seem easier to you.
- These tricks take a lot of practice and patience to perfect, and many people will succumb to frustration. Work hard and stay committed to what you are practicing. These tricks are even more difficult to perform on the ice. Be careful if you do not have good balance and agility on your skates.
Things You'll Need
- Hockey stick
- Hockey gloves
- Hockey pucks
- Tennis ball or golf ball
- Smooth ground surface
- 4 orange pylons
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